Niche Rug

The carpet has a central niche is in the form of a mihrab, with decorative side-columns and a hanging mosque lamp and was very probably hung on a wall, perhaps in the women's quarters of a palace, to serve as a mihrab for communal prayers. Cairo is documented in the building accounts of the mosque of Süleymaniye in Istanbul (inaugurated 1557) as a manufactory of fine carpets. With the increase in demand from the Ottoman court in the later 16th century, however, carpet weavers were brought from Egypt and settled in Istanbul.