15 Prayer Carpets from Major Asian Rug-Weaving Centers on Display at Harvard's Arthur M. Sackler Museum from Aug. 3 through Dec. 15

The Best Workmanship, the Finest Materials: Prayer Carpets from the Islamic World
Explores the Function, Meaning and Context of these Familiar Textiles

Cambridge, MA (July 10, 2002)-Prayer carpets from the Islamic world will be on display at Harvard's Arthur M. Sackler Museum August 3 through December 15, 2002.

Featuring 15 carpets from Harvard's own collection and loans from collectors, The Best Workmanship, the Finest Materials: Prayer Carpets from the Islamic World will illustrate the iconographic, technical, and aesthetic properties of these important textiles in a world where the faithful are expected to pray in a clearly prescribed manner each day. Most of the carpets are from the 19th century, with one carpet fragment dating back to the 1600s.

"Performed five times a day, ritual prayer is an obligatory and codified activity carried out under certain specific conditions," said Amanda Phillips, the curatorial intern who organized the exhibition. "The prayer carpet reflects two of these conditions: cleanliness-a worshipper must avoid contact with ritually unclean surfaces during prayer-and orientation-a Muslim must face in the direction of the holy city of Mecca while praying."

Whether woven in the knotted pile technique or in the intricate tapestry weave of kilims, the rugs in the exhibition have in common the "niche" motif-an archlike design element that refers to the mihrab in a mosque. The mihrab, a decorated niche in the wall closest to Mecca, is considered the directional and decorative focal point of any mosque.

"Prayer carpets have an almost universal appeal," said James Cuno, Elizabeth and John Moors Cabot Director of the Harvard University Art Museums. "This exhibition examines their historical significance as pious objects in the Islamic world and testifies to the artistry of the weavers."

Quotidian and Sacred
In addition to the niche element, many of the carpets feature an abundance of plants and flowers that are understood as a reference to heaven.

"There's a conception in the Islamic world of paradise as a verdant garden with running water. This perception of the afterlife as a garden, and its presence on prayer carpets, is a reminder that the best way to heaven is through prayer and supplication," said Phillips, who has been granted a Fulbright (fellowship for 2002-2003). She will travel to Turkey to investigate the links between village and tribal products of the 19th century and older carpets, with a focus on kilims, flatweaves and related textiles.

The carpets in this exhibition represent different cultural and geographic regions, ranging from western Anatolia, in Turkey, to Kashmir, in the Himalayas. Visitors will see fine examples from each major rug-weaving area within these regions.

"The carpets reflect context as well as geography," said Mary McWilliams, the Norma Jean Calderwood Curator of Islamic and Later Indian Art. "There is a visible difference between the rugs made by nomadic peoples-usually women-who worked primarily with sheep's wool and goat hair on portable looms and those created in a village, or especially a city workshop, where men crafted carpets with more intricate designs made from specially selected wool and sometimes silk and cotton."

The carpets on display are both quotidian and sacred because they were made for everyday use (they could be folded and carried over one's shoulder), yet they were to be used for a specific religious purpose. The carpets themselves assumed a variety of meanings: gifts to mosques from pilgrims returning from Mecca, emblems of personal piety, or decorative and luxurious articles of great beauty and symbolic association with paradise.

On display
Among the items on display in the exhibition will be:

• The Mille-fleurs prayer carpet from 18th-century Kashmir, created when the Mughal dynasty ruled in that region. The rug is made of pashmina (goathair) pile knotted on a silk and cotton foundation.
  
  
• The Uzbek Suzani, from a private collection, a textile that is a departure in two ways: it was meant to be hung, rather than spread on a floor; and the decoration is created by embroidery - a technique that is not performed on the loom, and allows for more curvilinear designs. The flowers embroidered on the suzani are poppies, native to Central Asia-this is a local garden of paradise.
  
  
• A 19th-century knotted wool-pile Marasali prayer rug from the Central Caucasus, from around the turn of the 20th century, when the area was as ethnically and religiously diverse as it is today.
  
  
• The Stories of the Prophets, a 16th-century Ottoman manuscript, which will be open to a page showing the mysterious Prophet Khizr praying on a prayer carpet while Moses and Joshua (Musa and Usha) look on.

This exhibition has been generously supported by Melvin R. Seiden and the Arthur Urbane Dilley, 1897, and Theron Johnson Damon, 1905, Fund for Islamic Art and Culture.

About the Harvard University Art Museums
The Harvard University Art Museums are one of the world's leading arts institutions, with the Arthur M. Sackler, Busch-Reisinger, and Fogg art museums, the Straus Center for Conservation, and the U.S. headquarters for the Archaeological Exploration of Sardis, an excavation project in western Turkey.

The Harvard University Art Museums are distinguished by the range and depth of their collections, their groundbreaking exhibitions, and the original research of their staff. As an integral part of the Harvard community, the three art museums serve as a resource for all students, adding a special dimension to their areas of study. The public is welcome to experience the collections and exhibitions as well as to enjoy lectures, symposia, and other programs.

For more than a century, the Harvard University Art Museums have been the nation's premier training ground for museum professionals and scholars and are renowned for their role in the development of the discipline of art history in this country.

Location and Hours
The Fogg Art Museum and the Busch-Reisinger Museum are located at 32 Quincy Street in Cambridge. The Arthur M. Sackler Museum is located next door at 485 Broadway. Each Museum is a short walk from the Harvard Square MBTA station.

Hours are Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., Sunday 1 - 5 p.m.; the Museums are closed on national holidays. Admission is $5; $4 for seniors; $3 for students; and free for those under 18 years of age. The Museums are free to everyone all day on Wednesday and Saturday mornings, 10 a.m. until noon. The Harvard University Art Museums receive support from the Massachusetts Cultural Council. More detailed information is available at 617-495-9400 or on the Internet at www.artmuseums.harvard.edu.

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For more information on this project or the Harvard University Art Museums, please contact:

Matthew Barone
Harvard University Art Museums
tel 617-495-2397; fax 617-496-9762 mbarone@fas.harvard.edu

or

Kim Gilbert/Allison Derusha
Resnicow Schroeder Associates
tel 212-671-5157; fax 212-595-8354 kgilbert@resnicowschroeder.com
aderusha@resnicowschroeder.com