Hazara people. Afghanistan.
Embroidered cloth. H: 10.5" (26.7 cm), W: 12" (30.5 cm).

A small cloth used to hold prayer stones or clay tablets “mohr” during Shia Muslim prayer rituals.
These stones or tablets were placed on the ground so the forehead can touch it during prayer.

With symbolic imagery of mosques, minarets, and prayer niches. There are images of stars and flowers with a pair
of hands on each side. The hands may represent the severed hands of the Shite Hazrat Abbas in the Battle of Karbala.