Includes bibliographical references and index.

Preliminary Material / G. Bohak , Y. Harari and S. Shaked -- Continuity And Innovation In The Magical Tradition: A Jerusalem Symposium And Its Wider Contexts / Gideon Bohak , Yuval Harari and Shaul Shaked -- The Revision Of Babylonian Anti-Witchcraft Incantations:The Critical Analysis Of Incantations In The Ceremonial Series Maqlû / Gideon Bohak , Yuval Harari and Shaul Shaked -- From Ritual To Magic: Ancient Egyptian Precursors Of The Charitesion And Their Social Setting / Joachim Friedrich Quack -- Scribal Practices In The Production Of Magic Handbooks In Egypt / Jacco Dieleman -- Magic And Divination: Two Apolline Oracles On Magic / Fritz Graf -- Magic And Medicine In The Roman Imperial Period: Two Case Studies / Christopher A. Faraone -- When Magical Techniques And Mystical Practices Become Neighbors: Methodological Considerations / Ithamar Gruenwald -- Transmission And Transformation Of Spells: The Case Of The Jewish Babylonian Aramaic Bowls / Shaul Shaked -- ‘This Is A Qybl’ For Overturning Sorceries’: Form, Formula—Threads In A Web Of Transmission / Dan Levene -- Astral Magic In Ancient Jewish Discourse: Adoption, Transformation, Differentiation / Kocku Von Stuckrad -- The Planets, The Jews And The Beginnings Of “Jewish Astrology” / Reimund Leicht -- Metatron And The Treasure Of Gold: Notes On A Dream Inquiry Text From The Cairo Genizah / Yuval Harari -- The Magical Rotuli From The Cairo Genizah / Gideon Bohak -- An Arabic Version Of “The Sword Of Moses” / Alexander Fodor -- Index / G. Bohak , Y. Harari and S. Shaked.

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This volume brings together thirteen studies by as many experts in the study of one or more ancient or medieval magical traditions, from ancient Mesopotamia and Pharaonic and Greco-Roman Egypt to the Greek world, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. It lays special emphasis on the recurrence of similar phenomena in magical texts as far apart as the Akkadian cuneiform tablets and an Arabic manuscript bought in Egypt in the late-twentieth century. Such similarities demonstrate to what extent many different cultures share a “magical logic” which is strikingly identical, and in particular they show the recurrence of certain phenomena when magical practices are transmitted in written form and often preserve, adopt and adapt much older textual units.