A Magical Banner with the Representation of Paradise from the Tareq Rajab Museum in Kuwait

The Tareq Rajab Museum in Kuwait owns an interesting piece of cotton looking like a triangular banner. It is covered with inscriptions and numbers arranged in squares. The calligraphic panels are penned in black ṯuluṯ, the doubled border lines and the squares are ruled in red. In an upright position with the fly end up and the hoist end down, the central layout of the elements in the field shows the figure of a stepped pyramid composed of eight magic squares. This structure resembles very much the representation of Paradise in Islamic cosmology that has gained wide popularity in the 18th-19th centuries. The article describes this magical object and intends to shed light on the guiding principles that influenced the arrangement of the texts and the numbers in the squares. As is well-known, banners have always played an important role in Islamic politics, warfare and religion. Starting from the latter point, this study also approaches the subject from the aspects of the relations between Paradise and tomb, Paradise and banner, banner and tomb, banner and magic. However, this banner-like object has never been hoisted on a flagpole and has never been used as a real flag. Namely, the traces of folding in the material reveal that it was meant to be worn as a talismanic chart on the body of its owner for a magical purpose. The banner, in addition to Sūrat al-Fatḥ, exhibits a wide array of magical quadrates which are analyzed in detail.