A New Arabic Amulet Bowl from Esfahan with Persian Inscriptions, Ali Reza Sedighifard Collection. Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Conference, The Islamic College, London, ICAS Press 2019.

As a cultural and religious phenomenon, blessing or healing bowls were produced in the Islamic world in considerable quantity from at least the twelfth century. In origin they were related in some aspects to pre-Islamic Aramaic magic bowls, even though there are in fact great differences in design and function (Naveh & Shaked, 1985). The latter ones were made of clay, while the Islamic were of metal. Some amulets have clear references to Twelve Šiʿism which, during the Safavid period (1501-1722), became the official religion of Iran. The specific Šīʿī vocabulary on amulets (and indeed coins, seals and others objects) consists of the names of the “Five Pure” ones (Muḥammad, his son-in-law ʿAlī, his daughter Fāṭima and his grandsons al-Ḥasan and al-Ḥusayn), as well as the Twelve Imāms. Sometimes the texts bear also the attributes of the Twelve Imāms, who with the addition of Fāṭima and Muḥammad are considered the Fourteen Immaculate Ones. Moreover, these inscriptions are complemented by Qur’ānic verses. Particularly favoured are the last two Sūrah, the al-sūratānī al-Muʿawwiḏatān or the verse Āyat al-Kursī with a prophylactic effect against the demons. This paper focuses on the reading of the text and on the analysis of the engraving script style. The text is written in Arabic, with a few optative or benedictive sentences written in Persian language. It is apparent that this bowl is written in a Persian ductus by an expert Persian engraver in Iran.