A unique 300-year-old Islamic amulet found in Odessa region

13.07.2020, 14:31
Culture
Islamic amulet - фото 1
Islamic amulet
Participants of the archaeological expedition, who are now digging out a plot in the civil courtyard of the Bilhorod-Dnistrovsky fortress, took out of the ground a well-preserved paper tumar (amulet - a piece of paper rolled into a triangle with lines from the Koran) that is at least 300 years old.

This was reported to Dumska paper by the chief consultant of the expedition, doctor of historical Sciences Andriy Krasnozhon.

"The paper is remarkably preserved, which makes the find unique, especially on this monument. The condition for preserving the object was both the quality of the material from which it is made, and the properties of the soil. You will have to expand the amulet and read the text later fully. Still, you can already see the Arabic phrase: “Written out of fear [before Allah?] ..." and three digits: 007 (there is a great temptation to see in them a fragment of the date from the Hijri: 1007 = 1598/99),” Krasnozhon said.

According to the scientist, the find can supplement information about the life of people in Akkerman in the first half of the XVIII century, when the city was born and lived the famous Turkish scholar, theologian Muhammad al-Akkermani, who later became the Qadi (judge) of Mecca.

“There is reason to believe that Ackerman was a kind of a center of Islamic teaching in the North-Western black sea region at this time. So, the historical context of the discovery is more than remarkable,” Krasnozhon notes.