Talismans and figural representation in Islam: a cultural history of images and magic

Abstract

Aniconism in Islam is one of the obvious presumptions of researchers in the history of Islamic arts. The main question addressed in this study is: What are the conceptions of people living in the earlier centuries of Islam regarding the issues of image and figural art? Or, in broader terms: What is the issue of animal or human representation in art which led to aniconism being enshrined in fiqh (religious jurisprudence)? Drawing upon primary sources, the study establishes that the Muslim mindset of image and figurative art in the early centuries of Islam—traced back to an old belief in the Persian, Egyptian and Ancient Palestinian civilizations—mainly pertained to the images which used to constitute the major elements of sorcery and talismans. Accordingly, aniconism did not proscribe images as aesthetic elements which also serve as the foundations of visual arts; rather, it was pitted against the practice of magicians and talisman makers. The genesis and perpetuation of aniconism in Islam are, therefore, associated with the cultural mentality of magic and talismans in step with the Quran’s explicit stance against polytheism and idolatry.

Notes

¹ A variety of hypotheses have been formulated regarding the reason behind the prohibition on depicting animate things in Islam. The first one, mostly favoured by the first generation of Western scholars in Islamic Studies, has it that since Islamic sharia was a wholesale borrowing from the Pharisaic law of Judaism—which happens to interdict depicting animate things—Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh) has followed in its footsteps or, to put it in better terms, had Judaism lacked such a verdict, Islam would not have had it either. In the Book of Deuteronomy, the creating of sculptures in the shape of human, animals, birds, reptiles and fish is explicitly prohibited: ‘so that you do not become corrupt and make for yourselves an idol, an image of any shape, whether formed like a man or a woman, or like any animal on earth or any bird that flies in the air, or like any creature that moves along the ground or any fish in the waters below’ (Bible, Early Translation, NRSV 4:16–18). Orientalists like Henri Lammens, Thomas Walker Arnold and Alfred Guillaume support this hypothesis. See: Richard Ettinghausen, Studies in Muslim Iconography: I. The Unicorn (Washington, D.C./Baltimore, MD: The Lord Baltimore Press, 1950), pp. 3–6; Arnold, Painting in Islam: A Study of the Place of Pictural Art in Muslim Culture (New York: Dover Publications, 1965), pp. 3–13.

² A historical problem arises with this hypothesis; chances are that the concurrence of the expansion of Islam with that of iconoclasm in the Byzantine world had an effect on the formation of such a verdict in the Muslim world. The hypothesis concerning the imitation of Judaic jurisprudence is pertinent in view of the continuation of cultural traits in a geographical region; some evidence is also presented in this paper which is testimony to the similarity between Jewish and Islamic traditions. As regards the second hypothesis, i.e. the influence of iconoclasm as practised in Eastern Christianity on the Muslim communities, it suffers from a lack of enough historical evidence.

³ G.S. Hodgson, ‘Islam and Image’, History of Religions, 3(2) (1964), pp. 220–260.

⁴ هوالله الخالق الباریء المصور له الاسماء الحسنی (al-Ḥashr: 24):‘He is Allah, the Creator, the Inventor, the Fashioner.’

هو الذی یصور فی الارحام کیف یشاء (āli ʿimrān: 6):

‘It is He who forms you in the wombs however He wills.’

⁵ Muhammad ibn Ḥasan Ṭūsī, Al-Tibyān fī Tafsīr al-Qurān (Beirut: Dār Iḥyā al-Turath al-ʿArabī, 1389), vol. 8, p. 383.

⁶ Ṭabarsī (Ṭabrisī), Faḍl ibn Ḥasan, Madjmaʿal- Bayān, trans. Hossein Noori Hamedani (Tehran, Iran: Farahani, n.d.), vol. 20, p. 230.

⁷ Maḥmūd ibn ʿUmar Zamakhsharī, al-Kashshāf ʿan Ḥaḳāyiḳ Ghawāmiḍ al-Tanzīl… (Beirut, n.d.), vol. 3, p. 572.

⁸ Also see: Muḳātil ibn Sulaymān (d. 150 AH), Tafsīr (Beirut: Dar Ehya al-turath, 1423/2002), vol. 15, p. 527.

⁹ والله ما هی التماثیل الرجال و النساء و لکنه الشجر و شبهه.

