ABSTRACT
The Arabs in all periods of their history have worn amulets and talismans to protect their bodies and cattle and houses from the attacks of evil spirits, and especially against the Evil Eye. The amulets of the primitive Arabs, i.e. those who lived before the Christian Era, were made of stone, wood, and probably bone, and were, it would seem from the few scattered notices about them which have come down to us, uninscribed. The pagan Arabs of the first six centuries of our Era followed the example of their ancestors and wore and made use of many kinds of amulets and talismans, but they associated with them ideas which were borrowed from Hebrew, Egyptian, and Gnostic writings. Muḥammad himself sanctioned such borrowings, and in the Ḳur'ân passed on to his followers the history of Solomon as a magician, and a belief in the magical names of Allâh.
