The Four Schools of Magic: An Islamic Theory of Comparative Religion

This paper traces and analyzes a theory of comparative magic that circulated in premodern Arabic bibliographic and magical texts: that there are four schools of magic, each identified with a particular nation or group of people. The four groups are the Indians, the Nabateans, the Greeks, and the monotheists—referred to as Hebrews, Copts, and Arabs. My analysis focuses on one particular application of this theory by Muḥammad al-Kashnāwī al-Sudānī (d. 1142/1741-2) in his text titled al-Durr al-Manẓūm, a commentary on and expansion of Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī’s (d. 606/1210) popular handbook of practical magic, the Book of the Hidden Secret (Kitāb al-Sirr al-Maktūm). The paper argues that Kashnāwī’s discourse of comparative magic conceals a theory of comparative religion. His four schools describe different religious groups and their practices. By labelling them magic, he enfolds those practices into an Islamic framework, thereby accounting for their efficacy and enabling their use.