What the blue eye bead is for, where the belief comes from, how the beads are made near İzmir, and how to tell handmade glass from mass-produced souvenirs.
Last reviewed on 27 September 2026.
Spend an hour in Türkiye and you will see it: a blue glass disc with a white ring and a dark centre, hanging from rear-view mirrors, pinned to babies' clothes, set into doorways and shop counters, printed on cups and sewn onto bags. This is the nazar boncuğu, the "evil eye bead", and it is probably the most widespread folk object in the country. This page explains the belief behind it, its long history, how the traditional beads are made and how people use them today.
Nazar means "look" or "gaze". The belief is that a look charged with envy — or even with excessive admiration — can bring harm to the person or thing looked at: a healthy baby falls ill, a new car breaks down, a thriving business suffers, a beautiful plant withers. The person casting the eye does not necessarily mean harm; the danger lies in unguarded admiration itself. Nazar is also known in Turkish as göz değmesi, the eye "touching" something.
The idea is far older than Islam and far wider than Türkiye. Versions exist around the Mediterranean, in the Middle East, the Balkans, the Caucasus, Iran and South Asia: the Greek mati, the Italian malocchio, the Arabic 'ayn. Within Islam, the reality of the evil eye is mentioned in hadith, and the short protective chapters at the end of the Qur'an, including the verse seeking refuge "from the evil of the envier when he envies", are recited against it. Religious scholars, however, generally discourage treating amulets as a source of protection in themselves; to them, protection comes from God through prayer, and some regard reliance on a bead as superstition at best.
Eye beads — glass beads decorated with concentric rings resembling an eye — have a very long history in the eastern Mediterranean and the Near East. Examples appear in the ancient world from well before the Common Era, and Phoenician and later Roman and Byzantine glassmakers produced them widely. The logic of the design is to "return the gaze": an eye to meet the eye, deflecting or absorbing its force.
Why blue? Explanations vary. Blue glass was relatively easy to make with cobalt and copper colourants, and blue has long been considered protective in the region. A popular explanation holds that light-coloured eyes, rarer in the region, were associated with the evil eye, so a blue eye was used to counter it. These accounts are traditional rather than proven, and the colour may simply reflect what glassmakers could produce well.
The traditional Turkish nazar boncuğu is handmade glass, and its best-known centre is in the hinterland of İzmir. The village of Nazarköy ("evil eye village") in the Kemalpaşa district took its name from the craft, and the village of Görece nearby is also associated with bead-making. Workshops there have produced beads in wood- or gas-fired furnaces for generations, although the number of master bead-makers has shrunk as cheap mass-produced beads took over the market.
The traditional method is simple in principle and hard in practice:
Visitors can sometimes watch the process in Nazarköy's workshops and buy beads directly. Opening arrangements are informal and vary, so ask locally in İzmir or Kemalpaşa before making the trip.
Words are the most common protection of all. When admiring a baby, a new house or someone's good fortune, Turks add maşallah — "what God has willed" — which frames the compliment as recognition of God's gift rather than envy. Complimenting a baby without saying maşallah can make some parents uneasy; adding it is an easy courtesy. You will see maşallah painted on lorries and buses and written on shop signs.
Other phrases serve related purposes: nazar değmesin ("may the eye not touch it"), Allah korusun ("God protect") and şeytan kulağına kurşun ("lead in the devil's ear"), said after mentioning something good so as not to tempt fate. Many people accompany these with a physical gesture: knocking twice on wood (tahtaya vurmak) and gently tugging an earlobe.
"Pouring lead": a practitioner, often an older woman, melts lead and pours it into a bowl of cold water held over the head of someone thought to be affected by the evil eye. The lead hardens into shapes, which are read for signs of the source of the harm; the process may be repeated until the shapes are smooth.
Seeds and dried pods of Syrian rue (Peganum harmala), hung as ornaments or burned so the smoke passes around a person or room. Decorative üzerlik hangings are sold in markets.
Burning salt, or reciting protective verses and blowing gently over the affected person, are common household responses when a child is fretful or someone feels unwell.
These practices sit on the border between folk custom and religion, and attitudes vary: some families treat them as heritage, some as sincere practice, and many devout Muslims reject them. Kurşun dökme in particular has become rare in cities, although practitioners can still be found.
A cracked or broken bead is traditionally said to have done its job by absorbing a harmful look, and it should be replaced rather than repaired. Beads are often given rather than bought for oneself, and giving one is a friendly gesture of goodwill. Many Turks who do not claim to believe in nazar still keep one, in the same spirit as knocking on wood.
Most nazar beads for sale today are mass-produced — some in glass, many in plastic, resin or ceramic, and a large share imported. They are harmless, but if you want a traditional handmade glass bead, a few checks help:
The nazar boncuğu, or evil eye bead, is a protective charm. It reflects the belief that an envious or admiring look can cause harm, and the eye-shaped bead is meant to deflect or absorb that harmful gaze. It is not primarily a good-luck charm.
Glass eye beads have been made in the eastern Mediterranean and Near East since ancient times, well before Islam. In Türkiye the traditional handmade beads are associated especially with Nazarköy and nearby villages in the İzmir area.
Maşallah means what God has willed. Turks say it when admiring a baby, a home or someone's good fortune, so that the compliment is not taken as envy and does not bring the evil eye.
According to folk belief, a cracked or broken nazar bead has absorbed a harmful look and done its job. It is usually replaced with a new bead rather than repaired.
Kurşun dökme, or pouring lead, is a folk practice in which molten lead is poured into cold water held over the head of someone thought to be affected by the evil eye. The resulting shapes are interpreted. It is now uncommon, especially in cities.
Handmade glass beads are heavier and cooler than plastic, slightly irregular, and have fused, raised rings of colour, sometimes with small bubbles. Plastic beads are light, very uniform and may show a moulding seam or printed eye.