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Meaningful mingling: classicizing imagery and Islamicizing script in a Byzantine bowl
Art Bulletin, The, March, 2008 by Alicia Walker
Pseudo-Arabic as an Occult Language
Bands of pseudo-Arabic script in the S. Marco vessel and the Taphou 14 illumination probably possessed additional magic significance by virtue of their indecipherability. Late antique spells commonly transformed the Greek alphabet into an occult language by combining familiar letters into nonsensical arrangements. These Ephesia grammata were thought to channel divine or magic speech. (111) In the previously cited instructions for a fourth-century lecanomantic ritual, for example, the practitioner provided the following additional spell:
AMOUN AUANTOU LIMOUTAU RIPTOU MANTAUI IMANTOU LANTOU PALTOUMI ANCOUMACH ARAPTOUMI. Come here to me, god (insert his name), manifest yourself before me this very hour and do not alarm my eyes. Come here to me, god (insert his name), pay heed to me, because this is the wish and the command of ACHCHOR ACHCHOR ACHACHACH PTOUMI CHACHCHO CHARACHOCH CHAPTOUME CHORACHARACHOCH APTOUMI MECHACHAPTOU CHARCHPTOU CHACHCHO CHARACHO PTENACHOCHEU. (112)
In the papyrus document, the nonsensical words are written in Greek script and include syllables and letter combinations familiar from actual Greek, suggesting their communicative potential. The Arabic alphabet was similarly employed as a magic language in medieval Islamic occult and mystical practices, as seen in a section of the Ghaya, which documents a purportedly ancient magic script based on the Arabic alphabet. (113) In other medieval Islamic objects, letters and symbols are combined in seemingly nonsensical arrangements that served as secret, magic languages for communicating with supernatural entities. (114) Together these examples indicate that pseudo-Arabic, although illegible, is still potentially significant, its cryptic character contributing to its esoteric and magic value. "Arabic" inscriptions that defy decipherment can function as occult language much as the Ephesia grammata of the Greek magic tradition.
In late antique and medieval magic, text and image worked in tandem to empower spells and the objects that facilitated them. (115) But if this was the case, why not simply employ Greek script to accompany classicizing images? The Byzantines certainly knew that the ancient Hellenes spoke Greek, and Greek was commonly used in the early Byzantine period on a plethora of magic devices. (116) One possibility is that the original form of a script was believed to preserve its magic effect. In his interpretation of the Chaldean Oracles, Michael Psellos specified that when the name of a god has been cited in one language, the name should not be translated because the original form exercised supernatural force. He notes several Hebrew words that, if changed into Greek, lose their ritual efficacy. (117) If the source for the inscription on the S. Marco vessel had itself been a text written or an object inscribed in Arabic (or even pseudo-Arabic), then linguistic (or at least alphabetic) consistency may have been thought necessary to preserve the efficacy of the device.
