Journal of Semitic Studies LVIII/2 Autumn 2013 doi: 10.1093/jss/fgt002 © The author. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the University of Manchester. All rights reserved. 241 AN INCANTATION BOWL FOR SOWING DISCORD 1 ORTAL-PAZ SAAR INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED STUDY, PRINCETON Abstract The article presents a new interpretation of an Aramaic incantation bowl from the Iraq Museum collection, IM 9736. This bowl was first published in 1941 by C.H. Gordon, who referred to it as a spell ‘to ward off from the client the curses of an enemy’. The text is analysed afresh using later sources, such as manuscripts from the Cairo Geni- zah. The new reading indicates this was actually a separation spell, designed to sow discord between a man named Gusnin and a woman named Namoy. This incantation is exceptional among the hundreds of bowls that have been published to date, only three of which are designed for love magic, and none (hitherto) for sowing hatred. The Aramaic incantation bowl discussed in this article, Iraq Museum 9736, was first published by Cyrus H. Gordon in 1941, with no facsimile or photo provided. 2 Gordon assumed the bowl was designed ‘to ward off from the client the curses of an enemy’. 3 However, I believe that a closer look at the text shows that it was actually intended to serve a totally different purpose: separating a man from a woman. The client of this bowl was most probably a third party, possibly the man’s wife or former lover. If my reading and interpreta- tion are correct, IM 9736 is an unusual incantation bowl, joining the 1 A preliminary version of this article was presented at the conference ‘Aramaic Magical Texts from Late Antiquity: Sources, Contexts and Transmission’, organized by Prof. Gideon Bohak and Dr Dan Levene in September 2010 at Tel Aviv Uni- versity and sponsored by the Britain-Israel Research and Academic Exchange Part- nership (BIRAX). I would like to thank the conference participants for their valu- able comments, and in particular Dr James Nathan Ford, Dr Matthew Morgenstern and Prof. Shaul Shaked. Thanks go also to Dr Siam Bhayro and Prof. Michael Sokoloff, who read an earlier draft of this article and kindly commented on it. 2 C.H. Gordon, ‘Aramaic Magic Bowls’, Orientalia NS 10 (1941), 116–41, 272–84, 339–60 (bowl IM 9736 edited on 349–50). 3 Ibid., 349. at University Library Utrecht on January 15, 2016 http://jss.oxfordjournals.org/ Downloaded from