Occult Science in the Islamicate world with Dr Matthew Melvin-Koushki

Islamic occultism, magic, esotericism and witchcraft


Matthew Melvin-Koushki (PhD Yale) is Associate Professor of Islamic History at the University of South Carolina, and founder of its new MA in Magic and Occult Science. He specializes in early modern Islamicate intellectual and imperial history, with a philological focus,on the theory and practice of the occult sciences in Timurid-Safavid Iran and the broader Persianate world to the nineteenth century, and a disciplinary focus on history of science, history of philosophy and history of the book. President of Societas Magica, he is co-editor of the volumes Islamicate Occultism: New Perspectives (2017) and Islamicate Occult Sciences in Theory and Practice (2021), and cofounder of the international working group Islamic Occult Studies on the Rise (IOSOTR), at islamicoccult.org, which showcases the newest work in this now burgeoning interdisciplinary field.

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Emily Selove and my SHWEP interview announcing our new USC and Exeter MAs in Magic and Occult Science:
https://shwep.net/2023/06/28/emily-se...

My academia.edu page:
https://sc.academia.edu/MatthewMelvin...

A short article with a list of some of the Persian grimoires I'm currently working on:
https://www.academia.edu/38343009/How...

Another short article with a summary and edition of another short Persian grimoire:
https://www.academia.edu/96101312/Qiz...

Emily Selove on her forthcoming translation of a major Arabic Mongol-era grimoire:
https://shwep.net/oddcast/emily-selov...

Selected translations from the Bunian Greater Sun of Gnoses:
https://www.google.com/books/edition/...

Noah Gardiner on the Bunian corpus:
https://sc.academia.edu/NoahGardiner

Michael Noble on Fakhr-i Razi's grimoire The Hidden Secret:
https://shwep.net/oddcast/philosophis...

On the Persianate geomantic tradition:
https://www.academia.edu/19579995/Per...

On the Latinate geomantic tradition:
https://www.google.com/books/edition/...
http://www.alexandercummins.com/blog/...
https://digitalambler.com/category/ge...

Islamic Occult Studies on the Rise (IOSOTR):
https://www.islamicoccult.org/

Research Network for the Study of Esoteric Practices:
https://www.rensep.org/

00:00:00 Introduction: Support Angela’s Symposium
00:01:35 Meet Dr Melvin-Kouski
00:02:20 Terminology explained
00:13:06 Lettrism – Islamic Kabbalah
00:17:14 Geomancy
00:20:07 Emic vs etic explained
00:29:08 What does it mean to be Western vs Eastern
00:31:52 Early Latin translations
00:36:13 Geomancy pre-Quranic
00:38:38 Islamic occultism texts
00:44:24 Influence of Islamic occult science in the West
00:48:11 Islamic magic practices
00:50:07 Islamic vs Islamicate
00:57:41 Teaching geomancy to modern students
00:59:38 How geomancy works
01:05:41 Recommended practices for beginners
01:09:02 The Shams al-Ma'arif or Greater Sun of Gnosis
01:16:30 The new MA course
01:21:54 Farewell and Support Angela’s Symposium