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How did men and magical objects interact in the early modern period, and with what consequences? This article seeks to answer these questions through a close reading of the trial for sorcery of an urban artisan named Michael Wirth, who was accused in 1663 of murdering his neighbour by magical means. The article foregrounds the role that Wirth's Kunstbüchlein (books of arts) played in his practice of magic (in his case, a type of weapons magic aimed at ensuring his accuracy in musket-shooting) and in his acquisition of a reputation for malevolent sorcery in the eyes of some of his neighbours. In so doing, it analyses the competing claims made by different trial protagonists about Wirth's relationship with, and use of, his books of arts, and explores how the books themselves participated in these meaning-making processes. The article furthers our understanding of the practice of weapons magic and the use of books of arts by urban artisans in the seventeenth century. It also contributes to ongoing debates about the gendering and material culture of magic in early modern Germany, and about the agency of human and non-human actors in networks of social practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the use of the term helrūne in book "Beowulf," examining its meaning and implications. Topics include the lexical evidence suggesting helrūne primarily refers to female sorcerers, the debate among scholars about its application to Grendel, and the argument that the term might be used here to make a generalized statement about entities defying human understanding rather than describing Grendel specifically.

The prominent Andalusian mystic, poet, and philosopher Ibn ʿ Arabī (d. 1240) argued that God's friends and sorcerers rely on the same knowledge and principles of Islamic lettrism (ʿilm al-ḥrūf) to bend the world to their will. This premise led him to the conclusion, in Chapter 73 of his book The Meccan Revelations (ar. al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya) , that the word "sorcery" (siḥr) can be used as a synonym for saintly miracles (karāmāt). The present study, however, argues that, in other places, Ibn ʿ Arabī made distinctions between the miracles performed by God's friends, sorcerers, and prophets. Whereas God's friends can sometimes be figuratively described as "sorcerers," sorcerers themselves were never referred to as either "friends" or "prophets" in Ibn ʿ Arabī's works. This article further examines the relationship between jinn magic and sorcery, to determine under which specific circumstances sorcery was deemed praiseworthy in Akbarian Sufism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the editorial history of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra's masterpiece, El ingenioso hidalgo don Quixote de la Mancha (1605, 1615), one of its signal events was the landmark edition published in London in 1738. The result of an unusual Anglo-Spanish collaboration commissioned by an English nobleman, the project may have been set in motion by his exchange with a Hanoverian princess newly arrived in Great Britain. This major editorial undertaking and two strong personalities -- one directly involved, the other only possibly pertinent -- occupy the following pages. The legendary Merlin the sorcerer plays a dual role and links the two, as a personality in the Quixote and as the name of a collection of books of fiction that later became the site of an amusement-park-style spectacle at a royal London residence. These intertwined stories reveal how canonical literature and popular legend can serve the twin pursuits of cultural prestige and historical standing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper looks at the case against Francisco Jeronymo, a resident of the Ilha de Mussulo (Mussulo Island), who was accused of being a feitiçeiro by his neighbours. Based on his Auto de Investigação (Case Investigation) located in the Arquivo Nacional de Angola, it highlights some of the labour abuses of the Portuguese colonial state and shows how Africans appealed to colonial laws and republican ideals. By focusing on the testimonies within the Auto de Investigação, this paper explains why his neighbours accused him of being a witch, and how different actors made sense of their world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Between 1987 and 2015, Terry Pratchett published eleven novels and one short story within his Discworld universe that came to be known as his “Witches” sub-series. In these texts he engaged with the narrative imperatives, preoccupations, and tropes which together make up the consensus fantasy universe, and those deeper mythologies and legendarium with which the author