The travel accounts, moreover, are an accurate research tool. Dates are usually quite precise; location is similarly narrowly bounded. There also are some problems. Travellers miss, misunderstand, and misrepresent things. Translations, especially in the picky business of textile terminology, are an abomination, and works must be read in the original (the case here except for Olearius).
Western diplomats, businessmen, and missionaries regularly visited mosques and frequently observed prayer ritual. Their descriptions are an important datum in establishing the nature of woven items in sacred use, but only a datum. It is a combination of information - the objects themselves, pictorial representations of them, and the like - which leads to understanding. While the travellers present only an aspect, what they have to say concerning both mosque floor furnishings and materials used as the clean space for prayer is of considerable interest.
Mosques
Even though there were injunctions, travellers did see mosque interiors:
du Fresne-Canaye, in 1573, on a visit to the Suliman mosque, Constantinople: "... very fine mats of Alexandria and often rugs of Cairo..."1
George Sandys, on the mosques of Constantinople, c. 1610: "...on entering, sit crosse legged upon rewes of Mats, one behind another, the poore and the rich promiscously."2
Adam Olearius, c. 1637, of a mosque/tomb outside of Derbent: "...but the next day I found it covered with a Carpet of Brocado, and the floor cover'd with Mat, for their convenience who came thither to do their devotions."3
John Thevenot, in 1664, on the interior of the great mosque in Damascus: "...all painted gold and blue, in mosaic style, and paved with marble..."4
the same, in Isfahan, on the Shah Abbas I mosque: "All pavement is of well-joined large stones, but that which is under the dome is covered with handsome rugs..."5
the same, in Kashan, at the royal tombs: "...and in one Mosque...the vestibule pavement is covered with rugs...(of another) the nave of the mosque goes all around the Chapel of the Masoume. The pavement of this nave is covered with rugs."6
Robert de Dreux, on St. Sophia, Constantinople, 1668: "...prostrated themselves on the rugs which were spread through all the mosque..."7
Antoine Gallaud, in 1672, on a Constantinople mosque complex: "...carpeted on all sides with handsome rugs, but principally in the surrounding galleries and in the apartment of the Grand Seigneur...where they are of excellent beauty and price which is not mediocre."8
William Grelot, c. 1680, in an exhaustively detailed description of the St. Sophia mosque: "...the Klimgilier or Carpeteers, to whom is entrusted the care of carpets. The Kaimgilier...who must clean them often."9
Joseph Pitts, the first Englishman to visit Mecca and Medina, during part of a 15-year captivity spent largely in Ottoman Algiers, c. 1685, on mosques in general: "...the Area is a plain beaten floor, like the Floor of the Malt-House, spread all over with their Mats of Rushes; but near the Emaum with Carpets. Their Galleries they have likewise spread with the same."10
Cornelius De Bruyne, of Amsterdam, on the St. Sophia and Suliman mosques, c. 1692: "The pavement of Mosques is covered with mats or pieces of fabric which have been sewn together and are spread out on the floor; for the most part these strips are a little separated from one another and the space in between serves as a passage for everyone going from one spot to another; and these mats are intended for those who are making their devotions and who, according to the customs of the Mahomadans, may sit, kneel or prostrate themselves on them."11
John Bell, on St. Sophia, c. 1720: "Nevertheless, we were conducted up a pair of back stairs to the gallery, from whence we had a full view of the whole. The floor is laid with clean mats and carpets, having no seat, only one pulpit for the Mullah."12
Richard Pococke, on St. Sophia, c. 1737: "...it is hung with a great number of glass lamps, and the pavement is spread with the richest carpets, where the sophtis are always studying and repeating the alcoran..."13
Marble, fabrics, mats, and carpets - in various combinations - are depicted. The heritage of mosques as open spaces surrounded by arcades clearly shows through. The thrust of the accounts suggests that carpets may have become the dominant floor covering in the later decades of the 17th century and that previously the prevalent covering may have been mats. Reality - Cairerie carpets in 1573, and mats still around in l720 - nonetheless rears its inevitably unbeautIful head; facts ever are neither uniform nor continuous, but varied and disjointed.
The De Bruyne comment that mosque floor covering was used to order rows of worshipers is interesting. An organizing function is, quite plausibly, suggested, but of groups into ranks, not of individuals within a row.
