Our Story
AZ International, LLC. is a family-owned and -operated business founded three generations ago in Central Asia near the banks of the Amu Darya River. From our humble beginnings in the late 1800s – early 1900s, when our grandfather would make the arduous trek on horseback to Bokhara and Samarkand (The ancient cities and main Carvanserais on the Silk Road https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/mar/31/registan-samarkand-square-history-cities-buildings) to market the Turkmen, Uzbek, Karakalpak, Kazak and other tribal weavings and handcrafted artifacts, to our present-day international carpet manufacture and export company, we continue to uphold the family value of complete honesty with all our clients.
AZ International, LLC offers collection of carefully curated rare and antique one-of-a-kind pieces as well as our own exquisitely designed vegetable-dyed rugs made of the finest quality hand-spun wool. For years my brothers, M. Rahim and A. Qahir (from Istanbul) and Uncle A. Qadir, who passed away in 2021 (see Rug News Magazine obituary posted on Blog), have overseen the middle East sector with offices in Islamabad, Pakistan, Istanbul, Turkey, and Kabul (now closed), Mazar-i-Sharif, and Aqchah, Afghanistan. Our Middle East operations control the designing, weaving, dyeing, finishing and export of our carpets, which reach European markets. I, Alex Zahir, and my management team, oversee the domestic operations in the United States. My focus is to custom design famous branded collections of top dealers who empower women (most rug weavers in Afghanistan are women) through home-based jobs in the villages of Afghanistan. We enable 200-300 families, some 5,000-6,000 people in total, to work for up to four months through our business. We would like to thank the dealers who have put trust in us and in the invisible Afghan artisans whom we represent.
Apart from my family’s rug and carpet business, I have unique experience working for humanitarian and reconstruction efforts in both official and unofficial capacities. I held the position of field officer and coordinator for the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) in Afghanistan. Also, I worked as SME for the United States Department of Commerce/International Trade Administration, Iraq & Afghanistan Reconstruction Task Force. Furthermore, I served as SME FACI (Federal Acquisition Consultants, Inc.) and as Production Director KCEC-US Department of State/USAID/Afghanistan Jobs Creation Program (AJCP). My numerous private businesses have made significant contributions as well. Domestically, I was fortunate, after 9/11, to be part of a fundraising project in Sudbury, Massachusetts, to help victims of 9/11 in NYC and Afghan refugees in Pakistan-based camps (see The Boston Globe and The Sudbury Town Crier articles in the Press section).
As a company, AZ International LLC. maintains a large and diverse inventory of sizes, colors, and designs for both wholesale distribution and individual decorating needs. Our commitment to our customers, both here and abroad, is to provide the finest hand-made oriental carpets available on the market today at exceptional prices. We import only the highest quality pieces!
Please visit this site for media, updates, activities, and sourcing details.
Thank you for your interest.
AZ International, LLC
Fine Rugs for Centuries
