Across dozens of medieval Arabic manuscripts — from the Shams al-Ma’arif to the Mujarrabat al-Ruhban, from the Solomonic kitabs to regional collections of tested remedies — a consistent and sophisticated technology of talismanic construction appears. It is not a single text’s invention. It is a shared operative language, refined across centuries of manuscript production, that Arabic scribes and practitioners used to construct objects they believed would channel celestial and divine power into the material world. This article is a scholarly introduction to that technology: what it involves, how it is organized, and what primary sources record about its components. It is not a practical instruction manual; it is a map of the tradition as the manuscripts themselves describe it.
What a Talisman Is, in the Arabic Tradition
The Arabic word most commonly translated as “talisman” in these manuscripts is tilasm (plural: tilasmat), though the texts also use hijab (literally “veil” or “barrier”), ta’wiz (from “to seek refuge”), khatam (seal), and ruqya (recitation). These terms are not perfectly synonymous — a ruqya emphasizes the spoken element, a hijab the protective function, a khatam the inscribed symbol — but they all belong to the same operative family: objects or acts that create a link between the human situation and the forces of the upper world.
The Arabic manuscript tradition does not treat talismans as superstitious folk practice or as a departure from proper religion. In the framework of texts like the Shams al-Ma’arif and its descendants, talismans are instruments of a legitimate science — ‘ilm al-tilasmat — whose principles are continuous with cosmology, theology, and the science of divine names. The talisman works because the cosmos is organized as a hierarchy of spiritual forces that can be accessed through correctly constructed material vehicles.
Two further labels come up constantly. “Islamic talismans” is the broad modern name for this whole family, from the folded hijab to the engraved ring. “Sihr talisman” is more contested, because sihr is the Arabic word for magic or sorcery, and the tradition is not of one mind about it: one of its books, Sihr Muluk al-Jann (The Complete Magic of the Jinn Kings), uses the word in its own title, while other manuscripts draw a sharp line between sihr and the science of spiritual beings (ruhaniyat) they claim to practice. That line is the subject of The Line Between Spiritual Science and Sorcery.
The Three Layers of Talismanic Construction
Almost every Arabic manuscript on operative talismanic work addresses the same three layers of construction, in the same order: the timing (planetary hour and day), the inscription (what is written and in what form), and the material (what surface or substance carries the inscription). These three layers must be aligned for a talisman to function as intended. An inscription that carries the correct divine names, written on the wrong material at the wrong planetary hour, is, in the manuscripts’ consistent view, an incomplete or ineffective instrument.
Layer One: Planetary Timing
Time, in the Arabic occult system, is not uniform. Each of the seven visible planets — Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, the Sun, Venus, Mercury, and the Moon — governs specific daytime and nighttime hours in a rotating sequence. This sequence, the planetary hours system, divides every day into twenty-four hours beginning at sunrise, with the first hour of each day named for the planet that also gives the day its name. (Saturn’s hour opens Saturday, the Sun’s opens Sunday, and so on through the week.)
To construct a Jovian talisman — one aimed at attracting wealth, authority, or honor — the practitioner works during a Jovian hour on a Jovian day (Thursday). To construct a Venusian talisman — aimed at love or desire — a Venusian hour on a Venusian day (Friday) is required. The Shams al-Anwar wa Kunuz al-Asrar (Vol. III) specifies planetary timing with this kind of precision throughout its talismanic sections, as does al-Jawahir al-Lamma’a (Vol. V).
The logic is cosmological: the planet governing the hour is at that moment the most proximate conduit of celestial influence to the terrestrial world. A talisman inscribed in that window is, in effect, inscribed under the planet’s active gaze. The planet’s spiritual nature flows into the object through the correctly chosen moment.
Layer Two: What Is Inscribed
The content of a talisman in Arabic practice typically combines several classes of inscription:
Divine names (asma’ Allah al-husna): The ninety-nine “beautiful names” of God carry operative properties in al-Buni’s system. Al-Qadir (the All-Powerful) is used for operations requiring force or compulsion. Al-Wadud (the Loving) for operations of attraction and reconciliation. Al-Fattah (the Opener) for removing obstacles. Each name is not merely a description but an active divine attribute that can be channeled when correctly inscribed.
