Conference - Islamic Occultism in Theory and Practice (6–8 Jan., Oxford)

Yael Rice Discussion
 
From: Francesca Leoni <francesca.leoni@ashmus.ox.ac.uk>
Date: January 3, 2016
 
Dear Colleagues,
 
Please find below the programme for the upcoming conference Islamic Occultism in Theory and Practice. This is the first gathering of scholars that will closely consider the relationship between Islamic occultist theory and practice, bridging the gap between material culture, manuscript studies and intellectual history; and on an institutional level, between the curatorial and academic spheres. The conference will also highlight the special and evocative status of divinatory and magical objects – material and spiritual, visual and devotional – and the manifestation of this uniqueness in occult works which often contain images, diagrams, cosmographies, and symbols. Furthermore, it will be an opportunity to evaluate curatorial, codicological and historiographic practices and methods in the field and provide a platform for junior researchers to engage with established scholars and present new findings in a growing field. More broadly, therefore, the conference is intended to help consolidate the new field of Islamic occultism, establishing it as a useful and fruitful area of research.
 
The conference will be held at the Ashmolean Museum (Oxford), 6-8 January 2017, and coincide with the final week of the exhibition “Power and Protection: Islamic Art and the Supernatural”. Registration is in person at the venue for a fee of 25 GBP to be paid in cash. 
 
Best wishes,
Francesca Leoni
 
 
PROGRAMME
Headley Lecture Theatre, Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford, Beaumont Street, Oxford OX1 2PH
 
Friday, 6 January 2017
11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Registration
12:00 – 12:15 p.m. Welcome and Introduction
12:15 – 1:15 p.m. Keynote by Charles Burnett (The Warburg Institute): Magic as the Completion of Human Knowledge in Arabic and Latin Literature
1:15 – 2:30 p.m. Lunch
 
Panel 1:  Hermetism and Sabianism in Islamic Magic. Chair:  Francesca Leoni
2:30 – 3:00 p.m. Liana Saif (Université catholique de Louvain/University of Oxford): Evaluating the Pseudo-Aristotelian Hermetica and Its Impact on Magic in Medieval Islam
3:00 – 3:30 p.m. Michael Noble (The Warburg Institute): Sabian Occult Ritual as an Alternative Path to Human Perfection
3:30 – 4:00 p.m. Tea Break
 
Panel 2:  Islamic Talismans—Arabic and Turkish, Sunni and Shiʿi. Chair:  Edgar Francis
4:00 – 4:30 p.m. Francesca Leoni (Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford): Wasila/Wasita: A Turkish Talisman
4:30 – 5:00 p.m. Maryam Ekhtiar (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York): Islamic Talismans on the Battlefield: The Sunni/Shiʿi Divide
 
5:00 – 6:00 p.m. Exhibition Visit
6:00 – 7:00 p.m. Drink Reception
7:00 p.m. Dinner for Speakers
 
Saturday, 7 January 2017
Panel 3:  Magic Squares and Indian Mages in Arabic Manuscripts. Chair:  Francesca Leoni
9:30 – 10:00 a.m. Bink Hallum (British Library): Magic Squares in the Renaissance of Islam: New Light on Early Arabic awfāq Literature
10:00 – 10:30 a.m. Jean-Charles Coulon (Paris-Sorbonne University): The Kitāb Sharāsīm al-Hindiyya and Medieval Islamic Occult Sciences
10:30 – 11:00 a.m. Coffee Break
 
Panel 4:  The Brethren of Purity, Old and New. Chair: Noah Gardiner
11:00 – 11:30 a.m. Godefroid de Callataÿ (Université catholique de Louvain) and Liana Saif: The Epistle on Magic in the Rasāʾil Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ
11:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Matthew Melvin-Koushki (University of South Carolina): Astronomers, Lettrists and Sultan-Scientists Mathematize the Cosmos: Neopythagorean Occultism at the Samarkand Observatory of Ulugh Beg
12:00 – 1:30 p.m. Lunch
 
Panel 5:  Occult Libraries and Their Contents. Chair:  Matthew Melvin-Koushki
1:30 – 2:00 p.m. Noah Gardiner (University of South Carolina): The Occult Library of the Mamlūk Sultan al-Malik al-Ẓāhir Barqūq
2:00 – 2:30 p.m. Yasmine Al-Saleh (Dār al-Āthār al-Islāmiyya, Kuwait): The Purple Talismanic Scroll
2:30 – 3:00 p.m. Tea Break
 
Panel 6:  Amulets and Magic Bowls, Past and Present. Chair:  Farouk Yahya
3:00 – 3:30 p.m. Roberta Giunta (University of Naples “L’Orientale”): Islamic Magic Bowls: Towards a Comprehensive Investigation
3:30 – 4:00 p.m. Christiane Gruber (University of Michigan): Bereket Bargains: Islamic Amulets in Today’s Turkey
4:00 p.m. Closing Remarks
 
Sunday, 8 January 2017
Panel 7:  Alchemy, Astrology and Astrological Alchemy. Chair:  Nicholas Harris
10:30 – 11:00 a.m. Tuna Artun (Rutgers University): My Companions Are Like the Stars: Astrological  Concepts in the Alchemical Kashf al-asrār fī hatk al-astār
11:00 – 11:30 a.m. Ahmet Tunç Şen (Leiden University): In Defense of Astrology: Muʾayyadzāda ʿAbd al-Raḥmān’s (d. 1516) Rebuttal of Anti-Astrology Arguments
11:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Coffee Break
 
Panel 8:  Ciphers and Symbols in Islamic Occult Science. Chair:  Liana Saif
12:00 – 12:30 p.m. Nicholas Harris (University of Pennsylvania): Ciphers and Secrecy: Alchemy, Cryptography, and the Occult
12:30 – 1:00 p.m. Blanca Villuendas (University of Barcelona): The Dilemmas of an Editorial Project: Ibn al-Maḥfūf’s Book on the Triplets in Geomancy
1:00 – 2:30 p.m. Lunch
 
Panel 9:  Occult Calligraphy in Islamic Southeast Asia. Chair:  Michael Noble
2:30 – 3:00 p.m. Farouk Yahya (Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford): Calligrams of the Lion of ʿAli in Southeast Asia
3:00 – 3:30 p.m. Fiona Kerlogue (Horniman Museum, London): Calligraphic Batiks
 
3:30 – 4:30 p.m. Roundtable: Emilie Savage-Smith (University of Oxford), Venetia Porter (British Museum, London), Azfar Moin (University of Texas at Austin)
4:30 p.m. Closing Remarks