A BESHIR PRAYER RUG, MIDDLE AMU DARYA REGION, TURKESTAN

For an comprehensive review of Beshir prayer rugs, a discussion of their origins, and extensive classification of the various types, please refer to Kaffel, Ralph, Beshir Prayer Rugs, Hali 151, Spring 2007, pp.74-83, also available at www.hali.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/151Beshir_3.pdf, together with the classification document, Kaffel, Ralph, Beshir prayer rugs: Classification by design, accessed at: www.hali.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Beshir-Prayer-Rugs-Online.pdf. The example offered here, on the basis of Kaffel’s categories, is of class 3-D, with flowering shrubs forming the principal decoration in the field. The borders of the arch and the outer guards are both of ‘cross and circle’ type, with the majority of the rosy-red circles enclosing a yellow centre, so that they resemble flowerheads. The white ground is decorated with small ‘leaf’ motifs and regularly spaced guls flanking the columns of shrubs.