- Home
- Textiles, Carpets and Tapestries
- Carpets
- What do you mean, "It's a prayer rug?"
What do you mean, "It's a prayer rug?"
- By Price, Steve
- Published 20 March 2008
- Carpets
- Unrated
Price, Steve
Steve Price, collector of tribal arts and editor Turkotek; Tribal Art Forum; VCU's Department of
Physiology. In real life, Professor of Physiology at
What is a prayer rug, anyway?
There's probably nobody reading this who doesn't think he[1] knows what a prayer rug is. More likely than not, every one of you is correct. Sort of. Let me explain.
A Muslim must pray five times every day. He can do this at a mosque, but that isn't a requirement. However, he must face Mecca (not necessarily east, as is often supposed) while doing so, and must have a clean place (not defiled by having been walked on with shoes or dirty feet) on which to kneel in prayer. Thus, any clean surface that can be placed on the floor is a prayer rug. A newspaper or a towel can meet the definition, although using a pile rug or kilim is more common.
There is a niche, or mihrab, in one wall of every mosque, representing the portal to heaven. A worshipper facing the mihrab is facing Mecca. The design of most prayer rugs includes an arch at one end, called the rug's mihrab. Indeed, having such a design has become one of the definitions of a prayer rug. For example, Peter Stone's book[2] (Rugdom's dictionary) defines a prayer rug as,
"A rug with a representation of a mihrab (prayer niche) or ‘gateway to paradise'.... A double prayer rug (a design taken from bookbinding) is one with a niche at each end as a mirror image...The prayer rug is not necessarily used for prayer, as any clean area is sufficient for this purpose."
Once we understand the significance of the rug's mihrab, the notion that a prayer rug can have two, one at each end, ought to make us a little suspicious. Anyway, we already have two definitions: a clean place to pray and a rug with an arch at one end.
There's a third. In the marketplace, it is customary to classify rugs of the same approximate size by names. For instance, around 2' x 3' is a "cushion" or "pillow". The size around 3' x 5' is a "prayer rug". The reason is that this is just about right for prayer rug use. Anything much smaller than 2'6" x 4' is too small; bigger than about 4' x 5'6" is unnecessarily clumsy and heavy.
So now we have 3 definitions. They aren't mutually exclusive, and some prayer rugs actually meet all three. That is, they are of prayer rug size, have a mihrab, and were used for Muslim devotions. However, this is true of very few of them. In fact, antique prayer rugs that were intended to be used for prayer by Muslims are extremely rare. Good quality rugs, the kind that present day collectors would like, would simply have been an extravagance for the overwhelming majority of the Muslim population. Even today, fairly well to do Muslims are most likely to use a machine made cotton rug for their devotions. In the middle east, these cost about $5.
Were "prayer rug" designs generally made for religious use? If not, then why?
Why would prayer design rugs have been made, if not for religious uses? One reason is that Europeans considered orientalia to be exotic during the 18th and 19th centuries, and anything reflecting oriental cultures was highly fashionable. Anyone who has visited a few palaces in western Europe has seen "Turkish" gardens on the grounds. The centerpiece of this area is usually a gazebo with a minaret. Music of the period also shows the popularity of oriental themes. Beethoven's 9th Symphony, the great choral/orchestral work, has a Turkish march, as does Haydn's "Military" symphony. Mozart wrote a series of Turkish marches. Then there is the orientalist school of painters. Prayer rugs were undoubtedly considered fashionable items in such an environment, and large numbers were produced in Iran, Turkey, the Caucasus and even by tribal peoples in Central Asia to meet the demand.
For example, consider the well known Belouch camel-ground prayer rugs. These were made in huge numbers by 19th century nomadic tribeswomen whose religion was usually animism. Perhaps some of these rugs were used for prayer by wealthy Iranians and Egyptians, but neither their size nor other properties suggest that the weavers had any market in mind except the west. In fact, there is not a single documented example of any 19th century Belouch-group prayer rug having been used in a religious context. Not one.
Questions have recently arisen about whether even the classical Turkish prayer rugs were really all intended for ritual use. Many of these pieces have rather realistic tulips in their design, and in some of them the tulips are upside down relative to the rug's orientation with the "mihrab" at the top. Perhaps the arch in those pieces isn't a mihrab at all, but some kind of a concavity or container that belongs at the bottom. This raises the next question.
Does an arch-like design at one end of a rug always represent a mihrab?
It is generally believed that a rug with a design that could reasonably be interpreted as being an arch is a prayer rug, even when there are arches at both ends. There seems little reason to accept this if the term "prayer rug" is to imply that it has something to do with Muslim worship.
Until about 20 years ago Turkoman tent doors were widely considered to be prayer rugs, and the best known published collection of prayer rugs[3] includes some of these. The basis for this is simply that the design often includes from one to three small pointed arches at the top. We now realize that the only documented use for these pieces was as tent doors, and that in many instances their sizes were far too big to make it likely that they would be used as prayer rugs.
For the hard core believers that an arch makes a piece a prayer rug, I offer the pile Caucasian weaving shown to the left. This piece is 1'5" x 1'8" (it was a little larger before it lost one side border). Despite the very clear arch in the design, I am convinced that it is a saddlebag face, not a prayer rug, and I doubt that anyone who knew its size would disagree. In addition to knowing its size, I have a firsthand report from the person who saw it separated from what was once its mate.
