Part iii: Therapeutics

Magico-medical therapies are often included in magical texts, but they must be understood in terms of the type of harmful agency they address. From Abu Ma'shar and the Brethren to al-Qurtubi, illnesses were considered to be caused by natural processes that medicine observed on one level, and by celes­tial conditions that astrology detects on another.

This talisman ought to be constructed by physicians. On a plate of tin one must inscribe the image of a seated human being in front of whom medi­cal equipment lies and people stand holding bottles of water around him to consult him. This ought to be inscribed when Venus is rising in her signs [Taurus and Libra] and Mars in them too and the Dragon's Head in mid-heaven. This plate is to be placed in the required location.^{[963] [964] [965] [966] [967] [968] [969] [970]}

Then he explains that this works because it is linked to the persons of the ruhaniyyat of that stellar configuration. According to the Ghaya, we can also always appeal directly to the ruhaniyyat of Jupiter, the healer of bodies and restorer of humoral balance,ⁿ⁴ by undertaking various rituals and invoking their names; we find many examples of such ceremonies.ⁿ⁵ Other prescrip­tions are given that are non-astrological and rely on using herbs and natural substances to make incense, foods and amulets. He confirms that the powers of the planets and their ruhaniyyat are naturally diffused in them. Like cures, they are based solely on khawass.u⁶

As shown in the previous section, by the thirteenth century the agents of unnatural diseases lost their natural/astral ontology and acquired demonic personalities. Physicians no longer dealt with them but two groups did: magi­cians and theologians.

And we affirm—may our Lord's majesty be exalted!—that He took nei­ther wife nor son; that the impudent among us ascribed to God things far from truth; that we never imagined that humans and Jinn would forge lies about God; that some men among humans used to pray for safety to some men from the Jinn, but they only increased them in insolence.ⁿ⁹

This must be done on the 27th day of the month when the sun is rising and should be hung on the inflicted?²⁰ In this type of magic, the astrological prerequisite is lacking, which indicates the ontological separation between stars and spirits.

In the thirteenth century, some theologians reacted to and denounced occultists for their subversive practices. The influential Islamic scholar and theologian Ibn Taymiyya (1263-1328) astringently denounces the claims made by occultists such as the author of the Ghaya, even referring to the Brethren of Purity, for believing that talismans can heal through “natural” forces.^[971] He is of the opinion that those who think they are calling on benign ruhaniyyat are really dealing with Jinn. He adds that this is forbidden, citing in support of this the above verses that in Tartlb al-daWat are recommended for healing Jinn- induced illnesses!i22 This is also the view of his pupil, the jurist and theologian Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, who emphasizes in his Miftah dar al-sa^cada (The Key to the House of Happiness) that astrology is nonsense, that ruhaniyyat can only be devils, and that there are no celestial causes.12³ This develops into a tirade against philosophers—Neoplatonists specifically. He writes:

For them then divine law (sharla) is like good manners and fair ethics and judgements.

According to al-Jawziyya there is one way to treat supernatural illnesses; divine treatment based on faith:

Attending to the soul through divine Islamic law is more important than medicine as you can see many people live without a doctor such as Bedouins and such people are often healthier than those who have a doc­tor living among them. God created human beings with the instinct to know what is good for their bodies and what is bad and the ability to con­coct medicine. As a matter of fact a lot of the science of medicine is based on traditions, habits, and experimentation. As for divine law (sharla) it clarifies the voluntary things that please God and the things that incur his anger and it addresses the corruption of the soul and the heart (rather than the body). Nothing is more necessary for people than the knowledge that the Prophet brought, to abide by his sayings and actions, to invite people towards it, to be patient with it, and to strive with whoever was led astray to find the right course again. There is nothing that can fix the world without this.^{[972] [973] [974] [975] [976] [977]}

This view sums up the rationale behind the tradition known as Prophetic Medicine. It is medicine based on the reported sayings of the Prophet Muhammad concerning healing, the evil eye, and bewitchment.^⁶ Its authors were mostly theologians and religious scholars who advocated the Qur’an and invocations to God as the most efficacious medicine; as affirmed in the Qur’an itself. Prophetic Medicine was codified and systematized in the fourteenth century with the efforts of the hadlth.

The most popular text belonging to this genre is Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya's Al-Tibb al-nabawl (Prophetic Medicine), where he writes: “Religious and pro­phetic medicines heal certain illnesses that even the minds of great physicians cannot grasp, and which their science, experiments and analogical deduc­tions cannot reach.”i2⁹ Furthermore, supernatural illnesses are caused by Jinn and devils and any bewitchment is an illness. Magic can never be naturally achieved but only through evil spirits?³⁰ Thus the only way to treat them is by “divine medicine;”

Among the most beneficial of treatments for magic are the divine med­icines; rather, they are the medicines beneficial for it by their essence. Magic is from the influences of the evil, lower spirits. Their influence will be repelled by that which opposes and resists them: by invoking the name of God (dhikr), recitation of Qur'anic verses and supplications which cancel the action and effect of the spirits.^{[978] [979] [980] [981] [982] [983] [984]}

The tension in the late Middle Ages is between two groups that utilize Islamic elements and revelation in their therapeutics. Occultists employed devotional elements such as the recital and writing of Qur'anic verses as part of a subversive practice, thus coming into a direct clash with ortho­doxy especially in that the use of these elements is also found in the tradi­tion of Prophetic Medicine. A couple of examples can be given to exemplify this intersection.

It is even hard sometimes to distinguish Prophetic Medicine from magic. Ibn Jawziyya himself praises the spiritual power of the number seven, a state­ment which belongs to a text on numerology, a practice that al-Buni mastered as he confirms that numbers are spiritual (ruhaniyya) forces.13⁶ Al-Jawziyya writes, “there is no doubt that this number has a special property which no other possesses.” He adds that physicians “have great concern for the number seven [...] Everything in the world is preordained in seven divisions. The plan­ets are seven, the ages of humankind are seven.”13⁷ Surviving artefacts encap­sulate these intersections such as medico-magical bowls that often contain supplications and prayers to God and some magical scripts and symbols.^{[985] [986] [987] [988] [989] It seems then that it is a debate about who has legitimate and licit control over the hidden world—al-ghayb^39}