The Cairo Geniza amulets and magical bowls
- Date of account
- Amulets from roughly the 6th–13th centuries; bowls mainly late antique
- Location
- Cairo Geniza; Mesopotamian Jewish communities
- Source
- model_recalled_reference
- Record updated
- 2026-10-10
Record summary
The Cairo Geniza preserved Jewish, Christian, and Islamic amulets, formulaic texts, and fragments of magical practice, while related incantation bowls from late antique Mesopotamia carry spiraling inscriptions intended to protect households or individuals. These materials provide unusually concrete evidence for written ritual technologies, names of angels, biblical quotations, and multilingual transmission. They are valuable for comparing elite mystical texts with everyday protective practice. Interpretation remains difficult because many objects lack secure archaeological context, and the intended user, date, and meaning of abbreviated formulas can be uncertain.
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