Astrology, Jinn, and Magical Healing in al- Saraqustī’s Forty-sixth maqāma

The forty-sixth maqāma in al-Saraqustī’s collection, the “Maqāma al-Janīya” or “Maqāma of the Genie” is valuable in that it o ers an early account of how popular healers used (or were thought to have used) what today would be considered magic or the supernatural as part of their medical healing in the medieval Arabic-speaking world. Their practice involved the use of astronomical tables to cast horoscopes and the treatment of jinn possession by exorcism. In this maqāma al-Saraqustī contextualizes the encounter of Abū Ḥabīb and al-Sā’ib, narrator and dupe, within contemporary medieval beliefs of jinn possession and astrological prognostication current in the Arabic- speaking world. In this maqāma al-Sā’ib may be ill, but he is not seduced by Abū Ḥabīb’s rhetoric and his promises of healing, but gives voice to his doubt and accuses the old man of being a fake at the end.