fodor, alexander. ‘an arabic version of “sefer ha-razim”’, jewish studies quarterly 13,4...

An Arabic Version of Sefer Ha-Razim

Alexander Fodor

1. The present paper wishes to be a kind of preliminary report on anArabic version of Sefer ha-Razim before the publication of the wholetext, which I discovered by chance more than thirty years ago. The storyhappened in the following way:

During one of my regular visits to Egypt I was offered to buy anArabic manuscript in Cairo in 1973. It contained 223 numbered pagesbut later it turned out that the hand that put the numbers on the pageslater with a pencil made two mistakes in the order and the actual num-ber of the pages was only 213. The manuscript was carefully bound in abrown hard cover probably imitating leather. Its size measured 12 cm ·17 cm. To enhance the impression of a careful work even a bookmark inthe form of a ribbon was applied to the binding. The manuscript lookedrecently written in black ink but the titles of the chapters and some otherimportant words were rendered in red. These facts pointed to the possi-bility that the copyist must have had an older manuscript in front ofhim, which he tried to reproduce in the most accurate form. This sup-position was further supported by the presence of the catchwords at thebottom of the pages indicating the sequence of the pages in the tradi-tional way. It was also striking that the number of the lines on almost allof the pages was 12. The frequently occurring angelic names and themagical recipes clearly showed that the text was a magical book. Thisfact also explains why the accurate copying was so important since ma-gic is the most conservative part of the world of beliefs. So I felt justifiedto think that a work of ancient origin was in my hands.

The man who sold the manuscript was a Copt book merchant whoseemed to know nothing about it. The first lines of the book pointed toa Christian work since the usual formula of the Muslim basmala wasreplaced by the following expression. “In the Name of the Father, theSon, the Holy Spirit, One God. Amen”. After this the copyist said thatwith the help of God he started to copy the “Book of Adam” (SifrAdam) that God revealed to Adam.

Jewish Studies Quarterly, Volume 13 (2006) pp. 412—427' Mohr Siebeck — ISSN 0944-5706

The Arabic version reads like this:

۱سدقلاحورلاونبالاوبالامسبنيمادحاوهلاهقيفوتنسحوهـللانمنوعبيدتبنكلملاهـللاهلزنايذلامدآرفسخسنبهنيمثلابتكلانموهوهيلعسودقلانيماهخسنىلعهـللاانناعاهديفملاودعباماميحرلافوؤرلاهـللامسبهـللاهلزنايذلامدآرفساذهفىلاعتوكرابتهيلعسودقلاكلملا

مالسلاهيلعكالملالييايرزهبحص .يفمالسلاهيلعكالملالييايرزناكوهرجشلانمهلكادعبهبرمدآلأستقو

۲هيلعلاوهالاطيلستوهتلزنمطاطحناوهـللاايهتبلطيفلاقفهسفنرجضوكراقوءاهببلكلاتقلختنأنيملاعلانيدبألادبأىلاكحبسنككلممظعوتنأورتتسيالوكنعيفخيءىشسيل

ينتلعجوكتقيلخىلعينتطلسنابعثلايناوغادقولكلاىلعايلاووامدقمينتيهنهرجشلانعويمدويمحليتجوزوتملعنالاو.ىلعيتأيامونوكيامفرعاملوهقيلخلانمدحاكيدينيبيكزيالنأتمهفوفالخلاوتاطخايناف.كترضحللوقااذام

انأو.كرمايزواجتتقونموتعنص

۳كلاسأنالاو.ائيشلقعامللهاجانأويحورويتروصباذعلانمصلخميحرايرداقاييعفانمهفرعمويتيادهقيرطىلايندشرأويسركوكسدقعضومىلايتالصدعصتوهباجالانعيءاعدبجحتالوكراقوكالملالزنماياهثالثدعبو.كتمحربدقهللاقفسمشلاهرمحدنعلييايرزنيبألكيلاتيتأدقو.كاعدهـللاعمسنوكيامكملعاوهسدقمءامساوليواقأكلكنمءىجياملكوكتوممويىلاكرمأنمنملكو.انيبمنوكيفهارتفهريخالالايجالايفعنصيوعوشخوهراهطبيشميرفسلااذهيففقوااملفهلملعيناديريائيشهب

