Eastern Market, May 2009. This rug has been on sale for some time - and, as far as I know, it still remains unsold. I'm actually not sure who would want to buy a rug like this; it's made in Afghanistan and apparently depicts the US-led war in that country. Whoever made the rug is evidently not a native speaker of English (e.g., CHNA and MADE IN AFGHANSIAN).
Anyone out there in cyberspace have any insight into the non-English inscriptions (i.e., script, language, meaning, etc.)?
P.S. For more about this item, see this discussion on the Omniglot blog.
P.S. Very intriguing responses from the Omniglot readers. As far as I can tell, the text appears to be in Dari (Persian) as spoken/used in Afghanistan, although some readers discern a possible mixture between Dari and Arabic. The text reads "Soviet forces [some readers dispute this translation] are leaving Afghanistan" at the top.
ReplyDeleteAnother reader points out a curious spelling of "Kalashnikov at the bottom right (KlASHEPIKOB)," apparently a "hybrid between the English version and the Russian Калашников."
No idea why 2002 is on the rug if this is supposed to be about the Soviet war.
We've got it figured out for sure on Omniglot now: "Soviet forces are leaving Afghanistan". The key to it all was other rugs online made to the same model, but with more skill so that the Persian text was much clearer, and one commenter who knew that "shuravi" (from shurâ 'council' = soviet) means "Soviet". Links to online images of other similar rugs are now up in the Omniglot discussion. There's one version of the rug that (with touching hopefulness) replaces "Soviet" with "Al-Qa'ida".
ReplyDeleteThe Omniglot readers are brilliant! It's great to have more insight into this rug. In addition to the complex linguistic issues going on here, I find it so fascinating that this piece of artwork is part of a much larger "war rug" genre (artistic tradition/convention).
ReplyDeleteAnother reader points out a curious spelling of "Kalashnikov at the bottom right (KlASHEPIKOB)," apparently a "hybrid between the English version and the Russian Калашников."
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ReplyDeleteNice post! This is very informative! Great job! Kip on posting!
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