Amulets in Islam

The Seven Seals of medieval Islamic magic, which are believed to constitute the Greatest Name of God, also feature in Jewish Kabbalah from the same period. While many Seal symbols make sporadic appearances in early Islamic amulets bearing Kufic script, the source of the symbols and their eventual ordering remains a matter of legend. As this topic was first – and last – examined systematically by Dr. Hans Winkler in 1930, a wider-ranging and more modern review is long overdue. The present survey focuses on potential sources for the symbols rather than on their exegesis. It first examines the possibility that a precedent for the Seal series exists in an undecipherable “seven signs repeated seven times” inscribed on a Late Babylonian amulet. It then considers the possibility that the Seals’ origins lie in other cuneiform symbols from ancient Mesopotamia; in Egyptian hieroglyphs or scripts; in paleo-Hebrew characters or the letters of ancient South Arabian scripts; in Libyco-Berber or Tifinagh letters from North Africa; or in the symbol repertoire of Late Antique magic, including the highly potent seven Greek vowels. The review also explores the possibility that at least some of the symbols originated in numerological ciphers or religious emblems, canvassing sources as diverse as Indian Hinduism and Byzantine Christendom. The article concludes by considering the recent suggestion that the Seal series may have acquired its privileged status because its symbols reflect “shape archetypes” that are hard-wired into the human nervous system.

In West Africa, Berber groups such as the Tuareg of Mali and Niger use inscribed silver jewelry – rings, pendants and plaques – as talismans. A ring with a curved or flat frontal area may be inscribed with a linear cipher or, if large, carry a “magic square” design. A survey of 132 Tuareg/Berber items revealed that the symbol repertoire appears to be drawn from overlapping categories that include Eastern Arabic and Perso-Arabic numerals, and possibly Western digits and Indian Devanagari numbers as well; Arabic letters; Tifinagh and Libyco-Berber characters; and the Islamic Seven Seals (the ism al-aʿzam or Greatest Name). Most items combine symbols of different types, and reflections and rotations of stock symbols are common. The magic squares sometimes display complete or partial symmetry, with diagonals containing repeats of a single symbol. No two designs were identical, but it was possible to define sub-groups based on style and content. With numerical considerations seemingly secondary to aesthetics, none of the magic squares were mathematically competent. Tuareg gri gri plaques also carry magic square designs, but seem to contain mainly Tifinagh letters. A distinct set of rings also carry Tifinagh-based magic squares; recently-made items of this type may be “Tifinagh alphabet” souvenirs made for tourists. Cryptic apotropaic rings are also found in East Africa. In Ethiopia, especially among the Oromo in the southwestern highland district of Jimma, smiths inscribe white-metal or silver rings with talismanic symbols. The former are just convex circular bands of hard alloy into which glyphs are stamped using simple punch tools. Being softer, silver rings may instead bear symbols incised by scratching or engraving. For either material, the symbols are typically arranged evenly around the ring band; there are usually two circular series, and sometimes the symbols of the upper circle are a reflection (through the ring’s equator) of those in the lower. The Ethiopian symbol repertoire appears to be drawn from Eastern Arabic and possibly Devanagari numbers; Arabic letters; the Islamic Seven Seals; and unique symbols that resist identification. Most Ethiopian rings combine numerical and non-numerical symbols, and reflections and rotations of characters are common. As one might expect from this makeup, there is a significant overlap with the symbol repertoire of Tuareg rings. The most extreme similarities occur in the small subset of Tuareg and Ethiopian rings that carry complete sets of the Islamic Seven Seals.

