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The Seal of Solomon From Magic To Messi PDF
The Seal of Solomon From Magic To Messi PDF
ANALECTA
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edited by
Preface xi
I. Regulski xiii
Introduction
K. Duistermaat
Which Came First, the Bureaucrat or the Seal?
Some Thoughts on the Non-Administrative Origins of Seals 1
in Neolithic Syria
V. Müller
Do Seal Impressions Prove a Change in the Administration 17
during the Reign of King Den?
H. Tomas
The Transition from the Linear A to the Linear B Sealing 33
System
U. Dubiel
Protection, Control and Prestige – Seals among the Rural 51
Population of Qau-Matmar
N.C. Ritter
On the Development of Sasanian Seals and Sealing Practice: 99
A Mesopotamian Approach
B. Caseau
Magical Protection and Stamps in Byzantium 115
C. Kotsifou
Sealing Practices in the Monasteries of Late Antique and 149
Early Medieval Egypt
S. Dorpmüller 189
Seals in Islamic Magical Literature
Historical-mythical
*
I thank my thesis director Mercedes García-Arenal and Fernando Rodríguez
Mediano for the invaluable guidance and assistance when writing this article,
which was made possible with the support of the research project: “Orientalismo e
historiografía en la cultura española del Barroco”, HUM 2007-60412.
Fig. 1: The six-pointed star engraved on a gold ring with the Islamic šahãda
in positive. Positive gravures on seals seem to be magic ones (Martínez
Núñez 2007: 344 no. 212).
1
There are 99 sacred Names to call Allah, such as al-Wãͥid (the Unique), al-
Muͥyč (the Giver of Life), etc., and the nature of His attributes is developed in
Islamic theology (for a full list of authors and their different versions of the sacred
Names see Gimaret: 1988).
2
The literary genre of qiΣaΣ al-anbiyãɹ (stories of the prophets) consists of
traditional accounts developing Quranic stories about the prophets of Islam.
Messianic symbolism
3
A ͥadčί is a story on Muhammad’s sayings or actions transmitted within a
chain of authority.
4
This is the original population of northern Africa. They usually supported ščԞč
parties and were close to heterodoxy and messianic ideas.
Magic device
The imprint
The seal of Solomon was shaped in Morisco books of magic, those
written in Arabic and those written in aljamía (Spanish vernacular
in Arabic script), ever present in charms and talismans (ͥirz, herce)
with prophylactic purposes, which clearly show its meaning in the
practice of ritual magic in Spain. The aljamiado manuscript Junta 59,
for instance, shows the seal of Solomon surrounded by the sacred
Names of Allah, as a formula to reach an ecstatic state (͏ikr),
common in mystical rituals and prayers.
It is, then, a magical-mystical symbol that protects and blesses.
This new version of the role of Solomon for Morisco population
occurred in the gap of traditions and practices associated to him as
there is indeed a shift in the conception of the Prophet and his seal
in orthodox Islam and its most popular currents. Popular
perception of Solomon’s wisdom and power will be adopted by the
Spanish population as a whole, as we will see.
Prophylactic practices ascribed to the power of Solomon are
compiled in a Morisco codex from the 16th century, the Ocaña
Fig. 3: The seal of Solomon, Salomonic script and magic signs on a page of
a Morisco manuscript from Ocaña, titled Misceláneo de Salomón (Albarracín
Navarro and Martínez Ruiz 1987).
The seal-ring
Added to the traditional use of the seal-ring, provided with the
royal authority of his owner, Solomon has the divine power to
carry out his orders. The seal conferred super-natural powers to
limit evil forces, and lock them up or subjugate them. Traditional
tales show how demons would obey Solomon’s direct
commandments; those which locked them in jars or forced them to
build his Temple in just one week. Those tales are recounted in
Jewish Agaddah,7 Islamic QiΣaΣ or even represented in the Christian
Cantigas of Alfonso X (Romero 1989; Ta‘labč 2002; Albarracín 1999).
As mentioned in the literature of QiΣaΣ, the belief in the magical
properties of the seal of Solomon lies in the existence of an
inscription in its center, the Greatest Name of Allah. The common
aim of Muslim thaumaturges was to find out which of the 99 Sacred
Names would confer to the magician the power mastered by
Solomon. In such direction, some authors like Ibn al-ͤãjj al-
5
All those signs and the hexagram are called Sellos (seals) in this literature from
15th and 16th-century Spain.
6
It is worth mentioning that the sellón de Salomón in Laguna’s translation of
Dioscorides was a lily species, a flower of six petals, and it may enforce Klagsbald’s
theory on the supposed identification between the six-pointed star label and the
lily symbol, but in 16th-century Spain.
7
The Agaddah is the Jewish genre of exegetical and traditional accounts
developing biblical stories.
8
The mčm is the 24th letter of the Arabic alphabet.
9
The seven letters which are not contained in the first Σurah (chapter) of the
Quran, the fãtiͥa, are commonly known as fawãtčͥ though their correct name is
sawãqiέ al-fãtiͥa.
10
The magic seal-ring is the symbol of Solomon’s power and knowledge,
qualities that were to be closely linked and related to the immediate goals of ars
notoria, the art of conjuring demons. The miter represents the role the priests
acquired during the development of the exorcism.
Conclusion
11
Archivo Histórico Nacional, Inquisición, Leg. 1952/4I Relación de las causas
despachadas en la Inquisición de Granada en el año de 1626, Diversos delitos, n. 18,
D. Pedro de Arce Cabeza de Vaca.
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