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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture Another odd question. This is definitely religion, and definitely medieval, just not Christian :) Can anyone refer me to someone who would know about the history of Islamic prayer beads? I am coming to the conclusion that nothing reliable has been written in English, although I'm on the track of a couple of things in German, thanks to another correspondent. Books on Christian rosaries barely mention the Islamic beads, and mostly just have a note that they exist and are called *tasbih*. So far everything I've seen in English has either been strictly modern, or has assumed without saying so that the Islamic beads originated at the founding of Islam and haven't changed since. Considering how long ago that was, and how much has happened to Christian prayer beads in that time, I have to be skeptical. My most recent foray has been into _Beads of Faith_, by Gray Henry and Susannah Marriott. When I mention that Gray Henry was a student of Joseph Campbell, that Susannah's most recent book is _The Good Karma Guide_, and that the book has no bibliography and only the most rudimentary photo credits, you'll know what I think of its reliability. It appears to be the book-ization of a video, and admittedly the photography is gorgeous. :) What I'm trying to track at the moment is whether anyone knows how far back in Islam the use of beads actually extends. _Beads of Faith_ contains a quote from the prophet Mohammed: "Repeat the *Tasbih* a hundred times, and a thousand virtues shall be recorded by God for you, 10 virtuous deeds for each repetition." However I have no idea whether this has been correctly translated, and particularly not whether the *tasbih* in this context actually refers to _beads_, or simply to a particular practice of prayer. Until recently the best documentation I could find was a couple of 16th-century Safavid Persian paintings showing people with what are clearly prayer beads. _Beads of Faith_ does have a manuscript illustration which it says is a "12th century Mogul painting" showing an Islamic "saint" in India with his beads, but apparently the manuscript is in private hands (?) which means I have no way to check the date. Suggestions? Books I've tried already include Eithne Wilkins' _The Rose-Garden Game_, which I don't consider reliable at all, and Anne Winston-Allen's _Stories of the Rose: The Making of the Rosary in the Middle Ages_, which is excellent in scholarship, but barely mentions the Islamic beads and doesn't have anything on them in the bibliography. -- _________________________________________________________ O Chris Laning | <[log in to unmask]> + Davis, California _________________________________________________________ ********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME to: [log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it to: [log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion to: [log in to unmask] In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: [log in to unmask] For further information, visit our web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html