¹⁰ Zamakhsharī, Kashshāf, vol. 3, p. 572.

¹¹ See Yaḥyā ibn Salām Taymī (d. 200 AH), Tafsīr-i Yaḥya ibn Salām (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmia, 1425), vol. 2, p. 749.

¹² یا ایها الذین امنوا انما الخمر و المیسر و الانصاب و الازلام رجس من عمل الشیطان فاجتنبوه لعلکم تفلحون.

¹³ Oleg Grabar, ‘Islām wa hunarhāy-i tajassumī’, trans. Sayyed Rahim Musavi-Nia. Faslnāmiy-i hunar, 28(1374), pp. 216–217.

¹⁴ Husayn ibn Muhammad Rāghīb Isfahānī, Mufradāt Alfāż al-Qurān (Beirut and Damascus: Sufwan ʿAdnan Dawudi, 1412), p. 494; Muhammad ibn Mukarram ibn Manẓūr, Lisān al-ʿArab (Beirut: Dār Ṣādir, 1414), vol. 2, p. 298; Zamakhsharī, Kashshāf, vol. 1, pp. 674–675.

¹⁵ In suras Anbiā (51–52) and Ṣāfāt (96), Abraham prevents his father from worshipping idols. Moses’ harsh criticism of Israelites who had made a golden statue in the shape of a calf was also due to the Quran’s opposition to idolatry. These tough stances towards idols and the believers’ fear of the society restoring the idolatrous traditions seem to have paved the way for the emergence of early debates over prohibition of depicting living things and sculpturing.

¹⁶ قاتلهم الله! جعلوه شیخا یستقسم بالازلام. See Muhammad ibn ʿUmar Wāqidī, Maghāzi (Beirut: Muaʾssisat āl al-ʿilm ī lil-maṭbūʾāt, 1989), vol. 2, p. 834; Muhammad ibn Aḥmad Dhahabī, Tārīkh al-Islām wa fiʾāt al-Mashāhīr wa al-ʿAlām (Beirut: Dār al-Kitāb al-ʿArabī, 1993), vol. 1, p. 74; also see Yaʿqūbī, Ahmad ibn Abi Yaʿqūb, Tārīkh (Beirut: n.d.), vol. 1, p. 259 for the way arrows and gambling (maysir) be interpreted.

¹⁷ Hussein ibn Muhammad Taghi Nūrī, Mustadrik al-Wasāil wa mustanbaṭ al-Masāil (Qum, Iran: Muaʾssisat āl al-bayt li-Iḥyā Turāth, 1408), vol. 3, pp. 453–454; vol. 13, p. 210. Obviously, the Christian Cross is forbidden in this case because of avoiding similarity to Christians and it has nothing to do with the concept of figurative art.

¹⁸ The hadith, ‘لا تدخل الملائکه بیتا فیه صوره و لا کلب و لا جنب’, has been recited in various Shiite and Sunnite sources. See: Mālik ibn Anas, al-Muwaṭṭaʾ (Beirut: Dār iḥyā al-Turāth al-Arabī, 1985), vol. 2, p. 966; Bukhārī, Ṣahih, ed. Muhammad Dhihni Afandi (Istanbul, 1981), vol. 4, p. 82, vol. 7, p. 66; Tirmidhī, Sunan (Beirut: Dār al-Fikr, 1983), vol. 4, pp. 200–201; Nisāʾī, Sunan (Beirut: Dār ul-Fikr, 1930), vol. 8, p. 212; Muslim Neysāburī, Ṣaḥīḥ (Beirut: Dār ul-Kitāb, n.d.), vol. 6, p. 157; Ibn Ashʿath Sajistānī, Sunan abī Dāwūd (Beirut: Dār al-Fikr, 1990), vol. 2, p. 280; Bayhaqī, Al-Sunan al-Kubrā (Beirut: Dār al-Fikr, n.d.), vol. 7, p. 268; Ibn ʿAbd al- Barr, al- Istidhkār (Beirut, 2000/1379), vol. 8, p. 483; DāraḲuṭnī, ʿIlal (Riadh: Dār ibn al-Jowzī, 1405), vol. 8, p. 229; Ibn Bābūya, Man La Yaḥẓuruh al-Faqīh, rev. Ali Akbar Ghaffari (Qum, Iran: Muʾassisat al-Nashr al-Islāmī, 1413), vol. 1, p. 246; Wāhidi Neyshābūrī, Asbāb al-Nuzul (Beirut: Dār ul-Kitāb al-ʿIlmia, 1411), p. 194; ʿAllāma Ḥasan ibn Yūsif Ḥilli, Tadhzkirat al-Fuqahā (Qum, Iran: Muʾassisa Āl-i Bayt, 1414), vol. 1, p. 99, vol. 2, p. 505; Muḥaqqiq Ḥillī, Al-Muʿtabar fi sharḥ al-Mukhtasar (Qum, Iran: Muaʾssisi-y-i seyyed al-Shuhada, 1407), vol. 2, p. 98; Nūrī, Mustadrik al-Wasāil, vol. 3, p. 454.