٤هوقعمسورفسلاىلعمدآكالملالييايرزهللاقفادعترمههجوىلععقواهنميتلاءامسالا

(2006) An Arabic Version of Sefer Ha-Razim 413

مدقتوفختالودتشاوىوقتومدآايمقكالملانوكياملكملعتهنمهنافهظفحاورفسلاذخوكلذنمكالملاغرفنيحف.كدشرقرطنميفكالملادعصورهنلايطاشىلعرانتلعشانمأكلذمدآىأراملفامسلاىلارانلابيهلميظعلاسودقلاكلملاهـللادنعنمهاتاهنأ .هتجانمتناكورفسلااذهبمدآكسمتفلأسيهبناكوعوشخوبلقاقنوهراهطبهيفاذهلئاضفهذهو.هلعفيءيشلكيفرختفيهبوهراهطبهيفكلسينمفهقرطوسدقملارفسلا

هلامعايفحجني .In translation:

“In the Name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, One God. Amen.With the help of God and with good fortune [granted] by Him we start to

copy Sifr Adam (‘The Book of Adam’) which God, the Holy King revealedto him. It is from the precious and useful books. May God help us in copy-ing it. Amen.

In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.Now then, this is the Book of Adam which God, the Holy King (May He

be Blessed and Exalted!) revealed to him. The Angel Zaryayıl (May Peace beupon Him!) accompanied him. The Angel Zaryayıl (May Peace be uponHim!) lived in the time of Adam when he asked his Lord after he ate fromthe Tree, left his abode and fear seized him and became exasperated. He saidin his request: ‘O God of the Worlds! You created everything by the beautyof Your dignity and the greatness of Your kingship. We glorify You foreverand ever. There is nothing that can be hidden from You and nothing can beconcealed. You gave me power over Your creatures and You made me over-seer and ruler over everything. But the serpent seduced me and my wife, myflesh and my blood although You have forbade me the Tree. But I did notknow what would happen and what would reach me. Now I have known andunderstood that no one among the creatures could be guiltless in front ofYou. What can I say to You? I made a mistake and caused the conflict whenI paid no attention to Your order. I was ignorant and I did not understandanything. Now I ask You O All-powerful, O Merciful to deliver me from thepunishment, my figure and my soul and guide me to my right way and to therecognition of my benefits and raise my prayer to the place of Your holinessand the Throne of Your dignity and do not hide my invocation from thefulfilment by Your mercy’.

After three days the Angel Zaryayıl descended when the Sun became redand told him: ‘God listened to your invocation and I came to you to explainsayings and holy names and to teach you what will happen in your case untilthe day of your death and whatever will come from you in the last genera-tions you will see it and it will be clear.’

Everybody who takes this book in purity and humbleness and makessomething with it will wish to make it known for himself. When the AngelZaryayıl instructed Adam about the book and he heard the power of thenames in it he fell on his face trembling.

414 Alexander Fodor JSQ 13

The Angel told him: ‘Get up Adam, take courage, be strong, do not beafraid, come closer, take the book and guard it because you will know fromit everything which concerns the ways of your guidance’. When the Angelfinished this, a fire was ignited on the bank of the river and the Angelascended in the flame of the fire to the heaven. When Adam saw this hewas sure that he came to him from God, the Glorious, Holy King. Adamkept this book and his secret prayers were directed by it in purity, withimmaculate heart and in humbleness. He was asking [God for things] withits help, he was proud of it in everything he did. These are the advantages ofthis Holy Book and its ways. He who is dealing with it in purity will succeedin his acts.”

Later on, the text says that Noah learned from this book when he builtthe Ark and this book was the first thing that he took in a golden box tothe Ark. After his death the book was handed over to his son, Shet [amistake for Shem] and after generations it reached Solomon who re-garded it as his most precious book and worked miracles with it.

At the end of the introduction the author mentions that the Book,which he calls this time Kitab, consists of two parts which he designatesby the word sifr used formerly in the main title of work in the form ofSifr Adam. He states that The First Book (al-Sifr al-Awwal ) treats theseven firmaments, their angels who are the masters of different servicesand finally how to use them for different purposes.`The Second Book’ (al-Sifr al-Thanı ) contains the names of the angelsof the four seasons, the names of the Sun, the Moon, the seven planets,the heaven, the earth, the winds, the angels of the seven days, themonths.

The first part of the work called ‘The First Book’ says that amongnumerous things it will speak about the spheres, the seven firmaments,their angels, their names and their competences, how to make use ofthem, what will happen in the world, when illness or death will come,the interpretation of dreams, when wars will start and when they willend, when crops will be abundant or will be lacking.

Following this structure, ‘The First Book’ describes the seven firma-ments enumerating their angels with their names and the different fieldsof life over which they practice power. So, the angels of the seven en-campments of the First Firmament subordinated to a chief angel areactive in healing, wars, the events of the world, human relations, com-municating with the Sun, the Moon, the dead, catching fugitives, send-ing dreams.

