What Is a Prayer Rug (Seccade)?
A prayer rug — seccade in Turkish — is a small directional rug made for one person to pray on. An arched niche, the mihrab, is woven into the field, and the rug is laid with that arch pointing toward Mecca. A pile prayer rug is knotted or woven like any other rug, unlike the thin mat sold under the same name.
Two objects share the English word. One is a printed synthetic mat a few millimeters thick, folded into a bag. The other is a rug: a knotted or loom-woven pile on a wool or cotton foundation, made in the same workshops and the same sizes as any small Anatolian rug, and built to be knelt on for years. This article is about the second, and about how the format works — the niche, the proportions, the motifs, the towns that gave the format its shapes. The pieces themselves are in prayer rugs.
What the mihrab is, and which way the rug is laid
The mihrab is architecture moved onto wool. In a mosque it is the niche set into the wall that faces the Kaaba in Mecca; the direction is called the qibla, and the niche is how a building states it. A prayer rug reproduces that niche in its field, usually as a pointed or stepped arch, and the person praying sets the arch in front of them.
This gives the rug a top and a bottom, which almost no other Turkish rug has. Turn a seccade end for end and the pattern is upside down, so it cannot be rotated twice a year to spread wear the way a symmetrical rug can. It also gives the buyer a simple test: no mihrab, no seccade. A small rug with an all-over field is a small rug.
Nothing about the object is consecrated. Islamic tradition holds that the earth itself may be prayed on, and reports the Prophet Muhammad praying on bare ground and on mats of palm leaf and hide. The rug is comfort and a defined clean space rather than a requirement.
A pile prayer rug is not a thin prayer mat
The difference is construction, fiber and how long the thing lasts. The mass-market prayer mat is woven flat and fast in acrylic or polyester, in high volume, in patterns chosen to offend nobody. A pile prayer rug is hand-knotted or loom-woven, most often in wool, sometimes in cotton, silk or Tencel lyocell, and it has a pile deep enough to take the weight of a knee and recover.
The second difference is that a pile rug is drawn one piece at a time. Village and antique examples carry palettes and border stacks that belong to a particular place, and some of the older ones are wool spun on a hand spindle and dyed with madder and indigo. Compare a piece like that with a printed mat and the argument ends at the fingertips.
Size and thickness, and the body they answer to
Prayer rugs run from about 80 × 120 cm (2'7" × 3'11") to about 115 × 175 cm (3'9" × 5'9"), and the loom-woven ones cluster at 80 × 130 cm (2'7" × 4'3"). The band is anatomical. The rug has to carry one adult through standing, bowing and prostration, so it is roughly a person's height long with the arms reaching forward, and a little wider than the shoulders. Larger than that and it stops being something you roll up and carry.
Thickness matters more here than on any other small rug, because the knees take the load. Below about 6 mm of pile the floor comes through. Between 7 and 12 mm is the useful band for most people, and above 12 mm the rug is soft to kneel on but heavier to fold and slower to dry after a wash. Density is the other half of the same question — a thick, loosely knotted pile flattens where a thinner, denser one holds its shape.
The motifs inside the niche
Three recur often enough to identify the format on sight, and all three refer to what happens before and during prayer.
- The lamp. A mosque lamp hangs on a chain from the apex of the arch. Rug scholarship reads it as a reference to the Verse of Light, Qur'an 24:35, which likens divine light to a lamp set in a niche. On village rugs it collapses into a diamond on a stalk.
- The ewer. The long-necked vessel called an ibrik, drawn at the base of the field or beside a column. Ablution precedes prayer, and the ewer is the object that performs it.
- The comb. A short bar with teeth, standing for the cleanliness required beforehand. It is among the oldest motifs in Anatolian weaving and appears on kilims that have nothing to do with prayer.
Above and below the niche, weavers filled panels with flowers — tulips and hyacinths most often, read as a reference to the gardens of paradise. The tree of life climbs the center of the field on many household pieces; see what the tree of life motif means. The earliest surviving Anatolian prayer rugs date to the thirteenth century, which makes the vocabulary older than most of the towns that later became famous for it.
Gördes, Ladik, Milas and Kula
Four western and central Anatolian towns produced the classical prayer rugs, and each drew the arch its own way.
Gördes, in Manisa province, wove the densest of them: a plain or lightly filled niche under a keyed arch, columns at the sides, panels above and below, and a wide stack of narrow borders in madder red, ivory and indigo. The town also gave its name to the symmetrical Gördes knot used across Anatolia — see the Turkish knot and the Persian knot compared.
Ladik, in Konya province, is the one with tulips: a stepped triangular arch, and a panel of long-stemmed stylized tulip heads set above or below the niche, on a madder ground with indigo and ivory.
