The eye bead
Nazar; nazar boncuğu
- Known today as
- A bead of handmade glass worked in rings of dark blue, white, light blue, and black, like an eye.
- Kind
- Amulet, in 1 older authority
- Earliest authority here
- The Catholic Encyclopedia (New York, 1907–1914)
Revised October 3, 2026: An authority added from a text read in full. Checked against its sources, each read in full, in part, or in its abstract. Version 1, first published September 28, 2026.
The eye bead: what was it used for?
Pinned on newborn babies and hung in houses, shops, and cars and on horses, to draw the first glance of the evil eye away from the wearer.
The eye bead: what does modern science say?
Many cultures of the Mediterranean and the Middle East keep some such amulet against the evil eye.
What Medicine Makes of It
- The Evil EyeEnvy, the glance, and the anthropology of misfortune.
The eye bead: what lore surrounds it?
Eye amulets are old. Elworthy counted the Egyptian “mystic eye” the commonest Egyptian amulet after the scarab, with whole necklaces of them in blue enamel in the British Museum, and found eyes still painted on the bows of Maltese boats, as the Egyptians and Etruscans had painted them.
The eye bead: what did the older authorities say?
- The Catholic Encyclopedia
- The Catholic Encyclopedia holds that superstition's “apparent success … can mostly be accounted for by natural causes,” and that the evil eye “is still dreaded in many countries.” Pliny, in his book of remedies, recalls “certain men of a monstrous nature, whose gaze is endowed with powers of fascination,” and the Roman custom “to counteract fascinations” of invoking “the Nemesis of the Greeks; whose statue, for this reason, has been placed in the Capitol at Rome, although the goddess herself possesses no Latin name.”
Sources
- Elworthy, F. T. (1895). The Evil Eye. London: John Murray. Read in part · the text read
- The Catholic Encyclopedia (New York, 1907–1914), “Superstition.” newadvent.org/cathen/14339a.htm Read in full · the text read
- Pliny the Elder, Natural History 28.6, trans. J. Bostock & H. T. Riley (1855), Perseus Digital Library. Read in part · the text read
- Pliny the Elder, Natural History 28.5, trans. J. Bostock & H. T. Riley (1855), Perseus Digital Library. Read in part · the text read
- Center for Russian, East European & Eurasian Studies, University of Kansas (n.d.). Nazar. crees.ku.edu/nazar Read in full · the text read
Verification
- Checked
- October 1, 2026, and October 3, 2026
- Passes
- Every dated or regulatory claim checked by category across the database
- Each quotation from the older authorities checked word for word against the text, read in full
- Every source read, in full, in part, or in its abstract, and every sentence checked against what was read (October 3, 2026)
- Sources
- 5 cited: 2 read in full, 3 read in part.
- Corrections
- None were needed.
What was checked, how, and what was found is set out on the Verification page. A checked source is one whose record was found; it does not make the entry medical advice.
Cite This Entry
Version 1 · first published September 28, 2026 · last revised October 3, 2026
- Chicago
“The eye bead.” In Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1. The Thinking Press, 2026–. Last modified October 3, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/eye-bead.
- MLA
“The eye bead.” Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema, version 1, The Thinking Press, 3 Oct. 2026, thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/eye-bead. Accessed 8 Oct. 2026.
- APA
The eye bead. (2026, October 3). In B. C. P. Statema (Ed.), Materia medica (Version 1). The Thinking Press. Retrieved October 8, 2026, from https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/eye-bead
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See Also
Also in The Catholic Encyclopedia
The fig hand in The Catholic Encyclopedia · The exorcists’ manuals in The Catholic Encyclopedia · Gold, frankincense, and myrrh in The Catholic Encyclopedia · Epiphany water in The Catholic Encyclopedia · everything The Catholic Encyclopedia names →
Drawing on the same sources: Elworthy
Nearby in the alphabet
Eyebright (Euphrasia officinalis and relatives) · Fairy ring champignon (A small tan mushroom that grows in rings on lawns and pasture) · Eryngo · False morel (reddish-brown spring mushroom of conifer woods) · Ergot · Fennel (seed and water) · Epsom salt (first boiled from the waters of a spring on Epsom Common in Surrey)
Historical description, not medical advice.