FELT PRAYER RUGS LOCATED IN THE SUFI LODGES

Abstract

Prayer rug is the name of (the) special-functional mats that take their origin from Islam and are produced for praying on them. The majority of the prayer rugs available today are made of knotted carpets, some of kilims and a very small amount of felt.

Felt prayer rugs are few in numbers in museums. These were used in dervish lodges and transferred to museums from there. The reason why felt prayer rugs, one of the sacred relics worn and carried by the people of the dervish order, are used in dervish lodges, is the use of prayer rug and post together and its symbolic meaning.
Due to their symbolic meaning, felt prayer rugs used in dervish orders appear in dervish lodges or lodge mosques. The mihrab motif and details on the felt prayer rugs have some meanings related to the dervish order. For example, the mihrap top is likened to a roof, representing the dervish order roof, the large candlestick in the middle hanging from this roof represent the Pir, the smaller ones on the sides represent the caliph and sheikh, and the flower motif at the bottom represents the followers of the order.
The material of the research is created from examples selected from felt prayer rugs belonging to the 19th century, which are found in some foundation museums and museums exhibiting foundation works, and in some lodges. As a method, felt prayer rugs in lodges and museums were checked carefully, and those with quality materials, workmanship and common composition were selected and evaluated.

The felt prayer rugs are generally made of natural cream colored wool by kicking. Patterns were applied on thin felt with embroidery technique. The main motif of the prayer rug is the mihrab motif. In some examples, there are realistic mosque depictions on the top of the mihrab motif. Patterns are embroidered in a purely herbal style with threads of red, green, brown, purple and blue. Also in another group of felt prayer rugs, patterns were made in the wrapping technique using only yellow glitter.
In another felt prayer rug, the patterns were not made after processing, but by placing colored wool pieces on the wool floor according to the pattern and kicking them together during the making of the felt.