In the Second Firmament the angels stand on 12 steps and theircompetencies include creating distortion, arranging human relations,eliminating evil things, dealing with fire, securing prosperity, taking


care of animals, souls, waging wars, causing illnesses, releasing prisoners,supporting the ruler, healing the sick.

The Third Firmament hosts the angels who can help the horses to runfaster.

The angels of the Fourth Firmament enable the petitioner to talk tothe Sun in daytime or at night.

The Fifth Firmament contains the angels of the 12 months who knowwhat happens in each month.

The angels in the Sixth Firmament take responsibility for the wars.The description of the Seventh Firmament contains the doxologies of

the angels in praise of God and lists His Names.In the end the text says that ‘The First Book from the Book of Se-

crets’ (Sifr al-Asrar) called ‘The Book of Hidden Things’ (Sifr al-Kha-faya) was finished.

‘The Second Book’ (al-Sifr al-Thanı ) starts with a long praise of Godand the description of the benefits and uses of the Book. It also men-tions that Zaryayıl revealed the Book to Adam when Yared was 300 yearold and then gives the chain of transmission, which includes Methuse-lah, Noah, Shem, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. After describing the con-ditions which are prescribed for those who wish to use the book, thework gives the names of the angels in the four seasons, the names ofthe celestial bodies, the winds, the sea, the angels of the months, thedays, the hours, the planets. This section ends with the description ofinteresting divinatory procedures.

After this, a new and independent section begins under the title ‘Mak-ing Use of the Angels of the First Book’ (Tas

˙rıf Mala>ikat al-Sifr al-

Awwal). Here the author returns to the angelic groups of the seven fir-maments and gives numerous magical recipes which are related to thedifferent occupations of the angels.

Under the pretext of the description of the Seventh Firmament theauthor, however, presents a long list of magical names which compose apowerful invocation called ‘The Sword of God’ (Sayf Allah) and men-tions its numerous uses together with the prescribed magical rituals.Finally, he also describes the angels who minister in the Seventh Firma-ment around the Throne.

The next chapter contains a prayer called ‘The Hand of God’ (YadAllah) composed of an amazing number of names which can be used toget the revelation of the former invocation, ‘The Sword of God’ in addi-tion to many other benefits. The closing part admonishes the reader ofthe work to use it in the prescribed way. Finally, the colophon affirmsagain that the ‘Book of the Hidden Things’ (Sifr al-Khafaya) ended but


no reference is made to ‘The Book of Adam’, which appeares at thebeginning as the title of the whole work.

2. Upon reading this text in a cursory way, it became evident that itmust have been the translation of a Jewish work. It seemed also naturalto discover the figure of the Angel Raziel behind the name of the mainprotagonist in the frame story, the Angel Zaryayıl.

The key to discover the original source was offered by the reference tothe ‘Book of Secrets’ called also ‘The Book of the Hidden Things’ whichappeared in the closing lines of the first part of the book. This led me tothe Sefer ha-Razim published by Margalioth in 1966. Comparing thetwo texts it turned out that the first and the third parts of the Arabicwork were practically the translations of the Sefer ha-Razim or at leastof one of its versions. The main difference was in the structure of theworks. The Arab translator or the compiler of that version of the Seferha-Razim which he had at his disposal separated the introductory cos-mological section which had a kind of theoretical character from thatpart which contained the practical instructions concerning the use of thenames in the magical recipes. In addition to this structural difference,the Arabic version contains several passages which are missing from theSefer ha-Razim. The list of the angels who serve in the seventh firma-ment, the whole Second Book, the invocations called ‘The Sword ofGod’ and ‘The Hand of God’ seemingly did not belong to the versionreconstructed by Margalioth. In their case we have to look for otherpieces of the Jewish magical lore like The Sword of Moses and the SeferRaziel as evident sources for the Arabic translation.

As for the Arabic text and the person of its translator or of its lastredactor, he could have been an Egyptian Copt, probably a priest whoknew Hebrew or had an Arabic version of the Sefer ha-Razim in hispossession. This translator’s or redactor’s priestly profession seems tobe evident from the passage which confirms that he who keeps the in-structions of the Book, ‘God will accept the Mass from him’. (Literally‘from you’: yataqabbal Allah al-quddas minka.)1 His Arabic does not,however, represent the highest literary language as the frequent uses ofthe oblique case in the plural instead of the nominative shows a collo-quial influence. His Egyptian background becomes also evident when wecome across some typical local words like saqiya for ‘waterwheel’ ort˙abuna for ‘bakery’ in addition to the mentioning of the names of the


