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#OrientalMagic

Oriental Magic, by Idries Shah, is a study of magical practices in diverse cultures from Europe and Africa, through Asia to the Far East. Originally published in 1956 and still in print today,Octagonpress.com page on Oriental Magic it was the first Read More..

by Idries Shah

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Description	Oriental Magic, by Idries Shah, is a study of magical practices in diverse cultures from Europe and Africa, through Asia to the Far East. Originally published in 1956 and still in print today,Octagonpress.com page on Oriental Magic it was the first of this author’s 35 books. The work was launched with the encouragement of the anthropologist, Professor Louis Marin,Member of the Institut de France, Director of the Ecole d”Anthropologie de Paris and Deputy-President of the International Institute of Anthropology "Dr. Louis Marin hailed his anthropological text Oriental Magic as an important work—and he is head of the Paris School of Anthropology." who in his preface to the book stressed its “scholarly accuracy” and “real contribution to knowledge”.Magic had long been considered outside the discipline of academic study, but Shah’s approach, which involved five years of study and field work, was – very unusually for the 1950s – multi-disciplinary and cross-cultural. His documented material came from archaeology, anthropology, history, religion, and psychology, as well as from artefacts, obscure manuscripts, and an impressive range of expert informants, who made (often unpublished) specialist material available to him. As a result, the secrecy and obfuscation around magical operations and practitioners was defused by the author’s informed, dispassionate approach to the array of arcane information he had assembled, some of it printed for the first time. Oriental Magic seems also to have been a clearly stated invitation for magic in general to be investigated as any other subject in the West would be, with coolness, objectivity and scientific method. The book in itself can be seen as providing a ground plan for future researchers, signalling useful directions their investigations might take, and specifying topics which might yield to further study.
Description	Oriental Magic, by Idries Shah, is a study of magical practices in diverse cultures from Europe and Africa, through Asia to the Far East. Originally published in 1956 and still in print today,Octagonpress.com page on Oriental Magic it was the first of this author’s 35 books. The work was launched with the encouragement of the anthropologist, Professor Louis Marin,Member of the Institut de France, Director of the Ecole d”Anthropologie de Paris and Deputy-President of the International Institute of Anthropology "Dr. Louis Marin hailed his anthropological text Oriental Magic as an important work—and he is head of the Paris School of Anthropology." who in his preface to the book stressed its “scholarly accuracy” and “real contribution to knowledge”.Magic had long been considered outside the discipline of academic study, but Shah’s approach, which involved five years of study and field work, was – very unusually for the 1950s – multi-disciplinary and cross-cultural. His documented material came from archaeology, anthropology, history, religion, and psychology, as well as from artefacts, obscure manuscripts, and an impressive range of expert informants, who made (often unpublished) specialist material available to him. As a result, the secrecy and obfuscation around magical operations and practitioners was defused by the author’s informed, dispassionate approach to the array of arcane information he had assembled, some of it printed for the first time. Oriental Magic seems also to have been a clearly stated invitation for magic in general to be investigated as any other subject in the West would be, with coolness, objectivity and scientific method. The book in itself can be seen as providing a ground plan for future researchers, signalling useful directions their investigations might take, and specifying topics which might yield to further study.

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Name	Oriental Magic
Name
Authors	Idries Shah
Authors
Translator
Translator
Genre	Eastern philosophy and culture
Genre
Series
Series
Number in series
Number in series
Language	English
Language
Country	United Kingdom
Country

PUBLISH

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Story timeline
Pages
Pages
Media_type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Media_type
Isbn	0-86304-017-9
Isbn
Oclc	27814529
Oclc
Publisher	Octagon Press Ltd
Publisher