

Strand of beads, 9th–12th century
Found at Iran, Nishapur
Carnelian
Found at Iran, Nishapur
Carnelian
Rogers Fund, 1948 (48.101.70)
These beads, found together but restrung in a modern setting, may have formed a strand of prayer beads, which in Islamic practice has either thirty-three or ninety-nine beads to facilitate the recitation of the ninety-nine names of God. The pendant bead here is of the size and form commonly used as the chief spacer and "handle," by which the user knew by touch that he had finished a circuit.