1 The original text has quddus, ‘holy’, which does not make sense in this context. Itshould be read as quddas, ‘mass’.

Coptic months as the equivalents of the Jewish months. Although gram-matically correct, it is totally out of the context of the situation andrather comic (to say the least) when he makes Adam address God bythe word ‘had

˙ritak’ (pronounced in a colloquial form) which is the most

common expression of politeness in everyday speech.The text of the translation seems to be simplified to a certain extent if

we compare it to the Hebrew version. The translator most probably didnot know Greek and this is why he omitted such words of Greek originlike heniokhos for ‘charioteer’ or hieratikos. He translated the passageconcerning the horse race, which proved to be so exciting for Margaliothwhen he studied the Geniza material, in the following way:

۱٤٦هثلاثلاءامسلافيرصتهثالثاهيفبترمىهو:تدرااذايرجففختتدرااذانيمدقمبعتتالوكسمماهلنوكيالوليخلاهضهنلاوهوقلابهديؤمنوكتورتعتالوتانويحلارئاسنمءىشاهقحليالونمديرتاماهيلعبتكاوهحيفصذخف

۱٤۷هكئالملاءامساوليخلالاكشانممساوهثلاثلاامسلايفنيمدقملاتمسقالوقتو.ليايطهدمهمدقمنيذلاهعرسلاوهوقلاهكئالمايمكيلعاودشتنابكاوكلانيبنورجياورجيلمهلهضهنلاوليخلاهوقلاباورثعيالواوضميواوبعتيالورئاسوحيرلاكيرجلاهفيفخنوكتومهوقحلينانوردقيالتاناويحلانفدتمثمهنموندتالهبادلكوهيلعنوفقييذلاعضوملايفهحيفصلاليخلا

In translation:

“Making Use of the Third FirmamentIf you wish: in it three overseers are placed.If you wish to make easier the running of the horses so that nobody can

stop them and they will not be tired and will not stumble and strength andvitality will help them and no other living being can pass them, then take alamella and inscribe on it the figures of whatever horses you wish togetherwith the names of the angels who are the overseers in the third firmament.The name of their overseer is DHT

˙YAYL. You have to say the following: ‘I

adjure you O Angels of Strength and Speed who run among the planets tostrengthen the horses by power and vitality so that they can run and will notbe tired, can go ahead and will not stumble and their running will be easy


like the wind and no other living being can catch them and no other ridinganimal can come close to them.’ Then you have to bury the lamella in theplace where the horses are standing.”

The original passage in Margalioth’s text and in Morgan’s translationreads as follows (Margalioth 1966:94 and Morgan 1983:64):

alf hfxw njlw fjejf nzufxmb flykj alf nhfk alb njqfqvjxel zywb nazfmy fjlr bfzkf tqkly qi hw nzufxmb dqhf ph fayjf ejh lk lux nmdwzjkalm nkjlr joa rjbym:xfmaf nejlry njxye nyf njkalme zfmyf njqfqeqfkfjoe zaf vfxjmly njqfqe za ljhf hk fxcazy njbkfke pjb njuxe eufxmzfjh lkf xyok njlwf njux fjejf flykjj alf fsrjj alf fufxjf nzfa vjxme flyvfxjmb feomif qie za hwf. nejlr elrj al tfywf nqw lkf nejosl fdmrj al

zfkcl ywbm ezay:

“If you wish to race horses, [even] when they are exhausted, so that theywill not stumble in their running, that they will be swift as the wind, and thefoot of no living thing will pass them, and they will win popularity in theirrunning, take a silver lamella and write upon it the names of the horses andthe names of the angels and the name of the prince who is over them andsay:

I adjure you angels of running, who run amid the stars, that you will girdwith strength and courage the horses that N is racing and his charioteer who isracing them. Let them run and be swift as an eagle. Let no animals standbefore them, and let no other magic or witchcraft affect them.

Take the lamella and conceal it in the racing lane [of the one] you wish towin.”

So, there is no reference in the Arabic version to the charioteer or evento the horse race itself in an explicit way. Interestingly, and in contrast tothe Hebrew version, the figures of the horses instead of their namesshould be drawn on the lamella together with the angel names.

As for the proper transliteration of the names in the book, the trans-lator proved to be very meticulous since he copied them attentively andseemingly did his best to remain faithful to the original forms. Most ofthe existing differences can be attributed to the mistakenly placed dia-critical points. This very same carefulness can be discovered in the factthat when copying some magical characters he gave two versions sayingthat he found them in a different form in another copy. This doubleattitude on his part is quite understandable. When he translated therecipes with the practical instructions he wanted to avoid ambiguity, sohe did not bother himself with words unknown for him and simplyomitted them. In the case of the angel names, however, he had to stickto the original forms; otherwise their magical power could have beenlost. The book itself frequently warns against any change in the text.


