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Khal Mohammad
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Khal Mohammad
and his son Ibrahim Khal
Yes, those are penguins in the background.
Khal Mohammad
Ibrahim Khal and another son.
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When Emmett Eiland
of Emmett
Eiland Oriental Rug Co. wrote Oriental
Rugs Today he asked me to read it and make
comments before it went to the printer. One of
the areas we wrangled over was whether Khal
Mohammadi really existed and how to spell his
name. Emmett went with
Halmahmadi and Khan Mohammadi and I held to Khal
Mohammadi. It was the only thing in his book that
we disagreed on. Today I had lunch with Ibrahim
Khal the son of Khal Mohammad. I was
photographing rugs at Herat Oriental a major
importer of Persian and Afghan rugs. Zia and I
are going to put some rugs on eBay so I was
making the selections and taking pictures. A
young man came in and was watching and talking to
Zia in Dari. I said to the fellow helping me hand
me the Khal Mohammadi from one of the stacks and
the fellow watching got excited. After a burst of
Dari which was way over my head Zia said "He
sees you know his father's rugs
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Ibrahim Khal at Herat Orientals in
Alexandria Va.
Here is Ibrahim Khal with Zia
Hassanzadeh
Zia (left) is the main US Importer of
Khal Mohammadi rugs and carpets.
| Over lunch I learned a little from Ibrahim.
The family is Ersari Turkmen. Harkening back to Dr, Murray Eiland Jr.
Murray has frequently asserted that while he met
Turkmen in Afghanistan he never met any who
identified themselves as Ersari. So when Ibrahim
identified himself Turkmen I asked what dialect
of Turkmen he spoke. Ibrahim explained that they
were Ersari and the family had moved to
Afghanistan from Uzbekistan in his grandfather's
day. Ibrahim added that in Afghanistan most
Turkmen were Ersari and most of the rest are
Tekke. Khal Mohammad is the man and his rugs
are called Khal Mohammadi. Ending a word with an
"i" is equivallent to using " 's
" in English. Khal Mohammad owns looms in
Mazar-i-Sheriff, Andkhoy, and Kunduz. He is based
in North Mazar-i-Sheriff and has a store there as
well as Kabul and Peshawar Pakistan. The key to
his success is extremely innovative use of
natural dyes. I will go out on a limb and say
that he has developed the best natural reds that
I have seen. Additionally the workmanship, wool
quality, and finish are very high quality.
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Khal Mohammadi Jewelry Rug
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| Ibrahim is one of the older sons. Khal
Mohammad has 25 children of whom about 20 are
sons. Some links;
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For Further Reading:
Thanks and best wishes,
J. Barry O'Connell Jr.
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