Quranic verses (ayat): Specific verses of the Quran are assigned operative properties in the manuscript literature. The Throne Verse (Ayat al-Kursi, 2:255) is near-universal in protective talismans. Surat al-Fatiha (the Opening) appears in applications ranging from healing to protection to general blessing. The manuscripts of the Mujarrabat al-Ruhban (Vol. II) deploy Quranic verses beside an oath sworn by the Torah and the Gospel — a documented form of religious syncretism in which the operative principle (divine speech as force) was shared across confessional lines.
Magic squares (awfaq): The wafq is a grid — typically three-by-three, four-by-four, or larger — in which numbers or letters are arranged so that each row, each column and both diagonals sum to the same total. In al-Buni’s system, each planet has a characteristic wafq: the three-by-three Saturn square, the four-by-four Jupiter square, and so on. These squares are not decorative. They are considered to concentrate planetary force into a geometric structure that can be inscribed on a physical carrier. The article Arabic Magic Squares: Not What You Think covers the wafq system in detail.
Further along the same series, the seven-by-seven square belongs to Venus. That grid, which adds to 175 in every direction and is written in saffron on parchment in Venus’s Friday hour, is worked through in full in our study of the Venus magic square.
Abjad numerology: Arabic letters carry numerical values in the ancient abjad system (alif = 1, ba’ = 2, and so on through a sequence that predates the common Arabic alphabetical order). In the manuscript tradition, the numerical values of a person’s name, or of specific divine names, are used to calculate which wafq configuration is appropriate for a given operation. The science of ‘ilm al-huruf (letter science) underlying this process is the engine of the entire al-Buni’an system. Its theory is laid out in al-Buni’s Usul ‘Ilm al-Huruf.
A single talisman in the manuscript tradition may combine a planetary magic square, two divine names, a Quranic verse, and a geometric seal — all inscribed in a specific spatial arrangement governed by the letter science. The components are not additive; they are understood to constitute a single operative structure.
Layer Three: Material
Arabic grimoires are specific about what physical materials are appropriate for which type of talisman. This specificity is not arbitrary: it reflects the principle that materials, like everything in the created world, participate in the planetary hierarchy. Each planet governs characteristic metals, stones, plants, colors, and scents, and a talisman aimed at a specific planet should be constructed from that planet’s materials.
- Saturn: Lead, black or dark materials, myrrh
- Jupiter: Tin, blue or purple cloth, saffron or mastic
- Mars: Iron, red materials, sulfur or dragon’s blood resin
- Sun: Gold or yellow materials, frankincense, citrine
- Venus: Copper, green or white, rose or jasmine
- Mercury: Mixed metals, multicolored, mastic or storax
- Moon: Silver, white materials, camphor
The writing medium also matters. Many manuscripts specify saffron dissolved in rosewater as an ink for beneficial talismans; musk ink for those related to attraction and love; blood from specific sources for more forceful operations. The Tumtum al-Hindi (Vol. VI) gives specific ink and material prescriptions for its attraction (jalb) and love (tahbib) operations, illustrating how material specification persisted in specialist texts across the corpus.
The Hijab: The Portable Talisman
The most common format in which the finished talisman appears in the manuscript literature is the hijab: a piece of paper (or in earlier practice, deer skin or linen) on which the full inscription has been written, then folded and sealed into a small packet to be worn on the body. The word hijab in this context means “barrier” — an object that stands between the wearer and the force it is designed to repel or attract.
The hijab format is ubiquitous across the Arabic manuscript corpus, from North Africa to Central Asia. Actual physical examples survive in museum collections and private hands — pieces of folded paper from medieval Egypt, Syria, and the Maghreb, inscribed in the compact script characteristic of this genre, often still sealed with a knotted thread. These physical survivors confirm what the manuscripts describe: a living tradition of inscribed protective objects deployed across social classes, geographic regions, and centuries.
Protection from the evil eye is one of the aims these protective talismans serve. In the Kitab al-Ajnas, for example, a formula for returning the evil eye and the envious glance to its sender is followed by the instruction to write the heptagram of the Seal of Sulayman after it, with further words set around the figure (p. 351). For the spoken side of the same protection, see al-Buni’s evil eye protection prayers in Arabic.
