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Salting the earth, or sowing with salt, is the ritual of spreading salt on the sites of cities razed by conquerors. [1] [2] It originated as a curse on re-inhabitation in the ancient Near East and became a well-established folkloric motif in the Middle Ages. [3] The best-known example is the salting of Shechem as narrated in the Biblical Book ...
Basamum is a god worshipped in South Arabia whose name may be derived from Arabic basam, or balsam, a medicinal plant, indicating that he may be associated with healing or health. [13] [14] One ancient text relates how Basamum cured two wild goats/ibexes. [13] Attested: Dai Dai is named in an Assyrian inscription. [11] Attested: Datin
In the cultures of the Horn of Africa and adjacent regions of the Middle East, [1] Zār (Arabic: زار, Ge'ez: ዛር) is the term for a demon or spirit assumed to possess individuals, mostly women, and to cause discomfort or illness. The so-called zār ritual or zār cult is the practice of reconciling the possessing spirit and the possessed ...
Emilie Savage-Smith gives a very broad definition including "anything wondrous, including elegant and subtle poetry, ... sleight-of-hand tricks, ... the healing properties of plants, ... invocations to God for assistance, ... invocations to jinn or demons or the spirits of the planets, and on occasion even to the divinatory art of astrology." [16]
Scientists discovered a mix of psychedelic drugs, bodily fluids, flavoring agents and alcohol after they scraped the inside of an ancient Egyptian mug that may have been used for fertility rituals.
An ancient Egyptian apotropaic wand shows a procession of protective deities. It was used in birth rituals, perhaps to draw a magic circle around the mother and child. Items and symbols such as crosses, crucifixes, silver bullets, wild roses and garlic were believed to ward off or destroy vampires.
The Thamud (Arabic: ثمود) was an ancient civilization in Hejaz, documented in sources from the eighth century BCE until the fifth century CE. They are attested in contemporaneous Mesopotamian and Classical , and Arabic inscriptions from the eighth century BCE, all the way until the fifth century CE, when they served as Roman auxiliaries .
In ancient Judaism, there existed a complex relationship with magic and witchcraft, with some forms of divination accepted by some rabbis, yet most viewed as forbidden or heretical. In the medieval Middle East , under Islamic and Christian influences, witchcraft's perception fluctuated between healing and heresy , revered by some and condemned ...