Book Review: Burnett, Charles. Magic and Divination in the Middle Ages: Texts and Techniques in the Islamic and Christian Worlds
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Prof. Scott B. Noegel Chair, Dept. of Near Eastern Languages and Civilization University of Washington Book review: Burnett, Charles. Magic and Divination in the Middle Ages: Texts and Techniques in the Islamic and Christian Worlds. Hampshire, UK: Variorum, 1996. First Published in: Digest of Middle Eastern Studies 6/4 (1997), 87-90. !fal[ 1997 ~ .!ilncient 'Te;r!s In the context ofthe qur' anic Tham ud story, however, where it occurs at the point of highest dramatic intensity and narrative urgency, and where there is obviously some higher degree of specificity, tamattuC must be afforded its broader hermeneutically and literary-critically indispensable inter- agic and Divination in the textuality, which ought to be, ultimately, that of Exodus and Middle Ages: Texts and Techniques Numbers, in order for thatqur'anic tamalluC to be appreciated in the Islamic and Christian Worlds rather than hesitantly-and invariably with a touch of be- M musement-accepted (pp. 26-27). Charles Burnett Nevertheless, speaking as a common reader unused to the jargon of current literary criticism, I can testify that it is possible, with Hampshire, Great Britain: Variorum, 1996.370 pages. disciplined concentration and a good dictionary, topenetrate this dense, $98.95hardback (ISBN0-86078-615-3). sometimes turgid, prose and that the fascinating insights to be gained into the process ofArabian "mythopoeia" are well worth the effort. Review by In brief, the story of the finding of the golden bough turns out to Scott B. Noegel, Ph.D. be a drama played out on two stages: the raid against Tabuk and the U ni versi ty ofW ashi n gton tragedy that struck the Thamud at al-Hijr when they rejected the mission ofthe Prophet Salih, paralleling, ofcourse, both the prophetic career of Muhammad, in general. and the reluctance of his compan- ions to take part in the Tabuk campaign, specifically. But to reduce Stetkevych' s reconstruction of the golden bough myth to such stark dimensions would be to misrepresent the substance and texture ofhis his work brings together twenty of Charles Burnett's most work. For the whole point ofreconstructive and interpreta tive exercis- T important contributions to the subject of magic and divination es such as Stetkevych's and Frazer's is to unearth the universal core in the Middle Ages. Despite being an assortment of lectures and meanings of a specific myth and to trace its roots and branches in its previously published articles, each retaining its original style and own culture and others. Without attempting to guide readers through pagination, the book's organization enables each successive article to Stetkevych's labyrinth of "poeticizing" and "demythologizing" the build topically and chronologically upon the previous one. The coher- ence of the book, its copious editions and translations of dozens of Thamud and invoking echoes of the bough in Western literature, '? suffice it to point to his conclusion that, in its Arabian manifestation, primary sources, and its indices of names, manuscripts, and incipits the golden bough may well have symbolized the scepter of "priestly of magical and divinatory texts make this volume an accessible and kingship." Stetkevych says, "After all, Muhammad, the heir of invaluable resource to the scholar and interested nonspecialist. ThamudicArabia, is also history's mostsalientcase ofpriestly-prophetic Burnett opens the book with a discussion of the historical and 'kingship'" (p. 112). textual evidence for necromancy and the making of talismans. Albert Well, this is certainty a novel way oflooking at the Prophet, and Magnus' mid-thirteenth-century work Speculum astronomiae, Do- we can undoubtedly expect other scholars to follow Stetkevych's " minicus Gundissalinu's De divisione philosophize, Petrus Alfonsi's pioneering path in pursuit ofother mythological clues embedded in the Dialogue, pseudo-Ptolemy's De lmaginibus, and Thabit b. Qurra's vast and varied literature recorded about Muhammad. One might ninth-century talismantic text ofthe same name are examined for the justifications their authors give in support ofthe study of the magical begin with the hint dropped inconspicuously by the author himself, ,. arts. Burnett reveals the extent to which magic functioned as a namely a variant ring, rather than a bough, which, according to al- .