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The field design of this unusual white-ground Shirvan prayer rug is
obviously inspired by an earlier group of Kuba rugs. Its pattern of stylized
trees in vertical rows almost exactly matches that of a Kuba rug published
in Volkmann, Old Eastern Carpets (plate 64), which the author suggests may
have developed from Persian (Iranian) textile designs. Examples in
this Kuba group almost invariably feature golden yellow fields with highly
stylized arabesque borders piled in blue and black or ivory and black
Although no prayer examples with that exact classic Kuba design are known, a
small number c: related prayer pieces with variant designs exist. The most
widely published of these (catalogued as Kuba and Baku) has a yellow ground
with a single narrow border and an understated prayer arch shaped like an
inverted "U".
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