Mats
The religious use of mats apparently has a considerable history. The Safer Nameh recounts travel in Persia and the Levant in the years 1032-1042 and puts prayer mats in this area at this time:
(of Beirut) "The principal mosque is handsome and it offers an altogether individual charm. The floor of it is entirely covered with mats (hasir) of varied designs (monaqqash)."
(at the town of Tiberiade) "They make at Thabarieh (sic) mats which are used as prayer rugs. They sell them at a price of five Maghreb dinars."
(in Jerusalem, at the sepulchre of Abraham and Isaac) "The walls and the ground of this funerial room are covered with rugs (farsh) of high price, and of mats of Maghreb more precious than brocade (diba). I have seen there a mat which was serving as a prayer rug and which had been sent, they told me, by the emir el Djouiouch, slave of the sultan of Egypt. It had been bought at Misr (Old Cairo), for a price of thirty Maghreb dinars. A rug of the same size in the brocade of Greece (Rhum/Anatolia) would not cost so much: nowhere have I seen a mat as beautiful."14
These excerpts come from a respected French orientalist's translation; key words from the Persian text are inserted. Competent reviews15 of the Persian indicates that the translation is accurate and documents reed prayer mats with a pattern in which there is some variation.
The Tiberiade (Tiberius) mats also appear in Idrisi's geography, written c. 1154:
(of Tiberiade) "They make mats of a type called sammie (sic), of a beauty which is difficult to surpass."
(on Aly's tomb, in Iraq) "It is completely covered with precious stuffs, and the ground is covered with Samanie (sic) mats."16
Thus, reed mats from Tiberade, or a generic type so known, were in use at an important Shiah shrine a considerable distance from Egypt.
It is not safe to assume that the "mats" of the later Western travel accounts are all "rush mats", but their continuing presence as one among several varieties of flatwoven items is a distinct possibility. Mats imported from Egypt were still a part of Ottoman Turkey as late as 1800.17
Prayer Rugs
Wilhelm Bode, reminiscing in 1902, commented: "Many of us will still remember the impression produced by 'antique Persian' rugs when, in the seventies, they were introduced by foreign agents...Everyone was eager to acquire several small prayer rugs for use on tables and floors, or as coverings for sofas and cushions."18
Josiah Harlan, the first American in Afghanistan, writing his memoirs c. 1870 said pretty much the same thing: "The small callecha or carpets used by the Moslem to sit and kneel upon in their prayers, and appropriated by Europeans for the bedside or fire rug, are frequently highly ornamented..."19
It is not surprising that at the same time Western travel accounts were noting the presence of prayer rugs in commerce:
Cunynghame, Erivan bazaar, 1872: "We purchased some small but handsome prayer-rugs at about ten shillings each..."20
MacGregor, Teheran bazaar, 1875: "...some velvet curtains and prayer carpets from Kashan..."21
the same, Resht, 1875: "The principal manufacture of the place is silk... These consist of table cloths, curtains, saddle-cloths, prayer carpets, etc..."22
Savage-Landor, on Persian carpet-making, 1900: "...Kurdistan's...small prayer rugs...rather vivid in colour..."23
d'Allemagne, on Tabriz manufactures, 1907: "...especially, prayer carpets...enscribed with the emblem of a dervish order...(or) with a tree of life..."24
This commercial circumstance is recent and simple; the past is complex. For the latter it is instructive to look to the 17th century travel classics. One of those is the work by Tavernier, who in the century's third quarter offered a prayer ritual description for "Mullahs":
"...and spreading out a felt, or if they are poor a simple mat. This felt is five or six feet long and three wide, and the mullah places himself at one of the ends for prayer; one sees at the other the representation of a niche of a different color from that of the felt..."25
John Chardin recorded Persian practice in the same era: "It (the rug) was made of pile only in houses of poor people, and among the generality of lawyers and ecclesiastics. With the well-to-do, it is made of felt or heavy fabric; but with people of quality it is fine camelot (angora). This little rug is between four and six feet long, and two and three wide, depicting the greater part of one of the peaks of the roof of a mosque, to remind them of that of Mecca.
