Posted by Erol Abit on November 28, 1998 at 12:55:49:
In Reply to: Re: Child's Prayer Rug posted by Yon Bard on November 27, 1998 at 21:04:30:
Dear Wendel, Steve and Yon,
To my knowledge, according to islamic rule, the children have to begin praying after 11 years old.
(This is for boys. I think the age for girls is 13. These are the ages of performing namaz. The responsibility to God begins at age of 7 for boys, at 9 for girls).
But the applicability and flexibility of this rule change from place to place. For example, although people in our village (where turkic cultural effects are more dominant than islamics) begin to learn praying about at this age, usually they don't perfom Namaz till adult ages, actually till old ages after 40 years old. In arabic countries, one becomes an adult at smaller ages due to climate conditions and the rules are much more rigid.
I don't think a prayer rug was being woven widely for only children. If a child wants to pray on a rug, he/she could use a normal adult rug.
By the way, if we consider that the average height of Turkic people is about 165 cm (~ 5' 2"), the length of prayer rugs can be shorter than others in other place.
Regards,
Erol