Occult powers: divinatory and magical sciences in the Indian and Islamicate worlds

Undergraduate / Graduate

This course offers a historical survey of occult sciences and practices in regions spanning from the Arab world to South Asia and focuses on the medieval and early modern periods. Far from being marginal, practices pertaining to what is now seen as the supernatural realm, such as magic and divination, were classified as sciences by reputable scholars, were sponsored by rulers, and had their specific written corpus and techniques. The practice of the occult also involved vernacular disciplines practiced by healers and fortune tellers for any client seeking help or advice. This course will look at a vast range of written and visual sources on subjects ranging from astrology, alchemy and magical cures, subjugation of planets and spirits, yogic superpowers, bibliomancy (book divination), oneiromancy (dream divination), physiognomy, letterism, charm making. It will look at the dynamics of cultural transfers as occult sciences were borrowed and adapted from the Greek to the Arab world and back to Latin Europe, and from Sanskrit to Persian in the Indian subcontinent.