Magic as Poetry, Poetry as Magic: A Fragment of Arabic Spells

Abstract

This article provides an edition and translation of Landberg 35a, an Arabic manuscript fragment containing a collection of spells, held in Yale University's Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscripts Library. These spells can also be found circulating in Arabic-language blogs and websites dedicated to the occult, and include love spells either addressing the full moon or using sand and incense, and methods of contacting a jar-dwelling spirit and a king of the jinn. Relying on Jonathan Culler's theory of apostrophe in poetry, this essay also explores the reasons that references to magic and to poetry in certain situations tend to cause embarrassment. This analysis results in a blurring of the definitions of modern and medieval as well as of poetry and magic, and highlights the power of language to affect the speaker, the listener, and the world.