January 04, 2014

Babylonian magic

I have been receiving e-mails where people ask the question on ‘why Magic is forbidden? – What is so polytheistic about Magic?’

Well, as we discussed before, in the article – Black Magic & Witchcraft.

“And they followed [instead] what the devils had recited during the reign of Solomon. It was not Solomon who disbelieved, but the devils disbelieved, teaching people magic and that which was revealed to the two angels at Babylon, Harut and Marut. But the two angels do not teach anyone unless they say, “We are a trial, so do not disbelieve [by practicing magic].” And [yet] they learn from them that by which they cause separation between a man and his wife. But they do not harm anyone through it except by permission of Allah. And the people learnt what harms them and does not benefit them. But the Children of Israel certainly knew that whoever purchased the magic would not have in the Hereafter any share. And wretched is that for which they sold themselves, if they only knew.” (al-baqara: 102)

Babylonian magic
Babylonian magic


For the knowledge of how Magic was practiced in Babylon, we need to go back in history, as far as we can, and see for what magic comprised of when it first came.

Fortunately, the British Museum holds clay tablets of Magic that seem to belong to the 600 BC of Assyria. For those of you who do not know Assyria – It was after the fall of the Akkadian Empire – 2080 BC, when it split into two separate nations; Assyria in the north, and Babylonia in the south. The clay tablets are inscribed in the Assyrian characters and it seems to have been copied from Babylonia for Ashurbanipal, the king of Assyria in the years 669 – 625 BC. It was excavated from the Royal library. Most of the tablets are found in pieces since we know that the Assyrian Royal Library was destroyed. However, the main content of these tablets remain clear to us. The carvings on these tablets are basically prayers and incantations to various deities.

The main title for these tablets is something that translates – “Prayers of the Lifting of the Hand”. Since these tablets are from the 600BC, we can imply that this truly is the Magic that was first practiced in Babylon. I wish to share some of the scans of those tablets but I do not wish to promote Sorcery here, So I would only put one scan out of them, just for the sake public presentation.


Babylonian magic

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