Product

Mosque carpets and prayer rugs from Gaziantep: what to specify

Lotvela · Gaziantep · Checked 29 October 2026

Türkiye's machine-made carpet industry, which weaves mosque carpet (wall-to-wall rolls marked in prayer rows) and prayer rugs (seccade), is centred on Gaziantep: firms there accounted for 69.6% of Türkiye's carpet exports in 2025 (computed from TİM data). Customs statistics do not separate either product from other carpets. What a buyer must get right is the layout and the paperwork: the depth of each prayer row, the qibla line on a measured plan, and the fire-test report the building's authority will accept, all fixed before weaving starts.

Gaziantep in numbers

Measure	Figure	Period and source
Carpet exports by firms with their head office in Gaziantep	$1,975.3m ($1,971.1m in 2024)	2025, TİM
Gaziantep's share of Türkiye's carpet exports	69.6%	2025, computed from TİM
Carpet exports, January to September	$1,453.5m, up 4.6%; 72.1% of Türkiye	2026, TİM; share computed
Machine-made carpets registered with the south-eastern carpet exporters' association	$1,644.9m, 76.2% of Türkiye's $2,158.9m	2025, GAİB; share computed
Carpet and rug makers filing capacity reports	128 firms, 15,362 workers: 47.5% of Türkiye's carpet jobs	2025, TOBB register, via Akpirinç and Sandal (2025)

The Ministry of Trade ranks Türkiye 2nd in world machine-made carpet exports in 2025, with $2.26bn and 24.8% of the total, after China with $2.84bn and 31.2% (ITC Trade Map data). It says most Turkish machine-made carpet is produced by firms based in Gaziantep, with Kayseri and Istanbul as the other centres. In Gaziantep's Başpınar organised industrial zone, textiles are the largest group: 519 of 1,369 facilities (2025 study). For the other sectors, see manufacturing in Gaziantep.

Gulf and Middle East markets

The Güneydoğu Anadolu carpet exporters' association, which registers exports from all south-eastern provinces, sent 34.5% of its $1,961.5m carpet exports to the Middle East in 2025. The United States was its largest market ($535.3m, 27.3%). Gulf and nearby markets:

Market	Carpet exports 2025	Share
Iraq	$233.4m	11.9%
Saudi Arabia	$228.9m	11.7%
United Arab Emirates	$64.9m	3.3%
Kuwait	$30.6m	1.6%
Yemen	$12.5m	0.6%

Source: GAİB carpet statistics, January to December 2025. These cover all carpets.

No separate figure for prayer rugs

Prayer rugs and mosque carpet have no line of their own in the six-digit Harmonized System, the UK tariff or the US Harmonized Tariff Schedule (searched 29 October 2026). They are classified like other carpets, by construction and fibre, so no official export or production figure exists for them. We did not check Türkiye's 12-digit national lines.

Large producers

No official ranking lists makers of mosque carpet or prayer rugs. TİM's 2025 list of Türkiye's 1,000 largest exporters has 17 firms in its carpet sector; 13 of the 15 it names are registered in Gaziantep, and two asked not to be named. In the Istanbul Chamber of Industry's 2025 rankings, ten firms with "Halı" (carpet) in their name belong to the Gaziantep Chamber of Industry: one in the İSO 500 and nine in the second 500. On 29 October 2026, none of the 11 company websites we could open listed mosque carpet or prayer rugs as a product line, so we name none here. Mosque-carpet experience is checked per producer when a brief arrives. Our page on Gaziantep machine-made carpets covers the wider industry.

The two products and what to specify

Mosque carpet

Mosque carpet is supplied in rolls and fitted wall to wall. Its design marks prayer rows (saf) across the hall; within a row it may repeat an arch (mihrab) motif for each worshipper, pointing towards the qibla.

