Ilmu Sihir in Wellcome Library
(Malay black magic charm to incite fatal illness, from Wellcome Library collection)
When browsing through the internet today, I accidentally bumped into the website of Wellcome Library, a London based library and one of the world’s foremost collections of various rare manuscripts, and I found a gallery of highly interesting occult manuscripts. One of the manuscripts that grabbed my attentions would be the Malay charms dated back to the 19th century.
Malay sorcery, or ilmu sihir, is not uncommon even in today’s modern Malaysia. An ex-colleague of mine, who is a nice, soft spoken Malay lady, told me that her mother had a severe illness caused by sorcery and a possible remedy is supposedly water drawn from the wells of seven mosques.
The world ilmu came from the Arabic word علم, which simply means ‘knowledge’, and the word sihir came from the Arabic word سحر, usually translated as ‘magic’ or ‘sorcery’. Malay magic and sorcery began in the immemorial past, first started with animistic belief, influenced by Hinduism and later by Islam.
According to the Qur’ān 2:102, sorcery and magic were taught to human by the two angels Harut and Marut in the ancient Babylon. William St. Clair Tisdall believed that one of the sources of the story of Harut and Marut seems to be from Zoroastrian angels Haurvat and Ameretat. Sometimes, Harut and Marut are identified as Azazel and Shemhazai in Jewish sources.
Despite the fact that the Qur’ān and the Hadīith openly forbidden the practice of sorcery and magic, for example in the Sahih al-Bukhari, it is written that ‘Umar ibn al-Khattāb commanded to “execute every sorcerer or sorceress”, sorcery and magic flourished in Islamic world.
One of the most influential grimoires is definitely the Arabic book of magic Picatrix, or in its original Arabic title Gāyat al-Hakim fī l-sihr. The great Muslim astrologer al-Bīrūnī wrote two books on magic, and he is still revered by many astrologers, despite Abu Dawud’s Sahih Isnad recorded the saying of Muhammad that astrology is part of sorcery and thus is a sin.
But myself, I agree with what the great orientalist Sir Richard Olaf Winstedt wrote in his Shaman, Saiva and Sufi: “I would remind Malay readers that every race has its lumber-room of magical beliefs and practices, and many such survivals are gracious and beautiful and full of historical interest. It is to be hoped that the rapid influx of modern ideas will not wash away too many of the landmarks of their complex and ancient civilisation.”
Other than the two Malay magical charms, Wellcome Library also has a great numbers of images, some beautifully colored, such as the pages of the four princes of spirits and the depiction of the archangel Metratron from the grimoire Clavis Inferni attributed to Cyprianus. You can even find John Dee’s scrying crystal there as well.
And no, the infamous Necronomicon is not in their collections.
Malay sorcery, or ilmu sihir, is not uncommon even in today’s modern Malaysia. An ex-colleague of mine, who is a nice, soft spoken Malay lady, told me that her mother had a severe illness caused by sorcery and a possible remedy is supposedly water drawn from the wells of seven mosques.
The world ilmu came from the Arabic word علم, which simply means ‘knowledge’, and the word sihir came from the Arabic word سحر, usually translated as ‘magic’ or ‘sorcery’. Malay magic and sorcery began in the immemorial past, first started with animistic belief, influenced by Hinduism and later by Islam.
According to the Qur’ān 2:102, sorcery and magic were taught to human by the two angels Harut and Marut in the ancient Babylon. William St. Clair Tisdall believed that one of the sources of the story of Harut and Marut seems to be from Zoroastrian angels Haurvat and Ameretat. Sometimes, Harut and Marut are identified as Azazel and Shemhazai in Jewish sources.
Despite the fact that the Qur’ān and the Hadīith openly forbidden the practice of sorcery and magic, for example in the Sahih al-Bukhari, it is written that ‘Umar ibn al-Khattāb commanded to “execute every sorcerer or sorceress”, sorcery and magic flourished in Islamic world.
One of the most influential grimoires is definitely the Arabic book of magic Picatrix, or in its original Arabic title Gāyat al-Hakim fī l-sihr. The great Muslim astrologer al-Bīrūnī wrote two books on magic, and he is still revered by many astrologers, despite Abu Dawud’s Sahih Isnad recorded the saying of Muhammad that astrology is part of sorcery and thus is a sin.
But myself, I agree with what the great orientalist Sir Richard Olaf Winstedt wrote in his Shaman, Saiva and Sufi: “I would remind Malay readers that every race has its lumber-room of magical beliefs and practices, and many such survivals are gracious and beautiful and full of historical interest. It is to be hoped that the rapid influx of modern ideas will not wash away too many of the landmarks of their complex and ancient civilisation.”
Other than the two Malay magical charms, Wellcome Library also has a great numbers of images, some beautifully colored, such as the pages of the four princes of spirits and the depiction of the archangel Metratron from the grimoire Clavis Inferni attributed to Cyprianus. You can even find John Dee’s scrying crystal there as well.
And no, the infamous Necronomicon is not in their collections.
posted by Nishiki at
10:19 PM
1 Comments:
Thank you so much for sharing this info with us.
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home