The Akkadian series Maqlû, 'Burning', remains the most important magical text against witchcraft from Mesopotamia and perhaps from the entire ancient Near East. Maqlû is a nine-tablet work consisting of the text of almost 100 incantations and accompanying rituals directed against witches and witchcraft. The work prescribes a single complex ceremony and stands at the end of a complex literary and ceremonial development. Thus, Maqlû provides important information not only about the literary forms and cultural ideas of individual incantations, but also about larger ritual structures and thematic relations of complex ceremonies. This new edition of the standard text contains a synoptic edition of all manuscripts, a composite text in transliteration, an annotated transcription and translation. "These were only minor remarks scribbled in the margins of an excellent and most welcome edition of Maqlû, a real monument. This book is the firm foundation on which future studies on Maqlû will be based." Marten Stol, NINO Leiden, Bibliotheca Orientalis lxxIII n° 5-6, September-December 2016
This volume is about the history, literature, ritual, and thought associated with ancient Mesopotamian witchcraft. With chapters on the changing forms and roles of witchcraft beliefs, the ritual function, form, and development of the Maqlû text (the most important ancient work on the subject), and the meaning of the Maqlû ceremony, as well as the ideology of the final version of the text. The volume significantly contributes to our understanding of the Maqlû text, and the reconstruction of the development of thought about witchcraft and magic in Mesopotamia.
A new reconstruction and translation of the Maqlû text The Akkadian series Maqlû, “Burning,” is one of the most significant and interesting magical texts from the Ancient Near East. The incantations and accompanying rituals are directed against witches and witchcraft and ctually represent a single complex ceremony. The ceremony was performed during a single night and into the following morning at the end of the month Abu (July/August), a time when spirits were thought to move back and forth between the netherworld and the world of the living. Features: English translation of approximately 100 incantations and rituals Annotated transcription Introduction places the series in historical context and shows how it is a product of a complex literary and ceremonial development.
This volume is about the history, literature, ritual, and thought associated with ancient Mesopotamian witchcraft. With chapters on the changing forms and roles of witchcraft beliefs, the ritual function, form, and development of the Maqlû text (the most important ancient work on the subject), and the meaning of the Maqlû ceremony, as well as the ideology of the final version of the text. The volume significantly contributes to our understanding of the Maqlû text, and the reconstruction of the development of thought about witchcraft and magic in Mesopotamia.
These studies take up several themes that the author has pursued in addition to his work on witchcraft literature and Gilgamesh. The volume contains general articles on Mesopotamian magic, religion, and mythology; studies, synchronic and diachronic, on Akkadian prayers; treatments of literary classics; comparative studies of terms and phenomena; and examinations of legal texts.
Among the most important sources for understanding the cultures and systems of thought of ancient Mesopotamia is a large body of magical and medical texts written in the Sumerian and Akkadian languages. An especially significant branch of this literature centers upon witchcraft. Mesopotamian anti-witchcraft rituals and incantations attribute ill-health and misfortune to the magic machinations of witches and prescribe ceremonies, devices, and treatments for dispelling witchcraft, destroying the witch, and protecting and curing the patient. The Corpus of Mesopotamian Anti-Witchcraft Rituals aims to present a reconstruction of this body of texts; it provides critical editions of the relevant rituals and prescriptions based on the study of the cuneiform tablets and fragments recovered from the libraries of ancient Mesopotamia.
Mesopotamian anti-witchcraft rituals and prescriptions prescribe ceremonies and treatments for dispelling witchcraft, destroying the witch, and protecting and curing the patient. The Corpus of Mesopotamian Anti-witchcraft Rituals aims to present a reconstruction and critical editions of this body of texts.
The standard Babylonian series Maqlû, "Burning," comprises eight tablets of incantations in which the text of almost one hundred Akkadian incantations is recorded, and a ritual tablet in which the incantations are cited by their incipit and ritual directions are prescribed. It is the longest and most important magical ritual against witches and their witchcraft from ancient Mesopotamia. This complex ceremony was performed during one night and the following morning at the end of the month Abu (July/August). At the heart of this volume is a student edition of the series. This edition includes a transliteration of the eclectic text, a computer-generated cuneiform text, a detailed commentary on selected sections, and computer-generated glossaries and indices. The edition is prefaced by an introduction containing information on the series, its text, and the SAACT edition, as well as a list of all the individual Maqlû manuscripts.