The translator’s ignorance of Greek is also disclosed by the way hetreated the famous passage which contained the invocation in Greekaddressed to the Sun (Margalioth 1966, pp. 99f). The Jewish compilerof the Sefer ha-Razim must have taken over its text from a Greek origi-nal but instead of translating it he transliterated the Greek words inHebrew characters. The Copt translator did not realize the originalmeaning, he must have taken them as a group of independent magicalnames, and consequently he also transliterated them in Arabic lettersbut separated the words from each other by dots.

In the case of some frequently occurring Jewish benedictory phraseshe was not so consequent. For example dealing with the well-knownformula nlfrl fzfklm dfbk ny Afxb he transliterated it in Arabic let-ters. On the other hand, he preferred to translate the following passagein the doxology of the angels: “Holy Holy Holy is the Lord of Hosts.The whole world is full of His glory.” Occasionally he translated thesame expressions that he left in a transliterated form other times.

As we have seen the Christian character of the starting phrases of thetranslation or the Christianity of the translator or at least of the finalredactor cannot be doubted. In the light of this Christian background itseems particularly strange that some expressions with a definite Islamictint found their way to the text. An interesting example for this phenom-enon is the occurrence of the following Qur>anic verse: “God is sufficientfor us, an excellent Guardian is He” (Q 3,173).2 Its presence could beexplained by supposing that a Muslim hand had an access to the workbut it is also plausible to attribute it to the translator who might haveincluded it to present the book as an acceptable work in a Muslim en-vironment.

3. In order to show the character of those sections of the Arabic textwhich did not belong to the original Hebrew version of the Sefer ha-Razim I present here two interesting passages. At the end of ‘The SecondBook’ we find this recipe for divinatory purposes:

۱۰۷اضيأتدرااذاوبئاغوهامعيمجرظنتومهفتوملعت

ذخ.اهيفتنايتلاكتعاسيفكنعطورشلاىلعرهاطتناوكيدينيبكضوعرظنلايفلعجافالاو.هروكذملا

ارهاطغولبلانوداريغصايبص


2 For the text of the Qur’an I used the standard Egyptian edition. For the Englishtranslation, see Arberry 1983.

كمامانوكيو.هرهاطابايثسبالنيبلعجامث.هكتسمودوعاهيلعهنهدتوعمليدوساائيشكيدي

۱۰۸مث.هيفكهجوىرتىتحبيطتيزبداوسلاكلذيفرظنتتناولوقت

سونيلا:هذهىهوهميظعلاهـللاأمسا ،لوقت.سونيفخو،سونيب،سونيلغاكلذدعبلوقتمثهرمرشعىدحاكلذتالافغاياوريتسا،ايشدق،هاهامشنوتايفامسلاكولمنماكالمكيلالسريف

ىلاهتروصىرتوكيتايومدانباهروصلوقف.داوسلاكلذيفكتروصبناجكلرهظيهناف.ديرتامكلذدعبهل

سانلاو،دالبلانمهرظنديرتامعيمجكلاهصخشيهنافءايشالاعيمجونمزلاو

۱۰۹ملعتو.الاحداوسلاكلذيفكلكلرهظيارتتسمالعفلعافلكهلعافعمهارتو

In translation:

“If you wish to know, to understand and to see immediately what ishidden from you, take a [bowl?] in front of you while you are in the stateof purity according to the already mentioned conditions. If you are not,make a young boy who has not yet come of age look [into the bowl] insteadof you who is in the state of purity and wears pure clothes. An [incenseburner] should be put in front of you with aloes and mastic on it. Thenput something black which is shining in front of you, rub it with good oiluntil you see your face in it. Then looking into that black thing you have tosay the Great Names of God which are these: ALYNWS, AGHLYNWS,BYNWS and KHFYNWS. You have to say these eleven times then youhave to say: ATWN SHMAHAT, QDSHYA, ASTIRWAYA GHFALAT.Then an angel will be sent to you from among the angels of the heaven inthe figure of a son of Adam who will come to you and you will see his figurein that black thing together with your own figure. After this you can say tohim whatever you wish. He will show you whatever you wish to see, let it beabout the lands, the people, the age or anything else. He will present thesethings for you in this black thing immediately. You will know everybodywho is doing something, the hidden act will appear for you together withthe person who performs it.”

