1. A khatem-sometimes written khatam, khatim, xatem, or xaatim-is usually called a "magic square" in Su and other literatures (e.g., Zaslavsky 1973) and popular parlance. Given the ways that the word magic is used to exoticize Africans and others (see Blier 1993:147-152), we have chosen to follow the usage of the Senegalese Su Sheikh Ahmad Tall (1995), in calling khatem "mystical squares." At the same time, we acknowledge that the word mystical may carry some of the same connotations as the word magic.
2. The same mystical shorthand is used in the patterning of certain Mouride clothing design; see Roberts and Roberts 2003b:118.
3. Our primary reference here is to gra tists, street artists, and others whose works are meant to perfect the lived and living environment. Such e orts have a particular history, as set forth in Roberts and Roberts 2002, 2003b, and 2006. Other Senegalese artists producing for national and international art markets also re ect upon the contrasts and contradictions of Dakar. For example, through contemporary photography, Sada Tangara and Mamadou Gomis "study the shifting context of the city between formal and informal, o cial and uno cial narratives" of Dakar (Enwezor 2006:38, 226-245). Mouride contemporary arts are discussed in Roberts and Roberts 2003b:190-211.
4. The repetition of icons common in early Byzantium was banned in post-iconoclastic times, because the more-is-better principle was recognized for what it was and is: talismanic. Instead, carefully identi ed single images were used, stressing that they were to facilitate intercession but to have no power of their own. See Maguire 1996:139 and passim.
5. Local political use of generic Islamic imagery and the shift toward portrayal of local saints and themes are discussed in Roberts and Roberts 2003b:88-92.