Liana Saif
Biographic Data
| ID | 1601279 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Liana Saif |
| GIVEN NAMES | Liana |
| FAMILY NAME | Saif |
| SIGNATURE | SAIF L |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Amsterdam |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1379-4615 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 12 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 1 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 12 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2011 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Witches
Aisha Qandisha, one of the most well-known female jinn figures in Moroccan folklore, both feared and desired, is frequently depicted as an impossibly beautiful woman with animalistic traits below the waist which she conceals until it is too late.She is said to materialize near bodies of water or desolate places at night, bewitching her victims through both mesmerizing beauty and supernatural force.In some tales, men who encounter Aisha Qandisha e…
Agency, Global Definitions, and the Case of Islamic Esotericism
Sorcery or Science? Contested Knowledge and Practice in West African Sufi Texts, by Ariela Marcus Sells
Athanasius Kircher’s Cabala Saracenica
This article introduces a significant case regarding the European reception of ʿilm al-ḥurūf wa-l-asmāʾ (the science of letters and divine names) in the Oedipus Aegyptiacus by the Jesuit polymath Athanasius Kircher (1602-1680). Classis V in Tomus II .1, Caps. I-X , and Classis VII , Cap. VI in Tomus II .2 contain Kircher’s most comprehensive engagement with the science of letters, referred to as the Cabala Saracenica in juxtaposition with the Cab…
The past and future of the study of Islamic esotericism
The study of Islamic esotericism, particularly the concept of al-bāṭiniyya, remains fragmented. While often studied under various labels like "mysticism" and "occultism," it is widely equated to Sufism. Scholars still hesitate to use the term al-bāṭiniyya due to its historical pejorative connotations, linking it to extremist adherence to esotericism and sectarian views. Furthermore, al-bāṭiniyya has faced marginalization because of its associatio…
Sapientia Astrologica
"Sapientia Astrologica: Astrology, Magic and Natural Knowledge, ca. 1250–1800, I. Medieval Structures (1250–1500): Conceptual, Institutional, Socio-Political, Theologico-Religious and Cultural, by H Darrel Rutkin" published on 04 May 2022 by Brill
Micrologus 27, The Diffusion of the Islamic Sciences in the Western World, written by Edizioni del Galluzzo
Preliminary Study of the Pseudo-Aristotelian Hermetica
The pseudo-Aristotelian Hermetica are an understudied yet influential group of texts surviving in Arabic that claim to record conversations between Aristotle and Alexander the Great. I propose a ninth-century dating for these texts on the basis of textual and contextual evidence. In them, Aristotle instructs Alexander on two major subjects to aid his royal pupil’s military career and personal life: the cosmos, the genesis of everything in it, and…
Global Sufism
Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ’s Religious Reform and Magic
This article investigates the role of magic in the confessional identity of the Ikhwān al-Ṣafā as it is articulated in the 52nd epistle on magic, and informed by the rest of their Rasāʾil (Epistles). To achieve this, the author revisits the long scholarly tradition of speculation about their denominational commitment that has seen them affiliated one way or the other to Ismailism, seeing its esoteric foundations as the platform onto which their m…
From Ġāyat al-ḥakīm to Šams al-maʿārif
In recent years, we have witnessed an efflorescence of research on Islamic esoteric traditions and occult thought. Such scholarly activity has established that the occult sciences are part of Islamic intellectual history that cannot be overlooked; rather, they constituted a primary mode by which people thought about the hidden, the extraordinary, and their potential for partaking in the divine and wondrous. Occult beliefs and practices are thus i…
The Arabic theory of astral influences in early modern medicine
Medicine and the occult in the Renaissance were conceptually related. They were both considered as etiological pursuits that investigate the manifest and hidden causes of human conditions. Astrological medicine specifically depends on the notion that the stars are higher causes of human ailments. This notion permeated the medical thought of the Renaissance. But how can astrology be reconciled with medicine? During the Golden Age of Islam, some Ar…
The past and future of the study of Islamic esotericism
