Or 6557

1214-1305, This work was gifted (?) to the British Museum Library by a Muhammad Shami on October 10th 1903 and catalogued in 1904. According to a slip of paper pasted on blank recto of first folio "in handwriting of donor", this work is a "book on Reml (Ar. ʻIlm al-Raml, sand divination) and magic and some of astronomy by Saidi Saeed Abdoul Naim Handwriting 1202 (1788AD)". However, the work is a list of a treatments for various bodily and mental conditions, itemised by subject in the left-hand margin for ease of reference suggesting it was of practical use. This handbook is interrupted several times by treatises on astrology, the voiding of magic spells and descriptions of malevolent spirits and how to remove them. Towards the end of the work, there are versified works by the Egyptian al-Ḍimyātī -his poem which in the Maghrib is famous for its therapeutic properties- and other Moroccan Sufis. The work contains many full-page diagrams and images (human forms folios 5v, 6r, 26v and 38r-41r). The author refers to his own experiences with these treatments and states that he has seen some of the spirits himself. Furthermore, small pieces of paper upon which notes, simple arithmatic et cetera have been written are interspersed throughout the text, suggesting that this was a private work meant only for the author. Internal references to Moroccan place names suggest that this is where the work was composed. The work contains several date references, the earliest being 1214AH (AD 1799) up to several dates in the early 1300s AH (AD 1880s), suggesting the work was compiled sometime between these two time periods. This work seems to be a unicum, perhaps a handbook for a travelling specialist of occult Islamic knowledge. This was certainly an established genre in North and West Africa. See C. Hamès, "Taktub ou la magie de l'écriture islamique. Textes soninké à usage magique", Arabica, XXXIV, fasc. 3, nov. 1987, 305-325; al-Raqqādī al-Kuntī, Livre de la guérison des maladies externes et internes affectant les corps. 3 vols., ed. by F. Sanaugustin (Lyon: ENS Éditions, 2011)22.