Generally the term Sihr describes a range of terms which are known to us as magic, including various methods of oracles, the use of different objects and signs, medicinal plants, assembling spells, manufacturing talismans and notations, and communicating with supernatural forces. During the long history of magic which begins in the drab of mankind we find depicted walls of the caves in Altamira, Spain, where the primitive man drew figures of punctured wild animals wanting to influence that way his hunting skills and to strengthen his hunting capabilities. In paganism, the first form of religion, magic played a central role and by virtue of it and through spells performing magic rituals the priests and priestesses addressed the gods and spirits of nature. Later with the advent of monotheism, the history of magic continues with the stories about Adam and his daughter Anak, then Solomon or the Persian ruler of magic and the world of King Jamshid all the way to Iblis and his daughter Baidah, the angels Harut and Marut, etc.
Today we reliably know that no religion can exist without magic because without it the religion could not exist nor could it be accepted by the people. The things that fascinated and inspired man for ages and ever since his origin, are the miracles and supernatural phenomena before which he recedes and prostrates himself. If we look at the stories of the three messengers of God Mosses, Jesus and Mohammed we will notice magical or miraculous legends. In the case of Mosses the division of the ocean is nothing else but a copy of the much older Egyptian myth in which one of the pharaoh's wizards splits a lake into two before the spellbound people. Satan's temptation of Jesus in the desert is a classical description of an ancient wizard who evokes and communicates with demons. Muhammad's banishment of the devil also points to a similar myth.
Arabian magic
The whole system of Arabian magic is founded on the age old beliefs of ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt and Persia which were developed in details and they encompassed magical sciences like astrology, numerology, spiritualism, necromancy and the like. A conformation of this claim is easy to be found reading various perscriptions from Arabic magic books. In bewitching a husband to be bound, Sihr is left in the oven over night. An oven for bread was dedicated to the goddess Ishtar who ruled over love, fertility and motherhood. Also her metal was copper, a frequent material for production of talismans. In another medicine for love in the list of the names of the Jinn that are being called upon, the name Shamash is mentioned, the ancient god of the sun, etc. It would be interesting to mention the symbol of the pentagram or the five sided star probably the most famous symbol of the Arabic occult tradition, which represented the god Anubis in the ancient Egypt. Besides this, the use of vefk's (magical square) began on the territory of today's Syria. From all of the above it is easy to conclude that magic has never been absent from mans conscience and that the methods and techniques that were used 7000 years ago still exist today, comprehended in a more assimilated, modern way.