¹⁹ ‘من صور صوره عذب حتی ینفخ فیها الروح و لیس بنافخ؛ ان اهل هذه الصور یعذبون یوم القیامه یقال احیوا ما خلقتم؛ فی الحدیث انه (ص) لعن من مثل بالحیوان’ (Bukhārī, Ṣahih, vol. 66, p. 66); Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, Mosnad (Beirut: Dār al-Fikr, n.d.), vol. 2, p. 145; Muhammad ibn Zayn al-Dīn ibn Abī Jumhūr, ʿAwalī al-Lālī fī al-Aḥādīth al-Dīnī (Qum, Iran: Nashr-i Sayyid al-Shuhadā, 1405), vol. 1, pp. 148, 132; also see: Ahmad ibn Muhammad Barqi, Al-Maḥāsin, rev. Jalalidin Muhaddith (Qum, Iran: Dār al-Kitāb al-Islamia, 1371), vol. 2, p. 616; Muhammad ibn Yaqūb Kulaynī, Al-Kāfī, rev. Ali Akbar Ghaffari and Muhammad Akhundi (Tehran, Iran: Dār ul-Kitab al-Islamia, 1407), vol. 6, p. 528; Ibn Bābūya, Man La Yaḥẓuruh al-Faqīh, vol. 3, p. 401, vol. 4, p. 5).

²⁰ ‘ایاکم و عمل الصور فانکم تسالون عنها یوم القیامه؛ من صور صوره عذب و کلف ان ینفخ فیها.’ Ibn Bābuya, Al-Khiṣāl (Qum, Iran: Muʾassisat al-Manshūrāt al-Islāmia, 1362), vol. 1, p. 109.

²¹ ʿAbdullah ibn Jaʿfar Ḥimyari, Qurb al-Asnād (Qum, Iran: Muʾassisa Āl-i Bayt, 1413), pp. 185–186; Sarakhsi, Al-Mabsūṭ (Beirut: Dār al-Maʿarifa, 1986), vol. 1, p. 210; Ḥasan ibn Yūsif Ḥillī, Tadhzkirat al-Fuqahā (Qum, Iran: Muʾassisa Āl-i Bayt, 1414), vol. 2, pp. 578–579.

²² ‘اشد الناس عذابا یوم القیامه المصورون؛ اشد الناس عذابا یوم القیامه رجلا قتل نبیا او قتله نبی و رجل یضل الناس بغیر علم او مصور یصور التماثیل.’ Bayhaqī, Al-Sunan al-Kubrā (Beirut: Dār al-Fikr, n.d.), vol. 7, pp. 267–268; Bukhārī, Ṣahih, vol. 6, p. 161; Nūrī, Mustadrik al-Wasāil, vol. 13, p. 210.

²³ Bukhārī, Ṣahih, vol. 1, p. 112.

²⁴ Ibid.

²⁵ Ibid, vol. 3, p. 108.

²⁶ Ibid.

²⁷ Ibid. Ibn ʿAbbās suggested to him: ‘ان ابیت الا ان تصنع فعلیک بهذا الشجر و کل شیء لیس فیه روح.’

²⁸ ‘من جدد قبرا او مثل مثالا فقد خرج عن الاسلام’ see: Ahmad ibn Muhammad Barqī, Al-Maḥāsin, rev. Jalalidin Muhaddith (Qum, Iran: Dār al-Kitāb al-Islamia, 1371), vol. 1, p. 453.

²⁹ ‘ان النبی نهی عن ثمن الدم و… و الواشمه و المستوشمه و من صور صوره’ (Bukhārī, Ṣahih, vol. 7, p. 67); on the prohibition on tattooing, see: Kulaynī, Al-Kāfī, vol. 5, p. 559.

