Afshar mafrash panel

The Afshar migrated to southeast from the region of Azerbaijan within the last few hundred years. Perhaps this explains their use of box-shaped ‘mafrash’ storage bags, a type of weaving seen more frequently among western Persian nomads. This panel was woven as one of two long side panels of a six-sided mafrash. A cartouche border, of the type more frequently seen on square-shaped Afshar ‘khorjin’ bag faces, is here faithfully rendered with little compromise to scale. Two rows of ‘boteh’ paisleys, one large and the smaller second row at the top, are drawn within the narrow elongated field. In keeping with some of the finer Afshar pile weavings, the wool in this piece is quite glossy.