Shirvan Marasali prayer rug

Shirvan Marasali prayer rug
the eastern Caucasus
mid 19th century
Size: 155 x 120 cm

The rugs of the northern Caucasus are generally finer in their knotting, show smaller scale repeating patterns and are shorter in pile than rugs from the south, such as Kazaks.
Prayer rugs of this design have been systematically analysed in recent times. Those with small repeating patterns of stylised bushes or botehs within a lattice framework as shown here have variously been attributed as Shirvan, Marasali and Daghestan.
Many of these pieces were probably made as commissions, their relative importance reflected in the care and quality of their creation and artistry.
The field contains the conventional stylised boteh motifs and lattice pattern but strewn throughout are small stylised geometric forms. No two botehs are feature the same colour combination.