ORIENTALIA LOVANIENSIA ANALECTA 219

SEALS AND SEALING PRACTICES IN THE NEAR EAST Developments in Administration and Magic from Prehistory to the Islamic Period
Proceedings of an International Workshop at the Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo on December 2-3, 2009

edited by

ILONA REGULSKI, KIM DUISTERMAAT and PETER VERKINDEREN

UITGEVERIJ PEETERS en DEPARTEMENT OOSTERSE STUDIES LEUVEN PARIS WALPOLE, MA 2012

TABLE OF CONTENTS Contributors to this volume Programme of the conference Preface I. Regulski Introduction K. Duistermaat Which Came First, the Bureaucrat or the Seal? Some Thoughts on the Non-Administrative Origins of Seals in Neolithic Syria V. Mller Do Seal Impressions Prove a Change in the Administration during the Reign of King Den? H. Tomas The Transition from the Linear A to the Linear B Sealing System U. Dubiel Protection, Control and Prestige Seals among the Rural Population of Qau-Matmar K. Vandorpe and B. Van Beek Non Signat Aegyptus? Seals and Stamps in the Multicultural Society of Greco-Roman Egypt N.C. Ritter On the Development of Sasanian Seals and Sealing Practice: A Mesopotamian Approach B. Caseau Magical Protection and Stamps in Byzantium vii ix xi xiii

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33

51

81

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J.-Cl. Cheynet and B. Caseau Sealing Practices in the Byzantine Administration C. Kotsifou Sealing Practices in the Monasteries of Late Antique and Early Medieval Egypt P.M. Sijpesteijn Seals and Papyri from Early Islamic Egypt E. Fernndez Medina The Seal of Solomon: From Magic to Messianic Device S. Dorpmller Seals in Islamic Magical Literature K.R. Schaefer Block Printing as an Extension of the Practice of Stamping

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THE SEAL OF SOLOMON: FROM MAGIC TO MESSIANIC DEVICE*

ESTHER FERNNDEZ MEDINA

In the present paper I would like to present some magical practices related to the seal of Solomon ( tim Sulaym n) among the Moriscos in early modern Spain. I will propound it as a case study of the synthesis of different religious traditions operated by magic. The Moriscos were the new Christians of Muslim origin forcibly converted to Catholicism at the beginning of the 16th century in Spain. The seal of Solomon, as I will show, was a symbol shared by Spains cultural traditions: Christians, Jews, and Muslims, the three main religious groups of Iberia. But it turned to fulfill the hopes and to ease the misfortunes of Moriscos living among the old Christian population. The seal of Solomon is also a device that expresses various levels of meaning. Historical-mythical First it is an object that has its own history expressed in Quranic exegetical literature as well as in historical accounts and tales. Solomon (Sulaym n) is a wise king and one of the prophets of Islam as he predicted the arrival of the prophet Mu ammad. His seal granted him authority and gave him supernatural powers. The earliest records on Solomons presence in Iberia go back to the Arab conquest of al-Andalus. The Arab chronicles depict this conquest under a halo of legend. As in the Thousand and One Nights, the westernmost part of the known world is portrayed as a continuum of mythical elements. Ibn ab b, the 9th-century Muslim chronicler of al-Andalus, placed the jars inhabited by demons and sealed by Solomon on the Atlantic coast of Africa, where he also located the mythical Copper City, supposedly built to his command. In the Arab myths of the conquest of Spain, the objects attached to

I thank my thesis director Mercedes Garca-Arenal and Fernando Rodrguez Mediano for the invaluable guidance and assistance when writing this article, which was made possible with the support of the research project: Orientalismo e historiografa en la cultura espaola del Barroco, HUM 2007-60412.

