Arabic Bowl Divination and the Greek Magical Papyri

Bowl divination or lecanomancy, a specific kind of hydromancy, has always been a favourite practice in the Middle East. It is generally agreed that its origins can be traced back to the inhabitants of ancient Mesopotamia, from whom it spread to Egyptians, Jews, Greeks, Persians, Arabs, and Turks, arriving finally in Europe. The paper provides an analysis of a text from a modern Arabic book of magic, ʿAbd al-Fattāḥ as-Sayyid aṭ-Ṭūḫī‘s Siḥr Bār Nūḥ, in an endeavour to prove that the author relied on sources containing ancient material.