Occult Capitals of Islam

Sponsoring Organization(s)

Societas Magica

Organizer Name

Matthew Melvin-Koushki

Organizer Affiliation

Univ. of South Carolina-Columbia

Presider Name

Nicholas G. Harris

Presider Affiliation

Univ. of Pennsylvania

Paper Title 1

Baghdad, the City of Jupiter

Presenter 1 Name

Liana Saif

Presenter 1 Affiliation

Univ. catholique de Louvain

Paper Title 2

What Did it Mean to Be a Magician in al-Baqillani's Baghdad? The Social Implications of the Discourse on Magic

Presenter 2 Name

Mushegh Asatryan

Presenter 2 Affiliation

Univ. of Calgary

Paper Title 3

Lettrism at Sultan Barquq’s Court and Beyond: Cairo as Occult Capital at the Turn of the Fifteenth Century

Presenter 3 Name

Noah D. Gardiner

Presenter 3 Affiliation

Univ. of South Carolina-Columbia

Paper Title 4

"Here Art-Magick Was First Hatched": Shiraz as Occult-Scientific Capital of the Persian Cosmopolis

Presenter 4 Name

Matthew Melvin-Koushki

Start Date

13-5-2017 1:30 PM

Session Location

Bernhard 204

Description

The south-north, Arabic-Latin transmission of occult-scientific texts to Europe in the 12th century was initially but a subprocess in the formation of a vaster Arabo-Persian occultist culture, cohesive from Iberia to India and Central Asia, which first burgeoned in 10th-century Iraq and remained vigorous until at least the 19th century. This culture was constellated through the east-west and west-east transmission and development of specific occult sciences via certain central nodes, which shifted over time; they include Baghdad in the 10th-12th centuries, Cairo in the 13th-15th, Shiraz in the 15th-17th. This panel examines these three occult capitals of Islam.

Matthew Melvin-Koushki