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A talismanic shirt (or talisman shirt; tr, tılsımlı gömlek; ) is a worn textile 
The shirts may be inscribed with verses from Quran, names of
* Talismanic shirt,
A talismanic shirt (or talisman shirt; tr, tılsımlı gömlek; ) 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 shirts can be grouped to four types which differ in style and the symbols used: an Ottoman, a Safavid
Safavid Iran or Safavid Persia (), also referred to as the Safavid Empire, '. was one of the greatest Iranian empires after the 7th-century Muslim conquest of Persia, which was ruled from 1501 to 1736 by the Safavid dynasty. It is often consid ...
, a Mughal 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 of the Quran, a shirt of the prophet Joseph is described as giving him protection and even miracle-working. He hands it over so it can heal the blindness of his father Jacob: .
The shirts may be inscribed with verses from Quran, names of Allah
Allah (; ar, الله, translit=Allāh, ) is the common Arabic word for God. In the English language, the word generally refers to God in Islam. The word is thought to be derived by contraction from '' al- ilāh'', which means "the god", a ...
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
( grc-gre, Προῦσα, Proûsa, Latin: Prusa, ota, بورسه, Arabic:بورصة) 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 ...
, Turkey, end of the 14th–beginning of the 15th century, Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum
The Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum ( tr, ) is a museum located in Sultanahmet Square in Fatih district of Istanbul, Turkey. Constructed in 1524, the building was formerly the palace of Pargalı Ibrahim Pasha, who was the second grand vizier to S ...
, Istanbul, accession number 539
* Talismanic shirt for Sultan Cem
Cem Sultan (also spelled Djem or Jem) or Sultan Cem or Şehzade Cem (December 22, 1459 – February 25, 1495, ; ota, جم سلطان, Cem sulṭān; tr, Cem Sultan; french: Zizim), was a claimant to the Ottoman throne in the 15th century.
Ce ...
, 1480, Topkapı Palace Museum, Istanbul. It was produced when Cem was still Şehzade. Unusually, the beginning and end of the manufacturing of the object are inscribed.
* Talismanic shirt for Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent
Suleiman I ( ota, سليمان اول, Süleyman-ı Evvel; tr, I. Süleyman; 6 November 14946 September 1566), commonly known as Suleiman the Magnificent in the West and Suleiman the Lawgiver ( ota, قانونى سلطان سليمان, Ḳ ...
, Topkapı Palace Museum, Istanbul. It was commissioned by Suleiman's wife Hürrem Sultan.
* Talismanic shirt, Northern India or Deccan, 15th–early 16th century, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, accession number 1998.199
* Talismanic shirt, India, 15th–16th century, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, accession number T.59-1935
*The Khalili Collections
The Khalili Collections are eight distinct art collections assembled by 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.
Among these ...
include four talismanic shirts. The Khalili Collection of Hajj and the Arts of Pilgrimage
The Khalili Collection of the 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 eight collections assembl ...
has shirts from 17th century Turkey (TXT 545) and from 16th or 17th century Mughal India
The Mughal Empire was an early-modern empire that controlled much of South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries. Quote: "Although the first two Timurid emperors and many of their noblemen were recent migrants to the subcontinent, the d ...
(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 28,000 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 collection ...
includes shirts from 16th century Turkey (TXT 463) and 18th/19th century India (TXT 574).
See also
* * *References
Further reading
* *External links
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