Service Description

Talismanic Shirts: Magic Clothes. The Islamic Ottomans, Safavids, Mughals and West African cultures had talismanic shirts (as did other cultures including Buddhism, we will see if we can add that in too) and mainly made in India, Iran and Turkey between the 14th and 17th centuries. We will recreate a talismanic shirt on paper and design our own. If you have embroidery skills we may also make a miniature one and if so then you will need the appropriate materials, needle, silk and cotton threads and a small shirt. They were mostly painted, not embroidered; this is an art form more like a book art than a textile. Nevertheless we can talk about how to make and size this small cloth garment in a contemporary fashion in class (a full size one might have taken the original makers around 3 years!). I saw one at the Fabric of India exhibition at the V&A years ago and they pop up in exhibitions every so often, though they’re not much studied. They are covered with religious texts and numbers; we will focus on numbers, magic squares and symbols and can also design a contemporary talismanic shirt with a text of your choice that has meaning for you (for instance: the 1001 Nights). Most of us aren’t going into battle and we would don a different form of PPE if so. They were also used in childbirth, to protect against disease or when travelling - all the contexts in which you would also consult a Falnama. Our ones can simply be for good luck. do Ottoman, Safavid and Mughal ones, and poss a Buddhist one too. This class can be paired with the upcoming Yantra class where we make amulets (which are slightly different to talismans).