ABSTRACT

We owe our knowledge of the existence of Syriac amulets almost entirely to a small volume entitled “The Little Book of Protection,” which is written in Syriac and has been edited from four manuscripts and translated by Sir Hermann Gollancz (The Book of Protection, London, 1912). Two of the manuscripts are in the possession of Sir Hermann; the third is in the University Library, Cambridge (see Wright, Catalogue of the Syriac Manuscripts preserved in the Library of the University of Cambridge, 1901), and the fourth is in the British Museum (Oriental, No. 6673). In this little work we have “a collection of charms,” which was probably written for or compiled by a native of the country which lies to the north of Môsul. The owner of the book was a Christian and it was possible that he was priest or some kind of officer of the Nestorian Church to whom men made application for bans or spells, and incantatory prayers, and formulae of blessing to help them spiritually and physically and to protect their flocks and herds and possessions generally. The source of the power which underlies all these amuletic texts or “charms” is the ineffable Name of God YHWH and His other Names AHYH (Asher) AHYH, El-Shaddai, Adonai, and El-Ṣabâôth (Lord of Hosts), and the Ten Words of God the utterance of which produced the universe. In this matter the Syriac “charms” are identical with those of Hebrews in their Ḳabbâlâh, the Egyptian Christians, the Abyssinians, the Samaritans and the Arabs. The written Name of God was God Himself, and so were all the Names formed by the changes and permutations of the letters of His Name.