Bernd-Christian Otto is going to present a working paper on '„Magie im Islam“ aus diskurstheoretischer Perspektive'

The present paper functions as an „afterword“ to a German anthology on „Magie im Islam“, edited by Sebastian Günther and Dorothee Lauer (Göttingen University), to be submitted to Brill later this year. A TOC to this volume is attached, and parts of my contribution discusses papers of said volume, which I have read before writing the piece. The core of the argument, however, is devoted to demonstrating that the discursive approach towards “magic” (or “Western learned magic”) which I have pursued in several other publications, can also be applied to the study of „magic in Islam“. The article is thus divided into three chapters: the first attempts to demonstrate that a discursive approach towards Islamic material deemed “magic” is not only possible but yields various analytical advantages, such as overcoming Eurocentric stereotypes on the matter, or re-reading some Islamic sources that deal with “magic” (arab. siḥr). The second chapter aims at embedding Islamic material within the much wider history of “Western learned magic”, thereby de-contextualizing said material, which leads to asking different questions that inevitably arise from a diachronic, comparative, and necessarily interdisciplinary perspective. The focus here lies on ritual dynamics from a longue-durée perspective, that is, on continuities and discontinuities as well as transformations and innovations. The third chapter devotes some final considerations to the question of whether – and to what degree – Islamic “learned magic”, particularly in the medieval Era, was actually “deviant”, or whether there were considerable social spaces of liberal attitudes, legalized practice or even “institutionalization” (e.g. in schools).