Language:
English
Year of publication:
2023
Titel der Quelle:
From Samarqand to Toledo
Angaben zur Quelle:
(2023) 139-161
Keywords:
Cairo Genizah
;
Divination History
;
Jews History To 1500
;
Manuscripts
Abstract:
Twitch divination (palmomancy) entails observing the involuntary twitches of a person’s body to predict his or her future. It is a practice attested already in the Assyro-Babylonian world and it circulated widely in late antiquity and in the Middle Ages. It is well attested in the Cairo Genizah, which shows its great popularity among the Jews of medieval Cairo. The present paper provides an edition and translation of the extant Genizah fragments of Kitāb al-Ikhtilāj, “The Book of Twitches,” attributed to Shem, son of Noah. This is followed by a detailed survey of all the palmomantic fragments from the Cairo Genizah in Aramaic, Judeo-Arabic, and Hebrew. Finally, I offer a reedition of a palmomantic fragment from al-Quṣayr, which has previously been misidentified as an amulet. Together, all these fragments attest to the vitality of the palmomantic tradition in medieval Egypt.
DOI:
10.1163/9789004527874_007
URL:
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