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 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
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 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==