سحر

Understanding the pre-Islamic Arab epistemological system plays an important role in understanding the mission of Islam. One of the components of this system is the extraordinary affairs in the ignorant Arab thought, which by knowing this field of thought, one can gain a clearer understanding in the nature and function of the miracle of the Prophet. This study, using library resources and in a descriptive-analytical manner, has explained a part of the intellectual-cultural situation of the pre-Islamic Arab society; That part which provides a comprehensive understanding of how the pre-Islamic Arabs interacted with amazing events and habits consequently, miracles. According to the findings of this study, the most important people who claimed to have extraordinary powers in the pre-Islamic period were the religious leaders of temples, priests, Christian monks and sorcerers. Thus, the origin of supernatural affairs in the eyes of the pre-Islamic Arabs was not necessarily a divine origin, but the claim of prophecy and having a special relationship with God (or gods) was largely proven in this way. In such circumstances, the Prophet of Islam (PBUH) had to perform a miracle to prove his prophethood and to overcome his other religious rivals. But since most of the possessors of these powers were considered sorcerers or priests, the main miracle of the Prophet of Islam appeared in a unique way in the form of a book and he refused to accept repeated requests in sensual miracles.

From ancient time, use of magic and sorcery was prevalent among people of different countries. Ancient man lived among a host of frightening, negative demonic forces which he attempted to control or coerce in order to ensure a harmonious and benevolent word-order. They believed on effect of magic on banishing demons and evils and had different ways for making use of them. A vast array of Magic-religious mechanisms evolved to cope with this problem in Sasanian period, including incantation bowls which were produced in vast quantities in Mesopotamia and Khuzistan more specifically in Susa during the sixth and seventh century CE., or may suppose the practice began somewhat earlier, in the fifth or even fourth century C.E. Also some Sasanian seals with special pictures and texts are supposed to be made for purpose of protection against the disease, the evil eyes. The peculiar nature of the incantation bowls raises many questions to which no satisfactory answer has yet been given. The reason for their sudden emergence in the fifth or sixth century CE remains obscure; moreover, the practice seems not to have spread outside a limited geographical region. An incantation bowl, also known as a demon bowl or devil trap bowl, is a form of early protective magic. The bowls were usually inscribed in a spiral, concentric circles beginning from the rim and moving toward the center and may be read in some cases by turning the bowl clockwise and in others counterclockwise. There are also deference’s in language and script: the texts on extant bowls are in Aramaic, Syriac, Mandaic or Pahlavi (Middle Persian). The language of the bowls is some kind of strange magical jargon incomprehensible to all but demons. It contains formulaic expressions and oral compositions which show a certain play on words normally not found in written texts. They are varying in size, shape, and type of clay. In shape, they are either hemispherical with round or flat bottoms or truncated cones with flat bases. The bowls were buried usually face down but also occasionally face to face with another bowl to form an enclosure and were meant to capture demons. According to a tradition a little salt was placed between two such bowls before they were buried. They were commonly placed under the threshold, or a gate or courtyards, within a household at the four corners of a room or bed and also in graveyards. The study of Incantation bowls is a matter of great interest and importance. They are an important source of knowledge which shed lights on old cultures, practices, beliefs. They constitute the only direct epigraphical documents of Mesopotamia, written mostly by some of the minority groups like Mandaean, Christians, Jews and others. Names that use in texts, may tell us about a person’s religion. We find clients with typically Persian (presumably Zoroastrian), names in bowls that imply despite the magical powers commonly attributed to the Zoroastrian clergy themselves, some people sought help from sorcerers outside of their community. Since the bowls are original manuscripts, they can teach us a great deal about popular religious practices and certain aspects of social life, family, structure and dwellings and provide precious evidence of how these ancient religious traditions survived or were transformed in one corner of late antique world. This article aims to introduce these two ways of averting evil forces from life in Sasanian period and answer these questions: what was public opinion especially in the Sasanid era about magic and also what kind of information the incantation bowls provide. In introduction of this research paper, first explain about magic and sorcery and also give a short explain about bowls and seals. Afterward, illustrate about bowls and seals separately, showing belief of people and ways of using magic and sorcery in ancient time.

Jews were well-known in spell and its various types and techniques, and they were known as magical secrets and magical supernatural abilities in Muslim societies’ culture. From the various types of magic, spells were more prevalent in Jewish and Muslim societies, and its basis was human and animalistic images. Considering such position, the recognition of Jewish pictorial spells in Islamic culture is the subject of this article. The question is what are the origins and forms of illustrated spells in the Jewish culture of Muslim societies? To answer, based on the cultural history approach, various evidences of the use of illustration in Jewish tales have been investigated in Jewish and Islamic sources and their continuity in the Jewish communities of the dwellers of Islamic lands has been shown

Aniconism in Islam is an incontrovertible presumption for the researchers of Islamic arts. The main question of this study is that what the imagination and interpretation of Muslims, in the early centuries, was about figural images which caused aniconism in Islam. The present paper shows that the permanence of the verdict seems to be associated with the cultural conception of magic and talismans which was rooted in the old civilizations such as Iran, Egypt and ancient Palestine. The main hypothesis is that the relation between image-making and the magic and talismans was one of the most important social factors that caused the reaction of Muslim jurists and scholars to the issue and subsequently led to the persistence of aniconism in the middle centuries. Therefore, it can be stated that Islam’s opposition to figural images was not from an aesthetic standpoint but along with the Quran’s stand against polytheists and idolaters, was because of that cultural conception of magic and talisman.

Magic has prevailed among different classes so greatly، which is found in many places of the world، and in many societies. There is a discrepancy among the Shi''ite and Sunite scholars concerning the factuality of magic،whether it is an actuality or a superstition. Most of them believe that it is a reality،while others maintain that it is a superstition as saying: If the sorcered person knows that he/she is affected،this imagination causes him/her to believe that he/she is under the influence of it،like the power of suggestion; therefore، he gets sick. But if the individual is not aware of being influenced by sorcery at all، then، he/she has no justification concerning the magic power if we might say that these actions are due to the employment of the Jinns or Devil against the sorcered person. So they agree that magic has different typeseach of which has its own principle and there are different decrees on each of them with، their own causes and reasons. The present paper is an attempt to show that some scholars consider magic to be true،while others regard it invalid and untrue. The paper also aims to study the concepts of magic and its invalidation ways from the viewpoint of jurisprudence،the Holy Qur''an and traditions.