Against the evil eye

The threat of the evil eye is well known across the Mediterranean, as well as its antidote, the eye-shaped talisman that reflects the malefic look back onto the evil eye. The talisman can take many forms. In Arab regions, the most effective variant is the hamza – “Fatima’s hand” –, with the protective eye on its palm, while in Turkic regions we find a stylized eye painted with concentric blue circles, the nazar.



The threat of the evil eye is also familiar in traditional Jewish culture, which defends itself against it with similar apotropaic formulas. In addition to “Miriam’s hand”, a Jewish version of the above mentioned Arab “Fatima’s hand”, we also read in the Wikipedia article “Evil Eye”:

Many observant Jews avoid talking about valuable items they own, good luck that has come to them and, in particular, their children. If any of these are mentioned, the speaker and/or listener will say “b'li ayin hara” (Hebrew), meaning “without an evil eye”, or “kein eina hara” (Yiddish; often shortened to “kennahara”), “no evil eye”.

We can see the visual variant of exactly this gesture in Quba, the Mountain Jewish settlement, where the extremely wealthy Caucasian Jews have been erecting breathtaking, multi-story, marble-covered representative palaces, similar to the “Gypsy palaces” of Transylvania and Maramureș. And they protect them with the local, Turkish version of the talisman, the nazar, against the malicious intent of obvious envy.


The nazar, so popular among the Azerbaijani Muslims, pops up on many other houses in the Mountain Jewish quarter of Azerbaijan, often next to the “Samaritan mezuzah”, made out of stone, about which we will write in the following post.


Preparation for the adult life cannot be started too early. The Azerbaijani candy industry supports in this the Azerbaijani youth with the candy named “Nazar”. Not only the name of the candy reminds you of the amulet against the evil eye, but its bag also displays the well-known talisman. Obviously against the envy of the little companions left without candy.