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Shah Jahan. Taj Mahal. Mughal architecture. Emperor Shah Jahan fifth Mughal Emperor (reigned 1628-1658) India, Himachal Pradesh, Basohli or Jammu and Kashmir, Mankot, circa 1690 Drawings; Opaque watercolor, gold, and ink on paper (see notes)
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in magic
Written by
John F.M. Middleton
Emeritus Professor of Anthropology, Yale University. Author of The World of the Swahili and others; editor of Magic, Witchcraft and Curing.
John F.M. Middleton,
Karen Louise Jolly
Associate Professor of History, University of Hawai'i at Mānoa. Author of Popular Religion in Late Saxon England: Elf Charms in Context. Editor of Tradition and Diversity: European Christianity...
Karen Louise Jolly•All
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The study of magic as a distinct cultural phenomenon has a long history in anthropological, sociological, and historical studies. Although some distinctions between magic and other religious or scientific activities may be useful, magic cannot be studied in isolation as it once was. Practices classified as magic represent essentially an aspect or reflection of the worldview held by a particular people at a particular point in their own historical development. Magic, like religion and science, is thus a part of a culture’s total worldview.

John F.M. Middleton Robert Andrew Gilbert Karen Louise Jolly
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magician, one who practices magic, sometimes considered the same as a sorcerer or witch. Conjurers are also sometimes called magicians, reflecting a historical confusion whereby legerdemain was considered to involve the supernatural. The name derives from the magus, an ancient Persian priest, and the cognate maghdim, a Chaldean term meaning wisdom and philosophy.

Though magic may theoretically be morally neutral, and many self-styled practitioners have claimed so, magicians have throughout European history usually been feared for their powers of wreaking evil. In some societies, the magician is typically an accepted personage whose help may be sought to accomplish a goal or ward off evil. See magic.

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