Posted by Steve Price on December 01, 1998 at 21:23:46:
In Reply to: Are Prayer Rugs Ethnographic? posted by Irwin Kirsch on December 01, 1998 at 19:19:18:
Most prayer rugs made after about 1875 were woven for sale to Europeans and Americans, and probably a lot of the earlier ones were, too. Islamic artifacts and styles were very fashionable in 18th and 19th century Europe. Also, not everything with an arch on it is a prayer rug in the sense of being made for use in devotions. I have a little saddlebag face with an arch at the top. If it's a prayer rug, it was made for a very minute Moslem indeed.
There's a little article on TurkoTek's Journal section that covers this with more bluster, in case anyone's interested.
Steve Price