The Donkey King

Erscheinungsjahr 2023
ISBN: 978-1-009-46254-9
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, 74 Seiten, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm, Gewicht: 272 g

Reihe: Elements in Magic

The 13th-century Arabic grimoire, al-Sakkaki's Kitab al-Shamil (Book of the Complete), provides numerous methods of contacting jinn. The first such jinn described, Abu Isra'il Buzayn ibn Sulayman, arrives with a donkey. In the course of offering an explanation for his ritual, this Element reveals the double-sided nature of asinine symbology, and explains why this animal has served as the companion of both demons and prophets. Focusing on two nodes of donkey symbology—the phallus and the bray-it reveals a coincidentia oppositorum in a deceptively humble and comic animal form. Thus, the donkey, bearer of a demonic voice, and of a phallus symbolic of base materiality, also represents transcendence of the material and protection from the demonic. In addition to Arabic literature and occult rituals, the Element refers to evidence from the ancient Near East, Egypt, and Greece, as well as to medieval Jewish and Christian texts.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Selove, Emily

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface; 1. Introduction: the complete donkey; 2. The ancient donkey and his afterliv; 3. The phallus of the donkey; 4. The voice of the donkey; 5. Conclusion; Bibliography.