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Solomon are evidence of his previous passage through the Peninsula (Hernndez Juberas 1996). The story of the seal of Solomon was known in Spain since the first contacts with Muslim culture. Andalusi and Morisco tales depicted Solomons stories in accordance with his portrait in medieval oriental sources. This popular literature of the Muslims develops the scarce amount of information contained in the second and thirty-eighth s rah of the Quran. Al- a lab narrated how God sent down his hallmark with the angel Gabriel as a gift to Solomon with the wisdom he demanded. The ring and its signet represent power (mulk) over all creatures including the spirits (jinn), the wind, the human beings, and the animals and birds, i.e., all of creation. This power is given by the inscription of the Greatest Name of Allah.1 The signet will thus be the sign of authority, but the story turns the authority into the magical power to control all natural and supernatural phenomena. This literature of Qi a describes in detail how the seal is composed of different metals according to the nature of the being towards which its order is directed ( a lab 2002: 516), and how the seal had originally pertained to Adan (Kis 1997: 210).2

Fig. 1: The six-pointed star engraved on a gold ring with the Islamic ah da in positive. Positive gravures on seals seem to be magic ones (Martnez Nez 2007: 344 no. 212).
1 There are 99 sacred Names to call Allah, such as al-W id (the Unique), alMu y (the Giver of Life), etc., and the nature of His attributes is developed in Islamic theology (for a full list of authors and their different versions of the sacred Names see Gimaret: 1988). 2 The literary genre of qi a al-anbiy (stories of the prophets) consists of traditional accounts developing Quranic stories about the prophets of Islam.

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Messianic symbolism In a second level of meaning, the seal of Solomon is a symbol, and we will now trace its Jewish origins. Victor Klagsbald explained the relationship of the Star of David or Shield of David (magen David) with the rabbinic symbolism of the lily. The lily symbol is the representation of the people of Israel, and draws its messianic sense from a rabbis allegorical interpretation of the Song of Songs. This approach is instructive for the topic under examination since the authorship of the Biblical book is traditionally attributed to Solomon. The six-pointed star would originally be the sign announcing the coming of the Messiah of the lineage of David; therefore the conjecture supports the identification of that symbol with the announcement of a new era heralded by the wise king of Judaism and prophet of Islam. Whereas Islamic sources kept the six-pointed star related to their prophet, they called it Seal of Solomon. The Jewish, on the other hand, named it Shield of David or Star of David (Klagsbald 1997). Islamic eschatological symbolism To some extent the seal is appropriated as a typically eschatological symbol and this is evidenced in the ad reproduced by Ibn ab b al-Andalus in the 9th century.3 This tradition relates how those convicted at Doomsday are identified by the seal of Solomon engraved on their foreheads, by contrast to Moses pole identifying the true believers (Ibn ab b 2005: 129). Also a ad of al- abar or al- az l s Durrat al-Fa ra, in the 11th century, echoed this theme except for the symbols attached to it (Abel 1965: 72). The seal of Solomon thus might have assumed a negative meaning in Islamic eschatology at least in al-Andalus. However, there is clear evidence showing that the seal of Solomon took on a specific meaning in orthodox Islam. As Almudena Ariza has noted, the use of the seal in Caliphal coins of al-Andalus is due to a call of support to the berber population.4 The symbol had been already minted in the Idrisid coins of North Africa
3 A ad is a story on Muhammads sayings or actions transmitted within a chain of authority. 4 This is the original population of northern Africa. They usually supported parties and were close to heterodoxy and messianic ideas.

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and used as a political instrument. It meant the adoption of the attributes of Solomon, wisdom and power, by the rulers; probably containing another hidden meaning to the population since the trend of the current is based in the esoteric interpretation of the sacred book: the Quran (Ariza 2010).

Fig. 2: The six-pointed star in a dir am of andalusi provenience (Rodrguez Lorente 1991).

Magic device The imprint The seal of Solomon was shaped in Morisco books of magic, those written in Arabic and those written in aljama (Spanish vernacular in Arabic script), ever present in charms and talismans ( irz, herce) with prophylactic purposes, which clearly show its meaning in the practice of ritual magic in Spain. The aljamiado manuscript Junta 59, for instance, shows the seal of Solomon surrounded by the sacred Names of Allah, as a formula to reach an ecstatic state ( ikr), common in mystical rituals and prayers. It is, then, a magical-mystical symbol that protects and blesses. This new version of the role of Solomon for Morisco population occurred in the gap of traditions and practices associated to him as there is indeed a shift in the conception of the Prophet and his seal in orthodox Islam and its most popular currents. Popular perception of Solomons wisdom and power will be adopted by the Spanish population as a whole, as we will see. Prophylactic practices ascribed to the power of Solomon are compiled in a Morisco codex from the 16th century, the Ocaa

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manuscript called Miscelneo de Salomn, where recipes made from herbs and animal-based medicines are combined with religious phrases and magic signs. Here, the Prophet inquires into the illnesses caused by various demons and invokes them for their cures following the ancient exorcist scheme (Albarracn 1987; Torijano 2002).

