From "the Skeptic's Dictionary" (www.skepdic.com):
"""The oldest playing cards date back to tenth century China, but the four suits of tarot and modern playing cards probably originated with a fourteenth century Muslim deck .[Decker] According to de Givry, in the modern 52-card deck of ordinary playing cards, sticks or wands = clubs (and announce news); swords = spades (and presage unhappiness and death); cups = hearts (and presage happiness); coins = diamonds (and presage money). According to Decker, the Muslim sticks represented polo sticks. As Europeans were not yet familiar with polo, they changed the suit of sticks to that of wands, cudgels or batons."""
With Islamic interest in the spirit world and elaborate curses, one should not assume that a muslim wouldn't leave a tarot card.
Insightful info!! Makes more since than anything I have seen so far about this tarot card business... especially the curse part.