Over the years the TRC in Leiden has acquired a large collection of textiles and dress from Afghanistan. Most of it was obtained during my frequent visits to the country between 1978 and 2011. Attention in the West is currently, and understandably, directed towards the Russian invasion of the Ukraine, but the situation in Afghanistan, after some forty years of civil war, is equally horrific. The TRC hopes that its Afghanistan holdings will continue to testify to the rich culture of the country, and to the perseverance of its people in trying to build a peaceful society, free from outside interference.
Colin Mackenzie in his Afghan dress, after 1843. by James Sant. Courtesy National Army Museum, London, NAM. 1961-10-61-1.
In 2010 the TRC mounted a special exhibition about Afghan dress, which is now available to other suitable venues (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.). There is also an online exhibition, which can be enjoyed by clicking here. Many of the textiles were used for, and incorporated in Vol. 2 of the World Encyclopedia of Embroidery: Embroidery rom Central Asia, the Iranian Plateau and the Indian Subcontinent, which was published in 2021.
Looking at Afghan dress, and going through Afghan history, I frequently come across weird ‘occurrences’, which the reader may regard as trivial, but which I find fascinating and reflecting directly on the fascinating world of dress.
One of these ‘occurrences’ started with a shower curtain which you can buy for some fifty dollars from Fine Art America. It carries the depiction of a stern looking, obviously European gentleman in Afghan dress. I don’t remember why I came to look at this curtain, but when I did I immediately recognised the gentleman: It is Colin Mackenzie, one of those indomitable British warriors that strode the world in the 19th century, convinced of British superiority and British obligations towards civilizing the rest of the world.
He was one of the captives that survived the disastrous Retreat from Kabul in the winter of 1842 when at the end of the First Anglo-Afghan War the British suffered a disastrous defeat. Some 16,000 soldiers and camp followers were killed, died of their wounds or the cold, or were enslaved. Many of the officers and their family, some 80 in total, were taken hostage, among whom Colin Mackenzie.