Amulets and Talismans of the Middle East and North Africa in Context: Transmission, Efficacy and Collections (Leiden Studies in Islam and Society, 13)

In the volume amulets and talismans produced by Muslims and non-Muslims in the Islamicate world, are studied within a broader system of meaning, focussing on the complex role these objects played in pre-modern societies. ‎Contents ‎Acknowledgements ‎Figures and Tables ‎Notes on Contributors ‎Notes on Transliteration, Names of Persons and Places and Dates ‎Introduction (Garcia Probert and Sijpesteijn) ‎Part 1. Transmission ‎Chapter 1. Specimens of Judaeo-Arabic and Arabic Magical Texts from the Cairo Genizah (Bohak) ‎Chapter 2. A Twentieth-Century Manuscript of the Kitāb al-Mandal al-sulaymānī (IES Ar. 286, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia): Texts on Practices & Texts in Practices (Regourd) ‎Chapter 3. Arabic Medical-Magical Manuscripts: A Living Tradition (Sijpesteijn) ‎Part 2. Efficacy ‎Chapter 4. Casting Discord: An Unpublished Spell from the Egyptian National Library (Abbas Ali) ‎Chapter 5. “This Blessed Place”: The Talismanic Significance of House Inscriptions in Ottoman Cairo (Campo) ‎Chapter 6. A Talismanic Scroll: Language, Illumination, and Diagrams (Al-Saleh) ‎Chapter 7. The Material Nature of Block Printed Amulets: What Makes Them Amulets? (Schaefer) ‎Part 3. Collecting and Collections ‎Chapter 8. Arabic Magical Texts in Original Documents: A Papyrologist Answers Five Questions You Always Wanted to Ask (Hammed) ‎Chapter 9. Amulets and Talismans in the Earliest Works of the Corpus Bunianum (Coulon) ‎Chapter 10. Twigs in the Tawfik Canaan Collection of Palestinian Amulets (Garcia Probert) ‎Chapter 11. Arabic and Persian Seals and Amulets in the British Museum: Notes on a History (Porter) ‎Index "In this volume amulets and talismans are studied within a broader system of meaning that shapes how they were manufactured, activated and used in different networks. Text, material features and the environments in which these artifacts circulated, are studied alongside each other, resulting in an innovative approach to understand the many different functions these objects could fulfil in pre-modern times. Produced and used by Muslims and non-Muslims alike, the case studies presented here include objects that differ in size, material, language and shape. What the articles share is an all-round, in-depth approach that helps the reader understand the complexity of the objects discussed and will improve one's understanding of the role they played within pre-modern societies. Contributors Hazem Hussein Abbas Ali, Gideon Bohak, Ursula Hammed, Juan Campo, Jean-Charles Coulon, Venetia Porter, Marcela Garcia Probert, Anne Regourd, Yasmine al-Saleh, Karl Schaefer and Petra M. Sijpesteijn"-- Provided by publisher