necessarily has an intertextual relationship. This paper focuses upon one aspect of that consensus universe, which is the difference between male and female magical practitioners—witches and wizards—in the fantasy canon, and how Pratchett sought to challenge and subvert the stereotypes of the genre in his own work. The primary means by which Pratchett achieved this, I have argued, is by exposing the fictionality of these stereotypes through parody and satire, whilst at the same time embedding these same tropes within his own universe as the building blocks of his secondary world. The period during which the “Witches” novels were produced is roughly commensurate with a timeframe in which the range of academic and activist positions which are broadly regarded as constituting secondwave feminism were giving rise to, being overtaken by (or in some cases were in direct conflict with) a multiplicity of newer scholarly approaches which have been described as comprising a third wave. Whilst it would be wrong-footed to attempt to position Pratchett’s ‘Witches” novels as a direct engagement with any of these theories, we can see in his writing an awareness of the shifting landscape of feminist thought, with themes in the earliest novels that take up ideas of equality of access similar to those that dominated first-wave discourse, as well as a growing cast of characters and range of thematic concerns that come to reflect the divergence of second and third-wave debates about biological sex and gender identity. Although Pratchett’s work does not itself constitute feminist scholarship, I have argued that through his engagement with some of the evolving ideas about women and their relative position in society, his “Witches” novels can be read as an attempt to change the way that women are portrayed in fantasy literature by intersecting with ideas that are external to it. In this respect, and by interpreting his work in terms of de Beauvoir’s archetypal stereotypes and her theory of Other, as well as Grosz’s work on feminine corporeality and Butler’s ideas of gender performativity, I have sought to illuminate how Pratchett’s fiction not only sits within a wider body of feminist discourse but can also bear the weight of such critical analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tow field experiments were conducted during 2019 and 2020 seasons to study the behavior of rice cultivars (Giza177, Sakha107 and Giza179) under three varying salinity wizards Viz, Salwax, Aquasal and Crop plus, whereas the first two materials were applied in soil before transplanting while, the third material was sprayed twice at rate 5 kg ha-1 for each one. The split plot design was used in this study whereas, salinity wizards were placed in the main plots but the sub plots were allocated to rice cultivars. The main obtained results in both seasons provided significant and positive effect was released by the used soil salinity chemicals treatments on behavior of rice cultivars as rice salinity tolerance, ion selectivity, growth parameters, yield attributes and grain yield. The most effective and beneficial treatment was SalWax followed by AquaSal and then crop plus regarding studied parameters. Applying these materials via soil was more efficient than those applied via foliage however, crop plus came in the last rank in this study. The studied three rice varieties significantly varied in their performance considering salinity tolerance, ion selectivity, rice growth, yield attributes and grain yield in both seasons. The results showed that Giza 179 cultivar gave apparent values of salinity tolerance were cleared in the lowest value of Na+/K+ ratio, high K+ concentration, high growth, yield attributes and grain yield. The obtained result confirmed the superiority and tolerance of Giza179 rice variety under salt stresses. Sakha 107 rice variety is considered as salt moderately sensitive variety, while Giza177 was continued to be salt sensitive variety. The interaction effect brought the superiorly of the combination of Giza179 and Salwax under salt stress. It could be concluded that Salwax salinity wizards should apply in soil for rice growing under saline soil before transplanting at the rate of 5 kg ha-1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on buffoons and sorcerers such as witchcraft, entertainment, and evil professions in colonial sources on pre-Hispanic Nahuas. It mentions examines Nahua male performers as described in the Primeros memoriales, usually attributed to Fray Bernardino de Sahagún. It also mentions indigenous performative and theatrical abilities can also be discerned in the writings of Spanish religious authors and people to and apparently did not pose any threat to Christianization enterprise.

