Moorish Science

 

Look what I found on YouTube, an entire channel featuring one Filip Holm, who apparently studied comparative religion at university level here in Sweden. His Arabic and Hebrew pronounciation seems impeccable, too. 

This clip, called "Shocktober" and dedicated to the Halloween season is, perhaps a bit surprisingly, an introduction to occultism in the medieval Islamic (or "Islamicate") world. I admit it was interesting! Holm begins by pointing out, somewhat ironically, that scholars (like himself?) are worthless at properly defining terms such as "magic" or "occultism" (he forgot to add "religion"). They seem even less interested in actually researching the damn thing - Islamic occultism is still an understudied topic. One reason is that it´s intensely controversial. During the 19th century, "Orientalist" scholars loved to point out that the Muslim world was downright saturated with magic and occultism, thereby proving its primitive and superstitious nature. As a counter-reaction, later pro-Muslim Western scholars largely ignored these topics, instead concentrating on subjects that could be construed as rational by a modern audience (philosophy, "real" science, and so on). Meanwhile, the Muslims themselves flatly denied that occultism was an important part of their culture!

Holm´s tentative definition of "magic" is that it refers to attempts to change or affect things by the use of superhuman forces. This makes the definition interesting, since it could arguably also include prayer to a god. Otherwise, he admits that the list of items regarded as "magic" by modern scholars tend to be somewhat eclectic. It includes astrology, alchemy, numerology, divination, ceremonial magic, dream interpretation, talismans and "the science of letters".  

Holm points out that the distinction between science, religion and magic is a "post-Enlightenment" (he means Enlightenment) paradigm, and that the learned Muslims during the Middle Ages simply didn´t make this distinction. Occultism was referred to as "al-Ulum al-Khafiyya" (the hidden sciences) or "al-Ulum al-Ghariba" (the strange sciences). Astrology was often regarded as a natural science! Alchemy had both a "scientific" aspect (as in the Jabirian corpus), and a more spiritual one. Al-Kindi attempted to explain magic in "scientific" terms, by postulating that the stars transmit "rays" from the Platonic world of forms down to Earth. These rays, which are also musical in character, explain astrology, but they can also be manipulated by humans in various occult ways. 

Interestingly, "magic" seems to be just as difficult to define in Arabic as in modern English, and a wide variety of meanings and opinions on the matter existed in the Islamicate world. The Arabic word usually translated "magic" is "sihr", but it turns out that there was both "sihr halal" (permissible magic) and "sihr haram" (forbidden magic). Also, things such as poetry could be dubbed "sihr", perhaps due to its enchanting quality. Magic invoking God or one of his intercessors was seen as permissible (and still is to a large extent). One example is protective amulets with some of God´s names or Quranic verses carved on it. Another is the so-called Hand of Fatimah, which could also be used as an amulet (Fatimah was Muhammad´s daughter). Magic invoking the djinn or other non-godly forces was illicit, but actually used anyway! Animal sacrifices made for magic purposes was another no-no. 

It´s interesting to note that Shia Muslims and Sufis had a reputation for being highly skilled in occult and magical pursuits. Thus, occult works have been attributed to Jafar al-Sadiq, who is regarded as the sixth imam by Shiites, but also highly regarded by Sufis and even mainline Sunnis. The Brethren of Purity (who Holm believes were Ismailites) were pro-magic. Dhul Nun al-Misri was an early Sufi who was also an alchemist. A Sufi named Ahmad al-Buni is said to have written Shams al-Maarif, a work still notorious in the Islamic world. Indeed, many Muslims consider it cursed! Interestingly, it contains explicit djinn magic...

And yes, the Picatrix is mentioned.

Filip Holm will apparently make new YouTube videos discussing some of the above topics in more detail in the very near future. Stay tuned for further shocking revelations!