Islamic Talismanic Shirts: Sacred Stitches and Protective Power
Talismanic shirts, a sacred garment in Islamic culture, were believed to protect their wearers from bodily and spiritual harm. Intricately ornamented with sacred motifs and verses from the Quran, they were made for royalty or high-ranking individuals, particularly for military contexts, where they are thought to have been worn under armour. With their earliest-known examples dating to the 15th century, these shirts were made in Muslim courts of the Indian subcontinent, Ottoman Anatolia, Safavid Persia, and West Africa, with stylistic variations based on geography and patronage.
Talismanic shirts made in the Indian subcontinent form the most cohesive group among these in terms of their design and iconography, and they are unique in that they have the entire Quran inscribed on their surface. Attributed to the Sultanate and Mughal courts in northern India and the Deccan and dated between the 15th and 19th centuries, they closely parallel the Quran manuscripts made in these courts.
Talismanic shirt with depictions of the two Holy Sanctuaries, Mughal India or the Deccan, back, 16th–early 17th century, Ink, coloured pigments, and gold and cotton. Image courtesy of The Khalili Collections, United Kingdom.
Talismans in Islamic culture have included a range of objects, including rings and pendants, scrolls, and clothing. Believed to bestow luck and protection from injury, disease, misfortune and death upon their bearers, such objects commonly owed their power to elements such as alphabetic or abjad numerals, magic squares (wafq al-a'dad), symbols of astrological significance, and most prominently, inscriptions from the Quran. Islam holds letters and writing to be potent, and the inscribed names of God, or Allah, as well as Quranic verses, are considered to imbue protective and healing powers to the objects that bear them. Further, the believed magical power of garments in the Islamic tradition long predates medieval talismanic shirts: a verse of the Quran narrates an incident in which the shirt of the prophet Yusuf restores the sight of his blind father Yaqub, simply by being passed over his face. Another example is the cloak of the Prophet Mohammed, which is significant in Islamic history and culture as a relic and an object that lent power and legitimacy to leaders associated with it over time.
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