Issue 11 Fall 2003

Throughout the medieval Islamicworld, people of all classes and allreligions (Christian, Jews and Mus-lims) had frequent recourse tomagical therapy, often turning to thepreventive and curative power oftalismans and amulets. This isevident from written sources andfrom preserved artefacts of thematerial culture. The artefactspresent us with a different picture ofmagical practices than that whichemerges from the written sources,and it is this apparent dichotomy thatI wish to explore briefly here.

Even if we allow that some of themore elaborate designs proposed intreatises might have been employedon very perishable materials, thereis, nonetheless, a noticeable discrep-ancy between text and artefact aspreserved today.

First, let us look at the writtensources. A typical example of atalismanic design from an Arabicmedieval magical manual is shown

Islamic

Magical

Texts vs.

Magical

ArtefactsEmilie Savage-Smith

in Fig. 1.1 It is taken from one of themagical manuals written by theacknowledged authority on thesubject, an Egyptian writer namedAbu al-‘Abbas Ahmad ibn Yusuf al-Buni, who died in 1225 AD. Notethat it is an intricate design thatwould take considerable space toreproduce and would require notableengraving or calligraphic skill on thepart of the amulet maker. The en-closing text states that if it is in-scribed, with some additional magi-cal words, on a ring, or on a gem-stone set in a ring, and the ring isworn by a woman, then she will getmarried. If the ring is placed on theforehead of someone who hasfainted, they will revive. If the ringis immersed in rain water, the water,when drunk, will relieve all pains.An impression of the inscription onthe ring can be used to removemagic spells and cure poisonousbites.

A subgroup of magical treatises weredevoted solely to the use of stones

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and gems as amulets. Elaboratedesigns are given in these treatises,and a typical example is shown inFig. 2, taken from a treatise on theoccult properties of stones falselyattributed to the 9th-century transla-tor and physician Hunayn ibnIshaq.2 The reader is instructed toengrave the pictoral designs onto thesurface of a gemstone set in a ring,with the gemstone usually specifiedas ruby or another precious stone.Such rings were said to have variouspowers, such as increasing thepleasure of sexual intercourse,easing childbirth, or warding offleprosy or the plague.

On the face of it, there is a problemtrying to engrave these designs on a

small gemstone. Moreover, and veryimportantly, these recommendeddesigns are not reflected in anyartefacts known to exist today —neither the abstract designs of al-Buni nor the miniature figures fromthe stone books. Are we not hereencountering a literary tradition,possibly originating in Late Antiq-uity, that flourished separately fromthe actual production of amulets?

Various stones were of course usedas amulets, some worn simply aspendants and others set in rings.There are hundreds, if not thou-sands, of small semi-precious orhardstone amulets and amuleticseals in collections around theworld, and a considerable number

have been studied and catalogued.Some have amuletic designs such asthe common 3x3 magic square,while most have Qur’anic quota-tions and pious invocations. None,however, have human figures onthem, or even the intricate abstractdesigns given by al-Buni.

The designs in al-Buni’s treatises,and those in stone books and othermagical design-books, are repeatedthroughout the subsequent magicalliterature (with variations, ofcourse), and yet we do not find theseelaborate designs on any artefactsrecorded today. It is as if theyrepresent a strictly literary tradition.How much actual use was made ofsuch magical instruction books is

Figure 1 Figure 2

Page 3Societas Magica Newsletter—Fall 2003

very difficult to assess, though it isevident that there was much interestin compiling and copying them.

Amulets and magical equipment, onthe other hand, sometimes havedesigns not to be found in any of themedieval written texts that have sofar been examined.

1. The most obvious example is thatof the fish, which (judging fromthe artefacts) was a common andapparently early talismanicsymbol, curiously lacking in thewritten texts.

2. A second example is a designthat occurs on a number of nearlyidentical amulets dating from the10th and 11th centuries, probablymade in Iran. An example isillustrated in Fig. 3, which showsboth sides of such an amulet,along with an enlarged drawingof the distinctive talismanicdesign.3 This type is made ofhaematite or other base metaland has a moulded bird on oneside, and on the other an en-graved animal (a rampant lion ordog) and a scorpion, under acanopy of three stars, surroundedby square frames of indecipher-able Arabic-Kufic script. Theimagery is probably pre-Islamic

in origin, and it has been sug-gested that the nexus of Scor-pion, Snake, hydrocephalic Dogrepresents the fear of suddendeath. Fig. 4 shows two otheramulets employing the samedesign, a rectangular one ofsilver possibly from the 13th

