Occultism (Islam)

Ulum al-ghariba ("occult sciences") or Ulum al-hafiya ("secret sciences") refers to occultism in Islam.[1] In Islamic culture, occultism deals with matters located between metaphysics and science. Since Islam has no council or hierarchy to fix the creed, but rather gains consens over discussions, contrary to Western esotericism and occultism, there is no clear conflict between orthodox and occultism in Islam.[2] Muslim writers on occultism and magic usually distinguished between licit and illicit practises, rather than condemning magic and occultism as whole.[3] However, during the end of the Ottoman Empire, Muslims started to disregard occult practises as superstitional.

Schools of Occultism

The Ottoman-Turkic theologican Tasköprüzade lists different subjects of sciences, today rather associated with the occult:[4]

'Ilm al-firasa: Predicting the character of a person by his outer appearance.
'Ilm ta'bir ar-ru'ya: Interpreting dreams
'Ilm akham an nugum: Astrology
'Ilm as-sihr: Magic
'Ilm at-tillasmat: Talisman
'Ilm as-simiya: Magic based on imagination, such as enchantments and magic of letters.
'Ilm al-kimiya: Alchemy

References

Sebastian Günther, Dorothee Pielow Die Geheimnisse der oberen und der unteren Welt: Magie im Islam zwischen Glaube und Wissenschaft BRILL, 18.10.2018 ISBN 9789004387577 p. 8
Henrik Bogdan, Gordan Djurdjevic Occultism in a Global Perspective Routledge, 11.09.2014 ISBN 9781317544470 p. 156
Tobias Nünlist Dämonenglaube im Islam Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG, 2015 ISBN 978-3-110-33168-4 p. 289 (German)
Sebastian Günther, Dorothee Pielow Die Geheimnisse der oberen und der unteren Welt: Magie im Islam zwischen Glaube und Wissenschaft BRILL, 18.10.2018 ISBN 9789004387577 p. 40

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[1] Sebastian Günther, Dorothee Pielow Die Geheimnisse der oberen und der unteren Welt: Magie im Islam zwischen Glaube und Wissenschaft BRILL, 18.10.2018 ISBN 9789004387577 p. 8

[2] Henrik Bogdan, Gordan Djurdjevic Occultism in a Global Perspective Routledge, 11.09.2014 ISBN 9781317544470 p. 156

[3] Tobias Nünlist Dämonenglaube im Islam Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG, 2015 ISBN 978-3-110-33168-4 p. 289 (German)

[4] Sebastian Günther, Dorothee Pielow Die Geheimnisse der oberen und der unteren Welt: Magie im Islam zwischen Glaube und Wissenschaft BRILL, 18.10.2018 ISBN 9789004387577 p. 40