Faculty of Philosophy

MAGICAL TEXTS IN ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS

International Interdisciplinary Conference

Kraków, 27-28 June 2013

Centre for Comparative Studies of Civilizations

Jagiellonian University

General information

Magic is one of the important and the oldest ways of comprehending the world by human beings. It is a universal phenomenon which crosses cultural as well as social borders. Various civilizations in different time periods have understood magic in diverse ways and therefore have treated, interpreted, and used it differently. Magical texts are one of the best sources to investigate this issue. Some questions that come to mind while reflecting on magical texts can be, e.g.: which texts can be classified as magical, how to categorize magical texts, what purpose have they served, how were they created, or: is a modified or translated text still a magical text.

Magical texts were created in both great and less known civilizations, sometimes distant in time and space. They appear in Egypt, Nubia, Mesopotamia, Anatolia, Syria, Palestine, but also on the Indian subcontinent, in Tibet, and in China. The influence of various magical traditions is clearly visible in the magic that developed in the Greco-Roman period. Its elements intermingled, inter alia, with the Coptic and Arabic magical systems.

Due to the widespread literature of this kind in the ancient world, there is a need for considerable study of magical texts. New research in this area will help to discredit the untrue image of magic, distorted by the modern misconceptions about phenomenon.

At our conference, we welcome speakers representing different disciplines and research methodologies, since we are convinced that adopting the interdisciplinary and multidirectional perspective will allow us to understand magic, which we regard to be an underestimated cultural phenomenon, in a better and more complete way.

The language of the conference is English.

The details, including the information on the registration and paper submission are available at:

Magical Texts in Ancient Civilizations