century and a small square one ofbase metal that is probablyconsiderably earlier.4 The designis a complex one that nonethelessremains remarkably stable fromits first appearance in the tenthcentury through the 13th century.Yet the design is not an evidentpart of the magical literature,

there being only one singlereference to it so far discoveredin written sources, where it islikely to have been simply arendering of an amulet known toan anonymous 13th-centurycompiler.5 It is not found in thestandard 13th-century magicalmanuals, such as those by al-Buni. Equally curious is the factthat this distinctive amuleticdesign apparently disappearedcompletely from the talismanicrepertoire after the 13th century.Why such a well-defined designof obvious currency in the earlycenturies of Islam should sud-denly cease to be used is amystery.

3. Magic shirts, made of cloth andpainted with magical symbolsand verses from the Qur’an, forman entire category of magicalartefact with no counterpart inthe written literature. The onlyones preserved today are fromthe 15th century or later and weremade in Ottoman Turkey,Safavid Iran, or Mughal India.There was, however, a tradition,traceable to the 9th century, of

Figure 3

Figure 4

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wearing a special shirt for curingfevers or aiding childbirth. It islikely that talismanic shirts wereemployed for avoiding or curingfevers, and other contagiousconditions, and some havesuggested, not unreasonably, thatthey were worn for protection inbattle. Nothing written on them,however, details their intendeduse nor are they described orrecommended in the magicalmanuals.

4. Yet another type of artefact notmentioned in written sources aremagic-medicinal bowls. Largenumbers of Islamic magic bowlswere made, at least since the12th century, and they continue,in variant forms, to be producedtoday (or at least until recently).In origin they were probablyrelated in some fashion to pre-Islamic Aramaic bowls, thoughthere are in fact great differencesin design and function. The latterare of clay and have spiral in-

scriptions invoking demons,while the Islamic ones are ofmetal and noticeably lacking inany reliance upon jinns anddemons.

Islamic magical-medicinal bowlsare distinct among the magicalartefacts for a number of reasons:(a) they were not carried or worn bythe sufferer (hence not an amulet),(b) they do not function continu-ously, as a household amulet would;(c) they were employed only whenneeded, yet they were of a lastingmaterial; and (d) the early examplesare far more informative as to theirintended use than any other magicalartefacts. According to instructionsengraved on the earliest examples, thepatient was to drink water from thebowl to get the desired result. Some-times it was said that the afflictedperson, or someone acting as an agentfor them, was to drink three timesfrom the vessel, occasionally, aspecific type of water was specified,such as rain water or saffron water.

In addition to Qur’anic verses andmagical writing, the early magicbowls were decorated withschematically, rather crudely-rendered, human and animal forms— scorpion, serpent, horse (ordonkey), cross-legged human figure,and dog with a curled tail. A sub-group of Islamic magic-medicinalbowl has been designated by somescholars as ‘poison cups’, though infact poisons and animal bites areonly some of the many uses that areinscribed on the outside of the dish.These so-called ‘poison cups’always have representations of ascorpion, a snake (or serpent), ananimal that is probably intended tobe a dog, (though some have calledit a lion), and two intertwineddragons — imagery reminiscent ofthe 10th-century haematite amuletsmentioned above (fig. 3).

On the outside of all the early (12th-14th century) magic-medicinal bowls(both the standard type and so-called ‘poison cups’) there areengraved statements giving thera-peutic uses. These inscriptionspresent an interesting view of thediseases and afflictions consideredparticularly prevalent as well asresponsive to magic—at least at thetime the earliest bowls were de-signed. Fifty-nine bowls bearingtherapeutic instructions have beeneither published or examined per-sonally, and from these it wouldappear that there was in the 12th and13th centuries an overriding concernwith scorpion stings and the bites ofsnakes and mad dogs (mad-dog bitesare mentioned 59 times, stings ofscorpions 56 times, and bites ofsnakes 54) – again perhaps simply anexus of symbols representingsudden death. Regarding ailments,the ones that clearly dominate are

CALL FOR PAPERS

The Societas Magica will be sponsoring four sessions at the 39th InternationalCongress on Medieval Studies at Kalamazoo, May 6-9, 2004.

