Oriental Rugs Glossary

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Prayer Rug

A prayer rug is an important property for the religious Moslem in order to fulfill his daily religious duties. It is not clear when the first prayer rugs were made but it is estimated that it already happened within the first hundred years of the "Hejra" (the moving of Mohammad and his followers from Mekka to Medina in the year of 622). From that time every religious Moslem owned a prayer rug. All prayer rugs have the prayer niche in common called "Mihrab". The "Mihrab" is a replica of the prayer niches which you find in mosques and religious homes which by Islamic ritual point towards the direction of the holy city of Mekka. This direction is called "Qibla" in the Islamic world. According to the form and design of the mihrab one can conclude the origin of the prayer rug. Persians and Afghanis call their prayer rugs "Namazi" and Turks call them "Namaslik"