A Shirvan prayer rug, Southern Shirvan Region, Azerbaijan. 114  x 122 cm, 3'9" x 4'0".  Second half 19th century, published Ralph Kaffel's Caucasian Prayer Rugs, plate 78

This unusual Shirvan has some interesting and distinctive features. Its squarish dimensions are uncommon, but the focus here is on the spandrels which contain jewellery' motifs and three additional prayer arches. Depictions of jewellery pieces, specifically the triangular pendants (daghdan) or amulet cases (turmar) evocative of Turkoman craft, are rarely used as ornamentation in Caucasian weavings, although an instance of similar use in the spandrels of a Marasali prayer rug is known.

Multiple prayer arches in Caucasian rugs are very rare. Karagashli pieces feature a vertical arrangement not unlike the stepped progression found in the Karapinar prayer rugs of central Anatolia, but a horizontal multiple distribution is extremely unusual. (A horizonal arrangement does appear in safs, but they are rare in their own right) An apparently unique example, with three vertical panels each containing adjoining prayer arches, was published in Oriental Rug Review, while the Strakas once owned a prayer rug with two adjacent 'head and shoulder' mihrabs. To date, no similar depiction of a combination of prayer arches and pendant in the spandrels of a Caucasian prayer rug is known to the author.