Haidar Khan was the governor of the fortress of Ghazni when it was taken by the British on 23 July 1839, while on their march from Kandahar in the south of the country to the capital Kabul in the northeast. In Rattray's portrait Haidar Khan is presented against the background of Ghazni. The two towers to the right are still standing, although drastically shortened after several earthquakes. Ghulam Haidar has a water pipe to his left. The fruit lying at his feet seem to be pomegranates. Haidar Khan is sitting on a tasselled and striped carpet. He is wearing clothing that must have been typical for his ethnic (the Pashtuns) and social group. It includes a long, blue mantle, beautifully embroidered with various motifs, including the famous buteh, around the neck, front opening, shoulders and wrists.
The buteh motif was and still is widely used in Iran/Persia and India, and copied in Britain (Paisley motif). It was made particularly famous by its use in Cashmere shawls. The mantle Haidar Khan is wearing is a choga, the over garment worn by the rich in Northwest India and neighbouring Afghanistan in the nineteenth century. Chogas were mostly made of a soft, woollen material and often decorated with either silk or zari (gold) threads and cords (passementerie) that were couched down onto the ground, with further details worked in a contrasting floss silk.
The choga worn by Haidar Khan is decorated with gold coloured buteh's around the neck opening and sleeve cuffs, made out of couched cords and embroidered details. In addition it is embellished in a similar way with gold coloured designs on the shoulders and down the front opening of the garment. Haidar Khan is depicted wearing a red gown (probably a qaba) and a white shirt under his choga.
See the entry on an embroidered floor cover from mid-nineteenth century Ghazni, and also the entry on a choga now in the collection of the Textile Museum of Canada.
WV