Azerbaijani Rug - Namzalyg

Namzalyg

These carpets, which are called in Azerbaijan "jeynamaz", "namazlyk, "mekhrabi", in Iran "tagi", "janamaz", in Arabia "sajjade", both in terms of their format and composition are distinct from the rest of the carpets. In the reign of Shakh Abbas (the 16th century) and his successors the weavers made small prayer rugs called "namazlyk", decorated by inscriptions in Arabic such as quotes from the Koran, the words "Allahu Akbar", "Ya Ali". These dicta as a rule was placed in the top of the carpet. From the artistic point of view the Northern Azerbaijan namazlyks differed from those made in Southern Azerbaijan. The latter, in their upper part, depicted objects required for the namaz prayer (beads, a beard comb, a prayer book, mokhur) rather than the religious inscriptions. Also, sometimes there were images of hands woven on the left and right sides. Thus one can conclude that namazlyks appeared in the second quarter of the 14th century as the Moslems attached great importance to the namaz prayer ceremony. Compositionally, namazlyks can be divided into the following two groups:

• village rugs (made by the folk weavers following the Arab conquest), and
• workshop rugs, which since the 16th century have been woven using sketches of the professional carpet makers