Talismanic shirt inscribed with Qur’anic verses, the Asma’ al-Husna, and prayers written in a variety of scripts and colours, together with views of Mecca and Medina on Collections Sphere from

The front and back of the shirt are covered with Qur’anic verses, prayers and invocations to God, written in a variety of scripts and arranged into variously shaped panels and cartouches. Two cartouches on the front carry depictions of the Masjid al-Haram (‘Holy Sanctuary’) at Mecca and the Masjid al-Nabawi (‘Prophet’s mosque’) at Medina, each within a decorative frame enclosing minute depictions of other holy sites in the surrounding areas. Representations of the two holy sanctuaries on talismanic shirts are rare. Among known examples are a shirt with a depiction of the Meccan sanctuary, and a cap with an embroidered depiction of the Prophet’s mosque, in the Topkapi Saray Museum, and views of both on an Indian shirt in the Khalili Collections. All, however, are schematic and unlike the views on this shirt which are more realistically portrayed.