Prayer rug

thumb|This [[Safavid Iran|Safavid

prayer rug with a silk pile on the ground brocaded with metal threads forms part of a prestigious set of Safavid Persian Niche rugs. Most of the preserved rugs of this group were intended as diplomatic gifts from the Safavid court to the Ottomans. The poetic inscription on the border is executed in nasta`liq script, in Persian verse and includes the name of Sultan Murad. Most probably it refers to the Ottoman Sultan Murad III. Circa 1570-1600 CE. Museum of Islamic Art, Doha]]

A prayer rug or prayer mat is a piece of fabric, sometimes a pile carpet, used by Muslims, some Christians, especially in Orthodox Christianity and some followers of the Baháʼí Faith during prayer.

In Islam, a prayer mat is placed between the ground and the worshipper for cleanliness during the various positions of Islamic prayer. These involve prostration and sitting on the ground. A Muslim must perform (ablution) before prayer, and must pray in a clean place.

Prayer rugs are also used by some Oriental Orthodox Christians for Christian prayer involving prostrations in the name of the Trinity, as well as during the recitation of the Alleluia and Kyrie eleison. Among Russian Orthodox Christians, particularly Old Ritualists, a special prayer rug known as the Podruchnik is used to keep one's face and hands clean during prostrations, as these parts of the body are used to make the sign of the cross.

Many new prayer mats are manufactured by weavers in a factory. The design of a prayer mat is based on the village it came from and its weaver. These rugs are usually decorated with many beautiful geometric patterns and shapes. They are sometimes even decorated with images. These images are usually important Islamic landmarks, such as the Kaaba, but they are never animate objects. This is because the drawing of animate objects on Islamic prayer mats is forbidden.

For Muslims, when praying, a niche, representing the mihrab of a mosque, at the top of the mat must be pointed to the Islamic center for prayer, Mecca. All Muslims are required to know the qibla or direction towards Mecca from their home or where they are while traveling. Oriental Orthodox Christians position their prayer rugs so that they face east, the direction of prayer towards which they offer prayer.

History and use

In Judaism

Prayer rugs are used in some Jewish communities. In the US they are most commonly seen today in the Karaite community. However, they were used daily or with a similar frequency by Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews historically. Ashkenazi Jews use them less often, as prostration and kneeling is less common during prayers (mainly happening on Yom Kippur). Some Mizrahim still use prayer rugs, but this has fallen out of common practice in some communities, likely due to Ashkenazi influence. This influence has even impacted some Karaites. In Hebrew these rugs are called yeriah, a term also used for the curtains and tent hangings of the Mishkan. Abraham Maimonides was a promoter of the practice of prostration and kneeling, but disliked the use of padded prayer rugs and poufs for kneeling. of potentially being a practice related to idolatry, and there are some questions about the ritual purity of rugs. These prayer rugs are often blessed by Christian clergy in the church before ever being used; Among Russian Orthodox Old Ritualists, a special prayer rug known as the Podruchnik is used to keep one's face and hands clean during prostrations, as these parts of the body are used to make the sign of the cross. In modern times, among most adherents of Western Christianity, kneelers placed in pews (for corporate worship) or in prie-dieus (for private worship) are customary; historically however, prayer rugs were used by some Christian monks to pray the canonical hours in places such as Syria, Northumbria, and Ireland well before the arrival of Islam.

The Armenian Apostolic Church, an Oriental Orthodox Christian denomination, has a long tradition of prayer rugs with Christian symbols woven in them; these have been found in places as far as Shirvan. One of the oldest is the Saint Hrip'sime Rug, which was woven in 1202 A.D. and originates in the village of Banants, located in what is now Gandja.

In Islam

thumb|Fragment of a carpet. [[Mughal Empire|Mughal India, first half of the 17th century. Museum of Islamic Art, Doha]]

Significance

While not explicitly mandated in the Quran or Ḥadīt̲h, prayer rugs, known in one source as sad̲j̲d̲j̲āda, are nonetheless deeply embedded in Islamic practice and material culture. They represent a physical and symbolic delineation of sacred space, allowing the worshiper to create a ritually pure area for prayer. The presence of the miḥrāb—a stylized representation of the prayer niche found in mosques—visually orients the individual towards the Kaaba in Mecca, the direction Muslims face during prayer. Conversely, Qajar prayer rugs reflect a growing focus on the individual, with patron's names, images of kings and heroes, and motifs inspired by contact with the West, signaling a shift in the understanding of the rug's purpose and meaning.

Regional variations of prayer rugs

Using some type of floor covering for prayer was known early in Islamic history.

The Persians on the other hand used the style called the Asymmetrical Persian (Senneh) knot. The Senneh style allowed for fine details, providing with the graceful and floral patterns as seen in the Persian prayer rugs.