"Amulets in Ancient Egypt" - Essay for the publication which appeared in conjunction with the exhibition "Zierde, Zauber, Zeremonien. Amulette zum Schutz von Körper, Hab und Seele" (Adornment, Magic, Ceremonies. Amulets for the Protection of the Body, Possessions and the Soul / Schriftenreihe des Landesmuseums für Natur und Mensch, Heft 51 / 2007, pages 47-58) at Landesmuseum für Natur und Mensch in Oldenburg / Germany (10 June – 26 August 2007). - The PDF also includes the foreword by Mamoun Fansa (p. 7-8), the introductory chapter by Katharina Herrmann (p. 9-21) and the catalogue with selected objects of the amulet collection of the famous ethnologist and Islamic amulets expert Peter W. Schienerl (1940-2001). - Parts of his huge collection of mainly modern Egyptian amulets are nowadays in Vienna (Weltmuseum), Berlin (Ethnologisches Museum), Dresden (Museum für Völkerkunde) and what had remained was bequested to the Oldenburg museum by his widow Jutta Schienerl (1937-2002) and entered the Landesmuseum für Natur und Mensch in 2003. - (in German)

In Islamic magic, the Greatest Name of God is traditionally represented in graphic form by a series of seven glyphs known as the Seven Seals; the series is also known to Jewish Kabbalah. Ciphers of a very different appearance, characterised by strings of single-letter (ha’ and ‘ayn) repeats, are another recurring feature of Islamic amulets, as for example in the popular “Pleiades Square.” These ciphers are often found close to occurrences of the Seven Seals and, while much less well known, they too are alleged to represent the Greatest Name. In the present communication, an unexpected avian association for the repeat-letter ciphers is explained in terms of the mythology of the Pleiades star cluster. Moreover, the ciphers are shown for the first time to relate directly to the Seven Seals via a ca. twelfth-century CE prototype of the latter preserved in a manuscript copy of the Diwan of Ali (Brit. Mus. 577 Add. 7534). While this prototype was soon supplanted by the now canonical version of the Seven Seals, degraded forms of the Diwan series seem to have survived incognito as the repeat-letter ciphers, which persist in Shi‘a talismanic plaques sold today. Two other unexpected survivals/revivals of the Diwan Seal series in talismans of recent manufacture are also presented: one inscribed on an Ethiopian silver ring, the other concluding a Jewish Kabbalah scroll. The newly proposed Seal–cipher–Pleiades relationship links two auspicious heptads by associating the Seven Seals with the Seven Stars, a conjunction reminiscent of the seven stars/seals nexus in Revelation 1-6.

This is the pre-print version of a book chapter published as “Magical words: Arabic amulets in Christian Spain,” in Suzanna Ivanic, Mary Laven and Andrew Morall, eds., Religious Materiality in the Early Modern World, (Amsterdam University Press, 2019), pp. 211-228.

In Islamic Spain, amulets incorporating the names of God or passages from the Quran were widely used, inserted into cases that could be worn around the neck or built into the walls of houses, and were seen as offering protection to their users. In the years after the Christian conquest, Moriscos continued using such amulets even as the Inquisition outlawed such practices. This chapter explores the apotropaic and theurgic qualities of the Arabic word in early modern Spain through Morisco writings, extant amulets and Inquisition records. This evidence reveals the magical potency of the Arabic word not only for those who produced and used these amulets, but also for those who prosecuted them. In Early Modern Spain, as in Islamic territories, Arabic was imbued with otherworldly power.

In Islamic mysticism and theurgy, the Seven Seals represent in graphic form the Greatest Name of God; in Jewish Kabbalah, the Seals bear individual Divine Names which collectively form a “Great Name.” We review and compare the primary interpretations and secondary associations for each Seal in Islam and Judaism, from which it is clear that the two traditions have developed largely independent understandings of the individual symbols. Nevertheless, points of convergence – such as the interpretation of the fourth Seal as a ladder and an ascent to/of goodness – do exist. Conversely, the attributes of the third Islamic and seventh Jewish Seals have a surprising amount in common. Collectively, the Seals have been linked via word- and letter-counting to key affirmations of each religion: the Islamic ones to the Shahāda, the Jewish ones to Psalm 46:7,11. In contrast to the Islamic Seals, individual correspondences are rarely given for the Jewish Seals and are inconsistent across sources. Kabbalistic amulets are more likely to employ the Names of the Seals than their symbols, and when present the latter are often much degraded; in contrast, Islamic talismans make frequent use of the symbol series. In Islamic magic, the Seven Seals are associated with the seven Ṭahaṭīl Names, which exhibit possible similarities to the Names of the Seals in Kabbalah. Intriguing overlaps of the Jewish Seal Names with Egyptian mythology and Vedic Sanskrit are explored, but ultimately it is thought more likely that the  seven Names derive from the Names of God’s fingers and eyes (five plus two, respectively) in the Shīʿūr Qōmah of the Hekhalot literature. Fittingly, exegesis of the Seals in both Judaism and Islam contains general themes of hands/fingers and sight/blindness.

