Ethiopian Ketab Protective Scroll
Ketab are protective prayer scrolls of the Ethiopian Orthodox tradition, strips of parchment inscribed with prayers, sacred names, and devotional images, then rolled and worn or hung as amulets. They are written by debtera, the church's trained scholars, and by diviners, who combine liturgical texts with protective formulae in Ge'ez. The scrolls guard the wearer against evil spirits, illness, the evil eye, and the harm that is believed to come from buda, the people accused of possessing the evil eye. A scroll's shape follows its purpose: some are narrow strips folded into a leather case for we