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Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle · Milwaukee, Wisconsin · 18 September 1925

CP-1925-011

The Evil Eye in Palestine

Palestinian Folk Lore, Primitive Beliefs, Amulets and Charms

J. Goldsmith, Jewish Telegraphic Agency

The Evil Eye in Palestine — Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle, 18 September 1925
Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle · Milwaukee, Wisconsin · 18 September 1925

Transcribed from the clipping

“In the primitive days the belief prevailed among practically all peoples that success, beauty, youth, strength, all the desirable things in life were in constant danger from envious people and envious gods… Among primitive and backward peoples these beliefs still obtain. In Palestine even today the natives, Moslem, Christian and Jew, believe in the power of the evil eye, and by charms and spells and amulets strive to avert the working of the curse… Dr. Canaan, an Arab doctor of medicine in Palestine, who studied for many years in Germany, and is married to a German wife, is an authority on the subject of folk lore and he has written a great deal concerning it, both in books and in periodicals. He is extremely popular with his patients, Moslems, Jews and Christians, and is thus able to pursue with special advantage, his investigations among them on his pet subject. He has a remarkably rich collection of amulets and other charms, and he can talk with amazing knowledge of the varieties of magic which they are supposed to be able to work. It is to Dr. Canaan that I am indebted for what I know of these matters.… The belief in the evil eye obtains in Palestine among Jews, Moslems and Christians, but chiefly among the Moslems — the fellaheen and the Bedouins. Of the Christian population, the Greek Orthodox are more superstitious than the Protestants and the Roman Catholics… Effective protection against the evil eye are blue pearls, alum and pictures of the eye… Blue is believed to neutralize the evil eye. In the East, blue is the dominant color in nature, sky air and water are all blue. Many of the walls and tombstones are also blue. And that is why blue has been chosen as the color of protection… Medicines are not believed in. It is an impossibility for a doctor to take away an amulet from his patient, the people believing that if the amulet is taken away the illness will grow worse.”

Context added by this archive

The headline calls it primitive; the body says the authority on the subject is a named Palestinian physician, and that everything the writer knows he owes to him. Tawfiq Canaan practised in Jerusalem and published extensively on Palestinian folk medicine. He is the earliest named Palestinian scholar in this archive, and the paper credits him while filing his field under superstition.

Cite this item

"The Evil Eye in Palestine," Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle, 18 September 1925. Covering Palestine archive, CP-1925-011. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-1925-011

Elsewhere in the archive

This record is part of Covering Palestine, an archive of American and Anglophone newspaper clippings about Palestinians, 1812 to 2022. Researched and assembled by Maria Robles.

The clipping belongs to the newspaper that printed it, or to the wire service that supplied the copy. It is reproduced here for research, criticism and commentary. The city is derived from the masthead, not read off the clipping.

Something wrong here, or something you know about this clipping? The archive is still being built and corrections are wanted: maria@rozumstudio.com, quoting CP-1925-011.

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