File:Fragment of a Carpet.jpg|Fragment of a flat-weave () carpet. Dated to the first half of the 14th century, it is the earliest extant example of a flat-weaven carpet from Islamic Iran. Hermitage Museum

File:Mamluk Prayer Rug - Google Art Project.jpg|Mamluk prayer rug. . Museum of Islamic Art, Berlin

File:'Bellini' Carpet MET TP299.jpg|"Re-entrant" or "keyhole" prayer mat, also called a Bellini carpet, Anatolia, late 15th to early 16th century. The mat symbolically describes the environment of a mosque, with the entrance (the "keyhole"), and the (the forward corner) with its hanging mosque lamps. Metropolitan Museum of Art

File:Ottoman Niche - Prayer carpet (MAK T 8327).jpg|Niche prayer carpet. Turkey, 2nd half of the 16th century. Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna

File:"Senneh" Prayer Rug MET wb-1970.3028.jpeg|"Senneh" prayer rug. Sanandaj, late 18th–early 19th century. Metropolitan Museum of Art

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Interactive prayer mats

Interactive prayer mats, also known as smart prayer mats or digital prayer rugs, are a recent development in the field of prayer rugs. These mats are designed to enhance the spiritual experience of Muslims during prayer by incorporating technology into the traditional practice of prayer, and for educational purposes.

Many children and new reverts use the interactive prayer mats as a guide to learn the islamic prayer, helping them through telling the sequence and positions of the various prayers according to the time of the day. Most smart rugs include audio recitation and appropriately illustrated prayer positions, making praying accessible to a wider range of muslims.

Islamic rugs in Lutheran Churches

thumb|Ottoman niche prayer rug. 18th century. [[National Museum, Warsaw]]

The Saxon Lutheran Churches, parish storerooms and museums of Transylvania safeguard about four hundred Anatolian rugs, dating from the late-15th to early 18th century. They form the richest and best-preserved corpus of prayer-format rugs of Ottoman period outside Turkey.

Transylvania, like the other Romanian principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia, never came under direct Turkish occupation. Until 1699 it had the status of an autonomous Principality, maintaining the Christian religion and own administration but paying tribute to the Ottoman Porte. By contrast, following the Battle of Mohacs in 1526, part of Hungary was designated a Pashalik and was under Turkish occupation for over a century and a half.

Rugs came into the ownership of the Reformed Churches, mainly as pious donations from parishioners, benefactors or guilds. In the 16th century, with the coming of the Reformation, the number of figurative images inside the churches was drastically reduced. Frescoes were white-washed or destroyed, and the many sumptuous winged altar-pieces were removed maintaining exclusively the main altar piece. The recently converted parishioners thus perceived the church as a large, cold and empty space, which required at least some decoration. Traces of the mural decoration were found during modern restorations in some Protestant Churches as for instance at Malâncrav.

In this situation the Oriental rugs, created in a world that was spiritually different from Christianity, found their place in the Reformed churches which were to become their main custodians. The removal from the commercial circuit and the fact that they were used to decorate the walls, the pews and the balconies but not on the floor was crucial for their conservation over the years.

After the Siege of Vienna of 1682 the Ottomans suffered several defeats by hand of the Habsburg army. In 1687 the rulers of Transylvania recognized the suzerainty of the Habsburg emperor Leopold I. Generally the end of the Turkish rule in Transylvania is associated with the Peace Treaty of 1699, but in fact this happened more than a decade earlier. The last decades of the 17th century marked a decline of the rug trade between Transylvania and Turkey which affected the carpet production in Anatolia. Shortly after the turn of the century the commercial rugs based on Lotto, Bird or Transylvanian patterns ceased to be woven.

Name variations

{| class="wikitable"

! Region/country !! Language !! Main

| Arab World || Arabic || (), ()

| Greater Iran ||Persian || ()

| North India, Pakistan, Deccan||Hindi, Urdu|| ()

()

| Pashtunistan || Pashto || ()

| Bangladesh, West Bengal|| Bengali || ()

| Bosnia || Bosnian ||

| Indonesia || Indonesian, Basa Jawa, Basa Sunda ||

| Malaysia || Malay ||

| Senegal, Gambia, Mauritania|| Wolof ||

| Nigeria, Niger, Ghana, Cameroon|| Hausa ||

| South Kalimantan || Banjar ||

| Iraqi Kurdistan || Sorani || ()

| Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan || Kazakh, Kyrgyz || ()

| Uzbekistan || Uzbek ||

| Greater Somalia || Somali ||

| Turkey, Azerbaijan || Turkish, Azeri ||

|Pakistan

|Punjabi

|مُسلّه

Musalla

| Turkmenistan || Turkmen ||

| Kerala || Malayalam || ,

References

Bibliography

External links

Importance of the Prayer Rug by Bishop Brian J Kennedy, OSB - Holy Trinity Celtic Orthodox Church