What is the hand of Fatima?

Khamsa means "five" in Arabic — five fingers, five pillars of Islam, five daily prayers. The open palm shape is older than Islam: Carthaginian gravestones from the 4th century BC carry it, and it spread across the Mediterranean as a protective sign. In Morocco it's associated with Fatima, the Prophet Muhammad's daughter, but Jewish Moroccans called the same amulet the Hand of Miriam, and Amazigh communities used it long before either tradition arrived. It is a shared, pre-confessional object.

The amulet wards off the evil eye (al-'ayn) — the belief that envy, especially praise that is too direct, can cause material harm to the person or thing praised. Mothers cover the praised child's wrist with a khamsa. Shopkeepers hang one near the till. Cars carry it on the rear-view mirror. The Arabic phrase khamsa fi ainek ("five in your eye") is the verbal equivalent, said with the palm forward.

Almost every market in Morocco sells them in silver, brass, leather, and resin, from 20 MAD to several thousand. Antique tribal pieces — Tiznit Berber silver hands set with coral — are collectors' items; new ones from the souk are gifts. The eye motif inside the palm is a redundancy, not a contradiction: an eye to watch the evil eye.