"This little rug is not, however, essential to prayer, and common people, such as domestics, and other ordinary folk, who don't have the means to be so exact and so scrupulous, are content to clean with their hand a little place provided that there is no filth...because it is not permitted to pray to God on the ground or on an uncovered floor, except when travelling."26
Warp: Ivory/brown wool, Z2S, 45° depression
Weft: Ivory wool, Z2S, two shoots
Knot: Symmetric, horizontal 10, vertical 10, 100 per square
inch
Colors: BLUE, red, white, gold, blue-green, mid-blue, light
blue, camel, brown, gray, pink, fawn
Size: 4'10"x4'4"
Sides: Overcast, ivory wool
Ends: Beginning, 1/4" kelim and 3/4" braided fringe; finishing,
same
Tavernier and Chardin both describe prayer rugs as being made of various materials and bearing architectural motif for design (niche and dome, respectively). But these are descriptions of Persian religious practice; neither account - and each is encyclopedic in nature and embraces both Ottoman and Safavid cultures - puts the prayer rug into play in Turkey.
Other accounts, however, do mention Turkish prayer details:
Thevenot, (1664) describing prayer by those who happen to be out in the fields: "...then spread a little rug on the ground, without which they hardly ever go, and pray upon it... They have chaplets (prayer beads)...nor does travelling excuse them, for when they know that it is about the hour of prayer, they stop in the fields near some water, and having drawn water in a tinned copper-pot, which they carry always purposely about with them..."27
Paul Rycault (1664) irritably noted of the "overly pious» praying: "...where they find the most spectators, expecially of Christians, to chuse that place how inconvenient soever, to spread first their handkerchief, and they begin their prayers."28
George Sandys (1610) observed: "...though they be in the fields, they will spread their upper garments on the earth, and fall to their devotions."29
It is only Thevenot with his "little rug" who says "prayer rug"; the others are reporting a clean object practice, just as did Chardin in part. The upshot is that these accounts do establish prayers rugs as being in use in the second half of the century, albeit much more firmly for Persia than for Ottoman Turkey. Of central interest is the fact that prayer rug material was quite varied. Pile, felt, "simple mats" and fabrics were used along the socio/economic spectrum, and pile was humble stuff.
Kerbala Tablets
Chardin makes similar mention:
"...and they place the palet exactly in the middle of the rug, on the dome of the mosque there represented..." "...when they make their prayers, they always have a brick made of this earth thick as a finger, big as the palm of the hand, some bigger, some smaller, on which they support the forehead in prayer, when they prostrate the head against the ground..."
"They are a half-finger thick, figured allover, round, square, hexagonal, octagonal, usually big as the hollow of the hand...I have seen some of them big as a plate, and as little as a white crown (coin). The top is blocked (lettered) and contains the names of God, the prophets and the imams, the confession of faith, or passages of the Alcoran; all that according to the diameter of the brick, and according to the size of the letters..."
"They open this little rug in which there are several items that serve in their devotions: their Alcoran, which is always in its rightful bag; a brick, a string of beads, a pocket mirror, a comb, and sometimes relics..."31
Thevenot32 and Tavernier30 also note the brickettes.
Chardin also identifies objects kept in the prayer rug, paraphernalia close to the appearances of items represented in the spandrels of many prayer rugs. Since it is not a great leap from placement of a Kerbala tablet to representation of one, it seems quite reasonable to view Kerbala tablets as part of Shiah prayer rug iconography.
Some Implications
Any notions of prayer rugs and their use and evolution based on a partial reading of a very large literature has to be tentative, but some things do stand out.
The first hardly needs to be hedged, for all accounts indicate that today's view of the prayer rug is culture-bound, strongly conditioned by their export in the very late 19th and early 20th centuries. To see only this manifestation misses the rich history of the woven products used for prayer in Islamic society.
The second is indeed tentative and entails the tricky problem of the null set, that is, the empty category: in this case the intriguing fact that no traveller mentions a saff. It is a little difficult to believe that l7th century visitors to Turkey and Persia, tuned in on textiles and interested in ritual, would either have missed or failed to record saff usage. If the saff is a specialized outgrowth of the prayer rug, it certainly does not ever have seemed to be very evident. If, however, it is to occupy a stage in an evolution to the individual prayer rug, then at some time and place it should be relatively common. A confirming Western observation at the least would be appropriate and, at the most, necessary for this hypothesis. The l7th century, at any rate, isn't such an occasion. The third is hypothetical and suggests that the reed mat played a part in both prayer rugs and in mosque floor furnishings.
