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bib37160 (11 / July / 2026)

Darrera modificació: 2026-05-14
Bases de dades: Sciència.cat

Udaondo Alegre, Juan, "«If you want to pray to Mercury, wear the garments of a scribe:» kuttāb, udabāʾ, and readers of the Ghāyat al-Ḥakīm in the court of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān III", Journal of Medieval Iberian Studies, 14/2 (2022), 201-233.

Resum
This work addresses the question of the intended audience of the Ghāyat al-Ḥakīm, the famous Andalusi treatise on magic, better known by its Latin moniker, Picatrix. I propose that a substantial portion of the Ghāya's readers were scribes, or kuttāb, in the tenth-century caliphate of Cordova. Many of these scribes were considered udabāʾ; that is, those who possessed adab, an elusive yet ubiquitous term in Islamic culture. The concept of adab, scribal culture, and magic traveled to al-Andalus in similar ways and at similar times, and they reached their apex in two figures: Ibn Rabbih and al-Qurṭubī. I argue that, in the Ghāya's spells and rituals, these kuttāb and udabāʾ could find not only a shortcut to acquire abilities vital to their work but also more dubious ways to promote themselves in a difficult political environment. Further, I show that sections of the Ghāya potentially allowed these officials to establish contact with the “supreme scribe,” the personified planet Mercury, who is closely related to the mythical sage Hermes Trismegistus.
Matèries
Màgia
Àrab
Recepció
URL
https:/​/​doi.org/​10.1080/​17546559.2022.2075557
What are the images?

The small images on the decorative ribbon correspond, from left to right, to the following documents: 1. James II orders the settlement of neighborhood disputes over an estate of the royal doctor Arnau de Vilanova in the city of Valencia. 1298 (ACA); 2. Contract between Guglielmo Neri de Santo Martino, a surgeon from Pisa, and the physician-surgeon from Majorca Pere Saflor, bachelor of medicine, to practise medicine and surgery under the latter’s direction, 1356 (ACM); 3. Valuation of the workshop of Guillem Metge, an apothecary from Barcelona, made by the apothecaries Miquel Tosell, Berenguer Duran and Vicenç Bonanat, for its sale to Llorenç Bassa, a fellow apothecary, 1364 (AHPB); 4. Peter III the Ceremonious regularizes the legal situation of Esteró, a Jewish female doctor from Vilafranca del Penedès, granting her an extraordinary license to practice medicine. 1384 (ACA); 5. Power of attorney of Margarida de Tornerons, a doctor in Prats de Molló and Vic, in order to recover the goods withheld from her by a third party in Vic, 1401 (ABEV); 6. Doctorate and teaching license of Narcís Solà, bachelor of medicine, issued by Bernat de Casaldòvol, doctor of medicine and chancellor of the Faculty of Medicine in Barcelona, 1526 (AHCB); and 7. Partnership between Joan Llunes and Joan Francesc Llunes, father and son, and Lluís Gual, the former’s son-in-law, surgeons of Caldes de Montbui, in order to practise the profession, 1579 (AHCB).