This article is intended to supplement Tawfiq Canaan's 1937 review “The Decipherment of Arabic Talismans,” which was republished in 2004. It draws on both medieval and modern material for illustration, and contains some novel suggestions as to how certain magical formulae may have evolved from Qurʾānic templates. The focus of the paper is on series of Arabic letters where the characters have been written in their “isolated” or “disconnected” forms; the most popular of these privileged letter series turn out to have colorful Qurʾānic origins or associations which are not well served by existing commentaries in English. The survey commences with the nineteen-letter basmalla and then addresses the fourteen Letters of Light, including the full-length Name of the Mysteries and two five-letter “crowning words” from the muqaṭṭaʿāt letter-sequences of the Qurʾān. It moves on to the seven letters of the lower darkness, the sawāqiṭ. Subsequently, it examines the seven Letters of Bahteh from the al-qādirat and the seven component letters of the Qurʾānic phrase “strong, severe.” Finally, it reviews the seven-letter strings that comprise the seven ṭahaṭīl names, and the eighth name that is their acronym. Many of the letter series presented in this paper feature in the work of the Egyptian magician Aḥmad al-Būnī (d. 622/1225), who sought to deflect suspicions of demonolatry or polytheism by grounding his magical practices in the Qurʾān and in the letters making up particular Qurʾānic verses. With the significance of those letters amplified by the use of disconnected writing, the resulting paradigm has remained prominent in the books and talismans of Islamic magic from the thirteenth century CE through to the present day.

The paper discusses a fragment of a specific type of Arabic
amulets produced as woodcuts. Comparing the fragment
with an intact exemplar presently owned by the Aga Khan
Museum in Toronto, it is possible to observe that both might
bear the same text. The paper also discusses the technology
of woodcut amulets and their relations to the Far East.

"This brief article is at the origin of three separate subjects pertaining to al-Andalus that have been much developed since:

              amulets- weights- early lead seals.
For this particular amulet see : http://www.amuletosdealandalus.com/TV6-0-3.html

For amulets of al-Andalus the best reference by far is the following site:

http://www.amuletosdealandalus.com/BAmuletos.html

For weights, among others, the two papers “ Ponderales Andalusíes” and site:
http://www.andalustonegawa.50g.com/Weights.html

For early lead seals, for the moment, paper “Nuevos documentos sobre la Conquista Omeya de Hispania: Los precintos de plomo,” and site:
http://www.andalustonegawa.50g.com/Seals.html

"

Τα "Δύο προστατευτικά ενδύματα-φυλακτά με στίχους από την αραβική και την ελληνική ποίηση" είναι η πρόσφατη εικαστική μου πρόταση, η οποία αντλώντας κάποια ιδιαίτερα στοιχεία προερχόμενα από τον ευρύτερο Αραβικό πολιτισμικό χώρο, διατυπώνει εκ νέου τον προσδιορισμό της χρήσης της γραφής, επαναφέροντας την μαγική διαχρονική της διάσταση. Το ένδυμα-φυλακτό είναι ένα είδος μεταφυσικής ασπίδας όπου οι «γραμμένοι” στίχοι μεταβιβάζουν την προστασία μέσω της Τέχνης.

Invited article for Ethnic Jewels Magazine; the personal back-story to the writing of "The Magic Symbol Repertoire of Talismanic Rings from East and West Africa." For full-text, click the link under the "1 File" tab next to the view-counter on the article's main Academia page.