Also called khamsa, khmisa, Hand of Miriam, Hand of Fatima
An open right hand, often with an eye in the palm, hung in the home or worn to push back the evil eye and bless a household.
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Take care: The hamsa is sacred to many living Jewish and Muslim families; use it with respect and do not mock or deface one. Keep small charms out of babies' reach.
Jews of Morocco and the Iberian diaspora adopted the hand and often called it the Hand of Miriam, after the sister of Moses who watched over him as a baby. Amulets were engraved with Hebrew letters, divine names or verses, and hung by cradles and over doors. In Israel today the hamsa is one of the most common household charms.
In Morocco the number five itself was protective. People said 'five in your eye' to turn away a dangerous look, raised the open hand at someone, and painted handprints in henna or on walls and doors. Westermarck, who lived and worked in Morocco for years, recorded many of these practices.
An open hand is carved on the keystone of the outer arch of the Gate of Justice at the Alhambra, built in the 1340s. Its meaning is debated, but it is often cited as one of the earliest monumental appearances of the hand in Islamic Spain, and the region where amulet use is best documented.
The word khamsa means five in Arabic, and the amulet is named for the five fingers of the open hand. Historians agree its use as a charm is well documented in the western Islamic world, the Maghreb and al-Andalus, from at least the thirteenth century. Claims that it descends directly from Mesopotamian hands or the Carthaginian goddess Tanit are popular but hard to prove. What is certain is that Muslims, Jews and Christians in North Africa all used it against envy and the evil eye.
The phrase Hand of Fatima, after the Prophet's daughter, was popularised by French writers in colonial North Africa as Main de Fatma, and is not the usual local name. Jewish families called it the Hand of Miriam and added Hebrew inscriptions. When Moroccan and other North African Jews emigrated to Israel, France and the Americas in the twentieth century they carried the hand with them, which explains its wide reach today.
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