The Witchcraft Series Maqlû (Writings from the Ancient World)

A new reconstruction and translation of the Maqlû text The Mesopotamian series Maqlû, 'Burning,' is one of the most significant and interesting magical texts from the Ancient Near East. The incantations and accompanying rituals are directed against witches and witchcraft and actually represent a single complex ceremony. The ceremony was performed during a single night and into the following morning at the end of the month Abu (July/August) , a time when spirits were thought to move back and forth between the netherworld and the world of the living. Features: English translation of approximately 100 incantations and rituals Annotated transcription Introduction places the series in historical context and shows how it is a product of a complex literary and ceremonial development. Tzvi Abusch is Rose B. and Joseph Cohen Professor of Assyriology and Ancient Near Eastern Religion at Brandeis University.