Nazar (amulet)

The term is also used in Azerbaijani, Bengali, Hebrew, Hindi–Urdu, Kurdish, Pashto, Persian, Punjabi, Turkish, Greek and other languages.

[1] In Turkey, it is known by the name nazar boncuğu[2] (the latter word being a derivative of boncuk, "bead" in Turkic, and the former borrowed from Arabic), in Greece it is known as máti (μάτι, 'eye').

[9] "The bead is made of a mixture of molten glass, iron, copper, water, and salt, ingredients that are thought to shield people from evil.

"[14] The Turkish boncuk (sometimes called a göz boncuğu or eye bead) is a glass bead characterized by a blue glass field with a blue white and black dot superimposed on a white or yellow center.

A design of great antiquity, the blue bead has gained importance as an item of popular culture in modern Turkey.