The fourth is closely related and does carry some weight. The steady travel account identification of mats, best taken to mean flatwoven objects of various materials having greater heft than fabric, suggests it is not smart to assume carpets were common in mosques at all times. Therefore, the dating of rugs found in mosques should accommodate the possibility that before a certain era carpets were not the likely floor coverings. A carpet removed from the bottom layer in a mosque may well be the oldest one there. The question remains, however, when was that layer laid?
In the end there is, of course, a caveat: travel observations are only an approximation of reality, and they must be used in conjunction with other sources of information.
Notes
1 Schefer, C.M., Le Voyage du Levant du Fresne-Canaye, Paris, 1897, p. 56.
2 Sandys, George, "George Sandys Journey," in Purchas His Pilgrimes, Glasgow reprint, 1905, p. 114.
3 Olearius, Adam, Voyages and Travels of the Ambassadors, Second Edition corrected, London, 1669, p, 301.
4 Thevenot, Jean, Voyages de...., Third (corrected) edition, Paris, 1727, Vol. I, p. 152.
5 ibid., Vo1. II, p. 689.
6 ibid., Vol. III, p. 276.
7 de Dreux, Robert, Voyage en Turquie, republished and annotated, Hubert Pernot, Paris, 1925, p. 73.
8 Journal d'Antoine Gallaud, ed. Chas. Schefer, Paris, 1881, Vol. I, p. 75.
9 Grelot, William Joseph, Relation Nouvelle d'un Voyage de Constantinople, Paris, 1680, p. 293.
10 Pitts, Joseph, Account of the Religion and Manners of the Mahommetans, Eton, 1704, p. 37.
11 Reizen van Cornelius De Bruyne, Delft, 1698, p. 41.
12 Bell, John, "Travels from St. Petersburg to Various Parts of Asia," in Pipkerton, Voyages and Travels, 181 I, Vol. 7, p. 611.
13 Pococke, Richard, "Travels from St. Petersburg to Various Parts of Asia," in Pinkerton, op. cit., Vol. 10, p. 723.
14 Relation du Voyage, C.M. Schefer, trans. and ed., Paris, 1881, p. 44,54,100/1.
15 Courtesy John T. Wertime.
16 Recueil de voyages et de memoires, "Geographie d'Edrisi," trans. P. Amedee Jaubert, La Societe de Geographie, Paris, 1836, p. 347, 566.
17 Wittman, William, Travels in Turkey, London, 1830, p. 30; and, Olivier, G.A., Voyage dans l'Empire Othoman, l'Egypte et la Perce, Paris, An 9 (1800), p. 150.
18 Bode, Wilhelm, with Ernst Kuhnel, Antique Rugs From the Near East, Second Edition, New York, 1922, p. 9.
19 Harlan, Josiah, Central Asia, Personal Narrative of ..., London, 1939, p. II 7.
20 Cunynghame, Arthur A., Travels in the Eastern Caucasus, London, 1889, p. 155.
21 MacGregor, C.M., Narrative of a Journey Through the Province of Khorassan, London, 1879, p. 186.
22 ibid., p. 176.
23 Savage-Landor, A. Henry, Across Coveted Lands, New York, 1903, p. 317.
24 d' Allemagne, Henri, In Khorassan and Persia, Paris, 1911, Vol. I., p. 104.
25 Tavernier, Jean, Six Voyages, Vol. I, Paris, 1678, p. 654.
26 Chardin, John, Voyages du Chevalier Chardin en Perse, ed. L. Langles, Paris, 1811, Vol. II, p. 398, p. 435.
27 Thevenot, John, op. cit., Vol. I, p. 156.
28 Rycault, Paul, The Present State of the Ottoman Empire, Arno Press reprint, New York, 1971, p. 159.
29 Sandys, George, op. cit., p. 131.
30 Olearius, Adam, op. cit., p. 279.
31 Chardin, John, op. cit., Vol. VI, p. 453, p. 441.
32 Thevenot, John, op. cit., Vol. III, p. 380.
33 Tavernier, Jean, op. cit., Vol. I, p. 654.
