Talismanic Shirt
The tilsimli gömlek, the talismanic shirt of the Ottoman court, is a garment painted with Qur'anic verses, magic squares, the names of the four archangels, the Seal of Solomon, and the numbers of abjad calculation, worn next to the skin under armour by sultans and princes against wounds, illness, and ill luck. The making was governed by astrology: the court astronomer fixed the wearer's auspicious hour, and the shirt was begun and finished only when the sun stood in the required sign, so that each one is a document of its owner's horoscope as well as a talisman. The earliest dated example in t