The Seven Planetary Types
The organizing principle of most Arabic talismanic manuals is the seven-planet system. Each planet presides over a domain of human concern:
- Saturn: Matters of time, obstacles, binding, legal affairs, agriculture
- Jupiter: Wealth, honor, authority, expansion, religious knowledge
- Mars: Conflict, warfare, compulsion, separations, fevers
- Sun: Royalty, visibility, health, illumination, truth
- Venus: Love, beauty, pleasure, music, reconciliation
- Mercury: Writing, commerce, cleverness, messages, eloquence
- Moon: Travel, change, dreams, water, secrets
Any specific operation — attracting a particular person, seeking promotion, healing an illness, binding an enemy’s tongue — is mapped to the appropriate planet, and the talisman is built from that planet’s materials, at that planet’s hour, using that planet’s square and its associated divine names. This is a complete and internally consistent operative system, not a collection of unrelated remedies.
The Seal and the Geometric Figure
Beyond the wafq and the inscribed names, many Arabic talismans incorporate a khatam — a seal or sigil associated with the planetary spirit governing the operation. These seals often take the form of geometric figures, interlocking lines, or inscribed rings. They appear in the Solomonic literature as the personal emblems of planetary rulers and jinn kings — the visual equivalent of a royal signature. The Kitab al-Ajnas (Vol. IV) provides seals (khawatim) for all seven jinn kings — the same kings who correspond to the seven planets.
The seal functions as identification: it marks the talisman as addressed to a specific power and as carrying that power’s authorization. In the manuscript logic, a talisman that does not carry the correct seal is incomplete — like a letter without a signature.
Arabic Occult Manuscript Symbols: A Reader’s Key
Readers opening an Arabic talisman manuscript for the first time often meet the symbols before the text. The ones met most often fall into a handful of families, each discussed above: the wafq grid of numbers or letters; single Arabic letters and letter-strings whose abjad values carry the calculation; divine names and Quranic verses, sometimes written out in separated letters; the khatam or seal, often a geometric figure such as the heptagram; and drawn figures — a crowned figure bearing a three-by-three square, a winged spirit, a seal flanked by six-pointed stars — of the kind reproduced in the Tumtum al-Hindi. None of these Arabic talismanic symbols is decorative: in the logic of the manuscripts each one is a working part of the talisman. In the English editions they are not redrawn either; seals and magic squares are reproduced as images from the source manuscript.
How to Make a Talisman, According to the Arabic Manuscripts
Taken together, the layers above answer the question most readers arrive with — how to make a talisman — in the form the Arabic grimoires themselves record. What follows summarizes what the manuscripts record; it is not an instruction to perform it.
- Choose the planet. Map the purpose to one of the seven planetary domains.
- Fix the time. Work on that planet’s day and in its hour; many operations also watch the Moon’s place among the twenty-eight lunar mansions.
- Compose the inscription. Combine the planet’s wafq with the divine names suited to the aim, any Quranic verse, and the letter values calculated through ‘ilm al-huruf.
- Select the material and ink. Use the planet’s metal, color, and scent.
- Add the seal. Set the khatam of the governing power on the talisman.
- Consecrate and keep it. For an engraved ring, the Kitab al-Ajnas has the maker wash it in water and salt, perform stellar consecration on it, and store it in a pouch.
The Kitab al-Ajnas states the principle behind the whole sequence plainly. Asked about the seals placed in the talismans of the seven days, Asif ibn Barkhiya answers that nothing in these sciences can be established without knowing the day and its seal, the spiritual being and its seal, and the planet and its seal — whether in divination, geomancy, the making of circles, or the fashioning of talismanic images and amulets (p. 224). Arabic geomancy (‘ilm al-raml, divination from figures traced in sand) is a separate science, but by this account it answers to the same calendar of days, planets, and seals as the talisman does.
Where to Read the Primary Sources
The talismanic systems described above are not reconstructed from fragmentary hints. They are laid out, with considerable operational specificity, in primary Arabic manuscripts now available in English translation through John Friend Publishing. The Shams al-Anwar wa Kunuz al-Asrar (Vol. III) provides the most complete single-volume entry into the al-Buni’an letter-science and magic-square tradition. The Mujarrabat al-Ruhban (Vol. II) shows the talismanic tradition in a syncretic Christian-Islamic form. The al-Jawahir al-Lamma’a (Vol. V) and Sihr Muluk al-Jann (Vol. VII) show the planetary-jinn dimension of the system. Together, these texts allow an English reader to encounter, for the first time, the full operative architecture of the Arabic talismanic tradition in translation.