Marrakech Fossil Engraved With Muslim Declaration of Faith Puzzles Scientists
Bought in a Marrakech souk 32 years ago, a Jurassic fossil is now intriguing Spanish scientists. The Muslim declaration of faith is engraved in Arabic on both sides. Researchers have just discovered why this ancient shell may have been turned into a talisman.
In 1994, a curious fossil changed hands in a Marrakech souk. The object looks like an ordinary stone, except for one detail: Arabic characters appear in relief on both sides. It would take several decades for three Spanish researchers to examine this feature and propose an unexpected explanation.
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This stone is actually a natural cast of a marine shell that lived during the Jurassic period, millions of years ago. The animal disappeared long ago, but its shape was preserved in the rock. The inscriptions, however, are much more recent. Made in Kufic script, they reproduce the shahada, the Muslim declaration of faith: “There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is his prophet.”
The object is thought to have come from the Atlas Mountains, near Marrakech, a region where rocks preserve many traces of ancient marine life. It is now held at the Museum of Geology and Mining in Madrid. Researchers from the Complutense University and Spain’s Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) have just published a study of it in the Journal of the Geological Society.
A talisman to counter powers attributed to fossils?
Why engrave a religious inscription on a fossilized shell? Scientists say the answer may lie in beliefs once widespread in the Atlas Mountains. Some Berber communities regarded marine fossils as objects with special powers, sometimes using them in divination or witchcraft.
The shahada may have been intended to neutralize these supposed powers by placing the object within an Islamic religious framework. The researchers date the engraving to between the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They also consider a possible link to debates about the evolution of species that were circulating in the Arab world at the time.
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To understand the object, two paleontologists, Juan Carlos Gutiérrez-Marco and Sara Romero, worked with Delfina Serrano Ruano, a specialist in Arabic language and culture. Their study presents this Moroccan fossil as the first documented example of an Islamic talisman bearing a religious inscription on a prehistoric remnant.
Another fossil bearing Arabic characters had previously been identified in Palestine. But its inscription was not religious. The Marrakech fossil is therefore distinctive for its dual history: that of a marine animal that disappeared millions of years ago, and that of an object to which people later gave a spiritual purpose.