Fig. 3: The seal of Solomon, Salomonic script and magic signs on a page of a Morisco manuscript from Ocaa, titled Miscelneo de Salomn (Albarracn Navarro and Martnez Ruiz 1987).

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Another Morisco manuscript contains magic recipes to cure illnesses and pains and also to seek love or dissolve it: the Libro de dichos maravillosos in the manuscript Junta 22 (Labarta 1996). In both manuscripts the prophet Solomon is the only one who has the control over supernatural elements that cause pain: the jinn. The magic signs accompanying the prayers and remedies for each purpose must be included in the production of the irz (talisman) to accomplish the magic order directed to the jinn as if it were commanded by Solomon and sealed with his signet ring.5 A good example of the interaction of Solomonic knowledge and its prophylactic uses also occurs in the translation of the Dioscorides Book of Simples by Alonso Laguna in 1555. In his elaboration, the author mentions a plant for womens cosmetic use, the selln de salomn or big seal of Solomon, whose properties and representation in folk medicine for women might explain its success (Gmez Moreno 2000: 111).6 The seal-ring Added to the traditional use of the seal-ring, provided with the royal authority of his owner, Solomon has the divine power to carry out his orders. The seal conferred super-natural powers to limit evil forces, and lock them up or subjugate them. Traditional tales show how demons would obey Solomons direct commandments; those which locked them in jars or forced them to build his Temple in just one week. Those tales are recounted in Jewish Agaddah,7 Islamic Qi a or even represented in the Christian Cantigas of Alfonso X (Romero 1989; Talab 2002; Albarracn 1999). As mentioned in the literature of Qi a , the belief in the magical properties of the seal of Solomon lies in the existence of an inscription in its center, the Greatest Name of Allah. The common aim of Muslim thaumaturges was to find out which of the 99 Sacred Names would confer to the magician the power mastered by Solomon. In such direction, some authors like Ibn al- jj alAll those signs and the hexagram are called Sellos (seals) in this literature from 15 and 16th-century Spain. 6 It is worth mentioning that the selln de Salomn in Lagunas translation of Dioscorides was a lily species, a flower of six petals, and it may enforce Klagsbalds theory on the supposed identification between the six-pointed star label and the lily symbol, but in 16th-century Spain. 7 The Agaddah is the Jewish genre of exegetical and traditional accounts developing biblical stories.
th 5

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Tilims n (10th century) and al-B n (13th century) debated about the nature of the Greatest Name. Al- B n is an Egyptian author who wrote a treatise on the science of the letters that became the basis for all kinds of magic, divinatory or preventive, related to the Names of Allah. In his dissertation he exposed the enigmatic Greatest Name on a stamp composed of seven signs, beginning with the command label of Solomon, occasionally represented as a pentagram (Doutt 1984).

Fig. 4: The seven signs of the Greatest Name of God.

The ring of Solomon would supposedly have this label engraved from which its power originated. The essence of his seal would consist in its combination of the sacred texts of the three monotheistic religions. Al-B n claimed that the two first signs corresponded to the Quran, that the stairs and the m m8 were representative of the Gospel, and that the last three signs belonged to the Torah. The signs of the Greatest Name have correlated with the days of the week, the planets, the angels, demons, the faw t 9, and the Names of God in a magic square reproduced by al-B n . The magical literature and the production of talismans emanating from it are concerned with the signs and their astrological coordinates. The connection between the science of letters and the properties of the numeric value of the Name of God or the angels are also involved in the production of talismans and magical rings. The same devices were used in Jewish magic, in which the sixpointed star is also associated with the Names of God and the angels

