É. Apor (ed.): Jubilee Volume of the Oriental Collection, 1951–1976. Papers Presented on the Occasion of the 25th Anniversary of the Oriental Collection of the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
A. FODOR: The Use of Psalms in Jewish and Christian Arabic Magig
68 specifically the recent appearance of two "Murshids" (Guides) to the use of Psalms for magical purposes, one published in the 'Bulletin de la Société d'Archéologie Copte' in 1970[8] , the other by the Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale in 1975[9] encouraged me to choose this theme. Since neither of the editors of these two Guides hinted at the possible Jewish background of the texts and neither did they deem it necessary to try to study them in the broader context of non-Arabic magic literature on the same subject, I wish to dwell on the relationships between Hebrew "Shimmush Tehillim" works as represented here by the manuscript of the KAUFMANN collection (in the following K) and the Christian Arabic Guides to Psalms as represented by the text edited by Nessim Henry HENEIN (in the following H). Interestingly, in defiance of the official prohibition of the Copt Church, there is still in circulation in Egypt a printed booklet, the 'Murshid ad-darir ilä sifr al-mazâmîr' (The Guide of the Blind to the Book of Psalms) which is seemingly of the same provenance as H. The complete title of К is 'Shimmush Tehillim cim löah ha-mizmörfm' (The Use of Psalms with the Table of the Psalms) and as is attested in KAUFMANN's own handwriting the manuscript originally came from Yemen and came into his possession in 1883. The booklet contains 44 pages written in black ink in quadrate script. The prescriptions can be found until Psalm 136 only, since the last pages are missing. Even a cursory glance at К and H shows us that we have two different texts in front of us which cannot be looked upon as simple versions of an original work. But let us firstly examine more closely some pieces of К and H where similarities in content can be discovered. The instruction in К concerning Psalm 1 reads as follows: " Blessed is the ma n. Write it on a parchment of gazelle until whatsoever he does shall prospe r. His name is Ё1 Ehä d (One God). How? Ale f (comes) from ashrë (blessed), from lö ké n (not so, see verse 4), h from yagliah (prosper), d from d erek resh a°im (the way of the ungodly, see verse 6). And write: ' Let thy will be Ë1 Ha d (One God) that you make the woman N daughter of N not to abort and heal her with a perfect healing from now on and for ever. [10] Ale f, alef, alef, s, s, s. ' And hang this upon her." As the general theme of Psalm 1 is the happiness of the godly and the unhappiness of the ungodly, it might seem rather inappropriate to try to find here a prophylactic against miscarriage. However, there does seem to be a reference in verse 3 which says that "And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; ..." The suggestive parallel between childbirth in the proper time and the tree which ripens its fruit does not call for further explanation. The comparison with the corresponding Arabic text makes it clear that the picture of the tree must have been basic to the idea. The prescription accompanying Psalm 1 is missing from the text of H, so the version in the printed 'Murshid ad-darir' will be reproduced below: "Blessed is the man. It should be written for the woman who cannot bear children.
