{"id":653,"date":"2018-11-22T15:15:53","date_gmt":"2018-11-22T15:15:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.exeter.ac.uk\/magic\/?p=1"},"modified":"2018-11-22T15:15:53","modified_gmt":"2018-11-22T15:15:53","slug":"hello-world-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/magic\/2018\/11\/22\/hello-world-2\/","title":{"rendered":"November 29th at Cambridge University"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 class=\"campl-sub-title\">Literature as Magic, Magic as Literature: Sir\u0101j al-D\u012bn al-Sakk\u0101k\u012b\u2019s Complete Book and a Fragment of Spells<\/h1>\n<div class=\"field field-name-field-venue field-type-text field-label-inline clearfix\">\n<div class=\"field-label\">Venue:<\/div>\n<div class=\"field-items\">\n<div class=\"field-item even\">Rooms 8 &amp; 9, Faculty of Asian &amp; Middle Eastern Studies<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"field field-name-field-event-date field-type-datetime field-label-inline clearfix\">\n<div class=\"field-label\">Event date:<\/div>\n<div class=\"field-items\">\n<div class=\"field-item even\"><span class=\"date-display-single\">Thursday, 29 November, 2018 &#8211;\u00a0<span class=\"date-display-range\"><span class=\"date-display-start\">17:15<\/span>\u00a0to\u00a0<span class=\"date-display-end\">18:45<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>Dr. Emily Selove<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Handbooks like that ascribed to the famous 13th-century scholar of language and magic, Sir\u0101j al-D\u012bn al-Sakk\u0101k\u012b\u2019s <em>Kit\u0101b al-Sh\u0101mil wa-ba\u1e25r al-k\u0101mil,<\/em> do not themselves invite literary readings. This grimoire often displays all the literary charms of an ungrammatical cookbook; it is a technical manual\u2014a mixed collection of magical recipes and rituals. It includes instructions for creating talismans, for contacting both jinn and devils, for causing hatred and sickness, for curing such magically caused afflictions, and for calling upon the power of each of the planets. As for previous research on Sakkaki, such studies tend to center on his influential book on language and rhetoric, <em>Mift\u0101\u1e25 al-\u2018ul\u016bm <\/em>(The Key to the Sciences), often ignoring his reputation as a magician. Nevertheless, early biographical literature credited him with the power to, for example, strike cranes down in mid flight with a magical inscription. I will argue that both Sakkaki\u2019s linguistic and magical interests show his fascination with the power of language. The power of language to alter the mind or create effects in the physical world is described as a kind of bewitchment in occult literature as well as in studies of language, not to mention in love poetry, and my own strategy in approaching magical texts is to read them with the techniques applied to poetry. I will also discuss some evidence of the practise of magic today, focusing on a mysterious 6-folio fragment of spells in Yale\u2019s Beinecke library.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ames.cam.ac.uk\/whats-on\/mes-seminar-series-michaelmas-2018\/literature-magic-magic-literature-siraj-al-din-al\">https:\/\/www.ames.cam.ac.uk\/whats-on\/mes-seminar-series-michaelmas-2018\/literature-magic-magic-literature-siraj-al-din-al<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Literature as Magic, Magic as Literature: Sir\u0101j al-D\u012bn al-Sakk\u0101k\u012b\u2019s Complete Book and a Fragment of Spells Venue: Rooms 8 &amp; 9, Faculty of Asian &amp; Middle Eastern Studies Event date: Thursday, 29 November, 2018 &#8211;\u00a017:15\u00a0to\u00a018:45 Dr. Emily Selove Handbooks like that ascribed to the famous 13th-century scholar of language and magic, Sir\u0101j al-D\u012bn al-Sakk\u0101k\u012b\u2019s Kit\u0101b [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>November 29th at Cambridge University - The Centre for Magic and Esotericism<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/magic\/2018\/11\/22\/hello-world-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"November 29th at Cambridge University - The Centre for Magic and Esotericism\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Literature as Magic, Magic as Literature: Sir\u0101j al-D\u012bn al-Sakk\u0101k\u012b\u2019s Complete Book and a Fragment of Spells Venue: Rooms 8 &amp; 9, Faculty of Asian &amp; Middle Eastern Studies Event date: Thursday, 29 November, 2018 &#8211;\u00a017:15\u00a0to\u00a018:45 Dr. Emily Selove Handbooks like that ascribed to the famous 13th-century scholar of language and magic, Sir\u0101j al-D\u012bn al-Sakk\u0101k\u012b\u2019s Kit\u0101b [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/magic\/2018\/11\/22\/hello-world-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Centre for Magic and Esotericism\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-11-22T15:15:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mark\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mark\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/magic\/2018\/11\/22\/hello-world-2\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/magic\/2018\/11\/22\/hello-world-2\/\",\"name\":\"November 