Saudi Arabia notified a draft standard, "Woven Carpets Used for Masjids" (SASO draft 30465/2017), to the World Trade Organization in 2017. We could not confirm whether it was adopted; a published standard with the same title, OIC/SMIIC 27:2022, also exists. The draft is the most detailed public checklist we found. For machine-made woven cut-pile mosque carpet it sets:

Pile yarn: 100% wool, 80/20 wool–nylon, 100% acrylic or 100% heat-set polypropylene.
Rows: rolls 120–130 cm wide, so that worshippers in consecutive rows do not touch, with two parallel lines 25 ± 2 cm apart to mark foot positions and keep rows straight.
Construction: pile mass above the backing of at least 2,500 g/m² for wool, 1,800 for wool blend and acrylic, and 2,000 for heat-set polypropylene; pile height at least 10 mm; total thickness at least 12 mm; at least 375,000 tufts per m².
Performance: light fastness of at least 5 on the blue scale; static of at most 3 kV in a walking test; a damaged length of at most 6 cm in its flammability test.
Finish and label: latex or similar back coating, machine-sewn edges, moth-proofed wool, and a label in Arabic, or Arabic and English, giving fibre content, size, pile thickness and weight, care and country of origin.

Treat these as a reference, not a legal minimum, unless your tender or authority names the standard. Whatever you choose, state row depth in cm, roll width and whether a roll carries one row or several, pile fibre, pile height, pile weight, tufts (points) per m², backing, underlay, and a catalogue or custom design approved on a woven sample.

Measuring the hall

Send a dimensioned plan of the prayer hall with the qibla direction, columns, mihrab niche, minbar and doors marked. Rows run at right angles to the qibla line; if the walls are not square to it, rows cross the room at an angle and offcuts increase. The number of rows is the usable depth divided by the row depth: a hall 20 m deep with 125 cm rows takes 16 rows. Ask each producer to state its cutting allowance.

Installation

Whether a producer sends fitters, supervises a local team or ships rolls only is agreed per order. We confirm it per producer, including who signs off the row alignment.

Prayer rugs (seccade)

Individual prayer rugs are made up: cut to size and finished at the edges. Specify size in cm; woven pile, flat-woven or printed; a thin travel mat or a padded rug; fibre and pile height; edge finish; design, with or without a logo; and packing per piece, with labels in the language of the market.

Quality and how to check a producer

Ask for test reports from an accredited laboratory on the same quality, not a brochure. For mosque carpet that means pile mass and height, tuft density, tuft withdrawal force, dimensional stability, colour fastness to light and rubbing, static and the fire test your market requires. GSO 858:2024, the Gulf standard for methods of testing woven carpets, approved on 21 November 2024, lists test methods.

Accept antibacterial and anti-static claims only with a test report on the same quality. In the EU, a carpet treated with a biocide is a treated article: the active substance must be approved for that use, and a biocidal claim requires the label set out in Article 58 of Regulation (EU) No 528/2012. In the US, the treated-article exemption covers only a pesticide that protects the article itself, and the pesticide must be registered for that use (40 CFR 152.25(a)).

A site visit should look at:

the looms the quality runs on and the widths they weave;
whether yarn is spun, extruded or heat-set in-house or bought in, which also decides UK origin (see below);
the back-coating line and the in-house laboratory, with test records per batch;
dye-lot control for large orders;
previous mosque projects, with photos and a reference you can call.

Our guide to checking a Turkish factory covers registration and documents.

Rules by market

European Union

Fitted carpet: carpet made for permanent fitting in a building is a construction product under harmonised standard EN 14041, listed under Regulation (EU) No 305/2011. The manufacturer issues a declaration of performance and CE marking, including the reaction-to-fire class. Regulation (EU) 2024/3110 has applied since 8 January 2026, but those articles of the old regulation stay in force until product families move across, at the latest 8 January 2040.
Fire classes: under Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/364, Cfl needs a critical flux of at least 4.5 kW/m² (EN ISO 9239-1) and flame spread of no more than 150 mm within 20 seconds (EN ISO 11925-2); Bfl needs 8.0 kW/m²; s1 means smoke of at most 750 %·min.
Which class: the EU sets the classes; the level for a mosque comes from "the requirements for such use in that Member State" (Article 8(4), Regulation (EU) No 305/2011). Ask the architect or fire engineer which class, such as Cfl-s1, applies.
Prayer rugs sold to consumers: the General Product Safety Regulation (EU) 2023/988 has applied since 13 December 2024: a manufacturer's risk analysis and technical documentation (Article 9), and a responsible economic operator established in the EU.
Fibre labels: Regulation (EU) No 1007/2011. Where backing and use surface are of different fibres, the composition may be stated for the use surface alone, named as such (Annex IV).

