Should you ever find yourself in the centre of Bukhara, you might well happen upon Akbar House, which deals in some of the rarest and most opulent antiques the Uzbek city has to offer. Primarily specialising in textiles, Mastura and Khakimov Akbar trade in rugs, ancient traditional clothing, ikats, suzanis, scarves and shawls, as well as other Central Asian curiosities. Their shop sits right by the city’s old town, a maze of narrow streets that have been hastily rebuilt over the years, leaving wires and pipes visible, within what was once the Jewish quarter.
Bukhara used to be home to more than 20,000 Jews, but these days the population numbers no more than a handful of families living near the old synagogue. How Jews came to be here in the first place is still the subject of some debate. Did they flee Babylon along with the Zoroastrians after Cyrus seized control of the city, or long before that? Are they descendants of Radhanite merchants? Their history remains shrouded in mystery.
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After stepping through a modest front door, we cross a dark room, its walls lined with fabric, to a courtyard of astonishing beauty, with an iwan portico supported by carved-elm columns on one side and a mosaic of buildings on the other three; these contain offices and living quarters for the Akbars, their son and his family.
Vast cellars with high ceilings are used to store and display merchandise. And yet, exquisite as these wares are, they’re nothing compared with the goods that once filled these rooms. Such grand residences were once inhabited by the great merchants of the Silk Road. Living at the crossroads of China, India and Russia, Uzbeks had to be immensely adaptable just to survive, knowing when to proffer gifts, flatter or threaten. Travelling in caravans of up to 800 camels, they were ever alert to the risk of being attacked, kidnapped, killed or sold as slaves. From north to south, east to west, from century to century, they transported gold, precious stones, furs, spices, musk, jade, lapis lazuli, slaves and eunuchs. Later, they turned their attention to commodities such as tobacco, indigo, madder, cochineal and opium, cashmere shawls and suzanis.
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It was in 1992, the year after Uzbekistan declared independence from the Soviet Union, that the Akbars took over the premises from a Jewish merchant, who had himself procured it in the 1930s from a Muslim counterpart. Rather than renovate the building, they merely cleaned it up, respecting the patchwork of decorative styles that reflect its history.
A tiny, intricate door leads to a large ceremonial room that serves as a showroom, with walls ten metres high that are crowned by honeycomb-like muqarnas. Light comes from two rows of windows, looking on to the courtyard and, at night, from a huge 19th-century crystal chandelier. Two lower wings are lined with painted and carved alcoves as delicate as lace, which house mementos from guests and travellers, including a collection of fine 19th-century Russian porcelain.
Facing the windows is the largest wall, which is divided into seven tall niches decorated with period paintings along various themes: there’s the botanical, with an attempt to portray the Garden of Eden; the stars and other Islamic girikh, or geometric configurations; the cosmic symbols of Zoroastrianism, which was practised throughout the region before the arrival of Islam in the eighth century; and, from the 1930s on, the star of David and Hebrew inscriptions. The floors are covered with 20th-century Kazakh rugs and an 18th-century Tabriz. All around are benches, where buyers can sip tea while listening to the theatrical sales pitch, delivered at home to special customers. Akbar sits cross-legged among a woolly mass of Bukhara carpets in muted tones brought up from the cellars. The traditional red rugs we typically call Persian feel like distant – and poor – relations alongside these examples. Akbar points to photos of his grandfather with his rugs in Marseille, along with the astrakhan furs once so popular with chic European ladies. Across the room, his wife gracefully unfurls some joyous suzanis, the history and technique behind which she used to teach at university.
Originally from Central Asia and specifically Uzbekistan, suzanis arrived in Europe in the 18th century when the emir of Bukhara revived the practice of silkworm breeding. (Although, if certain travellers’ tales are to be believed, they existed there long before that.) Each family had its own cocoons, because it was considered unwise to allow others to extract the thread. Initially, these fabrics were part of the trousseau and used as tablecloths, curtains or wall hangings. Made of cotton or silk, suzanis are best known for their chain-stitch embroidery, depicting plant, bird and fish motifs, along with Zoroastrian suns or Indian boteh teardrops. We might find a pepper, symbol of strength and heat; a poppy to represent happiness; a tulip for Turkey; or a pomegranate to represent fertility. The fabric speaks its own language.
Off the main building is a more intimate room of similar décor. The Akbars relax here, nap, take tea and play with the grandchildren. The space changes when they roll out their kourpatchas (mattresses), blankets and quilts, which represent part of their trousseau and reflect the household’s prestige. Sometimes they will use one of these to cover a table, sitting cross-legged under the cloth, in the way the Japanese assemble around a kotatsu.
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Meeting the Akbars is like stepping into a bygone era of Central Asian trading: money, without doubt, is what makes the world go around. (‘It’s not the price of a camel, nor the price of a horse, but maybe the price of a sheep’ goes a local saying of universal application.) At 21 years old, while studying in Moscow, Akbar spent five months’ worth of his allowance on a piece of Chinese porcelain. He continues to plough what he earns into antiques, his great passion. When his grandmother died, he was shocked to see one of her ‘old rags’ sell for a high price and, realising he had lost something of his roots, rushed to acquire a near-identical piece, almost ruining himself in the process. Recently, he paid a dizzying sum for a rare suzani from Israel, which he recognised by its cockerel crests on a purple ground. He had in fact sold the piece 15 years earlier. Highly knowledgeable and interesting, Akbar is also a consummate raconteur. He does not hold back when it comes to storytelling. It’s just as well that is the only thing for which he does not charge.
Akbar House, Bakhowuddin Nakshbandi St, Lyab-i-Hauz, Bukhara. Visit akbargallery.wixsite.com. An exhibition of treasures from Uzbekistan, ‘On the Roads of Samarkand’, runs at the Institut du Monde Arabe, 1 Rue des Fossés Saint-Bernard, 75005 Paris (imarabe.org), until 4 June 2023.
A version of this article appears in the February 2023 issue of The World of Interiors. Learn about our subscription offers
