Meaningful mingling: classicizing imagery and Islamicizing script in a Byzantine bowl

A tenth-century magic text from Islamic Spain attributed to Abu 1-Qasim Maslama ibn Qasim al-Qurtubi, the Ghayat alhakim (later known in the medieval West by the Latin title, Picatrix), presents an idea of relevant occult sciences circulating at this time in the Islamic world. The Ghaya draws from a multicultural tradition, including ancient Greek, Byzantine, and medieval Islamic magic texts. The treatise justifies the conjuring of celestial forces in the form of demons and deities by arguing that their power derives ultimately from God. These entities are summoned through, among other means, persuasive imagery and magic incantations, strategies that resonate with the program and possible use of the S. Marco bowl. (104)

Lecanomancy was practiced in the medieval Islamic world, although the tradition is not well attested in the written record, making it difficult to ascertain if Islamic devices directly influenced the design of the S. Marco vessel. (105) Still, medieval Islamic "magic bowls" may have informed the Byzantine association of Arabic with occult tools. These vessels do not resemble the S. Marco bowl in format, medium, or design, but they were commonly inscribed with Arabic and pseudo-Arabic and employ magic script and images in tandem. (106) They were intended for medical use, including the exorcism of demons; the patient was healed by drinking from the cup. The earliest examples date to the twelfth century, but they relate to an interest in magic healing that is evinced no later than the eleventh century. (107) They are densely inscribed, most notably on the rims and bases, the latter disposition offering an intriguing parallel for the placement of inscriptions on the S. Marco vessel. Although apparently not intended for lecanomancy, the bowls nonetheless employ Arabic and pseudo-Arabic to serve magic aims and may have encouraged association of the script with occult practices.

Arabic could also have gained currency as a magic language through the Byzantine translation of Islamic divinatory texts. Maria Mavroudi demonstrates that in the tenth and eleventh centuries, certain Byzantine manuals for dream interpretation, another field of mantic knowledge, were translated from medieval Arabic sources that in turn had been copied from classical and late antique versions. (108) Paul Magdalino notes that an influx of scientific learning--especially astrology--from Islamic lands reached an unprecedented level in the eleventh century. (109) In other words, for categories of knowledge associated with prophecy, medieval Byzantium seems to have relied in part on Arabic sources. Arabic therefore possessed an affiliation with divination and magic that was based on both antique typology and contemporary social practice. Indeed, Michael Psellos reported that his student John Italos lamented the fact that "Hellenic learning" had been lost in Byzantium while it flourished in the eastern lands of the "Assyrians and Medes and Egyptians." (110) Perhaps divinatory knowledge figured in the antique wisdom that John, and others like him, found underappreciated in Byzantium.