Khamsa
An open hand, the “hand of Fatima”, used as an amulet across North Africa and the Middle East by Muslims and by Jews.
Meaning
Khamsa is Arabic for “five”, for the fingers, and the hand is also called the hand of Fatima, after the Prophet Muhammad’s daughter. Khamsas are usually silver or another metal, worn as jewellery or hung on walls and doorways for luck and as protection against evil. The hand belongs to no single faith. The British Museum describes hand amulets in the Middle East and North Africa used by Muslims or Jews against the “eye of envy”, and a Haverford College exhibition of Moroccan khamsas found the hand in Muslim, Jewish and Christian traditions. Jews know it as the hamsa or hand of Miriam, and among the Amazigh (Berbers) of North Africa it is called tafust. What the five fingers stand for differs: according to the Fundación de Cultura Islámica in Madrid, Sunni tradition reads them as the five pillars of Islam, and Shia tradition as the five holy members of the Prophet’s family, Muhammad, Ali, Fatima, Hasan and Husayn.
Origin and history
Hand amulets go back millennia, according to the British Museum. The Fundación de Cultura Islámica traces it to before Islam, to Punic Carthage and its goddess Tanit. One of the most prominent early examples is the large open hand carved in the keystone of the arch of the Gate of Justice of the Alhambra, in southern Spain; the Alhambra’s own guide dates the gate to 1348 and counts the hand among its Islamic symbols. My Jewish Learning sees in the Alhambra hand, and other Moorish hands, a hint of the five pillars of Islam in the five fingers; it adds that it would not be unusual for an Islamic symbol to pass into Sephardic Jewish culture, which grew up alongside Islam.
Why Fatima?
The name has two explanations. The Fundación de Cultura Islámica reports that it is often credited to Europeans in North Africa during the Protectorate, especially French soldiers, who called Tunisian and Algerian women “Fatima” with contempt. More recent studies, it adds, connect it with Fatima al-Zahra, the Prophet’s daughter, though nothing in her life suggests the link.
An amulet some scholars forbid
Wearing or hanging the khamsa for protection is disputed among Muslims. Religious orthodoxy, especially Sunni, rejects talismans, the foundation notes. Islamweb’s fatwa answers that hanging a khamsa to turn away the evil eye is not permitted and may count as minor or major shirk (idolatry), depending on what the person believes; some scholars forbid hanging one even as decoration.
Read next
- Next in Islamic symbolsMihrabThe niche in the wall of a mosque that shows the direction of Mecca, which Muslims face when they pray.
- The same hand amulet, known to Jews as the hamsa or hand of Miriam.HamsaAn open hand, often with an eye in the palm, that Jews wear and hang in their homes as an amulet against the evil eye, an amulet they share with Muslims in North Africa and the Middle East.
See also
Evil eye (nazar), Star and crescent, Rub el Hizb, Misbaha.
Sources
- Pendant, amulet (hand of Fatima or khamsa), RRM46563, The British Museum, Albukhary Foundation Gallery of the Islamic World, object description
- KHAMSA: Amulets of North Africa, exhibition, Magill Library, 2014, Haverford College, exhibition text
- What Is A Hamsa?, My Jewish Learning, article
- Khamsa, the hand of Fatima, 1 June 2020, Fundación de Cultura Islámica (FUNCI), Madrid
- The Gate of Justice, Patronato de la Alhambra y Generalife
- Hanging amulets is prohibited regardless of the person’s intention, Fatwa 262186, Islamweb
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols formed from curves and waves.
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed September 24, 2026. How we research
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