Observations on the Jām-e Čehel Kelid in Iran

Abstract

The paper is based on two types of sources: folkloristic-anthropological texts, and a number of jām-e čehel kelid (magic bowls) located in Iranian museums and in the collections of antiquarians and dealers. In this context, the stories of evil forces and miracles narrated by the antiquarians that I interviewed appear just as plausible as the fears and miraculous beliefs of the men and women who resorted to these bowls, attributing hermetical functions to them. Moreover, I gathered from narrations offered by antiquarians and found in folkloristic-anthropological texts that in the past, every individual family nucleus had its own bespoke bowl in home. This article presents the terminology used in the texts, the rituals connected to the bowls, and some of the more peculiar characteristics of the bowls I observed.