Important Talismanic Shirt (Jama) With Qur’anic Verses and Shi‘a Protective Prayers Giving the Names of the Twelve Imams - SOLD

Project Details

Important Talismanic Shirt (Jama) With Qur’anic Verses and Shi‘a Protective Prayers Giving the Names of the Twelve Imams – SOLD

North India or the Deccan, 17th Century, Heigth: 86 cm. Width: 117 cm.

Cotton shirt inscribed with Qur’anic chapters in black thuluth script, the Jawshan ,جوشن الكبی( al-Kabeer ‘big armour’ protection prayer) and the Jawshan ,جوشن الصغی ( al-Sagheer ‘small armour’ protection prayer) in red and black naskh script on a cream ground, the thuluth in black on green cartouches and bands. The collar is embroidered with poppies.

Approximately one hundred talismanic shirts have survived, eighty or so of which are in the Topkapi Palace Museum, Istanbul, nearly all bearing prayers associated with ‘sunnī’ tradition, please see: Hülya Tezcan’s Topkapı Sarayı Müzesi Koleksiyonundan Tılsımlı Gömlekler, TİMAS, Istanbul, 2011. The present shirt appears to be the only known example which combines the Jawshan al-Kabeer prayer and the Jawshan al-Sagheer shi‘a prayer and the names of the twelve imams with the Seven Hisar prayers.

Talismanic shirts would have been worn under armour in battle. They are believed to provide divine protection to their wearer not just against arrows and bullets but also against spells and magic. Talismanic shirts also have prophylactic qualities. This is mentioned in the holy Qu’ran, in Surat al-Yūsuf, verse: 93, where Prophet Joseph wanting to cure his blind father Prophet Jacob, said to his brothers “take my shirt and lay it over my father’s face: he will recover his sight”.

In Ottoman times Hürrem Sultan wrote to her husband, Sultan Süleyman I (r.1520-66), urging him
to wear the shirt she had sent to the battle-field as it would ‘turn aside bullets’ and protect him from death. Please see: Leoni, Francesca. Power and Protection: Islamic Art and the Supernatural, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 2016, cat. 48, p. 58.

Jawshan al-Kabeer
Prayers on the Front The Jawshan al-Kabeer (‘big’ Jawshan) is a long Arabic prayer that contains one thousand names and attributes of God (Allah). According to tradition, Prophet Muhammad used armour for protecting his body during war. The angel

Gabriel (Jabrail) brought the Prophet a message from God, teaching him the Jawshan al-Kabeer prayer for protection (written on the front of our shirt). Gabriel said: “O’ Muhammad! Your God conveys his salutations to you and commands you to take this coat of armour and to recite it as this is a protection for you and your followers.” The prayer became the Prophet’s protective armour. In addition to the Jawshan al-Kabeer prayer the shirt is inscribed with panels containing verses from the Holy Qur’an including Surat al-Fath (Qur’an 48:1) and Surat al-Saf (Qur’an 61:13).

The first verse of Surat al-Fath: “Indeed, We have given you, [O Muhammad], a clear conquest” has special significance. Rose Evelyn Muravchick, in her thesis on talismanic shirts, discusses the use of Qur’anic verses and the meaning of the Surat al-Fath. Please see: Rose Evelyn Muravchick’s God is the Best Guardian: Islamic Talismanic Shirts from the Gunpowder Empires, University of Pennsylvania, 2014, p. 105.

The Jawshan al-Kabeer is also associated with shi‘a branch of Islam. It consists of a hundred sections. Every section includes ten parts in which God is praised with his names and attributes. The prayer was passed down from Prophet Muhammad to his cousin Imam Ali and then from him to the Imams Husayn, Zayn al-Abidin, Muhammad al-Baqir, Jafar al-Sadiq , and then to Imam Musa al- Kādhim.

