Some interesting info about hamsa pendants and protection amulets from ebay:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/233990791002?h ... SwCXdgcXXi
"Early use of the hamsa has been traced to ancient Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) as well as ancient Carthage(modern day Tunisia). The image of the open right hand is seen in Mesopotamian artifacts in the amulets of the goddess Ishtar or Inanna. Other symbols of divine protection based around the hand include the Hand-of-Venus (or Aphrodite), the Hand-of-Mary, that was used to protect women from the evil eye and/or boost fertility and lactation, promote healthy pregnancies and strengthen the weak. In that time, women were under immense pressure and expectation to become mothers. The woman's upbringing was centered on becoming a mother as an exclusive role, and it indicated child bearing as necessary. It was also thought that marriage was a sense of protection for both the man and the woman. In Jewish culture, the hamsa is associated with the number five because of the five fingers depicted on the hand.
One theory postulates a connection between the khamsa and the Mano Pantea (or Hand-of-the-All-Goddess), an amulet known to ancient Egyptians as the Two Fingers. In this amulet, the Two Fingers represent Isis and Osiris and the thumb represents their child Horus. It was used to invoke the protective spirits of parents over their child. Another theory traces the origins of the hamsa to Carthage (Phoenicia, modern Tunisia) where the hand (or in some cases vulva) of the supreme deity Tanit was used to ward off the evil eye, due to her venereal disease which caused her to have continual vaginal infections which created an offensive smell. According to Bruno Barbatti, at that time this motive was the most important sign of apotropaic magic in the Islamic world, though many modern representations continue to show an obvious origin from sex symbolism.
This relates to the belief that God exists in everything. Another meaning of this symbol relates to the sky god, Horus. It refers to the Eye of Horus, which means humans cannot escape from the eye of conscience. It says that the sun and moon are the eyes of Horus. The Hand of Fatima also represents femininity, and is referred as the woman's holy hand. It is believed to have extraordinary characteristics that can protect people from evil and other dangers.
It is speculated that Jews were among the first to use this amulet due to their beliefs about the evil eye.[ The symbol of the hand appears in Kabbalistic manuscripts and amulets, doubling as the Hebrew letter "Shin", the first letter of "Shaddai", one of the names referring to God. The use of the hamsa in Jewish culture has been intermittent, utilized often by Jews during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, then less and less over time into the mid-twentieth century. However, the notion of a protective hand has been present in Judaism dating all the way back to Biblical times, where it is referenced in Deuteronomy 5:15, stated in the Ten Commandments as the "strong hand" of God who led the Jews out of Egypt.[ The hamsa is later seen in Jewish art as God's hand reaching down from heaven during the times of late antiquity, the Byzantine period, and even medieval Europe. Its use by Ashkenazi Jewish communities from this period is well-known, and evidence has also emerged of the hamsa being used by Jews from medieval Spain, often associated with "sympathetic magic". Historians such as Shalom Sabar believe that after the Jewish expulsion from Spain in 1492, exiled Jews likely used the hamsa as protection in the foreign lands they were forced to relocate to, however this assumption has been difficult to prove] According to Sabar, the hamsa has also been used later by Jews in Europe "as a distinctive sign of the priesthood, especially when they wished to show that a person was of priestly descent...".
The khamsa holds recognition as a bearer of good fortune among Christians in the region as well. Levantine Christians call it the hand of Mary (Arabic: Kef Miryam, or the "Virgin Mary's Hand"). 34 years after the end of Islamic rule in Spain, its use was significant enough to prompt an episcopal committee convened by Emperor Charles to decree a ban on the Hand of Fatima and all open right hand amulets in 1526. "
