A Demon for a Magical Amulet

Title: A Demon for a Magical Amulet I Date: Late medieval I Medium: Ink on paper I Language: Arabic; Pseudo-Arabic I Type of Resource: Text and illustration fragment I Place: Cairo I Accession Number: TS-AR-051-112-B -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CLICK HERE TO SEE THE HI-RES IMAGE OF THIS PIECE:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The page is torn but the main part is still visible. This is an image of an amulet figure, sigil, magical ring surrounded with non-sensical writing in Arabic script. The body of this figure is drawn with the rectangular forms looking like a Coptic-style tunic or talismanic shirt with a snake figure wrapped around his shoulder. The figure wears a cone-shaped hat called a pileus cornutus hat which is simply decorated. It has a large Egyptian-style eye, arched eyebrows, long nose and stylised curly hair. Today, we do not know if this spell worked, but it must have given hope to the individual for whom it was created. Also, the artist seems to have worked using his imagination to create the form of this figure. [During the 12th-18th century, cone-shaped/pileus cornutus hats were required to be worn in public by Jewish people in Medieval Europe for the purpose of being distinguishable as Jews.]