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Occult Powers and Officiants in Non-official Cults within Near Eastern Cultures

[RG #104] Occult Powers and Officiants in Non-official Cults within Near Eastern Cultures

March 1 - August 31, 2006
Organizers:

Gideon Bohak (Tel Aviv University)
Yuval Harari (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev)
Shaul Shaked (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)

Magic is a notoriously ambiguous term to define and set apart, but magical texts seem to display a remarkable degree of similarlity in different cultures, languages and historical periods. If the study of Babylonian, Greek, Jewish and Muslim magical texts raises many recurrent problems, the solutions offered in one discipline can often prove worthwhile in other disciplines as well. By focusing on cultures that are geographically related, and between which there existed some channels of cross-cultural transmission, we can trace not only phenomenological similaries, but also geographical and historical continuities and transformations over long periods of time.

One thing shared by all the cultures covered by members of our group is the assumption that there are many occult powers out there (be they demonds, angels, gods, natural forces etc.)|, and that some men and women are better equipped than others to approach these forces and use them for their own aims. Moreover, members of all these cultures took it for granted that there is a body of knowledge (of special rituals, powerful incantations and so on) that can be mastered by competent individuals and that enable them to use these occult forces more effectively. This body of knowledge, and the social tensions involved in using it, are the main focus of all the group's members and the basis of our comparative efforts.

 

2005-2006 Research Groups

Members

men

Tzvi Abusch

FELLOW
Brandeis University
Tzvi is a professor in the Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies at Brandeis University. His research interests are Ancient Mesopotamian religious literature.
men

Alexander Fodor

FELLOW
Eötvös Loránd University
Alexander is a professor in the Department of Arabic Studies at Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest. His research interests are Islamic magic and its relation to Jewish magic.
men

David Jordan

FELLOW
Independent Scholar
David is an independent scholar. His research interests are Greek religion and literature, Greek magical texts and their background.
men

Reimund Leicht

FELLOW
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Reimund is a professor in the Department of Jewish Thought at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His research interests are Jewish philosophy and science in the Middle Ages, Jewish cultural history in late Antiquity, Johannes Reuchlin, and Christian Kabbala.
men

Dan Levene

FELLOW
University of Southampton
Dan is a professor in the School of Humanities at Southampton University. His research interests are Jewish Aramaic magical texts from Late Antiquity, and metallurgical realia in the classical Jewish sources up to and including Late Antiquity.
men

Shaul Shaked

FELLOW
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Shaul is a professor in the Institute of Asian and African Studies at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His research interests are: Zoroastrianism; Middle Persian lexicography; Early Judaeo-Persian, Aramaic magical texts; Aramaic and Arabic loan words in Iranian.

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