~. Waqidi, one ofthe Tabuk raiders found and Muhammad discarded in >! "useful" science and demonstrates that some twelfth-century erudites, the ruins of al-Hijr. such as Adelard of Bath and John of Seville and Limia, even viewed 87 86 'DOM'ES 'Digest of MUUfe 'East Studies :Fa![ 1997 ~ ~ 5tncient 'Tex:Js magic as a sub-discipline of philosophy. knowledge of the work by at least one Latin writer, and might provide This article sets the stage for the next in which Burnett examines a clue to the diffusion ofits doctrine in the West" (V, 231). The source, Adelard ofBath's translations ofastrological works. Adelard's sources, argues Burnett, is Hermann of Carinthia's De Essentiis. Burnett argues, were keenly aware ofArabic and Hebrew astrological Burnettexpands his discussion ofHermann in the next chapter by and astronomical writings. Burnett's meticulous investigation sug- focusing on the complexity of the textual and historical evidence for gests that "the earliest translations ofAdelard of Bath could reveal in Hermann's transmission of Hermetic magic via Arabic sources. By an interesting way the first stages of the emergence of astrology as a tracing the source of a quotation in Hermann's De Essentiis from a mathematical science in Europe in the Middle Ages." (II, p. 142).1 book which Hermann refers to as Aristotle's Data Neiringet, Burnett The next few studies continue the investigation into medieval discovers that while the quotation corresponds in some ways to the works on magic, albeit with different foci. For example, Burnett Picatrix, the best-known medieval compendium on magic, it is not the examines the inter-relationships among the various textual traditions only "route by which the Hermetic tradition may have passed from that attribute the astrological arts to Aristotle. He then explores the Arabic into Latin" (VI, 169), for it also corresponds to a section ofKitab translating activities of the twelfth-century Spanish Mozarabs (Ara- al-Maditis, a commentary on Kitab al-Istalllatis, and to the Latin bicized Christians) and their roles as transmitters of divinatory and work LiberAntimaquis, which probably derives from a variant copy of Kitab al- Istalllatis. Burnett concludes: magical knowledge. Throughout Burnett offers fascinating glimpses into the lives of Andalusian scholars who acquainted themselves equally with the magical arts and exact sciences. His insightful Hermann of Carinthia's citation of a work by 'Aristotle' on observation that the abacus was introduced into Europe during this talismans gives eviden"Cethat Hermetic magical texts were period as a tool associated with the magical use of numerals is a case known to Latin scholars at least a century before the Alphon- in point. sine translations (VI, 169). From here the book moves to Tudela, a hotbed of translational activity and the home of Abraham ibn Ezra (1086-1164) and Judah Burnett then builds on these observations in the next two chap- Halevi (1075-1141), among others. Ofinterest to Burnett, however, are ters, first by providing a useful edition and English translation oftwo RobertofKetton, a later canon of the Church in Tudela, and Hermann Latin translations ofthe Kitab al-Istalllatis and then by discussing an of Carinthia, also working in the region, who translated and popular- interesting facet ofyet another Latin version of the work known as the ized several works ofArabic science and magic (lV, p. 1044). Burnett's Antimaquis, namely its scribal directions for writing cryptic letters or impressive command ofthe textual sources sheds light on the extent "runes." Jn addition to supplying a critical edition and translation of to which magical traditions circulated among certain clergy members the segment Ex Libris Antiquis "from Ancient Books," the portion of and how ecclesiasticaljustifications often gave this circulation longev- the Antimaquis that contains the runes, Burnett gives philological ity. Indeed, as Burnett shows, translations of magical texts were evidence for the Scandinavian origin of the runes and illustrates how continued a couple of decades later in Toledo by Gerard of Cremona, they were used in place of Latin names for the spiritual forces of the with the help of Dominieus Gundissalinus, and in the fourteenth planets. century during the reign of the Almohads. Nevertheless, as Burnett The volume's portion on magic also contains an edition ofthe Conte points out, renderings into Latin increasingly took the form ofofficial de Sarzana magical manuscript and a discussion of the translations created "to aggrandize the newly emerging Spanish fourteenth-century University ofParma professor and doctor Giorgio nation, or to convert the Muslim" (IV, 1046). While surprisingly Anselmi's Divinzun opus de magia disciplina, a work which in large faithful to their originals, they usually cast Islam in a negative light. portion is "taken up with the teaching ofnecromantic magic, including Also discussed by Burnett is the popular legend of the transmis- the texts of prayers for summoning demons, their myriad names, and sion of esoteric sciences through a succession ofthree Hermes and its the recipes for making potent drugs" (XVI, 64). relationship to Abu Macashar's Kitab al- Uluf. Specifically, Burnett The remaining section ofeleven articles examines several medi- studies two hitherto unrecognized references to the Kitab al- Ulufin a eval divinatory instructional texts. Included are the disciplines of Latin work of the twelfth century "which could suggest a direct chiromancy (palm reading), onomancy (numerical valuesofnames), 89 88 'DO'J-f'ES 'Digest of MUU!e 'East S tuaie.s :Fa£[1997 ~ 5lncient 'TeKJ-5 geomancy (stones and sand), and scapulimancy (reading the scapula of a sheep), with a great deal of discussion devoted to the latter.