Islam and beliefs. Protection and blessing

In North Africa, Islam is expressed in two different ways: an official and scriptural Islam, centred on the Koran and the mosques, and an informal or popular Islam, expressed with the pilgrimage to the tomb of a saint (moussem) and the worship of the saints. The two are expressed both in urban and rural fields. It is often wrongly affirmed that informal Islam is mainly Berber.

While Islam found a path in the daily life of Berbers, some practices went beyond this monotheist expression to enter the world of beliefs. In fact, many Berber women use amulets to protect themselves and their families and children. This practice shows the symbiosis produced in the daily life of many Amazighs.

The expression of religious feeling and faith can be seen in the existence of many small-sized Koran holders that form part of fibulas and necklaces and that tell us of the Muslim faith, while the jewels are full of amulets of all kinds and of all shapes and representations with a mixed credo of beliefs.


The hand of Fatima (also called khamsa, luha and afus) is an amulet used both by Arabs and Berbers whose origin is highly controversial. Note that it is identified as a “hand”, understood as a symbol of protection that materialises ideas with its activity and that represents authority and domination, and as the number “five”, given that it always has the particularity of being formed by the five fingers of the hand.

“Five” is a symbolic representation of the human body, a symbol of the universe with two axes with the same centre and a symbol of order and perfection that, in fact, gathers together the five senses, the five sensitive forms of matter.