Yağcıbedir in reverse: cream ground, wool warp and wool pile
112×176 cm
Products
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112×176 cm
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Baloch burgundy with aubergine and camel wool, tied in Afghanistan
91×136 cm
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The niche points one way only: red wool from Selendi
113×167 cm
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İnlice, outside Konya: a prayer niche in wool over cotton
100×161 cm
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Madder red in bands, spun on a spindle in Ayvacık
81×132 cm
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A prayer rug 80 × 130 cm: navy, and one red point
80×130 cm
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Navy wool, no drawing on it but the point of prostration
80×130 cm
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Pale blue field, navy arch, mustard detail: 80 × 130 cm
80×130 cm
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Blue in the niche, mustard at the edges, gray between
80×130 cm
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Gray mihrab, olive panels, mustard borders: wool and cotton
80×130 cm
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Eighty by a hundred and thirty: a Kütahya prayer rug
80×130 cm
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Earth brown in wool and cotton, one mark and nothing else
80×130 cm
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A single mark where the forehead lands, red on white
80×130 cm
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Green down the length, a russet band across the head end
80×130 cm
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Green, and its fringes knotted one at a time by women nearby
80×130 cm
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Red graded across the field, one point for the forehead
80×130 cm
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The prayer niche drawn in two blues, on Tencel® and cotton
80×130 cm
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No pattern at all, only khaki shifting like brushed velvet
80×130 cm
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Cream and blue crossing the green in horizontal bands
80×130 cm
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Tencel® in terracotta, the color running side to side
80×130 cm
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Baş Başa: named for being alone with oneself, in terracotta
80×130 cm
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Root-dyed wool from Çal, a yellow ground past its century
95×132 cm
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Lyocell over cotton, a mihrab arch in khaki
80×130 cm
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Red in two values, a prayer rug woven in Tencel® and cotton
80×130 cm
A Turkish prayer rug, or seccade, is a small directional rug woven for one person to pray on. Its field carries a mihrab — the arched niche marking the qibla wall of a mosque — and the rug is laid with that arch pointing toward Mecca. Everything else, from the hanging lamp to the ewer, answers to that arch.
Almost every other Turkish rug is built to be read from any side. A prayer rug has a top and a bottom, and that single fact governs its size, its drawing, and the way it is folded and put away. What follows is how the format works, what the weaving towns of Anatolia did with it, and how the rugs in this collection are made.
What the mihrab is, and which way it points
It is architecture, moved onto wool. In a mosque the mihrab is a niche set into the wall that faces the Kaaba in Mecca; the direction itself is called the qibla, and the niche is how a room states it. A prayer rug reproduces that niche in the field — usually a pointed or stepped arch rising from a pair of columns — and the person praying sets the arch in front of them.
Turn a seccade end for end and the pattern is upside down. This is one of the few rugs that cannot simply be rotated twice a year for even wear, and it is also why the arch is the first thing to look at when you are told a rug is a prayer rug: no mihrab, no seccade.
The arch is drawn differently from town to town — keyed and squared at Gördes, stepped to a sharp triangle at Ladik, pinched at the shoulders at Milas. Weavers who never saw one another's work produced recognizably local arches for generations.
How large a prayer rug is, and why
Between roughly 80 × 120 cm (2'7" × 3'11") and 115 × 175 cm (3'9" × 5'9"). The pieces here run across that band, and most of the loom-woven ones are 80 × 130 cm (2'7" × 4'3"). The dimensions are anatomical rather than decorative: the rug has to hold one adult through the whole cycle of standing, bowing and prostrating, so its length is about a person's height with the arms reaching forward, and its width a little more than the shoulders.
Anything much larger stops being portable, and portability is half the point — a seccade is rolled, carried, and put down where it is needed. The multi-niche saf rug, a row of arches side by side for a line of worshippers, is a mosque format rather than a household one.
The motifs inside the niche
Four recur often enough to be diagnostic.
- 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 is often reduced to a diamond on a stalk.
- The ewer. A long-necked water vessel, the 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 before prayer. It is among the oldest motifs in Anatolian weaving and turns up on kilims that have nothing to do with prayer.
- The hands. Small five-fingered shapes at the shoulders of the arch, where the hands come down. On finer rugs they are drawn out; on coarse ones they survive as a pair of stepped blocks.
Above and below the niche, weavers added panels — tulips at Ladik, carnations at Kırşehir — and the household pieces in this collection often carry the tree of life running up the center of the field. See what the tree of life motif means.
