Afghanistan · Wood Carving / Architectural Craft
جالی (Jali)
The making of jali — latticed wooden screens built from an ornamental geometric pattern — historically used throughout traditional Kabul domestic and public architecture, with surviving examples concentrated in the Murad Khani and Asheqan-o-Arefan quarters of the old city. Unlike Nuristani relief carving, jali is a piecework joinery technique: a geometric design is traced onto paper, thin slivers of walnut or cedar are cut with a fine saw and matched against the tracing for exact sizing, and the assembled pieces are clamped together into a single rigid panel with no glass or metal fastenings required.
Risk level: Endangered · Not separately inscribed; falls within the broader, widely distributed Islamic geometric woodwork tradition documented across the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia
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