Hand of Fatima
Posted by Catherine Cartwright Jones on February 15, 2000 at 22:14:20:
In Reply to: Re: More evidence about heat posted by sarah on February 15, 2000 at 21:55:25:
The "Hand of Fatima" is that hand-shaped talisman you see so often
across all the Muslim countries .... it's called "Hand of God" or
"Hand of Miriam" when used in Sephardic Jewish places. It either
looks exactly like a hennaed hand, or the the thumb and little finger
are also sometimes equally short and curved so the hand looks more
symmetrical.
It's a symbol of divine protection, the hand of god, or the hand of
the goddess, whichever suits you, and averts the evil eye.
It predates both Islam and Judaism, and was originally the hand of
Anath or Tanith (depending on which country you're going from). ....
dates to at least 1800 BCE. It may go clear back to 7000 BCE in
Anatolia ... depends on how you interpret the artifacts. It was
certainly a frequent icon in Canaanite and Tunisian art from
waaaaaaaaay back.
The symmetrical one is also called a "Palm" as in tree .... but that
variation may have evolved for two reasons. One of which is that
Islamic art takes a dim view of pictorial representation of people
.... and the goddess (Tanit) (or Neith) was often symbolized as a
palm tree, particularly across North Africa .... traditionally you
had to apologize to the palm before you cut it down, because it was
almost a member of the family.
- Re: Hand of Fatima almaskhurshid 09:44:37 11/27/00
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