This article examines accusations of sorcery as a way to understand the perceptions of sorcery among the Mapuche of central-southern Chile during the colonial period. Local communities believed that illnesses and unfortunate events were caused by the actions of sorcerers, known as kalku, and therefore consulted ritual healers and diviners, the machi and dugul, to identify and punish the supposed evildoers. In accusing local members of being kalku, the ritual specialists expressed a precise perception of sorcery and developed clear strategies for counteracting the sorcerers. This article argues that the accusations of sorcery became political and social instruments in the hands of the local authorities and that they shaped the meaning of sorcery and its perception among the Mapuche. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Surra Man Raa is the property of Republic of Iraq Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research (MOHESR) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In nearly every documented society, people believe that some misfortunes are caused by malicious group mates using magic or supernatural powers. Here I report cross-cultural patterns in these beliefs and propose a theory to explain them. Using the newly created Mystical Harm Survey, I show that several conceptions of malicious mystical practitioners, including sorcerers (who use learned spells), possessors of the evil eye (who transmit injury through their stares and words), and witches (who possess superpowers, pose existential threats, and engage in morally abhorrent acts), recur around the world. I argue that these beliefs develop from three cultural selective processes: a selection for intuitive magic, a selection for plausible explanations of impactful misfortune, and a selection for demonizing myths that justify mistreatment. Separately, these selective schemes produce traditions as diverse as shamanism, conspiracy theories, and campaigns against heretics—but around the world, they jointly give rise to the odious and feared witch. I use the tripartite theory to explain the forms of beliefs in mystical harm and outline 10 predictions for how shifting conditions should affect those conceptions. Societally corrosive beliefs can persist when they are intuitively appealing or they serve some believers' agendas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article studies representations of Indian magic and wizards in five popular nineteenth century Anglo-Indian novels. Such study allows us to understand how ordinary nineteenth century Britons envisioned Indian occult practices. Arguing that literary representations of Indian magic and wizards were essentially structured by the way Indian magic was conceptualized at both the metropolitan centre and the colonial periphery, this article considers the history of actual British encounter with Indian magicians in both Britain and India. It is found that in Anglo-Indian novels Indian wizards were generally stereotyped as malevolent beings, though favourable representations of wizards were not entirely absent. This article seeks to provide an explanation for this. It goes on to argue that, ultimately, representations of Indian magic and magicians in colonial literature reveal more about colonial ideology and public expectations in Britain, than about occult practices and their practitioners in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A literary criticism of the book "Roverandom" by J. R. R. Tolkien is presented. It outlines the adventures of a young dog, Rover. In the story, an irritable wizard turns Rover into a toy, and Rover goes to the Moon and under the sea in order to find the wizard again to turn him back into a normal-sized dog.

This article presents an edition of a 4th century Coptic fragment of a hitherto unknown Old Testament apocryphon that gives a non-canonical version of the events of Exodus. It offers a specifically Egyptian literary history of the legendary magicians Jannes and Jambres, which highlights the so far unappreciated dependence of their own Apocryphon on pagan Egyptian tales about magicians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyzes the concepts of 'demon' and 'wizard' and the changes undergone by them from the 14th to 17th centuries in Western Europe. Both concepts were re-conceptualized into de Catholic Church and have been closely bound together in the Western religious thought during the Renaissance and Baroque periods. The analysis is focused on two aspects: on the one hand, the increasing presence of demon in the studied period, and its relation with wizards, men and women, in order to help them in their sorceries, but always as an exchange of helping demon in its battle against God. On the other hand, the paper analyzes the many types of female wizards and the kinds of sorceries that these made, like to provoke sickness and healing, to cause death, or to foresee the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a sample text that talks about bthan kabe, which when translated means sorcerers or magicians. Topics discussed include talk about sorcery being mostly speculative and general, and the story referring to Fenz, which means puss or the liquids inside a rotting corpse, which the sorcerers drink to gain strength.

Cunning-folk offering a wide range of mostly supernatural services were a common part of European popular culture until at least the early twentieth century. Still, insight into how they established themselves as people with extraordinary abilities is limited. In this article I approach two of the best-documented cases of nineteenth-century Norwegian cunning-folk. The preacher-prophet, healer, and clairvoyant Knut Rasmussen (‘Vis-Knut’, 1792–1876) and the diviner and sorcerer Eilev Olsen (‘Spå-Eilev’, 1814–91) were ‘living legends’ who attracted clients from all over the country for more than fifty years. A wealth of historical and folkloristic sources allows us a rare glimpse into their early career stages and the dynamics by which two uneducated day labourers managed to become central actors in a local power play. An analysis of the local ‘folk religious fields’ details strategies, practices, and narratives used to cater to different factions, to convey claims of supernatural efficacy, and to create a regional market. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]