Thread by @aaolomi

Mages, sorcerers, sorceresses, and magic-workers rose to great prominence in Middle Eastern history. Claiming fantastic powers, these figures consulted kings, worked miracles, and became legendary.

A thread on the magic-workers of the Middle East and Islamic world

There were several pre-Islamic soothsayers and jinn conjurers that earned mighty reputations among later Muslim writers.

One was the monstrous, Satih the Boneless. A Damascene he was said to have no bones except for a skull, he was consulted by the King of the Sassanians

The magical soothsayer is reputed to have warned that a prophet was to come from Arabia to bring the Sassanian empire to an end.

Another pre-Islamic prophetess also predicted the coming of Muhammad, Fatimah bint Nu’man was said to possess a jinn familiar or reya

Fatimah bint Nu’man's jinn familiar was also her lover and granted her special powers of healing and foresight. She is reputed to have predicted the arrival of Muhammad.

The magician as monstrous is a common theme in folklore. The Somali Qori Ismaris were powerful sorcerers whose powers bordered on the bestial.

Gifted in knowledge of stick and herb magic, they were said to use a special root or stick to turn into hyenas.

The Qur'an itself also makes references to sorcerers and magic-workers often as adversaries of prophets.

Samiri, a follower of Moses who persuades the people to turn to idolatry is interpreted by some later writers as a sorcerer.

He is said to have gathered dust from the hoof-tracks of the angel Jibrail's horse to fashion his idol.

While he is not explicitly referred to, later folklore and Baha'i sources interpret him as a sorcerer of sorts.

Famously, Moses battles the sorcerers of Pharaoh in the Qur'an in a contest of miracles and wonder-working.

But Muhammad is also said to have faced an adversarial sorcerer, Labid ibn al-Asam.

Labid is said to have used Muhammad's comb to work a killing curse until the angel Jibrail intervened.

The encounter is the context for the revelation of Surah al Falaq which includes the protective prayer from "those who blow on knots" a reference to magic

The famed Sufi Aḥmad al-Badawī was said to have battled an enchantress, Fatma Bint-Birry who was described as having supernatural beauty.

Living in Iraq she used her beauty and magic to seduce and destroy many warriors until al-Badawī confronts her.

Gathering the air in prayer, he directs a spiritual blow against Fatma that strikes her mute and forces her steed to unerringly come before him.

Despite being dragged before the mystic, Fatma conjures a goblet hoping to ensnare al-Badawī

But he throws the contents of the cup back in her face and she sinks into the ground to her eyeballs. Defeated, she agrees to no longer use her powers for evil and asks to become disciple of al-Badawī

The intersection of gender and magic is a particularly revealing trope:

Male mystic (who happens to be celibate) versus female enchantress associated with sexual danger.

While such tales unveil the anxieties of the author, there are also plenty of examples of helpful and beneficent sorceresses like Aqilah from my previous thread

The opposition between mystic versus sorcerer isn't always so clear and many times the two figures merge revealing the nebulous way magic was conceived as Muslims tried to distinguish between "licit" and "illict" practices.

Ḥusayn Akhlati, the famous Mamluk wonder-worker is an example of such blurred lines. A noted mystic, he was also gifted in alchemy, astrology, and magic.

It is said that on the request of the king, he wrote a book of prophecy to be used after his death

In one famous demonstration of his magical prowess, he had guests of his house on the Nile turn to a closed window.

Passing his hands over the window he opened it to reveal he had turned the Nile into a river of blood.

He closed the window and passed his hands once more and opened to reveal he turned the river to milk.

A third time returned the Nile to water.

Magicians also became important figures of society and politics often earning positions at court.

The Bukharran battle mage Mīrak Jan was said to work his art on behalf of Amir Haydar to take out his rivals.

When the ruler of a rival dynasty from Kunduz threatened the amir's legitimacy, Mīrak Jan fashioned a powerful talisman and struck a blow with a sword.

The rival ruler died on the spot.

The mystic Maḥmūd Dihdar was said to be a master of the secret of letters. He plied his art for Amīr Beg II Mawṣillu, fashioning a magic square for him that brought the royal court under his sway.

Then there was Baha al-Dīn Muḥammad al-ʿAmilī who used talismans to tame the anger of kings and save people from the executioners sword.

Magic was viewed in complicated terms. For Ibn Khaldun sorcery was a lesser art used to achieve the miracle of prophets. One part science, one part forbidden.

And yet, its practice was relatively widespread and tolerated and there were attempts at synthesizing a licit magic

One particular miracle that sorcerers and holy men both sought was Tayy al-Arḍ which allowed a person to travel vast distances in a "blink of an eye" or tay al-makan by folding space.

This was achieved in a variety of ways

While the jinn could help with this power and had it to a smaller degree, the power lay with the Secret of Names, a knowledge of God's Names.

In one instance the Sufi Abu Yazd al-Bistami was in a hurry and so using the Secret of Names folded the Tigris River so he could cross

Despite its ambiguous and often condemned place in orthodox Islamic theology, magic was not only common place in the Middle East, but was highly sought after as a sacred science and knowledge.

We'll continue our exploration of magic in the Islamic world in future threads