The Komboloi and Its History

By Aris Evangelinos

Book Overview

The story of Prayer beads in many countries and the travels of Aris Evangelinos as he travels through out the East. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 9608627117
• ISBN13: 9789608627116
• Release Date: January 1998
• Publisher: Komboloi Museum
• Length: 158 Pages
• Weight: 0.58 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.0" x 7.0"

Customer Reviews

A gripping autobiography with lots of information on prayer beads

I bought this book online a few years ago directly from the Komboloi Museum in Athens, but for some reason haven't read until now. It's a history of prayer beads in world religions, but told as a high-drama autobiographical adventure story. It begins with the dying grandfather taking the boy aside and telling him the secret of a friendship with a man in Egypt who has a secret prayer-bead manufacturing place. The author then goes to Egypt and gets a mysterious note in Arabic from an abbot, and goes on a trek through the desert (which he says is infested with bandits, though he didn't meet any) to a secret oasis compound. The man who meets him reads the abbot's note and breaks into tears, hugging the author and telling him that he is the son of the author's grandfather's friend. Then he shows him the secret factory. The secret formula for reconstituted amber is in a safe to which the man keeps the key around his neck, and so on. Very much like an Indiana Jones movie, without the bad guys, though the bandits might be lurking over the next dune. I'm enjoying this a lot. It was self-published, edited by the author's sister, and translated into English by another woman. The style is very colloquial, but that's part of the charm. Besides the information about prayer beads, most of which is already familiar to me, what I'm taking away is how hard it used to be to get information. In this Internet age, we take it for granted that we can just google anything we want (which is how I found this book in the first place.) But back in 1970, when the author was doing his research, he had to travel by camel out into the Egyptian desert to get his information.

The Komboloi and its history

I purchased my copy of this book in Greece and actually visited the Komboloi Museum in Nafplion. This is a very interesting book that traces the history of the Komboloi through the personal research of Aris Evangelinos. The story of how he traveled through the Middle and Far East to research this subject and his experiences makes for an easy and very satisfying read. This is a topic that is familiar to Buddists, Hindus, Moslems, Catholics and Orthodox Monks. If you have a Komboloi and want to know what its all about, read this book and you won't be disappointed.