The point of all of this silliness is that not every arch-shaped object is a mihrab, and not every arch-shaped design on a rug represents one. We ought to look for other symbols of Islam, like a lamp hanging in the center of the arch, the image of a water ewer, or a koranic inscription, before calling a rug a prayer rug. And we ought to look for evidence that the rug was used in prayer.
There's probably nobody reading this who doesn't think he[1] knows what a prayer rug is. More likely than not, every one of you is correct. Sort of. Let me explain.
A Muslim must pray five times every day. He can do this at a mosque, but that isn't a requirement. However, he must face Mecca (not necessarily east, as is often supposed) while doing so, and must have a clean place (not defiled by having been walked on with shoes or dirty feet) on which to kneel in prayer. Thus, any clean surface that can be placed on the floor is a prayer rug. A newspaper or a towel can meet the definition, although using a pile rug or kilim is more common.
There is a niche, or mihrab, in one wall of every mosque, representing the portal to heaven. A worshipper facing the mihrab is facing Mecca. The design of most prayer rugs includes an arch at one end, called the rug's mihrab. Indeed, having such a design has become one of the definitions of a prayer rug. For example, Peter Stone's book[2] (Rugdom's dictionary) defines a prayer rug as,
"A rug with a representation of a mihrab (prayer niche) or ‘gateway to paradise'.... A double prayer rug (a design taken from bookbinding) is one with a niche at each end as a mirror image...The prayer rug is not necessarily used for prayer, as any clean area is sufficient for this purpose."
Once we understand the significance of the rug's mihrab, the notion that a prayer rug can have two, one at each end, ought to make us a little suspicious. Anyway, we already have two definitions: a clean place to pray and a rug with an arch at one end.
There's a third. In the marketplace, it is customary to classify rugs of the same approximate size by names. For instance, around 2' x 3' is a "cushion" or "pillow". The size around 3' x 5' is a "prayer rug". The reason is that this is just about right for prayer rug use. Anything much smaller than 2'6" x 4' is too small; bigger than about 4' x 5'6" is unnecessarily clumsy and heavy.
So now we have 3 definitions. They aren't mutually exclusive, and some prayer rugs actually meet all three. That is, they are of prayer rug size, have a mihrab, and were used for Muslim devotions. However, this is true of very few of them. In fact, antique prayer rugs that were intended to be used for prayer by Muslims are extremely rare. Good quality rugs, the kind that present day collectors would like, would simply have been an extravagance for the overwhelming majority of the Muslim population. Even today, fairly well to do Muslims are most likely to use a machine made cotton rug for their devotions. In the middle east, these cost about $5.
Were "prayer rug" designs generally made for religious use? If not, then why?
Why would prayer design rugs have been made, if not for religious uses? One reason is that Europeans considered orientalia to be exotic during the 18th and 19th centuries, and anything reflecting oriental cultures was highly fashionable. Anyone who has visited a few palaces in western Europe has seen "Turkish" gardens on the grounds. The centerpiece of this area is usually a gazebo with a minaret. Music of the period also shows the popularity of oriental themes. Beethoven's 9th Symphony, the great choral/orchestral work, has a Turkish march, as does Haydn's "Military" symphony. Mozart wrote a series of Turkish marches. Then there is the orientalist school of painters. Prayer rugs were undoubtedly considered fashionable items in such an environment, and large numbers were produced in Iran, Turkey, the Caucasus and even by tribal peoples in Central Asia to meet the demand.
For example, consider the well known Belouch camel-ground prayer rugs. These were made in huge numbers by 19th century nomadic tribeswomen whose religion was usually animism. Perhaps some of these rugs were used for prayer by wealthy Iranians and Egyptians, but neither their size nor other properties suggest that the weavers had any market in mind except the west. In fact, there is not a single documented example of any 19th century Belouch-group prayer rug having been used in a religious context. Not one.
Questions have recently arisen about whether even the classical Turkish prayer rugs were really all intended for ritual use. Many of these pieces have rather realistic tulips in their design, and in some of them the tulips are upside down relative to the rug's orientation with the "mihrab" at the top. Perhaps the arch in those pieces isn't a mihrab at all, but some kind of a concavity or container that belongs at the bottom. This raises the next question.
Does an arch-like design at one end of a rug always represent a mihrab?
It is generally believed that a rug with a design that could reasonably be interpreted as being an arch is a prayer rug, even when there are arches at both ends. There seems little reason to accept this if the term "prayer rug" is to imply that it has something to do with Muslim worship.
Until about 20 years ago Turkoman tent doors were widely considered to be prayer rugs, and the best known published collection of prayer rugs[3] includes some of these. The basis for this is simply that the design often includes from one to three small pointed arches at the top. We now realize that the only documented use for these pieces was as tent doors, and that in many instances their sizes were far too big to make it likely that they would be used as prayer rugs.
Caucasian bagface, or one of the smallest prayer rugs in the world. 19th century.
For the hard core believers that an arch makes a piece a prayer rug, I offer the pile Caucasian weaving shown to the left. This piece is 1'5" x 1'8" (it was a little larger before it lost one side border). Despite the very clear arch in the design, I am convinced that it is a saddlebag face, not a prayer rug, and I doubt that anyone who knew its size would disagree. In addition to knowing its size, I have a firsthand report from the person who saw it separated from what was once its mate.
The point of all of this silliness is that not every arch-shaped object is a mihrab, and not every arch-shaped design on a rug represents one. We ought to look for other symbols of Islam, like a lamp hanging in the center of the arch, the image of a water ewer, or a koranic inscription, before calling a rug a prayer rug. And we ought to look for evidence that the rug was used in prayer.