Without going into a detailed explanation it is enough to state that thisrecipe presents a case of lecanomancy which was widely practiced in the


world of the Greek magical papyri and which became immensely popu-lar in Islamic magic under the name of mandal.3

As for the first four magical names ending in WS they may concealthe names “Helios Agathos Venus” as the first three groups of letters.In the second group of the magical names, the first three words( ايشدق،هاهامش،نوتا ،) can be identified as the Aramaic expressionfor “You, Holy Names” ajyjdw azemy pfza.

This shows that the original work used by the translator must havebeen composed in a mixture of Hebrew and Aramaic or in Jewish Ara-maic.

Our second illustrative passage comes from the long prayer called“The Hand of God” and reads like this:

٢١٥انيطذخكودعكلهتناتدراناو

٢١٦بتكاوهتروصهنملمعاورهنلايتهجنمنمتاكوشعبسذخأتوهمسااهيلعبيضقنماسوقلمعتوقيلعلارجشكوشلايمراوسرفلابنذنمطيخببطرلوقتوهروصلايفباشنلاكشوقلاب

يموسرقىلاسرتفانمكوشلاىلعيودعنالفكلهيلوقتاذكهومدعيو

In translation:

“If you wish to destroy your enemy, take mud from the two sides of theriver, form a figure from it, then write his name on it, take seven thorns fromthe tree of the blackberry, then make a bow from fresh twig with a stringfrom the horse-tail, and shoot the thorn like the arrow with the bow into thefigure while saying the names from AFTRS to QRSWMY over the thorn.Then you say in this way: ‘May N, my enemy perish and may he disappear’.”

The source of this passage can be found in ‘The Sword of Moses’:4

68ejlr bfzkf amlu� djbrf axeo jsjk jxz pm aoji bn yoja liwml zjrb naajfu alwjd pm pjflq ’c bqf emy

jflu hzmf azxu fub azmlu zjhaf ajqfqd jojmb azajowqhd azyw djbrf’s’b’s lbhzj jqfqxs drf qdzwa pm aflq lk lr xfmaf eb jdyf azywb

’A’o’m (!) ’d’z’j’f


3 See Fodor 1994.4 Gaster 1925–28b:84. For a new edition of the work, see Harari 1997. For the

passage in question, see p. 42. I am grateful to Gideon Bohak who called my atten-tion to this new edition and to Yuval Harari who kindly sent me a copy of thebook.

In Gaster’s translation (Gaster 1925–28a:324):

68. “If you wish to kill a man, take mud from the two sides of the riverand form it into the shape of a figure, and write upon it the name of theperson, and take seven branches from seven strong palm-trees and make abow from reed [?] with the string of horse-sinew, and place the image in ahollow, and stretch the bow and shoot with it, and at each branch [shot] saythe words of No. 68, and may NN be destroyed …”

If we make a comparison between the parallel texts we can easily realizethat the Arabic text is much clearer in certain details, namely it seems tobe more practical to make a bow from a twig than from a reed and tomake the string from the tail of a horse than from horse-sinew.

4. The question arises now, how and when an Arabic version of theSefer ha-Razim gained acceptance in an Arabic environment. First ofall, as far as we now, the Sefer ha-Razim itself seems to have disappearedfor a longer period. The silence was broken by the Qaraites who accusedthe Rabbis with the use of magical works, and among these the Sefer ha-Razim and a Sefer Adam were also mentioned.5 Interestingly, Ibn al-Nadım, the famous 10th century Arab bibliographist refers to a SifrAdam, ‘The Book of Adam’ in his Fihrist among the works dealingwith amulets and incantations (Ibn al-Nadım, Fihrist 379). He saysthat this book contains the names of the angels and the description ofthe procedures that can be performed with their help. Ibn al-Nadım alsostates that the author of this book is unknown but the Jews claim itsauthorship.

Our next possible evidence comes from the 16th century. Namely, afamous S

˙ufı master in India, Muh

˙ammad ibn Khat

˙ır al-Dın who lived in

Gujerat, composed a magical treatise, the Kitab al-Jawahir al-Khamswhich came to enjoy a very wide popularity in the Islamic world, andincluded a chapter under the title Da<wat Safır Adam, ‘The Invocation ofthe Book of Adam’ (Ibn Khat

˙ır al-Dın, Jawahir 159–163). The word

safır does not make any sense here, so it must have been corruptedfrom the original Sifr. Although this chapter cannot be taken as a trans-lation or paraphrase of the Sifr Adam or the Sefer ha-Razim but thecosmological ideas of this chapter show a close relationship to the worldof the Sefer ha-Razim.