Where prayer rugs were woven, and how they differ
Seven towns account for most of the classical Anatolian prayer-rug output, and each one is identifiable from the arch alone.
| Tradition | Where | Arch and drawing | Palette |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gördes | Manisa, western Anatolia | 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; densely knotted. The town gives its name to the symmetrical Gördes knot. | Madder red, ivory, indigo |
| Ladik | Konya province | A stepped triangular arch with a panel of long-stemmed stylized tulips set above or below the niche | Madder red ground, indigo, ivory |
| Milas | Muğla, southwestern Anatolia | The narrow-waisted niche that pinches in at the shoulders and opens again — the region's signature — inside long, thin borders | Brick red and a strong yellow |
| Konya | Central plateau | Arch and columns taken from Ottoman architecture, drawn geometrically throughout | Red and yellow, with blue used sparingly |
| Kırşehir | Central Anatolia | Carnations and flower heads inside and around the niche; the widest color range of the group | Broad, and unusually varied |
| Bergama | İzmir, northwestern Anatolia | A central medallion with rows of panels | Blue, white and red |
| Oushak (Uşak) | Western Anatolia | Floral drawing, a thicker pile than the rest, silk fringes on some old examples | Bright, on a madder ground |
What these are made of
Wool, mostly. The village and antique pieces in this collection are hand-knotted wool pile on a wool foundation, several dyed with madder and indigo: a Yağcıbedir, a Selendi, a Konya İnlice, an Ayvacık rug spun on the hand spindle the Turkish trade calls a kirmen, and a Yahyalı and a Denizli Çal rug that are both past their eightieth year. There is also an Afghan Baluch prayer rug — the same format, woven outside Anatolia.
The current production is loom-woven, in wool or in Tencel lyocell, the fiber sold in Türkiye as bamboo. Tencel takes color brightly, has a short flat pile and can be wiped down, which is why it dominates the contemporary end of the format. Silk is the third fiber of the tradition and belongs to its workshop end — the same drawing at several times the knot count. Compare hand-knotted rugs and silk rugs.
Care, folding and storage
The part of a prayer rug that matters most is the part nobody should walk on. The customary way to put one away is to fold the niche end back over the field, so that the place where the forehead touches stays covered; larger pieces are rolled instead, pile facing outward, so the knots are not creased. Small ones travel folded in two.
The rest is the ordinary discipline of hand-knotted wool. Vacuum without the beater bar. Blot a spill at once with a clean dry cloth, working from the edge inward, and use plain water for light soiling rather than a solvent. Press the moisture out with a towel and let the rug dry flat, out of direct sun. A handwoven prayer rug does not go in a washing machine — the pieces here are marked for professional washing, and one in regular use is worth having washed every twelve to eighteen months. Our guide to how a rug is washed sets out the process.
Frequently asked questions
What is a Turkish prayer rug?
A Turkish prayer rug, called a seccade, is a small rug woven for one person to pray on. Its defining feature is the 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 be laid?
With the point of the mihrab arch facing away from the person praying, toward the qibla — 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.
What size is a Turkish prayer rug?
Most fall between 80 × 120 cm and 115 × 175 cm, or roughly 2'7" × 3'11" to 3'9" × 5'9". The size is anatomical: the rug has to take one adult standing, bowing and prostrating, so it runs about a person's height long and a little wider than the shoulders.
What do the lamp and ewer motifs mean?
The lamp hangs from the apex of the arch and is read as a reference to the Verse of Light, Qur'an 24:35, which compares divine light to a lamp in a niche. The ewer, or ibrik, is the long-necked vessel used for the ablution performed before prayer.
Which Turkish regions are known for prayer rugs?
Gördes, Ladik, Milas, Konya, Kırşehir, Bergama and Uşak are the classical prayer-rug towns of Anatolia. Each drew the mihrab arch its own way — keyed at Gördes, stepped at Ladik, narrow-waisted at Milas — and each kept to its own palette across generations.
Can a prayer rug be used as an ordinary small rug?
Yes. The format is a common size for an entry, a bedside or a reading chair, and the directional pattern hangs well on a wall. A rug kept for prayer is generally not walked on, so households that use one both ways usually keep two.
Halıcızade Halı Kilim in Ankara keeps prayer rugs in both the small single format and the wider mosque widths.
Last updated: 10 September 2026
Related collections: Anatolian rugs · Turkish rugs