Session topics are:

1. Philosophical and Theological Views on Magic in the 14th Century (co-sponsored with the Fourteenth-Century Society)

2. Magical Diagrams, Figures, Images and Talismans

3. The Sorcerer as Mountebank: Magic that Works, Magic that Doesn’t

4. Ritual Theory and Ritual Practice in Magic

Paper proposals are welcomed from all scholars engaged in pertinent areas ofresearch. Please send abstracts and queries about the sessions to Claire Fanger(cfanger@bmts.com). Abstracts should not be more than a page in length.Deadline for proposals is September 15, 2003.

Page 5Societas Magica Newsletter—Fall 2003

various gastrointestinal complaints,with the next most frequent use toassist a woman in labour and ease adifficult birth. Headaches of oneform or another figure prominently,as well as throbbing pain in general(toothache gets only one mention).Fevers are mentioned on two-thirdsof the bowls studied, while theusefulness of the bowls as an anti-dote to poisons (rather than animalbites and stings) is mentioned 35 outof 59 times.

In later centuries, magic-medicinalbowls became increasinglyIslamicized over time, leavingbehind the pre-Islamic symbols andeventually evolving into bowlshaving nothing but Qur’anic verseson them and no instructions for use.Although this type of magicalequipment was produced in largenumbers over a wide geographicalarea during more than eight centu-

ries, it was not described or evennoted in the magical literature thathas been studied.

Conclusion:

By combining the evidence pro-vided by artefacts with that derivedfrom written treatises, a fullerpicture of the magical practices inthe medieval Islamic world — orany other time period or culture —may begin to emerge. It is difficultto assess the actual use made bytalisman makers of the instructionsgiven in the magical treatises. Whatis evident so far, however, is thatvirtually none of the artefacts pre-served today were actually based onthe detailed instructions presented inpopular medieval treatises.

Magic bowls and magic shirts arenot mentioned in the magical trea-tises, and, conversely, most of theintricate and complex designspresented in those treatises are notreflected in the preserved artefacts(while one well-defined and com-plex design on early amulets hasalmost no parallel in writtensources). In yet another way Islamicmagical artefacts deviate from textsin that while the pre-Islamic beliefin demons and spirits is evident inthe magical literature where invoca-tions to jinn (shape-shifting spirits)or even shayt. an (demons) areoccasionally to be found, the arte-facts, – to the extent that they havebeen studied – appear to direct theinvocations only to God for protec-tion and cure, with an occasional

mention of angels. They are domi-nantly supplications to God to aidand protect the bearer, and notinvocations to a demon, jinn, orlesser God.

Consequently, it would seem thatwhile a magical literary traditionflourished, it may not have impactedupon the production of magicalequipment. The makers of amuletsand other magical-medical equip-ment appear to have maintainedtheir own traditions – employingdesigns unknown (or of no interest)to writers of magical treatises, andat times developing magical equip-ment of quite new design (talis-manic shirts, magic bowls) not to befound in the literature. It wouldappear that the amulet and talismanmakers (as opposed to the magicaltheorists) maintained a simplerapproach to the magical inscriptionsand designs, employing a morelimited number of designs, andproducing a generic product usefulfor all calamities, while at the sametime maintaining a stricter adher-ence to the Muslim belief that it wasonly to God to whom one could turnfor protection or cure.

Bibliography:

Canaan, Tawfik, ‘Arabic MagicBowls’, Journal of the PalestineOriental Society, XVI, 1936, pp. 79-127.

Kalus, Ludvik, Catalogue of IslamicSeals and Talismans: AshmoleanMuseum, Oxford, Oxford: ClarendonPress, 1987.

20% DiscountMembers of the Societas Magica areentitled to a 20% discount on all books inthe Magic in History series put out byPennsylvania State University Press.

Mention that you are a Societas Magicamember when ordering books by phone(800-326-9180) or fax (877-778-2665).These telephone numbers work from theUS and Canada.

Societas Magica

President: Richard Kieckhefer

Established at Kalamazoo in 1995 by RichardKieckhefer, Claire Fanger and Robert Mathiesen,the Societas Magica was created to furthercommunication and exchange among scholarsinterested in the study of magic during the middle

ages as well as in antiquity and the early modernperiod. Its range of concerns includes thesociology of magic, magical practices and theoriesof magic, as well as magical objects, artifacts andtexts. For further information and guidelines formembership application see the web page at http://brindedcow.umd.edu/socmag/.

Societas Magica Newsletter

The Societas Magica Newsletter is mailed tomembers and back issues made available on theinternet at http://brindedcow.umd.edu/socmag/.Proposals for short articles should be directed tothe editor, Lea Olsan, at olsan@ulm.edu. Contentsnot to be copied or reprinted in any form withoutpermission.

