Some floor coverings promote ideas of spatial orienta-
tion. Within many of the powerful agrarian empires across
the world, the precise arrangement of specific floor coverings
and other furnishings within a ritual area ensured the success
of the ceremony. A fourth-century BCE text, the Shujing
(Book of history), describes the proper procedure for setting
up the offerings for the burial of a prince, with detailed in-
structions concerning the appropriate carpet, offering table,
and sacrifice for each of the cardinal points within the tomb
area. In other instances single textiles function as spatial indi-
cators: the organization of motifs in certain Mongol, Turk-
ish, and Chinese carpets within the rectilinear confines of the
textile imply a correct alignment.
The most famed ritual floor covering, the so-called
Muslim prayer carpet, is traditionally decorated with an arch
at one end echoing the mih:ra ̄b niche in the mosque, which
orients prayer toward Mecca. However, the function of these
carpets is independent of decoration, since they provide a
spatial substitute for worship within a mosque to assist the
faithful in discharging the obligation of prayer five times a
day. No specific carpets are prescribed for the mosque floor.
If anything were to be considered the first religiously pre-
scribed floor covering, it would be the simple plaited palm-
leaf mat used by nomadic Arabs. But once Islam came into
contact with the artistically sophisticated cultures of western
Asia, custom and taste dictated design. Historically, many
carpets were merely decorative; however, some were un-
doubtedly used for prayer within the home.
Textiles have served as portable shrines for nomadic
peoples, and some of these textile environments survive
among settled populations. The mahmal tents used during
the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca are one example.
Textile curtains act as screens shielding sacred ritual
areas and guarding access to them. Although a distancing de-
vice, these textiles afford the celebrants a ritual dramatic ef-
fect when they are suddenly parted to reveal mystery. The
ark curtain or parochet (Hebrew, parokhet) is the main ritual
textile within Jewish practice. Its precedents can be found in
the tabernacle described in chapter 26 of Exodus. This record
of one of the most celebrated of the portable ritual-textile en-
vironments profoundly influenced the ritual trappings of
later Jewish and Christian practice. Within Ashkenazic tradi-
tion the standard parochet consists of a prestige cloth framed
between two pillars and a lintel, a device previously thought
to relate to sixteenth-century title pages from printed books.
The form may well have more ancient precedents, however,
recalling times when practice demanded large curtains hung
between architectural bays to subdivide areas of worship. Ar-
chaeological evidence from the third-century CE synagogue
at Dura-Europos in Syria reveals that a large curtain divided
the area in front of the Torah shrine from the congregation.
This custom of using curtains to subdivide spaces within reli-
gious and secular architecture was widespread in the Near
East and the Mediterranean during classical times.
This pattern influenced early Christian worship as well.
In the early centuries of the Christian era, large curtains were
used to articulate space within the church or meeting room
to accommodate different audiences. Part of the building was
accessible to nonbelievers, and other provisions were made
for those under instruction but not yet baptized. The faithful
were divided into groups, with men and women occupying
different areas; the clergy had an area around the altar. In the
West large curtains disappeared from the interiors of reli-
gious buildings with the rise of the Romanesque architectural
style around the year 1000. The parochet and the tabernacle
veils of the Western Christian Church are humble reminders
of times when interiors were lavishly decorated with textiles.
Large curtains remained in use in the Eastern Christian
Church for a time, but the development of the iconostasis
on which icons were displayed gradually replaced the porta-
ble curtains separating the sanctuary from the nave. The am-
phithyron, a smaller curtain that hung behind the central
doors of the iconostasis, is all that remains of the more elabo-
rate curtaining systems. Only in Ethiopian churches practic-
ing Coptic rites do large dividing curtains survive.
The notion of concealment is present at other levels as
well, particularly in practices that shield sacred paraphernalia
from the eyes of the uninitiated or from direct contact with
the profane hand. In the Christian Church the chalice and
the Host, as well as many of the accoutrements used in the
service, are only revealed at the appropriate moment in the
ritual; at other times they are veiled from sight. The Torah
mantles, made of the most costly silk and gold-enriched fab-
rics, the simple tie-dyed silk curtains that hang in front of
the painted images of Tibetan Buddhist man:d:alas, and the
elaborately embroidered epitaphios sindon of the Greek Or-
thodox rite, which veils the chalice and paten, serve identical
functions.
TEXTILE LINKS BETWEEN THE SACRED AND THE PROFANE
REALMS. Throughout history textiles have conveyed both
symbolic and economic meaning. Before the industrial age
reduced most textiles to the realm of disposable consumer
goods, all textiles possessed real value as the product of the
labor invested in cultivating, spinning, dyeing, and weaving.
These labor factors, as well as the materials, skills, and ritual
meanings, conferred prestige that could be transferred. Many
religious organizations relied on cloistered workshops to pro-
duce liturgical textiles. These establishments were often man-
aged by women, whose textile production calls to mind spe-
cialized dowry manufacture. Some particularly time-
consuming specialized techniques associated with these
workshops are like pious acts of devotion embodying repeti-
tive invocations and blessings. During the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries, secular schools for young noble
women—like the Smol’nyi Institute founded by Catherine
the Great and the Maison royale de Saint-Cyr established by
Madame de Maintenon—were modeled on cloistered ate-
liers. These schools produced fine textiles for the church as
well as for aristocractic households, as evidenced by the sur-TEXTILES 9091