United Kingdom

Fitted carpet: in England, Approved Document B, Volume 2 (2019 edition, as amended), gives no guidance under requirement B2 on "the upper surfaces of floors and stairs"; its lining classes apply to walls and ceilings. It asks that escape-route floor finishes minimise slipperiness when wet. Wales and Scotland have their own guidance. Ask the building control body or fire risk assessor what they will accept.
Prayer rugs sold to consumers: the General Product Safety Regulations 2005, and fibre labels under Regulation (EU) No 1007/2011 as retained in UK law, with the same carpet rule.

United States

Flammability: 16 CFR 1630 covers all carpets and rugs used as floor coverings; 16 CFR 1631 covers small ones, with no side over 6 ft and an area of no more than 24 sq ft. At least 7 of 8 specimens must pass. A small rug that fails must carry the label "FLAMMABLE (FAILS U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE STANDARD FF 2-70): SHOULD NOT BE USED NEAR SOURCES OF IGNITION". Carpets with a fire-retardant treatment are labelled "T".
Certificate: CPSC expects a General Certificate of Conformity citing part 1630 or 1631.
Fibre labels: floor coverings fall under the Textile Act rules; the fibre content may relate to the face or pile only, stated as such (16 CFR 303.11). State or local fire codes for the building are a separate question for the architect.

Saudi Arabia

Product rules: SASO's Technical Regulation for Textile Products covers carpets and floor coverings, HS 5701 to 5705. The supplier needs a certificate of conformity from a SASO-approved body (type 1a for most textiles) and a technical file with a supplier's declaration and laboratory reports on hazardous chemicals. For mosque carpets, "the requirements listed in the relevant SASO standard shall be applied". Certificates are registered on SASO's SABER platform, which also issues shipment certificates. The copy we read is version 1, published on 24 August 2018; ask your conformity body which version applies.
Building fire rules: the Saudi Building Code 2024 (SBC 201 general building code, SBC 801 fire code) is published as view-only documents, and we did not quote their floor-finish clauses. Ask the project consultant which floor-covering fire test the approving authority accepts.

UAE, Qatar and Kuwait

UAE product rules: the Ministry of Industry and Advanced Technology issues conformity certificates (ECAS) for products under technical regulations. We could not confirm on its site whether carpets are on that list; ask your clearing agent.
Fire rules: the UAE Fire and Life Safety Code of Practice sets interior-finish rules for buildings, but we could not open an official copy. In the UAE, Qatar and Kuwait, ask the project consultant which floor-finish class and test report the approving authority accepts.

HS codes and proof of origin

Product	HS subheading
Mosque carpet in rolls, woven pile, man-made fibres, not made up	5702.32 (wool: 5702.31)
Prayer rug, woven pile, man-made fibres, made up	5702.42 (wool: 5702.41)
Flat-woven prayer mat without pile, man-made fibres, made up	5702.92
Tufted carpet or rug	5703, by fibre
Felt; other constructions	5704; 5705
Underlay	Not chapter 57 (note 2 to the chapter)

"Made up" includes goods hemmed or with rolled edges or a knotted fringe (note 7 to Section XI), so a hemmed rug and a roll of carpet fall under different subheadings. Padded prayer mats can be harder to classify. Confirm each code with your broker.

EU: carpets are industrial goods within the EU–Türkiye customs union. They move free of customs duty with an A.TR movement certificate, which proves free-circulation status, not origin. Turkish chambers approve A.TRs electronically through MEDOS.
UK: under the UK–Türkiye trade agreement, the importer claims the preference with the exporter's origin declaration on the invoice; no EUR.1 or A.TR is used for the UK. The chapter 57 rule requires, for example, spinning of fibres or extrusion of man-made filament yarn combined with weaving or tufting, or tufting combined with dyeing or printing. A rug woven from imported yarn may not qualify, so ask where the yarn was made.
US: there is no trade agreement, so the general rate in the Harmonized Tariff Schedule applies, plus a 12.5% Section 301 duty on products of Türkiye entered from 24 July 2026, except listed exemptions. We found no chapter 57 heading among them. Mark origin under 19 CFR 134: CBP ruled in 2022 that "Made in Türkiye" is not acceptable and "Made in Turkey" is (HQ H323767).
Gulf: Turkish chambers issue the non-preferential certificate of origin through MEDOS. For the UAE, the UAE–Türkiye CEPA, signed on 3 March 2023 and in force since 1 September 2023, sets a rate per tariff line on its Market Access Dashboard; the preference needs the CEPA proof of origin. For Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar, ask your clearing agent about duty and legalisation.

