THE RUG AND ISLAM
A contribution to a history of the prayer rug
Taher Sabahi

Daily prayer (salat) is one of the fundamental requirements of Islam, the element that gives visible, concrete form to the true devotion of every believer. Whether individual or collective, it must be repeated ritually in the five different moments that divide the day: sunrise, midday, the mid-afternoon, sunset and before going to bed. In order to fulfil its role of communication with the divine, the prayer must follow precise rules, it must always be preceded by a ritual of purification in the form of ablutions with water or sand from tip to toe; it must take place in precise positions and, above all, it must take place in such a way as to ensure calm and safety for body and soul. The Qur’an states: “When you are sheltered, do your prayers correctly”. Thus, where possible, the prayer takes place within mosques, in which the believers are divided by sex and led by an imam. No aggression, violence or hostility must disturb the contact between the faithful and the divine, and nor may the faithful pray in contact with the impure ground. ...

SANAA - The muezzin’s chant suddenly cuts through the silence of the night: Allah-u Akbar!, God is great! Within the space of a few seconds, another muezzin calls the faithful of the local mosque to prayer: bismillah al-raham al-rahim! In the name of all-powerful and merciful God! Dawn has appeared over Sanaa and even the sleepiest cannot escape the appeal of the melody, of the sing-song emerging from the loudspeakers. Men start appearing in the streets, their jambiya, or classic curved dagger, by their sides. Prayer is number two in the five pillars of Islam, immediately after the profession of faith (shahada), equivalent to the Christian credo, by which the Muslim bears witness to the divine oneness and the mission of Mahomet, declaring that there is only one God and Mahomet is his Prophet, phrase to which the Shiites add And Ali is his Friend. ...

I was a member of the Local Organizing Committee for ICOC X. So my perspective is necessarily somewhat suspect from the beginning, but IÕll do my best to be objective.
ICOC X was planned and held under difficult circumstances. The fact that most Western economies are in the doldrums did not help, but a chief difficulty was the international situation, which some Europeans and others suggested made them reluctant to travel.
In addition, we were stuck with the Easter-Passover weekend if we wanted to use the Omni-Shoreham Hotel, since this was the only weekend in the entire year when they could offer us sufficient space to set up five in-hotel exhibitions. Jerry Silverman has on Turkotek.com already described ICOC X as the conference of the ÒunbelieversÓ and there may be some truth, for the two seders we carefully arranged in the hotel drew not a single person.
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