Page 6 Societas Magica Newsletter— Fall 2003

Porter, Venetia. ‘Islamic Seals:Magical or Practical?’, pp. 135-149and figs. 8.1-8.13 in UniversityLectures in Islamic Studies, editedAlan Jones, vol. 2, London: World ofIslam Trust, 1998.

E. Savage-Smith, ‘Magic and Islam’,pp. 59-148, in F. Maddison and E.Savage-Smith, Science,, Tools &Magic. Part One: Body and Spirit,Mapping the Universe [Khalili Coll.Of Islamic Art, 12], London: AzimuthEditions / Oxford: Oxford UniversityPress, 1997.

Notes

1 London, The Nasser D. Khalili Collec-tion of Islamic Art, MS 300, fol. 71a;copied in AD 1425 (828 H); see F.Maddison and E. Savage-Smith, Science,Tools & Magic (London/Oxford, 1997),vol. 1, pp. 66-69, cat. no. 22)

2 Paris, BnF, MS arabe 2775, fol. 83a;undated copy (16th cent.?); unpublished.

3 New York, Metropolitan Museum ofArt, Inv. no. 40.170.245, exacavated atNishapur; pendant is 2.38 cm in diameter.Photograph and drawing taken fromJames Allan, Nishapur. Metalwork of the

Early Islamic Period (New York, 1982)p. 69, cat. no. 61.

4 A square base-metal amulet (2.2 x 2.2cm) in the Sabah Collection, Kuwait(unpublished) and a silver amulet, 4.5 x2.8 cm in the Nasser D. Khalili Collectionof Islamic Art, London, inv. no. TLS1957; for the latter, see F. Maddison andE. Savage-Smith, Science, Tools &Magic, vol. 1, p. 138, cat. no. 80.

5 Paris, BnF MS pers. 174, fol. 35bcopied in Iraq about 1273. This singleinstance cannot be used as evidence forthe influence of magical manuals ontalisman makers.

Sessions Sponsored by the Societas Magica

The Societas Magica invites proposals for essays to run in future issues of the newsletter.

We are looking for essays of 1500 to 2000 words covering recent research in the history of magic and related topics. Essays may bebibliographic in orientation but need not be. Some of the topics we are considering for future issues include magic in tension or

dialogue with other rhetorical and ritual constructs, for example, magic and the law, sorcery trials and accusations, medicine andmagic, magic and religion.

We are also looking for smaller pieces for our notes and queries column; news about dissertations in progress or completed, manu-script discoveries or other such items are all welcomed. Proposals for essays, smaller pieces, or notes on all topics of potential interest

to members of the Societas Magica will be welcome. Please contact Lea Olsan, olsan@ulm.edu.

At the History of Science Soci-ety Annual Meeting, HyattRegency Hotel, Cambridge,MA, November 20-23, 2003:

Seeing and Believing: Theo-ries of Vision, Imagination,and Divination from the Medi-eval to the Modern

“Like a Virgin: the Body and theCosmos in Late Medieval Theurgicand Catoptromantic Texts”

Claire Fanger,Independent Scholar

“Mirrors on the World, Mirrors of theMind: Nicole Oresme’s Doctrine ofConfiguration and Theories onCatoptromancy in Deconfigurationibus”

Sarah Anne Smith,Indiana University - Bloomington

At the Sixteenth Century Stud-ies Conference, Omni WilliamPenn Hotel in Pittsburgh, PA,Oct. 29-Nov. 2, 2003:

Sex, Gender, and Magic

“Real Men Don’t Cast Spells: Magicand Manhood in Early ModernEnglish Drama”

Lara Apps, University of Alberta

“Sex, Learning, Fraternity, andInfluence: Masculinity in Fifteenth-and Sixteenth-Century Ritual MagicManuals”

Frank Klaassen,University of Saskatchewan

“Doing it with Demons: EarlyModern Beliefs about Satanic Sex”

Tonya Lambert,University of Alberta

“Through a Glass, Darkly: A MedievalModel of the Cosmos as Reflected inLate Medieval and Early ModernScrying Devices and Practices”

Robert Mathiesen,Brown University

“Religion, Magic, and Science on theEve of the Enlightenment”

Allison Coudert,Arizona State University

“Looking into the Darkened Window:the ‘Alchemical Eye’ and Psychologi-cal Theories of English ChristianSpiritualists”

Mioara Deac,University of Notre Dame