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A Babylonian Jewish Aramaic Magical Booklet from the Damascus Genizah 19*

Folio 1a

1 BRYNG the dev 29 who disturbed the ‫ברינג דיוה דשגיש שמיה‬
8F2 ‫באר•יֿ ֿה‬

heavens with his (???) 0 ‫נטר טורי דור נמטי‬
‫ סליקית‬30‫טורי‬
2 NṬR ṬWRY DWR NMṬY.31 I went up
F03 F29

the mountains, ‫וטורי נחיתית ורמתה‬
‫תבעית חזיתי‬
3 and I went down the mountains, and I
turned13F32 to the hills; I saw ‫תלתה מלאכי ושמיהון‬
‫גבריאל ועוזיאל‬
4 three angels, whose names are Gabriel
and Uziel ‫ושושיאל אמרין לי פ ב' פ‬
‫מן הפך ט]ו[רי‬
5 And Shoshiel. They said to me, NN,
Who overturned the m[ou]ntains ‫דאת הפכת ורמתה דאת‬
‫תבעת אמרית‬
6 that you overturned and the hills that
you turned to I said ‫להון אנא פ ב' פ דיבעית‬
33F[32 ‫רזא דרח ֿמת]א‬
7 to them, I, NN, since? I wanted the
mystery of love

29 Professor Shaul Shaked has suggested to us that “bryng dywh looks like an Iranian
word, but no such word exists in this form. One may think of *bērōnīg ‘external’ or a
similar emendation. Such a word is unknown as the name of a demon, but is at least a
plausible designation for a demon.”

30 The following historiola bears a strong resemblance to similar passages in the magic
bowl corpus and Mandaic formularies, e.g., lṭura ḏ-nirig silqit ldaura rba ḏ-bit hiia
aškaita lmihla pt bil alaha ulmiša br šušma hiuara, “I ascended to the mount of Nirig,
and to the great abode of the House of Life; I found Salt, daughter of the god Bel, and
Oil, son of white sesame” (Zarazta ḏ-Hibil Ziua, ed. De Morgan 265/20: 40–43).

31 We have presented these as magic words as we are unable to propose a coherent
translation. The first two words, ‫ נטר טורי‬may be rendered as “Guardian of the
mountains” or “Guard mountains (imperative). . . .” ‫ נמטי‬may be either a verb (3 m.s.
or 1 c.s. of ‫ מט"י‬in qal or ʾapʿil) or a noun meaning “pieces of felt, belt coverings”
(Sokoloff, DJBA, 755).

32 For this meaning of ‫ תבע‬see M. Kahana, “The Importance of Dwelling in the Land of
Israel According to the Deuteronomy Mekhilta,” Tarbiẕ 62 (1993) 501–14, at 507
(Heb.).