Talk:Khamsa

Untitled

Not to be too politically correct but shouldn't the article be placed under the more neurtral term hamsa?

• I agree. It doesn't sit well with me to have an article labeled by the Western term, rather than the term applied by the originating culture, especially when the original term is in broad usage already. I'm not up with Wikipedia protocol. What should one do to petition this change? The article "hamsa" currently links to this page, so switching it oughtn't be a big deal. -(EG 4/18/05)
  • I agree as well, since it has been a long time I will switch it. Epson291 17:27, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

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I think this picture would be a good addition to the article.

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Is this the same as the "Eye of Fatima"?

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Is this related to "Allah"?

Is this related to a custom of writing a stylized "Allah" in Arabic as protection?

Compare the outline of

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No it is not.

The current picture is upside down - the hand should be pointing down.

admin help requested to clean up the move

I've asked an admin to help complete the article move at the Wikipedia:Village_pump_(technical)#Post-move_cleanup_merge_request. BACbKA 12:42, 22 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Literal meaning

Khamsa can mean both five and five-fold , I think the latter is correct here. Did a small edit on this basis.

Hamesh?!

Well, I've lived in Israel my entire life, and this article is the first place I have ever heard that Israelis refer to the Hamsa as "Hamesh". I honestly don't know how that idea got in here. I've only ever heard it called "Khamsa" (חמסה). Michael Sappir • (Talk) 15:37, 10 March 2006 (UTC)

Four months have gone by and nobody's replied to this. Do I correctly conclude I should feel free to correct the article? Michael Sappir • (Talk) 15:19, 11 July 2006 (UTC)

I have never heard it called khamesh either... and that's not for lack of seeing or hearing about that, they are very popular with Israelis and I collect them. I'm taking out the reference, the only evidence I find of that usage is in sites in English selling judaica. Until someone can find a credible source that shows this usage in Israel, I don't think the word khamesh should be referenced.

Mathan 08:18, 9 August 2006 (UTC)

You missed the reference in the beginning of the introduction, so I removed it. It looks rather awkward now, I hope a more experienced editor comes in and sorts it out.

Michael Sappir • (Talk) 13:04, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

Didn't miss the reference, I decided to leave it in because it says khamesh is an alternate name, which it is, only OUTSIDE of where the khamsa is a widely known symbol. Because I wasn't sure of my judgement, I decided to leave it in to see if anyone else found it awkward. I think you were right to take it out, I just was unsure at the time. Mathan 11:30, 12 August 2006 (UTC)

Oops, never mind that, it seems that reference was put back into the article. I won't argue Mathan 11:32, 12 August 2006 (UTC)

Buddhist connection

I looked for more information on the reference to the buddhist abhaya mudra implying that it was related. I couldn't find any such information and the wikipedia description on the page for mudra does not imply this connection. I will delete the reference and instead put a link to that page in the see also section. Mathan 08:36, 9 August 2006 (UTC)