Show Posts
1
Antique Questions Forum / Re: Victorian Lady's Hand Door Knockers - Debunking the Hand of Fatima Knocker
« on: May 26, 2011, 10:49:57 am »
Backtracking to original post - You're correct that this hand is not an Islamic symbol - but not in the way you think. Fatima is its Islamic name, but Jews have sometimes called it "Miriam" (sister of Moses and Aaron) instead, although Jews of North African origin call it by the Arabic word for five: "hamsa". Humans are constantly looking for symbols of our ideas - a woman's hand is one of those symbols that, like crosses, eggs, and evergreen trees, comes from pagan times before Abraham. So it's pre-Islamic, pre-Christian, pre-Judaism - it's a symbol from goddesses in ancient Babylonia (Ishtar/Astarte, or Ashtoreth in the Old Testament), ancient Egypt (Neith), Carthage (Tanit), and Greece (Aphrodite was their version of Ishtar/Astarte/Ashtoreth). People in many cultures that now follow the 3 Abrahamic religions have used this woman's-hand symbol for millenia, and have continually updated its shape, and supplied it with their newest and best stories, over that time. The symbol is basically as old as human culture. We all admire women who are powerful or smart enough to repel thieves and grifters, who re-direct the neighbors' jealousy of our belongings to some other person or purpose, who make sure family prospers by their hard work and cleverness, who know how to heal with food & medicine. Call it a fertility symbol (apples in the European version are also fertility symbols), or a reminder of the old female connection to botanical healing knowledge (if not fruit, the hand usually holds a "healing ball" - priests called that witchcraft). Or call it "warding off the Evil Eye" like they do in Greece, Italy, and North Africa, or just keep it simple and call it a good luck charm.
The "hamsa" is still very popular in Islamic North Africa, especially with Berbers, and has recently become very popular in Israel because of their connection with Jews from North Africa. It has such a long history of use in Europe that it's hard to say whether these 19th-century brass door-knockers are more influenced by pagan Aphrodite & Venus from Greece & Rome, or by the Moors in Spain who had a rich artistic tradition frequently operating side-by-side with Christians & Jews in cities where all 3 groups used Fatima's hand to keep away the Evil Eye. European Christians a couple of centuries ago might have called this symbol by the name Fatima because they liked her story: Fatima married a poor man, had no servants, worked very hard to keep her house as clean and as prosperous as she could, was her father's favorite daughter and helped to care for him in old age (there's the "healer" connection). Maybe some of the artists & artisans who made door-knockers were educated enough to know about the earlier connection to pagan goddess-symbols, maybe not. Maybe bourgeois European Christians of the 1800s-1900s who put them on their doors found the Fatima story more comforting than the pagan stories which can be a little too sexy and tangled for proper Christians. Then again...who knows what they knew or thought about that woman's hand when they put it on the door? There was a lot of interest in occult practice & symbolism in Victorian England. Maybe some traveller, historian or antiquarian saw the striking similarity between the European & North African door-knockers that the Victorian artisans who cast them were totally unaware of. Make up your own story about how Fatima's Hand (or Miriam's, or Aphrodite's) ended up in northwestern Europe - it might be correct. Or ... maybe it's just a pretty woman's hand to you.
Enjoy your beautiful door-knocker, and may it bring you good luck!
The "hamsa" is still very popular in Islamic North Africa, especially with Berbers, and has recently become very popular in Israel because of their connection with Jews from North Africa. It has such a long history of use in Europe that it's hard to say whether these 19th-century brass door-knockers are more influenced by pagan Aphrodite & Venus from Greece & Rome, or by the Moors in Spain who had a rich artistic tradition frequently operating side-by-side with Christians & Jews in cities where all 3 groups used Fatima's hand to keep away the Evil Eye. European Christians a couple of centuries ago might have called this symbol by the name Fatima because they liked her story: Fatima married a poor man, had no servants, worked very hard to keep her house as clean and as prosperous as she could, was her father's favorite daughter and helped to care for him in old age (there's the "healer" connection). Maybe some of the artists & artisans who made door-knockers were educated enough to know about the earlier connection to pagan goddess-symbols, maybe not. Maybe bourgeois European Christians of the 1800s-1900s who put them on their doors found the Fatima story more comforting than the pagan stories which can be a little too sexy and tangled for proper Christians. Then again...who knows what they knew or thought about that woman's hand when they put it on the door? There was a lot of interest in occult practice & symbolism in Victorian England. Maybe some traveller, historian or antiquarian saw the striking similarity between the European & North African door-knockers that the Victorian artisans who cast them were totally unaware of. Make up your own story about how Fatima's Hand (or Miriam's, or Aphrodite's) ended up in northwestern Europe - it might be correct. Or ... maybe it's just a pretty woman's hand to you.
Enjoy your beautiful door-knocker, and may it bring you good luck!