Niche Rug with Floral Field

Location: Cairo, Egypt (Ottoman court manufactury)

Materials: wool and cotton pile on a wool foundation

Dimensions: 176 x 137cm

Accession Number: TXT 186

Other Notes:

The elegant niche suggests that this was a prayer rug, to be hung on a wall in the direction of Mecca, however, and not spread on the ground. Niches with such elaborate floral decoration appear in Ottoman art soon after 1550, as on tilework in the mosque of RĂ¼stem Pasha (d 1561) in Istanbul.

Bibliography:

J.M. Rogers, The Arts of Islam. Masterpieces from the Khalili Collection, London 2010, cat.397, p.335.