The m m is the 24th letter of the Arabic alphabet. The seven letters which are not contained in the first urah (chapter) of the Quran, the f ti a, are commonly known as faw t though their correct name is saw qi al-f ti a.
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in a kabbalistic way, as Sefer Raziel, a work attributed to Solomon that circulated around modern Europe, exemplifies. We also find the mention of a treatise attributed to Solomon in the work of Arnau of Villanova, a Christian physician from the 13th century, Opera Medica Omnia (Vilanova 2005: 29-31). While in his Epistola Reprobatione he intended to refute necromancy, he mentioned one of the magic treatises that circulated in Europe: the work, called Annulis Salomonis, was a complete guide that provided the exorcism scheme for invoking demons and recipes to make the magic seal-ring and miter.10 As it shows, the sovereignty granted to the King by his seal also bestowed power over the four princes of the jinn. The treatise was translated into Latin from the 13th century onwards (Thorndike 1947: 250-1), and it supposedly had an Arabic source (Vilanova 2005: 32-3). However, the materialistic aim for making the magical seal-rings was treasure hunting, as this literature and numerous trials of the Inquisition show. Many other treatises proliferated following this trend and we can argue that the magical properties of the seal of Solomon were popularized in Spain and developed for this purpose (Tausiet 2007: 39-77). The spread of legends about ancient treasures hidden by Muslims before leaving Spain, and the belief in demons acting as guardians of these riches, caused the proliferation of ring manufacturing, as shown in a letter found by the Inquisition in 1532 to a Valencian Morisco requiring gold rings manufactured in Algiers of his partner (Labarta 2009: 207). The popularity of Muslims as wizards provided their productions with power (Thomas 1971: 231-4). The seal of Solomon in the Morisco historical context As I have attempted to show, the role that the seal of Solomon played in Spanish Islam blurred the boundaries between religious creeds while inspiring magic treatises and charms for materialistic objectives. But it also turned out to be the perfect instrument to help the Moriscos bear the obligation to convert to Catholicism in a less painful way. As the Rekontamiento de Sulayman from ms. 5305 of
10 The magic seal-ring is the symbol of Solomons power and knowledge, qualities that were to be closely linked and related to the immediate goals of ars notoria, the art of conjuring demons. The miter represents the role the priests acquired during the development of the exorcism.

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the Biblioteca Nacional of Madrid refers (Vespertino 1983), Solomons haughtiness caused him temporary misfortune. A Christian princess fell in love with him while he was wandering, and helped him to recover his throne and seal-ring. This story became a model and source of hope for every Morisco. At the same time, they could use their magic seal-rings and talismans to protect themselves (since they were forbidden to carry weapons), to avoid pain in case of torture by the Inquisition, or even to make themselves invisible. That the seal of Solomon is a symbol at the crossroads of diverse religious persuasions is particularly evident in the forgeries known as the Sacromonte Tablets. The Sacromonte Tablets are twenty-two lead books written in Arabic that appeared in Granada in the final years of the 16th century. The authors of the forgeries intended to make a cross-confessional synthesis that enabled the permanence of Islam in an attenuated form that would not clash with Catholicism. These books contain an apocryphal gospel written in Arabic that was supposed to have been revealed by the Virgin Mary to Arab Christian disciples. These disciples came to Spain with the Apostle James, and there they suffered martyrdom, becoming the first Christians Arabs of the Peninsula. The tablets pretended to be ancient Christian texts (although they made no mention of the Trinity or the divine person of Jesus) while presenting the Arabic language, which had been banned in Granada in 1567, as a vehicle of Christian revelation. Voices soon appeared trying to show the falsehood of these findings by demonstrating the anachronism exposed in the language and contents (Garca-Arenal and Rodrguez Mediano 2006). The Sacromonte Tablets also mentioned the History of the seal of Solomon (Roisse 2006) in one of the enigmatic books described above. It narrates the sin of Solomon or how he fell from divine grace after making an image for one of his concubines, thus turning to idolatry. God, then, allowed a demon to steal his signet ring and occupy his throne. Solomon wandered for forty days around his kingdom until his redemption occurred with the casual discovery of the ring inside a fish. The story ends with the authors mention of Solomon as the announcement of Jesus advent. The History of the Seal of Solomon followed the tendency of local prophecies, aiming to prevent the expulsion of the Moriscos from Spain with an attempt of religious exaltation, thus turning to the first messianic meaning of the symbol in Jewish tradition, yet

