Konya Prayer Rug

Hi People,

This Konya prayer rug appears on the second page of the Salon.



It is an interesting example of a rug with an arch in the field, generally interpreted as a mihrab, but which cannot possibly be one.

Why not? Funny you should ask. The usual understanding of the prayer rug used as a clean place to pray in the five daily prayers required of Muslims is that the person uses it while kneeling, his feet on the rug near the bottom, his hands in the upper spandrels and his head touching the interior of the mihrab at times. It would take a contortionist to accomplish that with this rug. The arch is simply too far down in the field.

It does, of course, meet two of the three definitions of "prayer rug": it is of the size known in the trade as prayer size, and it does have a clearly articulated arch in the field.

Regards,

Steve Price

Hi

Do small children use prayer rugs?

Just a thought.

Regards
Richard Tomlinson

Hi Richard

I've not seen any small children in mosques during regular prayer sessions, so I think the answer to your question is "no", although there are probably exceptions.

But small adults use prayer rugs. What's wrong with this one is not that it couldn't be used for prayer - a towel or a newspaper suffices as a clean surface, which is all that's required. But this one can't be used with the hands on the spandrels, feet off the floor and on the rug, and head touching the mihrab when it is bowed from the kneeling position. Not even by someone small.

Regards

Steve Price

Wouldn't it be easier to avoid calling it a "prayer rug" and simply describe it as a decorative rug with a picture of a niche or a view out a window or whatever strikes your fancy?

Hi Marvin

I wish the term "prayer rug" wasn't used for every rug with an arch form in the field, too. It conjures up romantic fantasies in too many novice collectors (and some very experienced ones) and leads them to believe that the rug is something that it isn't. I doubt that it's going to change, though, and the next best thing is to try to educate people about reality.

Regards

Steve Price

Dear Steve,

I must respectfully disagree with your criteria for defining prayer
rugs. If the proportionate relationship of the size of the mihrab to a rug's entire area was the standard for judging what is or is not a prayer rug, then many famous, old prayer rugs would be disqualified. I could provide many images of all types of prayer rugs in which the mihrab is as far, or further down the field than in ours, but I will confine myself to three Konya examples.



The first attachment is a well-known rug, published in Shuhler, Konig, Volkmann's "Old Eastern Carpets", plate 40, in Bruggemann & Bohmer's "Rugs of the Peasants and Farmers of Anatolia" and Rippon Boswell, 11 November 1995, lot #44.



The second image is of a 17/early 18th century Konya prayer rug, from a small museum attached to the Great Mosque of Aksaray, published in Hali 39, page 30.



The third image is of rug new to the market, offered by Sotheby London April 30, 2003, lot #24.

You will note that in all three the mihrab is further down the field than in our rug. Other Central Anatolian examples you could check out include plate 140 in Ertug and Kocabiyik's "Anatolian Carpets" and Hali 110, p.86, an ad for Rascid Rahaim in Venice.

Even if one were to use your criteria, in our rug the mihrab is topped by a bissected rectangle, a probable representation of the Ka'aba, which is what the head of the person praying would touch, and he would not have to be a contortionist to accomplish that. In any event, the mihrab is primarily a directional device, intended to orient the faithful towards Mecca. It was never intended as a literal containment area for the supplicants.

Regards,

Ralph

Hi Ralph

The definitions I cited are not my inventions. There are three, not mutually exclusive. My focus is upon the fact that many people believe that all rugs with an arch in the field were made for and used in Muslim prayer. I think this is an error that promotes an overly romanticized notion of the significance of the arch and, as a consequence, of the significance of the rug itself.

My first post was worded more carefully than my second one. It says, The usual understanding of the prayer rug used as a clean place to pray in the five daily prayers required of Muslims is that the person uses it while kneeling, his feet on the rug near the bottom, his hands in the upper spandrels and his head touching the interior of the mihrab at times.

In my second post I said, What's wrong with this one is not that it couldn't be used for prayer..., which is obviously not correct. I went on to say in the same paragraph, ... a towel or a newspaper suffices as a clean surface, which is all that's required. But this one can't be used with the hands on the spandrels, feet off the floor and on the rug, and head touching the mihrab when it is bowed from the kneeling position. Not even by someone small.

The same considerations apply to the rugs in your last post, of course. They are certainly prayer rugs by the marketplace definition based on size. They are certainly prayer rugs based on the definition that anything with an arch in the design is one. They may even have been used for prayer, although that is not likely to be knowable unless they came from mosques. They could not have been used for prayer in the way many people believe prayer rugs are used (which is the only way I've seen prayer rugs used in mosques, by the way): ...while kneeling, his feet on the rug near the bottom, his hands in the upper spandrels and his head touching the interior of the mihrab at times.

Regards

Steve Price

Hi Ralph

Just had an afterthought to add: What about "double niche prayer rugs", with arches at both ends?

Regards

Steve Price