Magic in Malta, 1605: The Moorish Slave Sellem Bin al-Sheikh Mansur and the Roman Inquisition

马耳他岛——马耳他岛、戈佐岛和科米诺岛——在战略上一直具有重要意义，因为它们位于东西地中海、非洲和欧洲之间的边界上，这使得这些岛屿成为不同种族、宗教和语言群体的大熔炉。在16世纪末和17世纪初，这些方面尤其突出，因为这些岛屿在政治上是堡垒，处于奥斯曼帝国与欧洲冲突的前线，在宗教上是天主教在地中海对抗伊斯兰教的前哨。本项目将考察17世纪早期马耳他独特的社会宗教和政治环境，重点关注这一背景下的魔法思想，通过一个具体的魔法审判文件作为案例研究，Sellem Bin al-Sheikh Mansur，一个在马耳他罗马宗教裁判所因练习魔法而受审的穆斯林奴隶。该项目的主要部分将是用拉丁语、意大利语和阿拉伯语抄写和翻译审判记录。这将为众多学科的学者提供重要的新证据。该项目还将提供对诉讼程序的评论，其中将涉及审查其他现有的原始材料，特别是其他有关的审判记录- -审判本身的记录和被告所受酷刑的会议记录，由公证人撰写，包括检察官的拉丁文问题以及被告和证人以其他语文作出的答复。包括意大利语和阿拉伯语-保存在姆迪纳大教堂档案馆。除了这些之外，在审判期间关押被告的Birgu监狱的墙壁上也有涂鸦，这些涂鸦应予审查。这个项目的重要性在于证据的跨学科性质和可以得出的结论。在近代早期，围绕巫术和魔法的指控的论述已经持续了几十年，几十位学者在性别、酷刑受害者的心理、对那些练习魔法的人的能力和活动的信仰的发展、世俗和教会当局的作用等方面产生了各种各样的理论，这些理论构成了这一时期任何关于巫术和巫术的讨论的支柱。然而，这些观点几乎完全基于欧洲大陆和不列颠群岛的证据，在欧洲的一些边缘地区几乎没有对魔法试验的研究，马耳他是一个典型的例子，相对而言，很少有人尝试研究伊斯兰教在早期现代欧洲巫术观念中的作用。通过检查Sellem的试验，该项目将开放研究不同的社会，文化和政治环境，在其中测试上述领域的当前理论，从而可以帮助加强或削弱这些理论。它还将使人们能够更广泛地探索这一时期马耳他社会和地中海历史的各个方面，例如这一时期的基督教-穆斯林关系、宗教裁判所和医院骑士团在马耳他的宗教和世俗权力的作用，以及在一个文化接触密切的地区的文化传播。

The islands of Malta - Malta, Gozo and Comino - have always been strategically vital, being on the boundaries between both the east and west Mediterranean, and Africa and Europe, which has resulted in the islands being a melting pot for different ethnic, religious, and linguistic groups. During the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries these aspects were particularly heightened, as the islands stood as a bulwark both politically, on the front line of the conflict between the Ottoman Empire and Europe, and religiously, as an outpost of Catholicism against Islam in the Mediterranean. This project will examine the unique socio-religious and political milieu of Malta in early seventeenth century by focusing on ideas of magic within this context, through a case-study of one specific magic-trial document as a case study, that of Sellem Bin al-Sheikh Mansur, a Muslim slave tried by the Roman Inquisition on Malta for practising magic. The major part of the project will be a transcription and translation of the trial proceedings, written in Latin, Italian and Arabic. This will provide important new evidence for academics in a wide variety of disciplines. The project will also provide a commentary on the proceedings which will involve the examination of other available source material, particularly other relevant trial records - both the minutes of the trial itself and the minutes of the sessions of torture the accused underwent, written by the notary, consisting of the Latin questions of the Inquisitor and the responses of the accused and of witnesses given in other languages, including Italian and Arabic - preserved in the Mdina Cathedral archives. As well as these, there are also graffiti written on the walls of the prison in Birgu where the accused were kept during their trial which shall be examined.The importance of this project lies in the interdisciplinary nature of the evidence and the conclusions which can be drawn. Discourses surrounding accusations of witchcraft and magic in the early-modern period have been going on decades, with dozens of scholars producing various theories over aspects as varied as gender, the psychology of the torture victim, the development of beliefs over the abilities and activities of those practising magic, and the role of the secular and ecclesiastical authorities (among many others), which form the backbone of any discussion on magic and witchcraft during this period. However, these ideas are based almost exclusively on evidence from continental Europe and the British Isles, and there has been almost no examination of magic trials in some peripheral areas of Europe, of which Malta is a prime example, and comparatively little attempt to study the role of Islam in ideas of witchcraft in early-modern Europe. By examining the trial of Sellem this project will open up to study a different social, cultural and political milieu in which to test current theories in the fields referred to above, and thus can help to strengthen or weaken those theories.It will also enable the exploration of aspects of Maltese society and Mediterranean history more widely during the period, such as Christian-Muslim Relations in the period, the role of the religious and secular powers of the Inquisition and Knights Hospitallers on Malta, and cultural diffusion in an area of intense cultural contact.