Invoking Mahakala: Discovery of the Arabic Textual Tradition of the Almandal Salomonis

by Thomas Arcaine

This paper presents the discovery of the Arabic textual tradition of the Almandal, also known as the Almadel and the Almandal Salomonis, one of the most important works of learned magic in the Middle Ages. No Arabic witnesses were previously known to scholarship, leaving only the Latin tradition available for study—until now. In addition to offering a translation of three Arabic manuscript witnesses, this study provides a modern English translation of the Latin versions found in Fiereze II.III.214, allowing for a comprehensive comparative analysis. This study highlights nuances that have been missing from the scholarly discourse, shedding light on terminology and attribution that were either misrepresented or absent in the Latin texts. This discovery not only fills a significant gap in the historical and scholarly record but provides a more comprehensive understanding of how the Almandal ritual was practiced in the Arabic tradition and provides further evidence for the transmission of elements of yogic-tantric practice to Europe through Arabic intermediaries. This work opens new pathways for future research into the Arabic mandal manuscript tradition and unprecedented opportunity to look back one step further in the editorial history to identify the sources for the Arabic text.