Obj. ID: 39334
Sacred and Ritual Objects  Amulet, Iran, circa 1900

The following description was prepared by William Gross:

This is the second piece in this highly rare form, perhaps by the same scribe as the first example, also in the Gross Family Collection as 027.015.001. This is a very attractive manuscript on cloth as a talismanic amulet.The amulet is a highly unusual, large birth amulet cloth, with many inscriptions and illustrations. The painted inscriptions and the depictions are a mixture of many different magical traditions in Iran, both Jewish and non-Jewish: Jewish, Moslem and Zoroastrian. Many of the inscriptions are in Judeo-Persian while others are in Hebrew and yet others are in some sort of psuedo-script.

The exact way in which this cloth was used is not known, but it is clearly associated with the event of giving birth. The top of the amulet appears to be drawn as a neck opening, as in a shirt. In Islamic tradition there is a parallel in amuletic shirts, such as those worn by Suleiman the Magnificent when he rode into battle. It can be speculated that the cloth, with its strong shirt association, was placed on the woman or hung on the wall of the room in which the birth was taking place.