Packing, loading and shipping

The SASO draft asks for each roll to be rolled tightly in the warp direction with the pile inside, wrapped in strong, moisture-proof, non-staining material, with the label on a corner of the back.
Ask for a packing list per roll giving length, width, row count and dye lot, and keep the rows for one hall from one dye lot.
Check that the route into the mosque, including doors and stairs, takes the roll length.
For prayer rugs, agree pieces per carton or bale and carton marks. Container load, freight terms and lead time are confirmed per producer and per order.

Questions buyers ask

Who are the mosque carpet manufacturers in Turkey?

The Ministry of Trade says most Turkish machine-made carpet is made by Gaziantep firms, which accounted for 69.6% of Türkiye's carpet exports in 2025. No official list separates mosque-carpet makers, and none of the ranked carpet exporters' websites we could open listed mosque carpet. So the check is per producer: past mosque projects, row designs, test reports and roll widths.

Can a Turkish mosque carpet supplier deliver to the UAE, Qatar or Dubai?

Gulf markets already buy Turkish carpet: the UAE took $64.9m and Kuwait $30.6m from the south-eastern association's members in 2025. For a mosque, the shipment needs a certificate of origin and, for the UAE preference, a CEPA proof of origin. The local consultant decides which fire test applies. Delivery terms and installation are agreed per order.

How wide should a mosque carpet row be?

The Saudi draft standard for mosque carpets sets rolls 120–130 cm wide so that worshippers in consecutive rows do not touch, with two lines 25 ± 2 cm apart marking foot positions. It is a draft, and your mosque committee or architect may choose another depth. State the row depth in cm in your brief, with the space per worshipper if the design marks it.

Can I buy Turkish prayer rugs wholesale with my own design?

Arabic-speaking buyers search for this as سجاد صلاة جملة (prayer rugs wholesale). A custom design, logo, label and gift packing are possible where a producer offers them, and minimum quantities are set by each producer for each design. Send size, construction, fibre, design files and packing per piece, and the market, so the right labels and tests are planned from the start.

Do mosque carpets need a fire certificate?

It depends on the market. In the US, every carpet and rug must pass 16 CFR 1630 or 1631. In the EU, fitted carpet carries a declared fire class, and national building rules set the class required. England's Approved Document B gives no guidance on floor surfaces. In the Gulf, the authority approving the building decides. Ask for the report before production.

What to put in your brief

Item	What to state
Product	Mosque carpet in rolls, prayer rugs, or both; travel or padded mats
Project or quantity	Hall plan with the qibla marked, area, number and length of rows; or pieces per design
Row layout	Row depth in cm, space per worshipper, foot lines, arch motif, border
Construction	Woven, tufted or printed; roll width; pile height in mm; pile weight in g/m²; tufts per m²
Yarn	Heat-set polypropylene, polyester, acrylic, wool or a blend
Backing and underlay	Back coating; underlay needed or not
Design and colours	Catalogue or custom design; approval on a woven sample
Fire and tests	Class and test standard the authority requires, such as Cfl-s1 or 16 CFR 1630; accredited laboratory
Claims	Antibacterial or anti-static, only with test reports; biocide treatment, if any
Labels and packing	Label language and content, care instructions, roll or carton packing
Destination and documents	EU: A.TR. UK: origin declaration on the invoice, no EUR.1 or A.TR. Gulf: chamber certificate of origin, CEPA proof for the UAE, SABER certificates for Saudi Arabia
Installation	Producer's fitters, supervision only, or rolls only
Timing	Date the carpet must be fitted, such as an opening or Ramadan

Sending a brief to Lotvela

Lotvela is a sourcing intermediary based in Gaziantep, the city where these carpet mills operate. Send a brief and we contact and visit the producers that fit it, large or mid-size: we check product fit, a free production window, export record and documents, then send a dated shortlist with every claim marked confirmed or not confirmed. It is free for buyers: the producer pays a commission at the same rate for every producer, invoices and ships, and money never passes through Lotvela.