Shared Culture(s) digital kit
Linked by 15 years of partnership, the Museum of Art and History of Judaism (mahJ) and the Institute of the Arab…
The popular traditions of the Jewish world are peopled with a host of supernatural beings: the archangels Metatron, Raziel, Raphael and Gabriel, and Senoy, Sansenoy and Semangelof, the angels in charge of medicine and redoubtable protectors of men against the demonic powers of Lilith and Samael. Magic. Angels and demons in Jewish tradition features more than 300 works and documents, many never previously exhibited, from the ancient Near East, the Roman Empire, Byzantium, the Ottoman Empire, Central Asia, the Middle East, the Maghreb and the Ashkenazi world, from the Middle Ages to today: books of spells and “practical Kabbalah”, amulets, manuscripts, printed books, necklaces, pendants, hamsot, bracelets, textiles warding off the “evil eye”, incantation bowls, etc.
From sixteen public and private collections, they bear testimony to beliefs in the power of magic that continue to this day.