Turkish carpet maker furnishes Al Aqsa Mosque with custom design rug

JERUSALEM (A.A) - August 17, 2011 - A Turkish carpet weaving company has made a custom design 5,000-square-meter rug for Al-Aqsa Mosque in the Old City of Jerusalem, the third holiest site in Sunni Islam, also referred to as the al-Haram ash-Sharif or "the Noble Sanctuary."
The gigantic wool rug covering the floor of Al Aqsa has been woven in over a month by the Gaziantep-based carpet maker Kasmir Hali, and its was designed by experts from Al Haram al-Sharif Foundation.
"The rug with Ottoman and Islamic motifs on a red background is really a special product and I can say it is perfect both in design and in color," Hasan Acilmis, head of the Turkish carpet maker company, told the Anadolu Agency.   
Acilmis said his company had also furnished many mosques in Saudi Arabia and other countries in the Middle East as well as in Chechnya, Turkmenistan and in Europe.
"We have sought no financial gain when we ventured to make this rug. This was a holy task for us," Acilmis said, adding the rug had cost some 500 thousand USD. 
Ahmad Mohammad Amira, an official with Al Haram al-Sharif Foundation, has said Jordanian King Abdallah had donated 300 thousand USD for the making of the Al Aqsa rug.
"We are aware that the rug costs a lot more but the Turkish company had accepted the job with open arms. It is not just Al Aqsa, but the company refurnished rugs of the Old Mosque, too. You can see a Turkish touch in many places in Al Haram al-Sharif now," Amira said.