29th at Cambridge University - The Centre for Magic and Esotericism\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/magic\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2018-11-22T15:15:53+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-11-22T15:15:53+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/magic\/#\/schema\/person\/f55c794873afd5892e3c96ddf775f5b2\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/magic\/2018\/11\/22\/hello-world-2\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/magic\/2018\/11\/22\/hello-world-2\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/magic\/2018\/11\/22\/hello-world-2\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/magic\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"November 29th at Cambridge University\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/magic\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/magic\/\",\"name\":\"The Centre for Magic and Esotericism\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/magic\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/magic\/#\/schema\/person\/f55c794873afd5892e3c96ddf775f5b2\",\"name\":\"Mark\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/magic\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c8bc2e4b4cd54966c634a0cda0b58382?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c8bc2e4b4cd54966c634a0cda0b58382?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Mark\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/university-of-exeter-new.onyx-sites.io\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/magic\/author\/rxizfitwrt\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"November 29th at Cambridge University - The Centre for Magic and Esotericism","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/magic\/2018\/11\/22\/hello-world-2\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"November 29th at Cambridge University - The Centre for Magic and Esotericism","og_description":"Literature as Magic, Magic as Literature: Sir\u0101j al-D\u012bn al-Sakk\u0101k\u012b\u2019s Complete Book and a Fragment of Spells Venue: Rooms 8 &amp; 9, Faculty of Asian &amp; Middle Eastern Studies Event date: Thursday, 29 November, 2018 &#8211;\u00a017:15\u00a0to\u00a018:45 Dr. Emily Selove Handbooks like that ascribed to the famous 13th-century scholar of language and magic, Sir\u0101j al-D\u012bn al-Sakk\u0101k\u012b\u2019s Kit\u0101b [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/magic\/2018\/11\/22\/hello-world-2\/","og_site_name":"The Centre for Magic and Esotericism","article_published_time":"2018-11-22T15:15:53+00:00","author":"Mark","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Mark","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/magic\/2018\/11\/22\/hello-world-2\/","url":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/magic\/2018\/11\/22\/hello-world-2\/","name":"November 29th at Cambridge University - The Centre for Magic and Esotericism","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/magic\/#website"},"datePublished":"2018-11-22T15:15:53+00:00","dateModified":"2018-11-22T15:15:53+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/magic\/#\/schema\/person\/f55c794873afd5892e3c96ddf775f5b2"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/magic\/2018\/11\/22\/hello-world-2\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/magic\/2018\/11\/22\/hello-world-2\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/magic\/2018\/11\/22\/hello-world-2\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/magic\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"November 29th at Cambridge University"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/magic\/#website","url":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/magic\/","name":"The Centre for Magic and Esotericism","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/magic\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/magic\/#\/schema\/person\/f55c794873afd5892e3c96ddf775f5b2","name":"Mark","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/magic\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c8bc2e4b4cd54966c634a0cda0b58382?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c8bc2e4b4cd54966c634a0cda0b58382?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Mark"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/university-of-exeter-new.onyx-sites.io"],"url":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/magic\/author\/rxizfitwrt\/"}]}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/magic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/magic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/magic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/magic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/magic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=653"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/magic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/magic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/magic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/magic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}