Another famous bibliographer, the 17th century H˙ajjı Khalıfa, speak-

ing about the science of the letters, <ilm al-h˙uruf in his Kashf, registers a

long list of magical works among which we can find not only a Sifr


5 For the history of the Sefer ha-Razim, see Margalioth 1966, Introduction, pp. 1–62.

Adam but also a ‘Book of Noah’, Sifr Nuh˙, a ‘Book of the Hidden

Things’, Sifr al-Khafaya and a ‘Book of the Secret of Secrets’, Sifr Sirral-Asrar (H

˙ajjı Khalıfa, Kashf I, 650–660). As we have seen in the case of

our Arabic manuscript, the different titles may refer to one and the samework, an Arabic version of the Sefer ha-Razim.

Curiously, we have another testimony concerning the existence of the‘Book of Adam’ from the 17th century, which we owe to Vansleb, theeminent orientalist of the period. Born as a Lutheran, he lived an ad-venturous life during the course of which he became a soldier, then amerchant, and finally joined the Dominican order and made a name forhimself in France as an orientalist.6 Colbert sent him to Egypt to collectArabic manuscripts for the French King, Louis XIV. He went to Egyptin 1672 and started to search for manuscripts. He had also a personalinterest in magic and he found ample possibilities in Egypt to satisfy hiscuriosity. Seemingly, Vansleb took this passion very seriously but in hisdiary he claimed that he never harmed anybody. Trading with manu-scripts, however, was prohibited in Egypt and those who were accusedof this kind of activities could be imprisoned. So, it happened that Van-sleb had to leave Egypt urgently to avoid this and he boarded a boat toTurkey in 1673. On the way, a very heavy storm caught the boat and itwas about to sink. To that, the superstitious Greek captain of the boataccused Vansleb that he was the cause of the storm because the captainthought that Vansleb had a mummy in his baggage. Of course, he hadnothing of the sort but finally he himself started to believe that one ofhis manuscripts could have provoked the storm as a punishment fromGod. He thought that this particular manuscript must have been a ma-gical work, one of the most famous books which he could find in Egyptand which had the title Sefer-Adam, ‘The Book of Adam’ (Volkoff1970:78ff). According to Vansleb, the introduction of this manuscriptrelated that the angels revealed the book to Adam, then Noah took itto the Ark and afterwards it was inherited from generation to genera-tion. The frightened scholar became convinced that it would be a crimeto keep such a work that could be used by evil people for bad purposes,and so, he threw the book into the sea. When the storm, however, wasover Vansleb regretted very much the loss of the book because he knewvery well the value of the manuscript since he read it in Cairo severaltimes with the assistance of a native person who was an expert on magic.Vansleb himself hoped that with the help of this work he could restorethe science of the talismans and of the dealings with spirits. His sadness


6 On Vansleb, see Volkoff 1970.

was further increased when, after his return from Egypt, the Librarianof the King, Pierre de Carcavy urged him to try to find another copy ofthe manuscript but he never succeeded in this.

Finally, we may obtain evidence of the existence of this work from the20th century. Winifred Blackman mentions in her classic work, ‘TheFellahin of Upper Egypt’ that she knew a Copt magician who had abook among his manuscripts that bore the title ‘Book of Adam’ (Black-man 2000:231).

From this review of the relevant sources, I think, it can be taken forsure that all these references point to an Arabic version or versions ofthe Sefer ha-Razim attesting to its continuous presence in Egypt.

As for the date of the translation we may suppose that at least oneversion must have been in existence by the 10th century if we accept theevidence offered by Ibn al-Nadım’s Fihrist.

5. The importance of the Arabic version is evident for the Sefer ha-Razim. As a coherent work with a consciously structured text it provesthat Margalioth was right when he started to piece together the scatteredfragments of different manuscripts to reconstruct an original work. Italso shows that different versions of the Sefer ha-Razim could havebeen in circulation and at least one of these must also have containedother pieces of the Jewish magical literature, first of all, ‘The Sword ofMoses’.

On the Arabic side, the long history of an Arabic version of the workdemonstrates that the conditions for the reception of the book haveremained unchanged for many centuries. This means that both socialcircumstances and magical practices have always proved to be receptiveto the basic ideas of the Sefer ha-Razim. To make the latter aspectclearer I refer to the work of an Arab author of the 18th century whichdivided the different peoples into four groups according to the charac-teristics of their magical practices. According to this division, the Hin-dus, the Nabateans and the Greeks belonged to the first three groupswhile the Jews, the Copts and the Arabs all belonged to the fourthgroup. The author explained this by stating that the magic of these threepeoples was based upon the use of names of unknown meaning throughthe help of which the angels who had power over the jinns could beordered to force these spirits to accomplish the petitioner’s wish (al-Kishnawı7, Durr I, 32).


