The Witchcraft Series Maqlu.

AuthorHunt, Joel H.
PositionBook review

The Witchcraft Series Maqlu. By Tzvi ABUSCH. Writings from the Ancient World, vol. 37. Atlanta: SBL PRESS, 2015. Pp. xiv + 201. $29.95 (paper).

This volume presents a transcription and translation of Maqlu, "Burning," the longest and most important magical ritual against witchcraft from ancient Mesopotamia. The book is a welcome addition to the series Writings from the Ancient World.

Maqlu was created in the early first millennium BCE. All manuscripts (clay tablets and fragments) of Maqlu are from the first millennium BCE. Though texts come from sites in both northern and southern Mesopotamia, Ashurbanipal's library is the single most important source. The transcription (normalization) of this edition generally follows the main Nineveh text. Where this was broken, other Assyrian, then Babylonian, texts were used.

Abusch prefaces his presentation of this Akkadian composition and ceremony with a few words of introduction about Mesopotamian magic and witchcraft and about the ancient literature that centers upon such concerns. "I understand as magical those Mesopotamian rites that address the human needs, crises, and desires, especially of the individual but also of the king. In contrast to some later western societies, magic in Mesopotamia was regarded as legitimate and as part of the established religion. Therefore, in a Mesopotamian context, witchcraft (e.g., kispu, ruhu, rusu, upsasu lemnutu, etc.) refers not to magical behavior as such, but to inimical behavior, that is, to the practice of magic for antisocial and destructive purposes" (p. 1).

From 2600-100 BCE texts in Sumerian and Akkadian refer to personal crisis and individual suffering, but "the most important sources detailing ways to cope with illness, danger, and personal difficulties are the various types of texts that describe symptoms, provide etiological or descriptive diagnoses, and prescribe ways to deal with evil and suffering. These treatments include medical therapies, ritual prescriptions, and oral rites (prayers and incantations)" (p. 1). Therapeutic acts may be undertaken by the individual himself or by a professional healer. One may use ritual or ceremonial therapies (asiputu) or traditional herbal therapy (asutu).

The texts are guides to performances that were consulted by magicians and herbalists. They present the elements crucial to the ritual activity and a statement describing the circumstance and purpose of the activity. At first only the incantation was written...

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