The Divergence of Judaism and Islam. Interdependence, Modernity, and Political Turmoil

(Joyce) #1

142 · Bat-Zion Eraqi Klorman


Mi-Teman le-Ṣion, ed. Y. Yesha ̔yahu and S. Greidi (Tel-Aviv: Massada, 1938),
169–73 (Hebrew). About “Attam,” a holy book in northern Yemen, see Aharon
Ben David, “About the Immigration to Israel of the Jews of Sa ̔da and Its Sur-
roundings in 1951,” Tehuda 19 (1999): 74 (Hebrew). For magical powers of Torah
scrolls, see Shalom Ṣabar, “Torah and Magic: The Torah Scroll and Its Accesso-
ries in Jewish Culture in Europe and in Muslim Countries,” Pe ̔amim 85 (2000):
149–79 (Hebrew).



  1. See ba ̔al hefeṣ Mori Sulayman al-Jarufi from the Khawlan district, who
    served for a long time as the tribesmen’s consultant and physician. Gamli ̓eli,
    Ḥevion Teman, 32–60. Yaḥya ̔Urqabi from Rada ̔ wrote amulets and “opened the
    book” for the Muslims in his area. Gamli ̓eli, Ha-Qamea ̔, 27–31, 41–42. And see
    Zekharia Dori, Traditional Medicine among the Jews of Yemen (Tel-Aviv: Afiqim,
    2003), 41 (Hebrew).

  2. For example, Nissim of al-Radma, in the Yarim district, who became a
    successful healer during the 1930s and treated many Jewish and Muslim pa-
    tients, by means of summoning demons for curing purposes. See Mordechai
    Yiṣhari, Hayyiti ben ̔aruba be-Teman (Rosh Ha ̔ayin: author, 1989), 213–20; for
    other Jews acting in the first half of the twentieth century both in gathering
    demons and exorcising them, see Gamli ̓eli, Ha-Qamea ̔, 47–49; Ben David,
    “Shedim,” 97, 103–105; Garama, Yehudei al-Agbari, 19.

  3. Shim ̔on Me ̔uda, interviewed by his son Efraim Amihood, 1996; see also
    ba ̔al ḥefeṣ Mori Sulayman al-Jarufi’s accusation of sorcery in Gamli ̓eli, Ḥevion
    Teman, 48–50; and Gamli ̓eli, Ha-Qamea ̔, 134–38, about a Jew who was punished
    when it was discovered that he was hired by one Muslim family to write an
    amulet whose purpose was to destroy the head of the rival Muslim family.

  4. Shaked, “Between Judaism and Islam,” 15–16.

  5. For example, Gamli ̓eli, Ḥevion Teman, 32, 191; Reuben Shar ̔abi, Yeḥi
    Re ̓uben, 77–78; Yeḥi ̓el Ḥabshush, Ḥayyei ha-Yeled be-Teman (Tel-Aviv: Ḥabshush
    Family, 1991), 55–57.

  6. Nahum Tshernovits and Mishael Masuri-Kaspi, “Potḥot Mazal Yehudi-
    yot bi-Ṣfon Mizraḥ Teman,” in Bat-Teman, ed. Shalom Seri (Tel-Aviv: E ̔ele bet-
    amar [1993]), 287–99.

  7. Gamli ̓eli, Ha-Qamea ̔, 47.

  8. Dov Noy, “Rabbi Shalem Shabazi in the Folk Tales of the Jews of Yemen,”
    in Bo ̓i Teman, ed. Yehuda Ratzaby (Tel-Aviv: Afiqim, 1967), 121–22 (Hebrew);
    Ḥoza, Sefer Toldot, 14–15. For other tales about Shabazi’s supernatural powers,
    see ibid., 16, 19–22, 34–35.

  9. Goitein, From the Land of Sheba, 84–87.

  10. Avraham Ovadia, “The Man Who Was Married to a Demon,” Afiqim 115–
    16 (1999): 70 (Hebrew); Mishael Masuri Caspi, Mizkenim etbonan (Sde Boker:
    Midreshet Sde Boker, 1968), 6; Malka Eli-Peduel, bi-Se ̔arot teman (Jerusalem:
    Vaad Adat ha-Sepharadim bi-yrushalayim, 1983), 26.

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