Posted by Robert Torchia on December 07, 1998 at 11:08:40:
In Reply to: Is This A Prayer Rug? posted by Irwin Kirsch on December 03, 1998 at 09:44:30:
I consider this example to be a prayer rug, albeit with a rather loose definition of the term. It seems that the highly stylized arch motif was often used purely for ornamental purposes and thus appears in non-prayer rugs. I have a double-directional Kuba in which a horseshoe or bracket-like configuration--exactly the sort of thing one finds as the arch in true Kuba prayer rugs--is prominently featured in the field. Of course it is not a prayer rug as we define them, but one who sees the rug cannot help but make the association that is so obvious. Perhaps I can claim that it is a "multiple-niche two-directional prayer rug." Some things don't fit so comfortably into our categories, but are certainly close relatives of a given type.