The study of Islamic esotericism, particularly the concept of al-bāṭiniyya, remains fragmented. While often studied under various labels like "mysticism" and "occultism," it is widely equated to Sufism. Scholars still hesitate to use the term al-bāṭiniyya due to its historical pejorative connotations, linking it to extremist adherence to esotericism and sectarian views. Furthermore, al-bāṭiniyya has faced marginalization because of its associatio…
The Arabic theory of astral influences in early modern medicine
Medicine and the occult in the Renaissance were conceptually related. They were both considered as etiological pursuits that investigate the manifest and hidden causes of human conditions. Astrological medicine specifically depends on the notion that the stars are higher causes of human ailments. This notion permeated the medical thought of the Renaissance. But how can astrology be reconciled with medicine? During the Golden Age of Islam, some Ar…
From Ġāyat al-ḥakīm to Šams al-maʿārif
In recent years, we have witnessed an efflorescence of research on Islamic esoteric traditions and occult thought. Such scholarly activity has established that the occult sciences are part of Islamic intellectual history that cannot be overlooked; rather, they constituted a primary mode by which people thought about the hidden, the extraordinary, and their potential for partaking in the divine and wondrous. Occult beliefs and practices are thus i…
Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ’s Religious Reform and Magic
This article investigates the role of magic in the confessional identity of the Ikhwān al-Ṣafā as it is articulated in the 52nd epistle on magic, and informed by the rest of their Rasāʾil (Epistles). To achieve this, the author revisits the long scholarly tradition of speculation about their denominational commitment that has seen them affiliated one way or the other to Ismailism, seeing its esoteric foundations as the platform onto which their m…
Global Sufism
Preliminary Study of the Pseudo-Aristotelian Hermetica
The pseudo-Aristotelian Hermetica are an understudied yet influential group of texts surviving in Arabic that claim to record conversations between Aristotle and Alexander the Great. I propose a ninth-century dating for these texts on the basis of textual and contextual evidence. In them, Aristotle instructs Alexander on two major subjects to aid his royal pupil’s military career and personal life: the cosmos, the genesis of everything in it, and…
Sapientia Astrologica
"Sapientia Astrologica: Astrology, Magic and Natural Knowledge, ca. 1250–1800, I. Medieval Structures (1250–1500): Conceptual, Institutional, Socio-Political, Theologico-Religious and Cultural, by H Darrel Rutkin" published on 04 May 2022 by Brill
Micrologus 27, The Diffusion of the Islamic Sciences in the Western World, written by Edizioni del Galluzzo
Agency, Global Definitions, and the Case of Islamic Esotericism
Sorcery or Science? Contested Knowledge and Practice in West African Sufi Texts, by Ariela Marcus Sells
Athanasius Kircher’s Cabala Saracenica
This article introduces a significant case regarding the European reception of ʿilm al-ḥurūf wa-l-asmāʾ (the science of letters and divine names) in the Oedipus Aegyptiacus by the Jesuit polymath Athanasius Kircher (1602-1680). Classis V in Tomus II .1, Caps. I-X , and Classis VII , Cap. VI in Tomus II .2 contain Kircher’s most comprehensive engagement with the science of letters, referred to as the Cabala Saracenica in juxtaposition with the Cab…
The past and future of the study of Islamic esotericism
The study of Islamic esotericism, particularly the concept of al-bāṭiniyya, remains fragmented. While often studied under various labels like "mysticism" and "occultism," it is widely equated to Sufism. Scholars still hesitate to use the term al-bāṭiniyya due to its historical pejorative connotations, linking it to extremist adherence to esotericism and sectarian views. Furthermore, al-bāṭiniyya has faced marginalization because of its associatio…
Witches
Aisha Qandisha, one of the most well-known female jinn figures in Moroccan folklore, both feared and desired, is frequently depicted as an impossibly beautiful woman with animalistic traits below the waist which she conceals until it is too late.She is said to materialize near bodies of water or desolate places at night, bewitching her victims through both mesmerizing beauty and supernatural force.In some tales, men who encounter Aisha Qandisha e…
Philosophy (10 works) · Theology (10 works) · Islam (8 works) · History (6 works) · Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies (5 works) · Islamic Studies and History (5 works) · Religious studies (5 works) · Art (4 works) · Classics (4 works) · Epistemology (4 works)