It gleams with splendour as well in the Treasury of the Ottoman Palace where it winks at us from the ornamental plumes, each one more priceless than the last, the pencil boxes and the water bowls that assuaged the thirst of the great sultans. Outside the palace, it is transformed into the Iznik tiles on the walls of mosques that exude a whiff and hue of history, permeating our hearts with inner peace through our eyes.
Although the ‘eye’ on so-called evil eye beads derives from beliefs as old as the history of man, the bead’s actual colour is turquoise and its roots go back to the 4th century B.C. Unlike the painted glass beads of today, it was the stone turquoise that was assigned the task of warding off evil all over the world from Mesopotamia to the Aztecs and was believed to keep the evil eye away whether used in jewellery or as a decoration on a house.
The Chinese meanwhile, who believe that turquoise maintains the balance between the yin and the yang, use the stone in holy places in the belief that it will bring order to their lives.