Mesopotamian Anti-Witchcraft Literature: Texts and Studies Part I: The Nature of Maqlû: Its Character, Divisions, and Calendrical Setting

Abstract

THE series Maqlui is the single most important, if also the most tendentious, member of that segment of cuneiform literature which records Mesopotamian magical and medical attempts to counteract witchcraft and its effects. The presentation of the results of an ongoing investigation in which Mesopotamian beliefs and practices relating to witchcraft are scrutinized and the relevant compositions reconstructed and analyzed1 can best begin, therefore, with a few general observations on the series. In view of the immense contribution made by the late Professor Frederick W. Geers- through his copies and identifications-to this investigation,2 it is only fitting that this first offering be dedicated to his memory, especially since Professor Geers's interest in Maqli' is well known, and his contribution to the reconstruction of its text, as of so many other texts, remains of fundamental and enduring value.