Publication Date
9th / 15th century
Publication Place
-
Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts
Subject
A composite wool woven using the Turkish double knit, known as the Gerdes knit.
Type
Other
Language
Undetermined
Digital
Yes
Manuscript
No
Physical Dimensions
الطول: 430 سم؛ العرض: 133 سم
Library
Museum With No Frontiers
Library Asset ID
720
Record ID
object;ISL;tr;Mus01;17;ar
Library Location
Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts
Date
9th / 15th century
Notes
The piece is part of one of three carpets in the collection of the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts that have survived from the 9th/15th century to the present day. The carpet is designed in the form of niches that provide specific spaces for worshipers to pray in the mosque in clearly defined rows. Only this piece remains of the carpet, so its full original dimensions are unknown. The ground of the piece is pale yellow. Within the sections framed by dark blue borders, there are five niches, two of which are green and three are dark blue. In the design of the niches of the carpet, we can notice the influence of the pattern of borders with prominent Kufic script used in Konic carpets during the reign of the Anatolian Seljuks in the 9th / 13th century. Each niche was crowned with a simplified shape of a ram’s head, while the ends took the form of corners to which were attached dark blue drawings resembling a chessboard, from which red “stalactites” hung. Three mosque lamps also hang from each mihrab, one in the middle and two on the sides. There are rhombus-shaped designs in the lower section of four niches. These diamonds are decorated with arrows pointing in four directions. As for the central mihrab, its lower section contains an undecorated rhombus that may have been intended to highlight the center of the prayer rug, which has a symmetrical design. The blue-colored pattern drawn on a red background, which suggests a double ram’s head, forms the main border, and was used at the same time to separate the rows of the carpet from each other. As for the shapes distributed on the edges with a narrow yellow ground surrounding the main border, they resemble a braided series of yellow and blue rosettes. The geometric patterns also mimic the Seljuk style, especially their corners with arrowheads similar to Kufic writing. These patterns, in addition to the shapes of eight-pointed stars and mosque lamps, pave the way for the transition to the Ottoman style of making prayer rugs.
Sample Text
Gönül Tekeli “Prayer rug decorated with a row of niches” in Discover Islamic Art. Museum Without Borders, 2026. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;ISL;tr;Mus01;17;ar