Milas, in Muğla in the southwest, drew a niche that pinches in at the shoulders and opens again — the region's signature — inside long, narrow borders, in brick red and a strong yellow that no other town used the same way.
Kula, a few hours from Gördes in the same province, worked in softer and grayer color than its neighbor, with many thin borders around a narrow niche. Kula also produced the group known as mezarlık or graveyard rugs, in which the field is filled with cypress trees and small houses instead of an empty niche.
Hand-knotted, loom-woven or machine-woven — and what else to check
Three ways of making the same format, at three prices.
| Construction | How it is made | Usual fiber | What it is good for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hand-knotted | Knot by knot on a vertical loom; the knots are visible in slightly irregular rows on the back | Wool on wool or cotton warp; silk at the workshop end | A piece kept for decades, regional drawing, hand-dyed color |
| Loom-woven | Woven on a hand-operated loom with a controlled structure rather than tied knots | Wool, cotton, Tencel lyocell | Natural fiber and a hand-woven feel at the middle of the price range |
| Machine-woven | Power loom, patterns reproduced at scale | Acrylic, viscose, sometimes cotton | The cheapest route to the format, and to a mosque or a busy hall |
Hand-knotted production of prayer rugs has fallen sharply, which is why the loom-woven middle has grown: it keeps the natural fiber and much of the hand-woven feel without the workshop cost. Our guide to how loom-woven rugs differ from hand-knotted ones sets out the structural difference, and hand-knotted rugs shows what the top of the range looks like.
After construction, five things decide the choice, in the order they matter for this format.
- Fiber. A prayer rug is touched with bare feet, palms and forehead, which puts more weight on the hand of the material than on any other small rug. Wool is springy and recovers; cotton is cooler and crisper; Tencel takes bright color and has a short flat pile. See wool rugs for how the fiber behaves.
- Pile depth and knot density. Kneel on it if you can. Thickness gives comfort, density gives the drawing and keeps the pile from flattening.
- The floor underneath. On stone or polished tile, use a non-slip underlay. On underfloor heating a thinner rug transmits heat better, though at this size that is a comfort question rather than a heating one.
- Where it will be used. A rug for a mosque or a busy prayer room takes traffic that a bedroom piece never sees, and should be chosen for wear rather than for fineness.
- The room's color. A prayer rug usually stays out where an ordinary small rug gets moved. It has to live with the room it is in.
Care, cleaning and storage
Most prayer rugs are used with clean feet and clean clothes, which is why so few of them ever need a full wash. Vacuum regularly without the beater bar, in the direction of the pile. Once or twice a year, wipe the pile down with a cloth wrung out in mild soapy water, go over it again with clean water, press the moisture out with a towel and let it dry flat and out of direct sun. Our guide to cleaning a rug without washing it covers the method in detail.
Blot spills immediately with a dry white cloth, working from the edge inward, and never rub — rubbing drives the liquid down into the knot collar. A hand-knotted wool prayer rug does not go in a washing machine; one in daily use is worth having washed professionally every twelve to eighteen months. To put one away, fold the niche end back over the field so the part where the forehead touches stays covered, or roll larger pieces with the pile facing out so the knots are not creased.
Frequently asked questions
What is a prayer rug?
A prayer rug, called a seccade in Turkish, is a small rug woven for one person to pray on. It carries a mihrab — an arched niche drawn into the field — which gives the rug a fixed top and bottom instead of the all-over symmetry of an ordinary rug.
Which way should a prayer rug face?
The point of the mihrab arch faces away from the person praying, toward the qibla, which is the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca. Because the pattern is directional, a prayer rug cannot be turned end for end to even out wear the way a symmetrical rug can.
How thick should a prayer rug be?
Below about 6 mm of pile the floor comes through at the knees. Between 7 and 12 mm suits most people, and above 12 mm the rug is softer to kneel on but heavier to fold and slower to dry. Density matters as much as depth.
What is the difference between a prayer rug and a prayer mat?
A prayer mat is a thin flat textile, usually acrylic or polyester, made in high volume and folded for travel. A prayer rug is knotted or loom-woven with a pile, most often in wool, and is built to be knelt on for years rather than carried in a bag.
Which Turkish towns are known for prayer rugs?
Gördes, Ladik, Milas and Kula are the classical prayer-rug towns of western and central Anatolia. Gördes drew a keyed arch under dense borders, Ladik a stepped arch with tulip panels, Milas a niche pinched at the shoulders, and Kula a narrow niche in softer, grayer color.
Can a prayer rug be washed at home?
A hand-knotted or loom-woven prayer rug should not go in a washing machine. Vacuum it regularly, wipe the pile once or twice a year with mild soapy water and rinse it with clean water, then dry it flat away from direct sun. Send one in daily use for professional washing.
Related reading: what a rug is · handwoven wool rugs · prayer rugs