Description
Book SynopsisIn this volume, a microhistorical approach is employed to provide a transcription, translation, and case-study of the proceedings (written in Latin, Italian and Arabic) of the Roman Inquisition on Malta’s 1605 trial of the ‘Moorish’ slave Sellem Bin al-Sheikh Mansur, who was accused and found guilty of practising magic and teaching it to the local Christians. Through both a detailed commentary and individual case-studies, it assesses what these proceedings reflect about religion, society, and politics both on Malta and more widely across the Mediterranean in the early 17th century. In so doing, this inter- and multi-disciplinary project speaks to a wide range of subjects, including magic, Christian-Muslim relations, slavery, Maltese social history, Mediterranean history, and the Roman Inquisition. It will be of interest to both students and researchers who study any of these subjects, and will help demonstrate the richness and potential of the documents in the Maltese archives. With contributions by: Joan Abela, Dionisius A. Agius, Paul Auchterlonie, Jonathan Barry, Charles Burnett, Frans Ciappara, Pierre Lory, Alex Malett, Ian Netton, Catherine R. Rider, Liana Saif
Table of ContentsAcknowledgements List of Illustrations and Figures Abbreviations Arabic Transliteration System Notes on Contributors Introduction Alex Mallett, Dionisius A. Agius and Catherine Rider Part 1 1 The Trial of Sellem bin al-Sheikh Mansur before the Roman Inquisition on Malta, 1605: Transcription and Translation Alex Mallett and Catherine Rider Part 2 2 The Trial of Sellem: A Microhistorical Commentary Alex Mallett and Catherine Rider Part 3 3 Sellem Bin al-Sheikh Mansur: A Muslim Magician in Catholic Malta Joan Abela 4 The Cognitive Landscape of Seventeenth-Century Malta: Communicating Information in a Cosmopolitan Society Dionisius A. Agius 5 The Maltese Inquisition: Expectations and Evidence in the Sellem Case Jonathan Barry 6 The Witch and the Judge: Sellem before the Roman Inquisition, 1605 Frans Ciappara 7 An Anthropology of Confessional Practice Regarding Magic in Early Seventeenth-Century Malta: Liminality, Communitas, Exclusion Ian R. Netton Part 4 8 Magic and Divination Lost in Translation: A Cairene in a Maltese Inquisition Liana Saif 9 Geomancy, Divination, and Islam Pierre Lory 10 Learned and Common Magic in the Trial of Sellem Catherine Rider 11 Measurement and Magic: Some Notes on the Texts on Measurement in the Inquisition Documents against Sellem the Moor Charles Burnett 12 Magic in Ottoman North Africa, 1570–1700, as seen through European Eyes Paul Auchterlonie Part 5 13 Concluding Remarks Alex Mallett, Catherine Rider and Dionisius A. Agius Appendix 1: Evidence Presented to the Inquisition by Vittorio Cassar: Instructions for Mathematics and the Practise of Geomancy Alex Mallett and Catherine Rider Appendix 2: Tabula Sybillum Alex Mallett and Catherine Rider Index
