Name of Object:

‘Keff’ or hand-palm amulet

Location:

Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom

Holding Museum:

Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow Museums

About Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow Museums, Glasgow

Date of Object:

Hegira, late 13th–early 14th century / AD late 19th–early 20th century

Museum Inventory Number:

191.6.i 2

Material(s) / Technique(s):

Moulded, coloured glass.

Dimensions:

Length 2 cm, width 1.5 cm

Period / Dynasty:

Ottoman

Provenance:

Hebron, Palestine.

Description:

A small, moulded glass 'keff' hand, which would have been threaded with many others like it to make a chain or necklace; it may also have been sewn on to a garment or a headdress. The main function of the keff is to protect the wearer against the 'evil eye' by stopping the damage that evil thoughts and deeds can do to the wearer. This hand is made of coloured glass, which has been cast into a mould. The loop has been made by twisting the base of the hand (the wrist area) on itself; the loop is at the front of the hand in the palm area, and once threaded, the fingers of the hand would point down.

The keff pre-dates Islam and has been fully incorporated into Islamic popular culture, used widely as a protective charm throughout the Middle East and North Africa. Although the keff is particularly prevalent on jewellery it also appears on paper charms and talismans, on textiles and embroidery, and on vernacular architecture.

In popular Islamic cultures of the Middle East, small glass amulets such as this one would have been used both as decoration and for protection. The main function of the keff is to protect the wearer against the 'evil eye' by stopping the damage that evil thoughts and deeds can do to the wearer.

How date and origin were established:

Stylistic analysis: many similar examples made of the same colour glass and of the same size exist and they have been dated to the Ottoman period and attributed in provenance to Hebron in Palestine.

How Object was obtained:

Purchased by the Museum in 1912.

How provenance was established:

Many similar examples exist attributed in provenance to Hebron in Palestine.

Selected bibliography:

Budge, Sir, E. A. Wallis, Amulets and Superstitions, London, 1930.
Weir, S., Palestinian Costume, London, 1989

Citation of this web page:

Noorah Al-Gailani "‘Keff’ or hand-palm amulet" in Discover Islamic Art, Museum With No Frontiers, 2024. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;ISL;uk;Mus04;41;en

Prepared by: Noorah Al-GailaniNoorah Al-Gailani

Noorah Al-Gailani is Curator for Islamic Civilisations at Glasgow Museums, Scotland. With a BA in Interior Design from the College of Fine Arts, Baghdad University and three years' experience in design and folk art preservation, she moved to the UK in 1992. On completing her MA in Museum Studies at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London in 1994, she worked as Project Officer at the Grange Museum of Community History documenting the presence of Muslim communities in the London Borough of Brent. In 1995 she was Assistant Curator, Ancient Monuments Laboratory, English Heritage, and in 1996 became Curator for John Wesley's House and the Museum of Methodism in London. She co-authored The Islamic Year: Surahs, Stories and Celebrations (Stroud: Hawthorn Press, 2002) for non-Muslim children. Since 2003 she has been based at The Burrell Collection in Glasgow, working across the city's museums to interpret Islamic art and culture, ancient and modern, through research, exhibitions and educational activities.
Copyedited by: Mandi GomezMandi Gomez

Amanda Gomez is a freelance copy-editor and proofreader working in London. She studied Art History and Literature at Essex University (1986–89) and received her MA (Area Studies Africa: Art, Literature, African Thought) from SOAS in 1990. She worked as an editorial assistant for the independent publisher Bellew Publishing (1991–94) and studied at Bookhouse and the London College of Printing on day release. She was publications officer at the Museum of London until 2000 and then took a role at Art Books International, where she worked on projects for independent publishers and arts institutions that included MWNF’s English-language editions of the books series Islamic Art in the Mediterranean. She was part of the editorial team for further MWNF iterations: Discover Islamic Art in the Mediterranean Virtual Museum and the illustrated volume Discover Islamic Art in the Mediterranean.

True to its ethos of connecting people through the arts, MWNF has provided Amanda with valuable opportunities for discovery and learning, increased her editorial experience, and connected her with publishers and institutions all over the world. More recently, the projects she has worked on include MWNF’s Sharing History Virtual Museum and Exhibition series, Vitra Design Museum’s Victor Papanek and Objects of Desire, and Haus der Kulturen der Welt’s online publication 2 or 3 Tigers and its volume Race, Nation, Class.

MWNF Working Number: UK4 46