The Sorcerer’s Handbook
The Sorcerer’s Handbook
Asinine Symbology in Ancient and Medieval Magic https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009076234 The 13th-century Arabic grimoire, al-Sakkākī’s Kitāb al-Shāmil (Book of the Complete), provides numerous methods of contacting jinn. The first such jinn described, Abū Isrā’īl Būzayn ibn Sulaymān, arrives with a donkey. In the course of offering an explanation for his ritual, this Element reveals the double-sided nature […]
A Leverhulme-funded research project, 2019-2022. This project focuses on a collection of magical texts attributed to an influential medieval scholar of the Arabic language, Sirāj al-Dīn al-Sakkākī (d. 1229 CE). We are producing an edition and translation of his grimoire, accompanied by a co-authored volume of essays.
November 28th 6-8 PM Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC Register here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-sorcerers-handbook-dirt-from-the-crossroads-in-the-13th-century-tickets-462520740987 A sheep heart full of pins, a graveyard at midnight, a contract with Satan signed in a magic circle: these are the stereotypical images of magic found in folk-horror depictions of European witchcraft and sorcery. This presentation […]
A two-day workshop for Sorcerer’s Handbook Team members. Click next arrow to see page two! Sorcerer’s Handbook Poster final
We were honored to have helped inspire this thoughtful artistic response by Sarah Scaife, South West and Wales Doctoral Training Partnership AHRC funded PhD Researcher: https://www.academia.edu/43391666/Visions_as_practice_in_practice_based_research “Presentation given to the Exeter University Magic & Esotericism Research Group on 27 May 2020. This work was catalysed by Dr Emily Selove’s presentation, Dangerous Books, to the same […]
Fringe Expertise? Cross-Cultural Readings of Occult Practices in Premodern Eurasia International Medieval Congress, Leeds, 4-7 July 2022 Sponsored by The Sorcerer’s Handbook: Medieval Arabic Magic in Context Project Organisers: Dr Sarah Ortega, Dr Geoff Humble (University of Leeds) This session seeks to bring together a cross-cultural comparative reading of occult practices and practitioners. The term ‘Occult’ […]
Monday the 12th 2:30- 2:40 pm: Welcome 2:40-3:10: Emily Selove: The Book of the Complete as a Complete Book: Sirāj al-Dīn al-Sakkākī’s grimoire taken as a whole 3:10-3:40: Michael Noble: From the diabolical to the celestial: Sakkaki’s planetary prayers in their Ishraqi context 3:40-3:50: Break 3:50-4:20: Travis Zadeh: Sakkākī in Persian: Early Persian Handbooks of Practical […]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_UYo1bOFLQ This is a love talisman from a book of lunar mansions, widely circulated in the medieval world. It is meant to be carved out of ebony, which is way beyond my skill, so I stained it ebony instead. I also did not inscribe it with the correct names, address it with the prescribed incantation, […]