³⁰ Muhammad ibn Saʿīd Kadmī, Ziādāt abi Saʿīd al-Kadmi, ʿAlā kitāb al-Ashrāf li ibn mundhir al-Neysābūrī (Muscat: Wizarat al-awqaf wa al-Shuʾun al-Dinia, 2011), p. 280; Abdullah ibn Qudāma, Al-Mughnī (Beirut: Dār al-Kitāb al-ʿArabī, n.d.), vol. 8, pp. 112–113; Ḥasan ibn Yūsif Ḥillī, Muntahī al-Maṭlab (Mashhad, Iran: Majmaʿ al-Buhūth al-Islamia, 1412–15), Section 4, pp. 269, 338; Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad Muqaddas Ardabīlī, Madjmaʿ al- Fāʾida, rev. Mudjtabā al-ʿArāḳī and Others (Qum, Iran: 1414/1993), p. 66; Mīrzāy-i Qumī, Ghanā ʾim al-Ayyām (Qum, Iran: Markaz al-Nashr al-Ṭābiʿl maktab al-Aʿlām al-Islāmī, 1417–20), pp. 214–215, 332–334; Shaykh Ṭūsī, Al-Mabsūṭ, ed. Muhammad Taghi Kashfi (Tehran, Iran: 1387), vol. 1, pp. 84–86; Shaykh Ṭūsī, Al-Nihāya (Qum, Iran: Quds-i Muhammadi Publishers, n.d.), p. 99; Ibn Barrāj, al- Muhadhdhab (Qum, Iran, Muʾassisa al-Nashr al-Islāmī, 1406/1985), vol. 1, p. 99; Ibn idrīs Ḥillī, Al-Sarāʾir (Qum, Iran: Office of Islamic Publications, 1410), vol. 1, pp. 261–263; Ḥillī, Taḥrīr al-Aḥkām (Qum, Iran: Muʾassisa Imam Sadiq, 1420), vol. 1, p. 200. For a more detailed bibliography on aniconism in fiqh texts see: Jawād ibn Muhammad ʿĀmilī Ghirawī, Miftāḥ al-Kirāma (Qum, Iran: Office of Islamic Publishing, 1419–1424), pp. 118–124, 234–237; Muhammad ibn Hasan Fāẓil Hindī, Kashf al-Lithām (Qum, Iran: Nashr-i Islāmī, 1416–1424), pp. 270–272; Jamiʿ Burūjirdī, Aḥādīth al-Shīʿa (Qum, Iran: Al-Maṭbaʿa al-ʿIlmia, 1410), vol. 16, p. 822, vol. 17, p. 220.

³¹ It was an imperative for the Muslim rulers to remove the images and statues even in the booty gained. Figural representation was however permitted in some cases like on coins using which trade was conducted; Sarakhsī, Sharḥ al-Siyar al-Kabīr (Cairo: Matbaʿat al-Miṣr, 1960), vol. 3, p. 1051.

³² Māwardī, Al ḥāwī al-kabir fi fiqh madhhab al-Imām al-Shāfiʿī (Beirut: Dār ul-Kutub al-ʿIlmia, 1994), vol. 13, pp. 89–98.

³³ Nahj al-Balāgha, rev. Atarodi Ghouchani (Tehran, Iran: Bonyād Nahj al-Balāgha, 1413), Sermon 79: ‘المنجم کالکاهن و الکاهن کالساحر و الساحر کالکافر و الکافر فی النار؛.’ On the punishment for magicians see Kulaynī, Al-Kāfī, vol. 2, p. 286, vol. 3, p. 704; Ibn Bābūya, Man la Yaḥẓuruh al-Faqīh, vol. 3, p. 564; ʿUyūn Akhbār al-Ridhā, rev. Mahdi Lajavardi (Tehran, Iran: Jahān Publishing House, 1378), vol. 1, p. 286; ʿIlal al-Sharāyiʿ (Qum, Iran: Dāvarī Bookshop, 1385), vol. 2, p. 392; for the prohibition on divination, charms and tamīma (amulets hung on a child as protection from the evil eye) see Nūrī, Mustadrik al-Wasāil, vol. 13, pp. 105–106, 110–114.

