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Turkish carpet weaving

During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries many large Oushaks and an enormous number of prayer rugs seem to have been made. Prayer rugs usually are about four feet wide by six to seven feet long.

Unlike every other Oriental, the pile always slants toward the top. They always have a mihrab or prayer arch at one end, which represents the prayer arch found in every mosque decorated with elaborate tiles and set in the wall that faces Mecca.

Worshipers in a mosque always face the mihrab, so that they look toward the sacred city which the prophet Mohammed named the center of worship. Every Mos­lem who can afford one has his prayer rug.

Five times a day he unrolls it, points the prayer arch toward Mecca and, kneeling on it, intones his devotions.