Tunic, c. 1900, 40 3/4 × 54 3/4 in. ( × cm), Cotton, Togo, 19th-20th century, Whoever wore this cotton tunic, more than a hundred years ago, was a member of the military nobility of the West African Anufo people. Verses from chapters 5 and 38 of the Qur’an, and invocations of God the Merciful, inscribed on the garment by a Muslim cleric, offered fortitude and protection. Blocks of wavy lines around the shoulders look like Arabic letters but are not readily legible. They form a repetitive script, possibly a supernatural language invoking the assistance of jinn

---

Size: 5684px × 4227px
Location:
Photo credit: © Penta Springs / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: 5, 38, 1900, 19th-20th, african, anufo, arabic, assistance, blocks, century, chapters, cleric, cotton, created, fire, form, fortitude, garment, god, inscribed, invocations, invoking, jinn, language, legible, letters, lines, member, merciful, military, muslim, nobility, offered, people, protection, qur, readily, repetitive, script, shoulders, smokeless, spirits, supernatural, togo, tunic, verses, wavy, west, wore, years