At a glance
- Also called
- evil eye bead, blue eye charm, turkish eye
- Found in
- Spells & Occult Terms
- Related
- Evil Eye, Amulet, Hamsa, Talisman
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What is a nazar?
The nazar is the most familiar charm against the evil eye. It is a flat bead or disc of glass made of concentric rings, dark blue outside, then white, pale blue and a dark centre, so that it looks back like an eye. People pin a small one to a baby's clothes, hang one by the door, in a car or over a shop counter, and give them to mark a new house or a birth. If a bead cracks, it is said to have done its work and is replaced.
The word is Arabic for sight or a glance, and passed into Turkish, Persian, Urdu and Hindi, where it also names the evil eye itself. In Turkish the bead is the nazar boncuğu.
On the tree of the hidden arts: Magic and protection.
What sets Nazar apart
The nazar works by an old logic of like against like: a staring eye is set up to meet the harmful stare and take it. That is why the charm must be seen, hung at the door or pinned outside the clothes and never hidden, and why a broken one counts as a success. It crosses religious lines with ease. Muslims, Christians and Jews of the region use it, often beside a prayer, and religious teachers of each faith have at times objected to it as superstition.
- Word: Arabic nazar, sight or a glance
- Turkish name: nazar boncuğu, the eye bead
- Made of: glass in rings of dark blue, white and pale blue
- Where made: villages near Izmir, among them Nazarköy
- Oldest eye beads: Egypt and the Mediterranean, second millennium BCE
- When it cracks: it is said to have done its work, and is replaced
Often mistaken for something else: The hamsa is a hand held up against the eye and is commonest in North Africa and the Levant; the nazar is an eye set against the eye, and is commonest in Turkey and Greece.
The story behind Nazar
Eye-shaped charms are very old: eye beads of glass were made in Egypt and around the Mediterranean from about the middle of the second millennium BCE. The modern Turkish bead is the work of glassmakers near Izmir, in villages such as Görece and Nazarköy, where the craft has been carried on for generations. Mass production and tourism in the twentieth century made it a common souvenir and a sign of the region.
Why Nazar matters
Nazar is a living example of a protective amulet in daily use, and its form shows the old idea of meeting a harmful gaze with another eye.
How to read Nazar
Readers meet it as jewellery, as an emoji and on doorways around the eastern Mediterranean, and it explains itself once the belief is known.
Nazar in practice: an example
A visitor to Istanbul who is handed a small blue glass eye on a safety pin by a new friend is being given a nazar and a wish for good luck.
Where readings of Nazar go wrong
The bead is a custom and a kindness. No charm takes the place of care for a child who is unwell, and no neighbour is to be blamed for an envious look.
Sources and editorial method
This entry summarizes the tradition in the Almanac's own words; where no source is listed, it is an editorial summary rather than a primary text, and symbolic readings are named as the tradition's, not as fact.
Recorded here as history and lore. No rite is taught on this page.
- Source
- The Great Almanac Dictionary
- Category
- Spells & Occult Terms
- Aliases
- nazar boncugu, evil eye bead, blue eye charm, turkish eye, nazar amulet
- Last updated
- 2026-09-26
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Common questions
What is a nazar?
An eye-shaped charm, usually of blue glass with white and blue rings, used in Turkey, Greece and nearby countries to guard against the evil eye.
Why is the nazar blue?
Explanations vary. Blue glass was an early and prized colour of Mediterranean glassmakers, and in the region light eyes were sometimes thought likelier to cast the eye.
What does it mean when a nazar breaks?
By custom a cracked or broken bead is said to have taken a harmful glance and done its work. It is thrown away and a new one is hung.