³⁴ Cited in Nūrī, Mustadrik al-Wasāil, vol. 3, p. 454; vol. 13, p. 110: ‘من سحر فقد کذب علی الله و من صور التصاویر فقد ضاد الله.’

³⁵ Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, ed. James Hastings (Edinburgh: T and T Clark, 1980–81), s.vv. ‘Evil eye’ (by F.T. Elworthy), ‘Hand’ (by J.A. MacCulloch); Encyclopaedia Judaica (Jerusalem, Keter Publishing House, 1978–82), s.v. ‘Evil eye’ (by Dov Noy).

³⁶ Besides images, mysterious numbers and letters play a crucial role in defining a talisman. Encyclopedia of Islam defines talisman thus: ‘an inscription with astrological and other magic signs or an object covered with such inscriptions, especially also with figures from the zodiacal circle or the constellations and animals which were used as magic charms to protect and avert the evil eye’; J. Ruska, B. Carra de Vaux and C.E. Bosworth, ‘Tilsam’, in Encyclopedia of Islam, 2nd ed., ed. P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W.P. Heinrichs (Leiden: Brill, 1961–2003), https://doi.org/10.1163/1573-3912_islam_SIM_7553 (accessed 2 August 2016).

³⁷ Parviz Tanāvulī, Ṭilism: Girāfīk-i Sunnatī Iran (Tehran, Iran: Bon Gāh, 1385/2005), pp. 6–10.

³⁸ Joseph Naveh and Shaul Shaked, Amulets and Magic Bowls: Aramaic Incantations of Late Antiquity (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1985).

³⁹ Encyclopaedia Judaica, ‘Torah Ornaments’ (by Alvin Kass); Gideon Bohak, Ancient Jewish Magic: A History (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2008), p. 166.

⁴⁰ ‘The Wisdom of the Chaldeans: An Old Hebrew Astrological Text’, in Studies and Text in Folklore, Magic, Mediaeval Romance, Hebrew Apocrypha and Samaritan Archaeology, ed. M. Gaster (New York: Ktav Publishing, 1971), pp. 338–355; Roy Kotanskey, ‘Two Inscribed Jewish Aramaic Amulets from Syria’, Israel Exploration Journal, 41(4) (1991), pp. 267–281.

⁴¹ Waldemar Deluga, ‘Jewish Printed Amulets’, Print Quarterly, 20(4) (December 2003), pp. 369, 371–372.

⁴² Ibid., pp. 369–370. Also there is an interesting collection of papyruses containing pictorial magic which belong to the early fourth century CE, and are now kept in the Michigan Collection. See Hans Dieter Betz, ‘Fragments from a Catabasis Ritual in a Greek Magical Papyrus’, History of Religions, 19(4) (May 1980), pp. 287–295.

⁴³ Muhammad ibn Ishak al-Nadīm, Al-Fihrist, trans. Muhammad Riza Tajaddod (Tehran, Iran: Asatir, 1381), p. 334. The titles of books Al-Nadīm includes in his Al-Fihrist under the first and second sections in Essay VII, ‘فی اخبار المسامرین و المخرفین و …’ and ‘فی اخبار المعزمین و المشعبذین و السحره و اصحاب النیرنجات و الحیل و الطلسمات’, are indicative of the fact that image-makers, those who spread superstition and the enchanters used to cooperate and the themes of most works they produced revolved around image-makers, legends and superstitious accounts based on magic and talismans (see: al-Nadīm, Al-Fihrist, pp. 334–370).

⁴⁴ See: Tanāvulī, Ṭilism, pp. 92–93, pics., 19, 168 and 16. For the images of a rhinoceros and giraffe see: Ettinghausen, The Unicorn, p. 224, plate 16; for the winged horse in the images belonging to the Sasanian and early Islamic eras see: Richard Ettinghausen, From Byzantium to Sasanian Iran and the Islamic World (Leiden: Brill, 1972), pp. 11–16.

⁴⁵ ʿAlī ibn Hussain Masuʿūdī, Muruj al-Dhahab (Qum, Iran: Muaʾssisi-y-i Dār al-Ḥujra, 1409), vol. 2, p. 339.

⁴⁶ Ahmad ibn ʿAli Ṭabarsī, Al-Iḥtijāj ʿAlā Ahl al-Lijāj (Mashhad, Iran: Nashr al-Murtidha, 1403), vol. 2, p. 340; Muhammad Bāqir Majlisī, Biḥār al-Anwār (Beirut: Dār iḥyā al-Torāth al-Arabī, 1403), vol. 10, p. 169.

