IMC 2022: Sessions

Session 530: Fringe Expertise?: Occult Practices and Authority in Pre-Modern Eurasia, I - Practice and Context

Sponsor:	Project 'The Sorcerer's Handbook: Medieval Arabic Magic in Context', University of Exeter / Leverhulme Trust
Organisers:	Geoffrey Humble, Department of History, University of Birmingham Sarah Ortega, Institute for Medieval Studies, University of Leeds
Moderator/Chair:	Geoffrey Humble, Department of History, University of Birmingham
Paper 530-a	Amuletic and Gospel Texts: The Power of 'And' (Language: English) Jacquelyn Tuerk-Stonberg, Department of History, Kean University, New Jersey Index terms: Archaeology - Artefacts, Art History - General, Byzantine Studies, Epigraphy
Paper 530-b	Ottoman Harem Occult Interests (Language: English) Özge Nur Yıldırım, Independent Scholar, Istanbul Index terms: Archives and Sources, Gender Studies, Islamic and Arabic Studies
Abstract	These paired sessions bring together papers that provide a cross-cultural comparison of the social forces that shaped pre-modern occult practices and their legacies. This first session examines the activities and contexts of practitioners. Jacquelyn Tuerk-Stonberg investigates how Byzantine amulets transform the power of gospel texts and deploy it for individualised use. Özge Nur Yıldırım maps the role of elite Ottoman women as transmitters of the occult sciences by examining works commissioned in the context of the harem.