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20/01/2006
THE KASHMIRI SHAWL: From Jamavar to Paisley
THE KASHMIRI SHAWL: From Jamavar to Paisley by Sherry Rahman & Naheed Jafri
[Speech on the book launch at the Sukh Che'n Club, Lahore, 20 Jan. 2006.]

I am honoured to have been invited to say a few words to introduce this beautiful new book on The Kashmiri Shawl by Sherry Rahman co-authored with Naheed Jafri. I use the word ‘beautiful’ guardedly. Some years ago I was introduced by a socialite friend to the actor Dilip Kumar who happened to be on a visit to Lahore.
“Yusuf bhai,” my host said, “meet Aijazuddin. He writes beautiful books.”
“Oh!” Dilip Kumar replied. “And what does he write about?”
At which my host turned to me and asked: “Yar, what do you write about?”
“As long as you think they are beautiful,” I reassured my host. “That’s all that matters.”
I narrate this anecdote to console Sherry and Naheed in advance. They will come across many who will admire their book for its sheer visual quality. It is a stunningly beautiful book – imaginatively formatted, with breath-taking colour plates and a presentation flow that keeps one’s attention connected throughout its 378 pages.
But that is only one third of its quality. The other two thirds are the originality of approach to the subject, and the text itself.
Let me speak first about the approach of the authors to the subject. Kashmiri shawls have been written about almost from the time that they were first worn. Mughal chroniclers described them, intrepid travelers during the 19th century like William Moorcroft and G. T. Vigne traced their sources and means of manufacture, memsahibs with a taste for the exotic draped themselves with them, Ranjit Singh paid his faranghi mercenaries with them, and museums have cupboards bulging with them.
Sherry and Naheed could have followed the path cut by previous researchers in this field. Like the writers who went before them, they could have approached the subject from the outside, as outsiders. Instead, they have chosen to analyse the craft of shawl making from within, as compatriots of the very artisans who devoted their lives to mastering a craft until it elevated into a ubiquitous art-form.
The most valuable innovation in their approach has been to widen the definition of Kashmiri shawls to include for example tehreekar or dorukh shawls, zaris, and amlis. By doing so, they have expanded the survey of future study by tracing influences found in Qajar in old Persia and its use in the self-indulgent and eventually self-destructive Shia dynasties of Awadh.
Most importantly for us Pakistanis, they have examined not just shawl making in the Punjab hills, but also in the plains - in cities such as Amritsar and Lahore, to which Kashmiri immigrants moved in search of patronage and custom. To me, as a Pakistani, the special merit of the book lies in its focus on items that can be found in private and public collections (such as those in the Lahore Museum) within Pakistan.
I had mentioned the visual quality of the book as being one third of its charm, and the innovative approach of its authors as the second third. The third third (if I may use that measure) is the functional utility of the book.
Like miniature paintings, shawls were both portable and decorative objects of beauty. And as beauty thrives on flattery, shawls did not escape the highest form of flattery - imitation. The book contains useful tips on how to identify types, avoid fakes and how to date patterns.
It begins its Chronology of Ornament with the Mughal periods (distinguishing between the early 1675-1710, and the late 1710-1753), the Afghan period (again separating the early 1753-1775 from the late 1775-1819), two spans of Sikh of rule over Kashmir (1819-1825, and 1825-1846), and then following the sale of Kashmir to the Dogra raja Gulab Singh, the two periods of Dogra patronage - 1846-1870 & 1870-1952.
I could continue my appreciation of this book indefinitely, but I should conclude and do so with two tributes – the first to the two authors whose names appear on the cover of the book, and the second to all those anonymous craftsmen whose skill, talent and genius populates the pages of the book as if they were still alive. And in a sense they are still are, for as long as Kashmiri shawls survive, are worn and admired, they shall have a renewed return to life. Sherry and Naheed, thank you for making us proud of our heritage and of our forebears those who created it.
 
20 January 2006
 
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