⁴⁷ Muhammad ibn Djarir Ṭabarī, Dalāʾil al-Imāma (Qum, Iran: Dar al-Zakhair, 1383/1963), pp. 299–300.

⁴⁸ Muhammad ibn Muhammad Mufīd, Al-Ikhtiṣāṣ (Qum, Iran: Al-Muʾtamir al-ʿAlimī li-alfia al-Shaykh Mufīd, 1413), p. 368; also see: Sayyid Hāshim ibn Sulaymān Baḥrānī, Madinat Maʿājiz al-Aʾimat al-Athnā ʿAshar (Qum, Iran: Muʾassissat al-Maʿārif al-Islamia, 1413), vol. 5, pp. 246, 251–252.

⁴⁹ The implication of the dhimmī community (non-Muslim citizens of an Islamic society), especially the Jews, in magic and talismans and the efforts of Muslim jurists and canonists in keeping Muslims away from the harms inflicted by this group could be another social reason behind aniconism, which can be the subject of another study.

⁵⁰ The plural form of barbāh, barābī (talisman houses), is apparently a Nabataean word also used in Coptic. It originally means ‘a strong building for magic’. For details see: Aḥmad ibn Muhammad Khafājī, Shafā al-Ghalīl, rev. Muhammad Kashash (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmia, 1418), p. 95. According to Ali Khan ibn Ahmad Madanī, Al-Ṭarāz al-Awwal (Mashhad, Iran: Muaʾssisi-y-i Āl al-Bayt, 1384), vol. 1, p. 137, barābī were impressive buildings where various figures and images were kept; they were, in fact, small-size Egyptian pyramids.

⁵¹ ʿAlī ibn Hussain Masuʿūdī, Al-Tanbīh wa al-Ishrāf (Cairo: Dar-al Sawi, n. d.), p. 20.

⁵² Masuʿūdī, Muruj al-Dhahab (Qum, Iran: Muaʾssisi-y-i Dār al-Ḥijra, 1409), vol. 1, pp. 398–403.

⁵³ Ibid., vol. 1, p. 398.

⁵⁴ Yāqūt Ḥimawī, Muʿjam al-Buldān (Beirut: Dār Ṣadir, 1995), vol. 1, pp. 265, 517, vol. 2, p. 478.

⁵⁵ ‘Charms and Amulets’, in Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, ed. James Hastings.

⁵⁶ Aḥmad ibn Muhammad ibn Faqīh, Al-Buldān (Beirut: ʿĀlim al-Kitāb, 1996), p. 496.

⁵⁷ Muktafi Billāh al-ʿAbbāsī intended to transfer this stone lion statue to the gate of Baghdad but it was resisted by the people of Hamadan who said that the talisman was specially made for their city and was not suitable for any place other than Hamadan (Ibn Faqīh, Al-Buldān, p. 499).

⁵⁸ Also see: Ḥimawī, Muʿjam al-Buldān, vol. 5, pp. 415–417.

⁵⁹ Al-Nadīm, Al-Fihrist, p. 341.

⁶⁰ Ibn Faqīh, Al-Buldān, p. 420.

⁶¹ In the works on talismans, even in the contemporary era, the set of talismans made by Apollonius of Tyana is drawn upon. As well, people seeking to give credit to their work claim their work is the perpetuation of Apollonius’. An interesting example is Majmuʿiyi ṭilism-i Iskandar-i dhul-qarnayn in which Qais Rāmpūrī has collected various illustrations of exotic animals with, for example, a lion’s head and dragon’s body or a half-human half-scorpion body which were used for repelling diseases and harms like being stung by scorpions and snakes, ameliorating toothache, fever, bleeding and subsiding storms and saving ships, among others; see: Qais Rāmpūrī, Majmuʿiy-i ṭilism-i iskandar-i dhulqarnayn (Iran: Zubdat-al Alwah, n.d.), pp. 40–41, 43–50. In most cases, the author cites the work of Apollonius of Tyana.

⁶² Ibn Faqīh, Al-Buldān, p. 421.

⁶³ Ibid., p. 499.

⁶⁴ Ibid., p. 501.