The deeds and struggles of Gilgamesh, legendary king of the city-state Uruk in the land of Sumer, have fascinated readers for millennia. They are preserved primarily in the Epic of Gilgamesh, one of the most well-known pieces of Mesopotamian literature. Studying the text draws us into an orbit that is engaging and thrilling, for it is a work of fantasy and legend that addresses some of the very existential issues with which contemporary readers still grapple. We experience the excitement of trying to penetrate the mind-set of another civilization, an ancient one—in this instance, a civilization that ultimately gave rise to our own. The studies gathered here all demonstrate Tzvi Abusch’s approach to ancient literature: to make use of the tools of literary, structural, and critical analysis in service of exploring the personal and psychological dimensions of the narration. The author focuses especially on the encounters between males and females in the story. The essays are not only instructive for understanding the Epic of Gilgamesh, they also serve as exemplary studies of ancient literature with a view to investigating streams of commonality between ancient times and ours
This volume, edited by Tzvi Zbusch and Karel van der Toorn, contains the papers delivered at the first international conference on Mesopotamian magic held under the auspices of the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies (NIAS) in June 1995. It is the first collective volume dedicated to the study of this topic. It aims at serving as a bench-mark and provides analytic and innovative but also sythetic and programmatic essays. Magical texts, forms, and traditions from the Mesopotamian cultural worlds of the third millennium BCE through the first millennium CE, in the Sumerian, Akkadian and Aramaic languages as well as in art, are examined.
In Bringing Heaven Down To Earth, Tzvi Freeman explored an original means to deliver the wisdom of a great sage of our times, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, known universally as simply "the Rebbe." Using pithy yet highly readable, brief meditations, that book unveiled for us a deeper meaning to life and provided practical guidance to weather its waves and storms. It is a book that changed tens of thousands of lives. Now, in Wisdom to Heal the Earth, Freeman continues with that winning format, this time along with complementary brief essays. But now he takes us yet further, peering toward the Rebbe's vision of a world towards which all humanity is headed, and demonstrating how the details of our everyday lives are vital, crucial, and today especially urgent in reaching that grand and ultimate destiny. In Jewish parlance we call this Tikun Olam"€"the notion that we all enter this world with a mission to accomplish: to repair and perfect our assigned share of the world, so that it can become the world its Creator meant it to be.
Nothing happens by accident. Even the leaf falling off a tree and eventually landing on an insect is Divinely guided, says the Baal Shem Tov, the famous Chassidic rebbe and miracle worker. And it's all supposed to be for the good. When three muggers surrounded me behind a bank--how was that for the good? This unbelievable yet true story is titled "Bound Behind the Bank." The secrets of God are revealed and illustrated by the true stories in this book. The stories offer a glimpse into a world that I never knew existed until age 27--a world of wonders and miracles, rebbes and miracle workers, hope and meaning, a world revealing the concealed God and the Messiah/Moshiach-like Lubavitcher Rebbe. Even though I have written these stories, I still laugh and cry when I read them. Because the stories revolve around Jewish characters and scenes, I have added a glossary to translate the Jewish terms and often give some background. Photographs have been included to enhance the book and save thousands of words. Enough said. What happened to me behind the bank, just simply click "open the book" and read on. If you enjoy it, treat yourself and your soul to the other stories.
Among the most important sources for understanding the cultures and systems of thought of ancient Mesopotamia is a large body of magical and medical texts written in the Sumerian and Akkadian languages. An especially significant branch of this literature centers upon witchcraft. Mesopotamian anti-witchcraft rituals and incantations attribute ill-health and misfortune to the magic machinations of witches and prescribe ceremonies, devices, and treatments for dispelling witchcraft, destroying the witch, and protecting and curing the patient. The Corpus of Mesopotamian Anti-Witchcraft Rituals aims to present a reconstruction of this body of texts; it provides critical editions of the relevant rituals and prescriptions based on the study of the cuneiform tablets and fragments recovered from the libraries of ancient Mesopotamia.
These studies take up several themes that the author has pursued in addition to his work on witchcraft literature and Gilgamesh. The volume contains general articles on Mesopotamian magic, religion, and mythology; studies, synchronic and diachronic, on Akkadian prayers; treatments of literary classics; comparative studies of terms and phenomena; and examinations of legal texts.
This volume is about the history, literature, ritual, and thought associated with ancient Mesopotamian witchcraft. With chapters on the changing forms and roles of witchcraft beliefs, the ritual function, form, and development of the Maqlû text (the most important ancient work on the subject), and the meaning of the Maqlû ceremony, as well as the ideology of the final version of the text. The volume significantly contributes to our understanding of the Maqlû text, and the reconstruction of the development of thought about witchcraft and magic in Mesopotamia.
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