"Transylvanian" prayer rug, Turkey, second half 17th century. Iparmuveszeti Muzeum, Budapest (Museum of Applied Arts, Budapest), inv. no: 62.1232.1

width: 103 cm
length: 180 cm
density: 1482 knots/dm2

Way of acquisition: unknown
Acquisition from: unknown
Date of acquisition: 1962 előtt

A version of 17th century Ottoman Turkish prayer rugs very popular in Hungary was the "column" rug, in which the mihrab (prayer niche) is divided into three fields by three, four or eight columns. The most common is the six-column version, considered by many to have the most beautiful design of 17th century Turkish rugs. Their general characteristic is a mihrab (prayer niche) whose background colour is red or ochre (rarely ivory or blue), divided into three parts by slender columns in a 1+2+2+1 distribution. The rug’s ochre mihrab (prayer niche) is supported by six narrow columns, dividing it into three fields. The spandrels have a blue and red arabesque decoration on an ochre field, and the crenellated frieze above has straight-stem flowers growing out of it. The design of the peak field and the frieze are not sharply delineated. Rounded cartouches of alternating colour run along the border; the outer border has a row of leaves of alternating orientation and the inner border is decorated by leaves and flowers strung along an undulating stem. In May H. Beattie’s classification, the rug is an early, type I Coupled-Column Prayer Rug.