Casgliadau Arlein

Small pile-woven prayer mat for a Muslim child to use when praying (facing Mecca) at home or in place of worship. In the centre is a brown niche on cream ground which represents the mihrab of a mosque. The mihrab must be orientated in the direction of the qibla (= the direction towards the Kaaba in Mecca, i.e. the direction Muslims should face when praying.

The edge of the mat has a brown border, followed by a border of quatrefoil motifs of black and brown against a cream ground. In addition, there are areas that don’t have a pile: the centre of each quatrefoil motif, the line delineating the niche, and a rectangular frame which surrounds it - these are predominantly picked out in gold&yellow-coloured yarns (woven in a 3/1 twill binding & held down by black yarns) and are outlined in black. The mat has a brown fringe along its narrow sides, although the fringe is not an extension of the yarns used for weaving the mat, but it is knotted on with a separate thread. There are no selvages on the mat and it is not clear which are the warps or wefts. The long edges are finished with machine stitched overlocking stitches using brown thread. The areas without pile (that features the gold twill weave) use a yellow and a gold coloured yarn together as one pick. The yellow yarn has virtually no twist (=floss) but the gold yarn is tightly twisted 2-ply, S-twist. New/unused.