Talismanic textile
- Object Name
- Talismanic textile
- Culture / Site
- Probably Senegal
- Medium
- Cotton, plain woven panels (4) joined and painted, with amulets of animal hide and felt attached by knotted leather strips
- Date
- Late 19th or early 20th century
- Dimensions
- 255.2 x 178.8 cm
- Credit Line
- Art Institute of Chicago, African and Amerindian Purchase Endowment, 2000.326. Photograph courtesy of The Art Institute of Chicago/Art Resource, NY
- Section
- Saharan Frontiers/The Movement of Language, People, and Ideas
- Description
This large textile is covered with Qur’anic verses in Arabic script. The elongated figure may represent a lizard, a spirit, or a stylized rendering of the name Muhammad, while the red checkered motifs recall magic squares, arrangements of numbers that always amount to the same sum, no matter the direction they are added. The attached amulets likely encase small squares of folded paper with sacred writing. Across Senegal, Sufi practitioners apply esoteric knowledge of the Qur’an and other sacred texts to the therapeutic practices of divination, healing, and spiritual protection. The textile may have been lent or rented to clients as needed by the practitioner who created it.