According to tradition, reading the Jawshan al-Kabeer affords protection from material and spiritual assaults and harm of Satan. It also offers God’s protection from troubles and calamities. Jawshan al-Sagheer and Seven Hisar Prayers on the Back The Jawshan al-Sagheer (‘small’ Jawshan) is a
shi‘a prayer, first recited by Imam Musa Kadhim, the seventh imam. This is an esteemed prayer and according to tradition: “…when Hadi Abbasi intended to kill Musa ibn Jafar (Musa al-Kadhim), Musa recited it, and as a result saw the Prophet Muhammad in his dream who told him: “Allah will annihilate your enemy”. The prayer was narrated by Imam Musa ibn Ja‘far, and quoted by Sayyid Ibn Tāwus in Muhaj al-Da‘awat.

The thirteen prayers (hirz) on our shirt that make up the Jawshan al-Sagheer are each attributed to the Prophet and one of the twelve imams In addition to the Jawshan al-Sagheer, Hisar prayers against spells and magic are written in large black thuluth, and in red and black naskh. These prayers consist of quotations from the holy Qur’an.

There is a comparable shirt in the Khalili Collection (inv. no. TXT 471), London, published in Francis Maddison and Emilie Savage-Smith, The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art: Science, Tools & Magic, London, 1997, No. 49.

It also has borders in bold thuluth script. Whereas, the inscription bands on the present shirt alternate with cartouches in black on green, the Khalili shirt has a continuous band of thuluth inscription in black. Both shirts have texts in naskh script in red and black ink and similar medallions. Talismanic shirts by their very nature are extremely fragile. The present shirt is remarkable not just for being a rare survival, but because of its quality of execution, textual content and its exceptional state of preservation.

Provenance

Probably acquired in India by Lieutenant Lachlan Forbes, circa 1850.

Lieutenant Lachlan Forbes was born in Welling on 16th September 1830. He started for India on 20th September 1848, arriving on the 10th of November of that year. He served in the Indian army at the time of the Indian Mutiny of 1857. Colonel Malleson in his The History of the Indian Mutiny of 1857-58 (Vol: 5, p. 215) recorded that “a force commanded by Lachlan Forbes, fought against river piracy, against Rup Singh who had taken possession of a fort at Barhi, near the junction of the Chambal with the Jamnah”. Started for “Dear Old England” on 24th December 1861. The last entryin his diary is from 1st November 1866. Lachlan’s wife, Julia nee Wyndham, outlived him by about thirty years. Latterly they lived in Shillingstone House, Dorset, which he had built.

Lachlan Forbes’ son, Charles Forbes.

Then by descent to his granddaughter Dr. Suzanne Keene (nee Forbes.

By whom sold at Rosebery’s Auction House, 23 April 2018, Lot 250.

Shawn Ghassemi, New York [purchased from the auction above].

Published

Shawn Ghassemi, Art Passages – Divine Protection: Talismanic Art of Islamic Cultures, 2019, no. 18. For a second shirt from the collection of Dr. S. K. (nee Forbes), please refer to our previous catalogue: Kent Antiques Islamic & Indian Art, 2018, no. 17.

Bibliography

Leoni, Francesca. Power and Protection: Islamic Art and the Supernatural, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 2016. Maddison, Francis & Emilie Savage-Smith, The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art: Science, Tools & Magic, London, 1997.

Muravchick, Rose Evelyn. God is the Best Guardin: Islamic Talismanic Shirts from the Gunpowder Empires, PhD Thesis, University of Pennsylvania, 2014.
Porter, Venetia & Liana Saif, Emilie Savage-Smith, “Medieval Islamic Amulets, Talismans and Magic” in

A Companion to Islamic Art and Architecture, 2017, http:// doi.org/10.1002/9781119069218.ch21.
Tezcan, Hülya. Topkapı Sarayı Müzesi Koleksiyonundan Tılsımlı Gömlekler, TİMAS, Istanbul, 2011.

Categories: Textiles
Provenance: Shawn Ghassemi, New York

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Important Talismanic Shirt (Jama) With Qur’anic Verses and Shi‘a Protective Prayers Giving the Names of the Twelve Imams – SOLD

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