The hamsa or khamsa is often shown online as a flat hand graphic. A dated Moroccan silver pendant in the British Museum preserves material, technique, ornament, and a specific collection record.
- Source tradition
- North Africa and West Asia
- Object or edition
- British Museum 2016,6028.1
- Descriptive label
- Hand amulet
The Moroccan pendant
The British Museum’s Moroccan silver khamsa, dated around the 1880s–1890s, bears a star, vine scrolls, enamel flower, and suspension loop. It is a wearable amulet. The museum places protective hand forms among Jewish, Christian, and Muslim communities without claiming identical meanings for every bearer.
A hand is not one timeless religion
“Hand of Fatima” is one name attached to the form, but the museum’s account explicitly describes use across communities. A generic online history that assigns the design to only one modern group, or dates this particular pendant to antiquity, loses that complexity. The star on this hand also shows why single-motif recognition can mislead: a five-pointed star is present, yet the object is catalogued primarily as a hand amulet. Its metalwork, enclosure, and possible use are part of the interpretation. The Met’s essay on Islamic talismans places portable objects within a wider world of written prayers, signs, and numbers, but one essay cannot substitute for this pendant’s own object record.
How to compare related symbols
The hamsa is frequently paired with an eye in modern decorative designs, but a paired graphic should not automatically be called an ancient Egyptian wedjat. The wedjat’s museum record has a separate Egyptian myth and object history. Similarly, the star on this pendant is a five-pointed shape, while a six-pointed star on a Met scroll is called Solomon’s seal in that object’s context. The names and dates of the objects matter. Portable amulets could be interpreted as protective, but the historical belief is distinct from proof of protection. The communities that made and used these objects also gave them different meanings.