Portuguese Magic: From Moors to Monarchs – AD 700 to 1500

In year 711, the Umayyad Caliphate sent a vanguard of 7,000 Muslim troops across the Strait of Gibraltar to establish a bridgehead for the invasion and subjection of the fractured Visigoth kingdoms of Iberia. After receiving a reinforcement of 5,000 Berber light cavalry, the way was opened by victory at the Battle of Guadalete.

A second wave of 18,000 troops, mostly consisting of Arabs with the support of some Syrian militia, enabled the consolidation of control in southern provinces. Over the next seven years, detachments of the Moors swept northwards until all of Iberia was in their hands except for the northern coastal strip.

The indigenous population of Christian faith was treated with respect and were allowed to maintain their churches for worship subject to the payment of a tax (the jizya) which was levied on all non-Muslims who were referred to as dhimmis. This included Jewish merchant adventurers who had accompanied the invasion forces. They were greeted in the townships by co-religionists who had prospered under the Visigoths.

The Umayyad Caliphate thus created a colonization of what was to be called Al-Andalus. This enjoyed a Golden Age which was to last nearly 700 years during which many civil benefits were introduced such as sanitation, street lighting and knowledge gained in the fields of medicine, science and astronomy.

Such knowledge included the use of “learned magic” which had existed throughout antiquity. Its secret properties and ceremonies were recorded by the philosophers of all countries of the present Middle East in volumes kept in the great libraries of Egypt, Greece and Rome. This medium differed from “folk magic”, the essence of which was remembered orally by covens of witches and thus subject to variation and mistranslation over centuries.

Under the rule of the Romans and Visigoths, both forms were thought to have good (white) and bad (black) values, with the latter being punishable by fines or even death for cases where bodily harm had been incurred.

However, under the Caliphate, learned magic was highly respected when applied to medicine, law and the military. Most of its early practitioners were Arabic, but Jews later became predominant especially in the capital city of Cordoba where their skills in astronomy, astrology and divination enhanced their reputations. As mystics, they were capable of interpreting occult signs indicated by Tarot readings, the casting of rune stones and observation of natural phenomena.

Learned magicians became rich by making and selling amulets which were believed to offer protection from the ungodly and evil desires. Predominantly, these consisted of hollow metal tubes which were attached to belts or worn as jewellery, but various materials could be used such as wood and bone. Insertions of vellum, papyrus and cloth or animal skin were inscribed with a verse from a Holy Book followed by a specific petition and a series of astrological signs. When not bodily worn, amulets were often boxed and inserted into rock crevices or the walls of temples, there to be read by guardian sprites and angels.

Many of the texts for the amulets were taken from the libraries of grimoire, which had been assembled by highly educated philosophers who held positions of esteem and power in the administrations of successive Caliphates.

The most celebrated of such collections was the Ghayat Al-Hakim, which was compiled in the 10th to 11th centuries and later translated from Arabic to both Spanish and Latin known as the Picatrix. It consisted of four sections devoted to astrology, medicine, divination, the occult and necromancy. Judging by the number of extant copies, this encyclopedia must have been regarded as the source de rigueur for magicians, sorcerers and ecclesiastical readers.

Its authority was unchallenged until the late 13th century when King Afonso X of Seville (known as El Sabio) called together the best scholars in Iberia to set about the mammoth task of compiling in his scriptorium a history of the world. As an astrologer and wizard of repute, he included a treatise on the practice of magic in his kingdom.

The Golden Age of culture and knowledge came to an end with the accession of the Almoravid dynasty in the mid-11th century. This responded to the successive crusades against Islam by establishing a strictly orthodox regime in a Caliphate which ruled most of north Africa and Iberia.

All inhabitants were required to be of, or converted to, the Muslim faith with the only alternative being of expulsion or death. So, the dhimmis and their secret knowledge of all things magical had no other choice than to go northwards to meet the Christian soldiers of the Reconquista.

This included the Mozarabs; Iberian Christians who, after the invasion of 711 AD, had seen benefits of complying with the laws of the invaders. Although not converts to the new faith, they had adopted Arabic clothing and customs even to the extent of attending worship in the mosques. With the passing of centuries, they became almost indistinguishable from the Moors.

Portugal (and Galicia), being on the western periphery of the peninsula, maintained a certain independence from the Islamic culture until the Christian forces retook the land and created the first monarchy. Magical tradition had been preserved, especially in the north where the legends of the Curandeiros and Mouras Encantadas prevailed and kings continued to welcome astrologers, medics and philosophers to the royal courts.