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| Title | Najibullah |
| Subject | War rugs--Afghanistan--History--20th century ; War rugs--Middle East--History--20th century ; War rugs--Asia, Central--History--20th century ; Afghanistan--Politics and government, 1973-1989 ; Afghanistan--History--Soviet occupation, 1979-1989 ; Najibullah, Mohammad, 1947-1996 |
| Description | This rug has a figured cream ground centrefield and a narrow border. The centre is dominated by a crude rendition of President Mohammad Najibullah Ahmadzai, his head held by a large hand extending down from the north. He is positioned on top of a map of Afghanistan, in brown. The area around the map is cream. There is a grenade and a rifle below Najibullah's feet and to the left, a rocket launcher and vehicle with the initials USSR on either side of the protruding arm. There are four dark blue irregular shapes, one in each corner. These bare the same inscription mirror repeated. There are two red borders; the inner has a scrolling blossom motif, the outer a repeated trident design. The rug has brown wool selvedges and white cotton fringes. |
| Narrative | In 2006 Robert Fyke collaborated on an exhibition of war rugs at The Nickle Arts Museum called "Made in Afghanistan: Rugs and Resistance, 1979-2005". We chose to examine the development of war rugs borrowing selected examples to complement our scheme. One of the rugs that Rob's collection did not have was Najibullah—a rug we believed was commonly known and traded. In the fall of 2005, Rob wrote to his Peshawar rug dealer friend and drew a quick sketch of the rug he had in mind. Two years later, this bizarre, thumb-nail sketch of a rug arrived in Calgary. |
| Region | Afghanistan ; Pakistan |
| Time Period depicted/represented | 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996 |
| Type of textile | rugs ; carpets |
| Dimensions [cm] | 128 x 79 |
| Technique | knotted pile |
| Language of Inscriptions | enf, per |
| Period Made | 2007 |
| Publisher | University of Calgary |
| Collection | Nickle Arts Museum Textile Collection |
| Sub-collection | Fyke Rug Collection |
| Themes | Fyke Rug Collection. Souvenirs |
| Rights | This collection is owned by the University of Calgary, Nickle Arts Museum and was donated by Robert Fyke. Permission to use any image or material from this site should be requested from The Nickle Arts Museum.
http://digitization.ucalgary.ca/index.php/Conditions_of_Use |
| Accession Number | 2009.026.000 |
| Type | image |
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