Occult Blockbusters of the Islamicate World I: The Picatrix (A Magical Bestseller)
Sponsoring Organization(s)
Research Group on Manuscript Evidence; Societas Magica
Organizer Name
David Porreca
Organizer Affiliation
Univ. of Waterloo
Presider Name
Claire Fanger
Presider Affiliation
Rice Univ.
Paper Title 1
The Goal of the Sage: What's It Take?
Presenter 1 Name
Daniel Attrell
Presenter 1 Affiliation
Univ. of Waterloo
Paper Title 2
The Latin Picatrix: A New English Translation, A New Assessment
Presenter 2 Name
David Porreca
Paper Title 3
Me and Pingree: Comprehending the World-View of Maslama al-Qurṭubī's Ghāyat al-Ḥakīm
Presenter 3 Name
Liana Saif
Presenter 3 Affiliation
Univ. of Oxford
Start Date
12-5-2018 1:30 PM
Session Location
Bernhard 204
Description
The Picatrix, as is well known, was without question historically the most popular of all Arabic occult-scientific manuals—but only in Latin Europe. The first session of this pair will focus on the Picatrix at the intersection of the Latin and Arabic worlds, featuring new research based on a forthcoming new critical edition of the latter and a new scholarly translation with commentary on the former. While the Picatrix's Arabic original (Ghāyat al-ḥakīm, or Goal of the Sage) was certainly long prized in the Islamicate world as well, however, other Arabic and Persian manuals came to far outstrip it in popularity and influence from the 12th century onward, and circulated over geographical areas equally vast. Due to persistent eurocentrism, these occult blockbusters of the Islamicate world remain virtually unknown to the scholarship on medieval and early modern Western (Islamo-Judeo-Christianate) occultism. To help rectify this gross imbalance, the second session presents four Islamicate occult-scientific manuals, three in Arabic and one in Persian, that too enjoyed blockbuster status over centuries.
David Porreca
Occult Blockbusters of the Islamicate World I: The Picatrix (A Magical Bestseller)
Bernhard 204
The Picatrix, as is well known, was without question historically the most popular of all Arabic occult-scientific manuals—but only in Latin Europe. The first session of this pair will focus on the Picatrix at the intersection of the Latin and Arabic worlds, featuring new research based on a forthcoming new critical edition of the latter and a new scholarly translation with commentary on the former. While the Picatrix's Arabic original (Ghāyat al-ḥakīm, or Goal of the Sage) was certainly long prized in the Islamicate world as well, however, other Arabic and Persian manuals came to far outstrip it in popularity and influence from the 12th century onward, and circulated over geographical areas equally vast. Due to persistent eurocentrism, these occult blockbusters of the Islamicate world remain virtually unknown to the scholarship on medieval and early modern Western (Islamo-Judeo-Christianate) occultism. To help rectify this gross imbalance, the second session presents four Islamicate occult-scientific manuals, three in Arabic and one in Persian, that too enjoyed blockbuster status over centuries.
David Porreca