Karakul ( Astrakhan fur) breeding

Uzbekistan takes a leading place in the world in karakul fur manufacture. Hundreds of years ago the Karakul breed was introduced on the pastures of the Kizilkum desert around Karakul (in translation "Black lake»).For the first time the Turkic word "karakul" was mentioned in 978 by the Arabian historian Ibn-Haukal. And 300 years later the Venetian traveler and merchant Marco Polo admired original patterns of karakul (astrakhan fur). In the XVII century Bukhara and Khivan merchants traded with karakul raw materials in the markets of Nizhni Novgorod and Tver. And in the XIXth century the Bukhara karakul fur enjoyed huge demand at the international fur auctions of Europe and America.

Prior to the beginning of the XXth century governors of Bukhara kept monopoly for the manufacture and export of the golden fleece  through Iran or the city of Astrakhan on the Volga. From here the western names of karakul fur – «the Persian lamb» and «Astrakhan» have gone. But in 1907 last Bukhara emir gave a rash gift to the British ambassador, a herd of karakul lambs, and Englishmen immediately took them out to Namibia, from where a new direction in karakul breeding - manufacture of Namibian astrakhan fur went out, which received the name «Swakhara» – that is the abbreviation of South-West African karakul, in translation meaning karakul fur from southwest Africa. In 1920 the last emir of Bukhara ran from Bolsheviks to Afghanistan, having taken away with him the best flocks.

Thereby, karakul fur also started being manufactured in Afghanistan. Afghanistan became the leading manufacturer of astrakhan fur though the Afghani skins were inferior to the refined and various Uzbek prototypes. The Uzbek karakul fur is described as thin as a suede and as soft as a velvet.

In the Soviet period under the trademark BUHARA KARAKUL karakul breeding became the main direction of the economy. The karakul fur made up 40 % of all the export. Getting of colour karakul fur was one of the directions of breeding work in all countries. A task was set before manufacturers of karakul fur to get furs of various colours. The most widespread colour of karakul fur is black. The pattern in black furs is of special value. In comparison with black karakul fur drawing of the grey fur is simpler, but it differs with its changing colour game. Depending on the parity of quantity of black and white hairs, reception of a palette of colours from light-grey-blue to black with a grey-haired shade is possible. Presence of a small amount of brown hairs in grey karakul fur gives the skin a beautiful lilac shade.

Such a type of karakul fur is called «guligaz" (in translation from Uzbek - "a flower of tamarisk "). The grey karakul fur is a fine material for colouring since the neutral-grey does not give colour distortions. The grey karakul fur was received in all countries, but manufacturers in Afghanistan have achieved special success. There the share of such karakul fur can reach 60 %. The brown karakul fur belongs to rare colours and is not often used in a natural kind. To the problems of its selection for a curl the big spectrum of colouring is added: from chocolate to beige, from red to cold-pale-yellow. The most valuable type of brown karakul fur is "sur", intensity of colour of which varies on the length of the hair: at the root it is darker; at the ends it is lighter. The rarest colour of karakul fur is white. The best results on quality and quantity have been achieved only in Namibia. White swakhara has pure, dairy colour.

Now Uzbekistan is the second manufacturer of karakul fur in the world after Afghanistan. Selectors of Uzbekistan have counted on easy and thin so-called jacket- type karakul fur, hard curls of which formed tubular shaft of different length in the whole area of the fur.

In the world market demand for high-quality Uzbek karakul fur and production made from it is growing.