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A talismanic shirt (or talisman shirt; ; ) is a worn textile
talisman A talisman is any object ascribed with religious or magical powers intended to protect, heal, or harm individuals for whom they are made. Talismans are often portable objects carried on someone in a variety of ways, but can also be installed perm ...
. Talismanic shirts are found throughout the
Muslim world The terms Islamic world and Muslim world commonly refer to the Islamic community, which is also known as the Ummah. This consists of all those who adhere to the religious beliefs, politics, and laws of Islam or to societies in which Islam is ...
. The shirts can be grouped to four types which differ in style and the symbols used: an Ottoman, a
Safavid The Guarded Domains of Iran, commonly called Safavid Iran, Safavid Persia or the Safavid Empire, was one of the largest and longest-lasting Iranian empires. It was ruled from 1501 to 1736 by the Safavid dynasty. It is often considered the begi ...
, a
Mughal Mughal or Moghul may refer to: Related to the Mughal Empire * Mughal Empire of South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries * Mughal dynasty * Mughal emperors * Mughal people, a social group of Central and South Asia * Mughal architecture * Mug ...
and a West African one. The earliest surviving examples were made approximately in 15th century, though the tradition of talismanic shirts might be much older. In
Surah Yusuf Yusuf () is the 12th chapter (Surah) of the Quran and has 111 Ayahs (verses). It is preceded by sūrah Hud and followed by Ar-Ra’d (The thunder). Regarding the timing and contextual background of the believed revelation (''asbāb al-nuz� ...
of the
Quran The Quran, also Romanization, romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a Waḥy, revelation directly from God in Islam, God (''Allah, Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which ...
, a shirt of the prophet
Joseph Joseph is a common male name, derived from the Hebrew (). "Joseph" is used, along with " Josef", mostly in English, French and partially German languages. This spelling is also found as a variant in the languages of the modern-day Nordic count ...
is described as giving him protection and even miracle-working. He hands it over so it can heal the blindness of his father
Jacob Jacob, later known as Israel, is a Hebrew patriarch of the Abrahamic religions. He first appears in the Torah, where he is described in the Book of Genesis as a son of Isaac and Rebecca. Accordingly, alongside his older fraternal twin brother E ...
: . The shirts may be
inscribed An inscribed triangle of a circle In geometry, an inscribed planar shape or solid is one that is enclosed by and "fits snugly" inside another geometric shape or solid. To say that "figure F is inscribed in figure G" means precisely the same th ...
with verses from Quran, names of
Allah Allah ( ; , ) is an Arabic term for God, specifically the God in Abrahamic religions, God of Abraham. Outside of the Middle East, it is principally associated with God in Islam, Islam (in which it is also considered the proper name), althoug ...
and of prophets and with numbers. They may carry images or symbols, e.g. astrological ones. The inscribed names are believed to be capable of offering protection and guidance to the carrier. Although talismanic shirts can be worn to protect against many evils most of them seem to be intended as a shield in battle.


Some examples in collections

* Talismanic shirt,
Bursa Bursa () is a city in northwestern Turkey and the administrative center of Bursa Province. The fourth-most populous city in Turkey and second-most populous in the Marmara Region, Bursa is one of the industrial centers of the country. Most of ...
, Turkey, end of the 14th–beginning of the 15th century,
Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum The Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum () is a museum in Sultanahmet Square in Fatih district of Istanbul, Turkey which first opened in 1914 and in 1983 moved into the palace of Pargalı Ibrahim Pasha, the second grand vizier of Suleiman the Magni ...
, Istanbul, accession number 539 * Talismanic shirt for
Sultan Cem Cem Sultan (also spelled Djem or Jem) or Sultan Cem or Şehzade Cem (22 December 1459 – 25 February 1495, ; ; ; ), was a claimant to the Ottoman throne in the 15th century. Cem was the third son of Sultan Mehmed II and younger half-brother ...
, 1480,
Topkapı Palace Museum Topkapı ("cannonball gate"), sometimes spelled Topkapi outside of Turkey, is a Turkish word that may refer to: Places * Topkapı, Besni, a village in the district of Besni, Adıyaman Province, Turkey * Topkapı, Fatih, a neighbourhood of Istanbul ...
, Istanbul. It was produced when Cem was still
Şehzade ''Şehzade'' () is the Ottoman form of the Persian title ''Shah#Shahzadeh, Shahzadeh'', and refers to the male Osmanoğlu family, descendants of an Ottoman sovereign in the male line. This title is equivalent to "prince du sang, prince of the bloo ...
. Unusually, the beginning and end of the manufacturing of the object are inscribed. * Talismanic shirt for Sultan
Suleiman the Magnificent Suleiman I (; , ; 6 November 14946 September 1566), commonly known as Suleiman the Magnificent in the Western world and as Suleiman the Lawgiver () in his own realm, was the List of sultans of the Ottoman Empire, Ottoman sultan between 1520 a ...
, Topkapı Palace Museum, Istanbul. It was commissioned by Suleiman's wife
Hürrem Sultan Hürrem Sultan (; , "''the joyful one''"; 1505– 15 April 1558), also known as Roxelana (), was the chief consort, the first Haseki Sultan of the Ottoman Empire and the legal wife of the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, and the mothe ...
. * Talismanic shirt, Northern India or Deccan, 15th–early 16th century,
Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...
, New York, accession number 1998.199 * Talismanic shirt, India, 15th–16th century,
Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (abbreviated V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.8 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and named after Queen ...
, London, accession number T.59-1935 *The
Khalili Collections The Khalili Collections are eight distinct art collections assembled by Nasser Khalili, Nasser D. Khalili over five decades. Together, the collections include some 35,000 works of art, and each is considered among the most important in its field ...
include four talismanic shirts. The
Khalili Collection of Hajj and the Arts of Pilgrimage The Khalili Collection of Hajj and the Arts of Pilgrimage is a private collection of around 5,000 items relating to the Hajj, the pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca which is a religious duty in Islam. It is one of Khalili Collections, eight co ...
has shirts from 17th century Turkey (TXT 545) and from 16th or 17th century
Mughal India The Mughal Empire was an early modern empire in South Asia. At its peak, the empire stretched from the outer fringes of the Indus River Basin in the west, northern Afghanistan in the northwest, and Kashmir in the north, to the highlands of pre ...
(TXT 471) that depict the holy sites of Mecca and Medina and are inscribed with prayers and extracts from the Quran. The one from Turkey is unusual in having realistic, rather than schematic, depictions of the holy sites. The
Khalili Collection of Islamic Art The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art includes 26,000 objects documenting Islamic art over a period of almost 1400 years, from 700 AD to the end of the twentieth century. It is the largest of the Khalili Collections: eight collections ...
includes shirts from 16th century Turkey (TXT 463) and 18th/19th century India (TXT 574).


See also

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References


Further reading

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External links

{{commons-cat-inline, Talismanic shirts Talismans Shirts Islamic clothing