Edward William Lane’s Egyptian magicians in An Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians

Record summary

Edward William Lane’s 1836 ethnography includes descriptions of Egyptian magicians, charm sellers, diviners, amulets, spirit beliefs, and performances presented as supernatural or deceptive. It is valuable for comparing nineteenth-century European observation with local religious and popular practices, especially the overlap between Qur’anic healing, vernacular ritual, and theatrical trickery. Lane’s work is not a transparent record: he translated, selected, and interpreted material through Orientalist assumptions, and some scenes may derive from informants rather than direct observation. Its claims should be checked against Arabic sources and later Egyptian scholarship.