Prayer Mat

Origin: Indian, Mughal
Date: 18th century
Medium: Cotton ground embroidered with silk thread
Ackland Fund, selected by
The Ackland Associates
96.3.1

Prayer mats are used by Muslims to ensure the ritual purity of the surface on which they pray. Al-Salat, the Muslim canonical prayer, consists of prescribed gestures and words which express praise, adoration and invocation of God. A Muslim is required to pray five times a day facing in the direction of Mecca.

While elements of Mughal design -- widely evident in architecture, manuscripts and textiles -- were frequently Indo-European in character, the motifs found here are more purely Islamic in origin. The prayer niche or mihra, the central design element at the head of the prayer mat, symbolizes the heavenly gateway to Paradise, which is opened to believers who pray. Like the walled garden of Paradise described in the Qur'an, this gateway is strewn with blossoming flowers. Devotees rest their heads on the roundel, positioned below the arch and articulated in vibrantly colored silk threads, in an act of submission to God during ritual prayer.