An Incantation Bowl for Sowing Discord

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 Genizah. The new reading indicates this was actually a separation spell, designed to sow discord between a man named Gušnin 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.