Cross-cultural arcane sciences: an Arab-Christian divination manuscript

[Divination]. Malhama Daniyal [The predictions of the Prophet Daniel].

€ 8,500.00

An Arabic-Christian manuscript on occult divination from the 17th century Ottoman Levant. Written for an Arabic-speaking Christian community with references to Christian mysticism, as well as divinatory practices found across both the Christian and Islamic worlds, the manuscript describes the use of the numerology, names, weather observation, and the celestial spheres to predict the future. These practices take a wide range of forms; for example, the fate of an ill man can be calculated using mathematical formulae, two diagrams hand-written in the text, and the patient's mother's name. Other divinatory practices are based on the weather: lightning in July might mean pestilence. Still more deal in the complex world of premodern astrology.

This manuscript reflects the needs and folk remedies of an Eastern Orthodox Christian community in the Levant. It opens with the Christian creed translated into Arabic, as well as a mention of the Christ in one of its colophons. However, it bears the standard Hijri date of 15 Rabi' II, 1076 H (25 October 1665 CE).