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inscribed in the frame of the Morisco cultural knowledge and literature accounts such as the aforementioned Rekontamiento de Sulayman. The books as a fruit of the culture of the Moriscos drew the attention of a much larger public than Moriscos had ever drawn before (Wiegers 2010). The cultivated elite that participated in the translation of the Lead Books showed an interest in Morisco literature like the manuscript of Ocaa (Fig. 3) where the hegemonic relationship of the Islamic Prophet with the demons can be pointed out. As Wiegers notes, the authors then connected these findings to the Lead Books, the subject of their study, stipulating that the said manuscript and the magical tradition exemplified by it can be found in them viz. the book called History of the Seal of Solomon (Wiegers 2010). One of the Lead Books translators, the Morisco Miguel de Luna, in his report, speaks of the secret characters that are present in alB n s work, similar to those found in the lead plates, so-called Solomonic script, hexagrams and stars, which he had found in Morisco magical Works (Garca-Arenal, Rodrguez Mediano: 2008). But, whereas Miguel de Luna was trying to prove the authenticity of the tablets, Marcos Dobelio, an Arab Christian scholar, was writing extensively in the first half of the 17th century in order to refute them (Garca-Arenal, Rodrguez Mediano: 2006). His arguments were many and sound, but he also pointed to the risks and to the harmful consequences the findings were having among the population. He insisted on showing how exorcist formula of Islamic origin present in the Lead Books (even l ill ha ill All h, a part of the ah da) were being used by the Christian population, even by the Archbishop of Granada himself, for exorcism. He also pointed to the widespread use of the seal of Solomon in amulets used by the old Christians or even painted on the walls or doors of their houses (Garca-Arenal and Rodrguez Mediano 2010). Another example of the symbols popularity among the Christians of Granada is the trial of a Christian silversmith by the Inquisition in 1626. He was found to be making crosses on which the shape of the seal of Solomon was engraved. It is a curious hybrid of Christian and Muslim symbols in a talisman whose protective function was related to the four paradigmatic uses of prophylactic magic: to avoid death by iron, seek love, avoid shipwrecks and lessen the pain. This talisman took part in the

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Christian symbol of the cross and the six-pointed star as an example of the synthesis of beliefs operated in magic. The sealstamped crosses were made of silver in series with astrological coordinates, along the lines of talisman manufacturing.11 The success the Solomonic seal had and the widespread use of it as a magical and talismanic device beyond the Morisco minority in whose magical practices it had originated is quite outstanding. It can still be seen today in the walls of the Sacromonte Abbey, one of the most emblematic sites of Christian Granada (Harris 2007). Conclusion The trope of Solomons seal is documented in the Iberian Peninsula at least from the 10th century. In some cases it carried an eschatological meaning, in others, it was employed for exorcism. Similarly, there are records documenting its use for prophylactic magic in manuscripts, talismans and other objects by the three religions. In the last stage of the existence of Moriscos in Spain, the seal of Solomon, due to its eschatological meaning, was employed by the Moriscos to warn community members of the imminent final judgment, the coming expulsion. In light of the Moriscos marginal situation and the pressure they experienced, referencing the prophecy and redemption of the Prophet Salomon, after his apostasy, offered them a halo of hope. In a like manner, the conscience use of the seal in the forgeries of the Sacromonte attempts to deliver a message of religious syncretism to the entire population, which doubtlessly would have interpreted it according to its cultural ascendency and religious confession. Magic and messianism, both present in the seal of Solomon are also the privileged fields of hybrid encounters between Moriscos and Old Christians in Iberia (Garca-Arenal 2003).

Archivo Histrico Nacional, Inquisicin, Leg. 1952/4I Relacin de las causas despachadas en la Inquisicin de Granada en el ao de 1626, Diversos delitos, n. 18, D. Pedro de Arce Cabeza de Vaca.

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