⁶⁵ Ibid., p. 588.

⁶⁶ Muhammad ibn Ahmad Maqdisī, Aḥsan al-Taqāsīm fi maʿrifat al-Aqālīm (Cairo: Maktabat Madbuli, 1991), p. 483.

⁶⁷ Ḥimawī, Muʿjam al-Buldān, vol. 3, p. 103, vol. 5, p. 401. About the other talismans at Persia’s cities see Ibn Faqīh, Al-Buldān, pp. 421, 197; Ḥimawī, Muʿjam al-Buldān, vol. 3, p. 103.

⁶⁸ Ibn Faqīh, Al-Buldān, pp. 161–162; Maqdisī, Aḥsan al-Taqāsīm, p. 186. For other cases see: Ibn Faqīh, Al-Buldān, pp. 501, 550; for another healing talisman in Fasā, Shiraz, see Maqdisī, Aḥsan al-Taqāsīm, p. 444.

⁶⁹ Maqdisī, Aḥsan al-Taqāsīm, pp. 210–211.

⁷⁰ Ibid., p. 211.

⁷¹ Ismāʿīl ibn ʿUmar ibn Kathīr, Al-Bidāya wa al-Nihāya (Beirut: Dār al-Fikr, 1986), vol. 9, p. 158.

⁷² Ibid.

⁷³ Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī Ibn Waḥshīa, Al-Filāhat al-Nabaṭīa, ed. Taufigh Fahd (Damascus: 1993–1998), vol. 2, pp. 1283–1284, 1307–1308.

⁷⁴ Ibid., vol. 1, pp. 147, 1394–1395, vol. 2, p. 1045.

⁷⁵ Ibid., vol. 1, pp. 381–382. For more information on the other crucified human beings depicted and their talismanic properties see: ibid., vol. 1, pp. 384–386, 414, 514 and 523; on talismans in the shape of birds see vol. 1, p. 514.

⁷⁶ Ibid., vol. 2, p. 1381.

⁷⁷ Ibid., vol. 1, pp. 1387–1388, vol. 2, pp. 1418–1447.

⁷⁸ Ibid., vol. 2, pp. 1403, 1446.

⁷⁹ Ibid., vol. 2, p. 1446.

⁸⁰ For more cases concerning, for example, the effect of a viper’s image on preventing plants’ being frostbitten see ibid., vol. 2, pp. 1061–1062. To repel the earthly and heavenly pests of the vineyard, images of thick vines were drawn on a piece of wood or marble plate; see: ibid., vol. 2, pp. 1064–1065.

⁸¹ Ibid., vol. 1, p. 494.

⁸² Kamāl al-Dīn Damīrī, Ḥayāt al-Ḥaywān al-Kubrā (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmia, 1424), vol. 1, p. 505.

⁸³ ʿAbdul Raḥmān ibn Muhammad Ibn Khaldūn, Tārīkh (Dīwān al-Mubtadā wa al-Khabar) (Beirut: Dār al-Fikr, 1988), vol. 1, p. 662.

⁸⁴ Ibid., vol. 1, pp. 659–660.

⁸⁵ Ibid. The talisman and image combined continued into the later centuries and even today. Therefore, Fayẓ Kāshānī’s Al-Wāfī (Isfahan, Iran: Maktab al-Imam al-Amir al-Muminin Ali Alayh al-Salam, 1406) interdicts idols, images, statues and charms together; even today, the concomitance of these elements—as a customary practice—can be shown in field observations.

⁸⁶ For samples of these talismans see: Tanāvulī, Ṭilism, pics. 94–96, pp. 61–70.

⁸⁷ See: ibid., pp. 88 and 90, pics. 156–157.

⁸⁸ See: Rachel Ward, Islamic Metalwork (New York: Thames and Hudson, 1993), pp. 20–21, pic. 10; Tanāvulī, Ibid.

⁸⁹ Al-Ṣuwar wa al-Ḥikam ʿAlayhā, attributed to Abū Maʿashar al-Balkhī. See: David Pingree, ‘AbuMa’shar Al Balkhi’, in Dictionary of Scientific Biography (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1970), vol. 1, p. 37. Thābit ibn Qurra is said to have written an essay on the magical use of statues and images; Iraj Gulsurkhī, Tārīkh-i jādugarī (Tehran, Iran: Elmi, 1377), p. 62. Even a scientist like Avicenna was interested in this matter and authored a book on occult science: Kunūz al-Mu’zzemīn. Works like Ghāyat al-Ḥakīm and Rutbat al-Ḥakīm penned by Muhammad Ibrāhīm Majrītī (late fifth century AH) were about magic and talismans.

