Prayer beads

Prayer beads are used by members of various religious traditions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Catholicism/Orthodoxy, Islam, Sikhism and the Bahá'í Faith to mark the repetitions of prayers, chants or devotions, such as the rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Catholicism, and dhikr (remembrance of God) in Islam.

Beads are among the earliest human ornaments and ostrich shell beads in Africa date to 10,000 BC. Over the centuries various cultures have made beads from a variety of materials from stone and shells to clay.

The English word bead derives from the Old English noun bede which means a prayer. The oldest image of a string of beads in a religious context and resembling a string of prayer beads, is found on the fresco of the "Adorants" (or "Worshipers") at the Xeste 3 building of the prehistoric settlement of Akrotiri, Santorini (Thera,) Greece (Wall Paintings of Thera.) http://news.in.gr/files/1/2016/thira3.jpg dating from the 17th c. BC (c. 1613 BC.) The exact origins of prayer beads remain uncertain, but their earliest historical use probably traces to Hindu prayers in India.Buddhism probably borrowed the concept from Hinduism. The statue of a holy Hindu man with beads dates to the third century BC.

The number of beads varies by religion or use. Islamic prayer beads, called Misbaha or Tasbih, usually have 99 or 33 beads. Buddhists and Hindus use the Japa Mala, which usually has 108 beads, or 27 which are counted four times. Baha'i prayer beads consist of either 95 beads or 19 beads, which are strung with the addition of five beads below. The Sikh Mala also has 108 beads.

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Wikipedia