Origin 700 to 1000 CE
A small rug laid down for salat, ensuring a clean surface for prostration. It is not required, any clean ground will do, and the Prophet is reported to have prayed on a palm-fibre mat, but it is near-universal in practice and is the object most Muslims own that is reserved for worship alone.
Most carry a mihrab design, an arch or niche pointing to a specific end of the rug; that end faces Mecca. The rug is folded or hung after use rather than walked on, and it is not placed where feet will cross it. Figurative images of people or animals are absent, which is a matter of what one prostrates toward rather than of decoration.
Facts
Use
Who May Handle ItAdherents of the tradition 1 ConsecrationNot consecrated; an instrument, not a consecrated object 1 Origins
Origin Period Learn More
A Clean Place to Bow, Carried with You
The prayer rug is a small rug laid down for the ritual prayer of Islam, and its purpose is simple and practical: to ensure a clean surface for prostration.
Cleanliness, not obligation
Ritual purity of the place of prayer is required, and the prayer rug guarantees a clean spot for the forehead and hands in prostration wherever the worshipper happens to be, which is its whole function. It is not itself required, since any clean ground will serve, and the Prophet is reported to have prayed on the bare earth and on a simple mat, so the rug is a convenience and a mark of respect rather than a necessity. Its portability lets the five daily prayers be performed anywhere in a state of cleanliness.
Design and direction
Prayer rugs very often carry a woven arch or niche, the mihrab motif, which the worshipper points toward the direction of Mecca, so the design itself helps orient the prayer, and the patterns are typically non-figural in keeping with the avoidance of images in the setting of worship. The rugs are among the most widespread and finely made of Islamic textiles, and a well-made prayer rug may be a valued possession and a gift, but the object remains subordinate to its function. It is the clean ground for prostration made portable, which is why it accompanies the believer rather than belonging to a building.
How It Is Woven, and What Happens to One That Wears Out
A prayer rug is woven, not printed, in most of the traditions that produce them for actual use rather than for tourists, hand knotted wool or silk in regions with a long carpet weaving trade, machine woven cotton or synthetic fiber for the inexpensive mats sold in bulk for mosque use.
Regional weaving traditions
Turkish, Persian, Caucasian and Central Asian workshops each developed distinct patterns for the same basic design, a niche shape, the mihrab, woven into one end so the rug is laid with the point facing the direction of prayer. Fine hand knotted examples can take months on a loom and are valued as carpets in their own right independent of religious use, while the mats stacked in a mosque's entryway are mass produced and replaced often.
Who uses it, and what happens when it wears out
Any Muslim may own and use a prayer rug, with no restriction on maker or buyer, and a rug is generally kept clean and reserved for prayer rather than walked on as ordinary flooring, though this is custom rather than law. A prayer rug carries no text requiring burial the way a worn Quran does, so a torn or threadbare one is not subject to special disposal, many households still avoid throwing one directly in the rubbish out of habit and give it away, repurpose the fabric, or discard it more discreetly than an ordinary carpet.
Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
The prayer rug's mihrab design points toward the Masjid al-Haram and the Kaaba in Mecca.
Belongs to Tradition
Element Of
The mat marks out clean ground for the prayer and is a convenience rather than a requirement, since any clean surface will serve.
Held Differently
Twelvers prostrate on bare earth or on a tablet of clay, the turba, commonly taken from Karbala and laid on the rug rather than prostrating on its pile.
Shia (Twelver), Denominations Twelver prostration must be made on earth or on what grows from it, so a small tablet of clay, most often from Karbala, is set on the mat and the forehead placed on that. The mat is used, but it is not what the forehead touches.
Implement Of
Sources
1. Encyclopedia of Religion
Mircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.), Macmillan Reference, 2005on the prayer rug and salatView the Source The Oxford Dictionary of World Religions
John Bowker (ed.), Oxford University Press, 1997on ritual purity in prayerView the Source The Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd edition
P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C. E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W. P. Heinrichs (eds.), Brill, 2005View the Source Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
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