7 al-Kishnawı al-Fullanı. In my edition of his work the latter nisba occurs in thecorrupted form of al-Ghilanı. For this, see GAL II, 366.

Practically, the Sefer ha-Razim and its magical recipes contain almostall of the typical traits of Arabic magic. The theoretical foundation ofthis magic is provided by the same cosmological ideas about the celestialspheres inhabited by the hosts of angels as we have seen it in the Seferha-Razim. This cosmological system came to be developed into perfec-tion by the S

˙ufıs for whom contemplations on the organic unity of the

universe became almost an obsession. They based their magical proce-dures on these cosmological considerations. The main elements of thesepractices reveal striking similarities to the magical operations describedin the Sefer ha-Razim and they can be summed up in the followingpoints:

The act starts with an exercise, the riyad˙a, which aims at disciplining

the soul and the body by a special fasting, based on abstention frommeat.

The practitioner must go to seclusion, khalwa, to be far away fromother people.

The oral part of the procedure consists of the invocation of the spiritsby the magical names.

The invoked spirit may appear personally to receive the orders fromthe practitioner.

After the task is accomplished the spirit must be dismissed (is˙raf).

During the whole operation incense must be fumigated.The practitioner is warned against divulging the secrets of the proce-

dures.Naturally, these basic elements also show the parallelisms with the

world of the Greek Magical Papyri (Fodor 1996).In conclusion, the Sefer ha-Razim through its Arabic translation or

translations could have been one of the main channels which transmittedthe magical heritage of the Late Antiquity to the Arabs and whichhelped to form that cosmological mysticism which has remained domi-nant in large Islamic circles until the recent past.

References

A. Primary sources

H˙ajjı Khalıfa, Kashf = Mus

˙t˙afa b. <Abdallah H

˙ajjı Khalıfa, Kashf al-z

˙unun <an

asamı l-kutub wa-l-funun, I. Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-<Ilmiyya, 1992.Harari, Y. 1997. H

˙arba de-Mosheh, Mahadurah H

˙adashah u-Meh

˙qar. [The Sword

of Moses. A New Edition and Study, in Hebrew]. Jerusalem: Aqademon.Ibn Khat

˙ır al-Dın, Jawahir = Muh

˙ammad b. Khat

˙ır al-Dın b. Bayazıd, Kitab al-

Jawahir al-Khams [sic!]. Fez (?), n. d.


Ibn al-Nadım, Fihrist = Abu l-Faraj Muh˙ammad b. Abı Ya<qub Ish

˙aq Ibn Na-

dım, Kitab al-Fihrist. Edited with indices by Rid˙a Tajaddud. Teheran: no pub-

lisher, 1391/1971.al-Kishnawı, Durr = al-Shaykh Muh

˙ammad al-Kishnawı al-Ghilani, Kitab al-

Durr al-Manz˙um wa-Khulas

˙at al-Sirr al-Maktum fı l-Sih

˙r wa-l-T

˙alasim. 2

vols., Beirut: Maktabat al-<Ulum al-Falakiyya, n. d.Margalioth, M., ed. 1966. Sepher ha-Razim. A newly recovered book of magic

from the Talmudic period. Jerusalem: American Academy of Jewish Research.Q = al-Qur>an al-Karım. Cairo: al-Majlis al-A<la li-l-Shu>un al-Islamiyya, 2002.Sifr Adam. Arabic manuscript, mid-20th century.

B. Secondary sources

Arberry, A. J. tr. 1983. The Koran. Oxford.Blackman, Winifred S. 2000. The Fellahın of Upper Egypt. Cairo: AUC.Fodor, A. 1994. “Arabic Bowl Divination and the Greek Magical Papyri”. The

Arabist 9–10.73–101.Fodor, A. 1996. “S

˙ufı Magic – Greco-Egyptian Magic”. The Arabist 18.1–11.

GAL = Brockelmann, Carl. 1943–49. Geschichte der arabischen Litteratur. 2nded., 2 vols., Leiden: E. J: Brill.

Gaster, M. 1925–28a “The Sword of Moses.” Studies and Texts I. 288–337. Lon-don.

Gaster, M. 1925–28b “The Sword of Moses.” (Text) Studies and Texts III. 69–103. London.

Morgan, M. A. tr. 1983. Sepher ha-Razim. The Book of Mysteries. Chico, Cali-fornia.

Volkoff, Oleg V. 1970. A la recherche de manuscrits en �gypte. Le Caire: InstitutFranÅais d’Arch�ologie Orientale.


fodor, alexander. ‘an arabic version of “sefer ha-razim”’, jewish studies quarterly 13,4...

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