e history of blessed shirts goes back a very long way. The Prophet Joseph (Peace be unto him) #Yusuf in Arabic, is believed to have owned one that protected him from hardship and evil. It is even credited with performing blessings (barakaat) – as when it restored the vision of Joseph’s father, Jacob (Peace be unto him) #Yaqub in Arabic, following an instruction recorded in the Qur’an, Surah Yusuf (XII, verse 93):
اذْهَبُواْ بِقَمِيصِي هَـذَا فَأَلْقُوهُ عَلَى وَجْهِ أَبِي يَأْتِ بَصِيرًا وَأْتُونِي بِأَهْلِكُمْ أَجْمَعِينَ
“Take this, my shirt, and cast it over the face of my father; he will become seeing. And bring me your family, all together.”
Blessed shirts such as these were of immense religious and monetary value amongst Muslim rulers and elites in Africa and Asia. Four distinctive types of Islamic blessed shirts have been identified:
1) Ottoman,
2) Safavid,
3) Mughal and
4) West African
But none on hand in museums can be dated to earlier than the 15th century.
Each group has its own unique stylistic approach to the shape of the garments and the blessed Quran verses used, as well as the design of the Calligraphy. A very small number of these garments are signed and dated, one of which belongs to the Ottoman group and is housed in the Topkapı Palace Museum in Istanbul.
The Topkapı shirt was commissioned for Cem Sultan (d.1495), son of Sultan Mehmed II, and includes not only the exact date and time at which the construction of the shirt was begun, (30 March 1477, Tuesday, 12:36pm, the Sun in 19 degrees Aries), but also the exact date and time it was finished (29 March 1480, Sunday 3:57am, the Sun in 19 degrees Aries). Topkapı’s dated example gives an unusually accurate idea of how time consuming the production of such garments could be – three years to complete a single shirt.
Unfortunately, by its nature of its 'secret' use, there are very few sources that discuss or even mention the use of these objects. One source, written in the 1530’s in Istanbul, describes a battle shirt made by a pious man in Mecca through which neither bullets nor swords could penetrate. That shirt was commissioned for the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent (1520—1527) by his wife Hürrem Sultan, and still survives to this day. It is also housed in the Topkapı Palace Museum in Istanbul.
Though blessed shirts were used as protection from disease, famine, difficult child birth, sudden death, and the unpredictability of travel, it is believed that the majority of these shirts were meant for use in battle.
Particular verses from the Qur’an that refer to victory were commonly inscribed on shirts worn under armour – the very word of God was intended to protect the owner while they fight.
Source: http://www.vam.ac.uk/blog/research-department/guest-post-a-warriors-magic-shirt