⁹⁰ A unique example of the extant metal works is a goblet belonging to the seventh century AH. There is an image of a cow breastfeeding a calf with a lion sitting on the cow’s back; the lion is depicted as biting on a bump-like thing at the back of the cow. The whole body of the bovine is covered with talismanic images and amulets. The figure is made using solid casting in a single mould and is unique in terms of artistic techniques (see: Ward, Islamic Metalwork, p. 32).

⁹¹ ‘Tilsam’, Encyclopedia of Islam.

⁹² For more examples see: Akram Qānṣū, Al-Taṣwīr al-Shaʿbi al-ʿArabi (Kuwait: Alam al-Marifat, 1995), p. 46. In the hadith mentioned earlier in the text, tattooing and figurative art are prohibited, which suggests that figurative art means tattooing in this hadith.

⁹³ Zamaksharī, Kashshāf, vol. 3, p. 573.

⁹⁴ Many exegeses mention protection from the dire consequences of sorcery as the historical context (asbāb al-nuzūl) giving rise to muʿawwadhatayn suras (i.e. suras ‘Falaq’ and ‘Nās’). See, for example: Furāt ibn Ibrāhīm Kūfī, Tafsīr-i Furāt-i Kūfī (Tehran, Iran: Muʾassisat al-Ṭibāʿa wa al-Nashr, 1410), pp. 620–621; Nuʿmān ibn Muhammad Ibn Ḥayyūn (Qāẓ ī Nuʿmān), Daʿ āim al-Islām (Qum, Iran: Muʾassisa Āl al-Bayt li Iḥyā al-Turāth, 1385), vol. 2, pp. 138–139.

⁹⁵ In Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, under the heading ‘فضل قراءة القرآن و سورة البقرة’, the effects of reciting the sura ‘Baqara’ are discussed: the sura is all blessing, quitting reciting it will bring about remorse and the baṭla cannot manage to overpower it. Muʿāwia explains baṭla as sorcerer.

⁹⁶ The solutions endorsed by Islam for resisting talismans, magic and sorcery include Quranic verses and prayers which fall in the scope of charms (taʿwīdh), amulets (ḥirz) and spells (ruqya). Islamic charms (taʿwīdh) which have mainly a protective nature include words not pictures—a point that distinguishes them from talismans. Not only have many Muslim authors prescribed charms with divine words but an assortment of treatises has been written on the issue. Famous examples include Al-Shajarat al-Nuʿmānīa written by Muḥī al-Dīn ibn ʿArabī (d. 638 AH) (Beirut: Dar al-Kitāb al-ʿIlmia, 2004).

⁹⁷ The beliefs based on the impact of magic on human life have been upheld even into the present day. They have not only preoccupied ordinary people but also jurists and notables; see: Murtiẓā ibn Muhammad Amīn Ansari, Al-Makāsib (Qum, Iran: Majmaʿ al-Fikr al-Islamia, 1415–20), pp. 232, 234, 239–243, 313. Ansari considers all varieties of magic, sorcery and talisman forbidden (ḥarām) unless they are used to resist a harmful talisman: the Jannat al-Asmā talisman, for example; ʿAllāma Ḥasan ibn Yūsif Ḥillī, Mukhtalif al-Shīʿa (Qum, Iran: Muʾassisa Nashr-i Islami, 1413–1419), pp. 96–97. It seems that there is a significant relationship between the two old types of polytheism/idol-worshipping, on the one hand, and belief in magic and talismans, on the other hand, which can be the subject of a separate study.

⁹⁸ Jawad Tabrizi, Irshād al-Ṭālib ili al-Taʿlīḳ ʿalā al-Makāsib (Qum, Iran: 1384/2005), vol. 1, p. 123.

⁹⁹ Muḥammad ʿAbduh, al-Aʿamāl al-Kāmila lil-Imām Muḥammad ʿAbduh, rev. Muḥammad ʿAmāra (Beirut: Al Muassisat al- Arabiyya li- Dirāsat va al-Nashr, 1357/1979), vol. 2, pp. 205–206.