HKB
El-Khaleel (or Abraham) into the fire, and on which was slaughtered the camel of Ṣáleḥ; and the twenty-fifth, on which the suffocating wind was sent upon the people of Hood.[137]
II. Natural magic, which is called "es-Seemiyà," is regarded by most persons of the more enlightened classes of Muslims as altogether a deceptive art, no more worthy of respect than legerdemain; but it seems to be nearly allied to enchantment; for it is said to effect, in appearance, the most wonderful transformations, and to cause the most extraordinary visions; affecting the senses and imagination in a manner similar to opium. This and other drugs are supposed, by some persons, to be the chief means by which such illusions are caused; and perfumes, which are generally burnt in these performances, may operate in a similar manner. As such things are employed in performances of the kind called "Ḍarb el-Mendel," before mentioned, these feats are regarded by many as effected by natural magic, notwithstanding what has been said above respecting the services of evil Jinn being procured by means of perfumes.--Alchymy ("el-Keemiyà") is a branch of natural magic. It is studied by many Muslims of the present day, and by some of considerable talents and attainments.
The most celebrated of the magicians who have gained notoriety in Egypt during the course of the last hundred years, was the sheykh Aḥmad Ṣádoomeh, who flourished somewhat more than sixty years ago--I write in 1837. Several persons of Cairo, men of intelligence and of good education, have related to me various most marvellous stories of his performances, on the authority of eye-witnesses whom they considered veracious; but a more credible account of this magician I have found in the work of an excellent historian of Modern Egypt. This author mentions the sheykh Ṣádoomeh as an aged man, of venerable appearance, who derived his origin from the town of Semennood, in the Delta, and who acquired a very great and extensive celebrity for his attainments in spiritual and natural magic, and for holding converse, face to face, with Jinn, and causing them to appear to other persons, even to the blind, as men acquainted with him informed the historian. His contemporaries, says this writer, entertained various opinions respecting him; but, among them, a famous grammarian and general scholar, the sheykh Ḥasan El-Kafráwee, regarded him as a first-rate saint, who performed evident miracles; this learned man pronouncing as such the effects of "his legerdemain and natural magic." His fame he describes as having increased until he was induced to try an unlucky experiment. A Memlook chief, Yoosuf Bey, saw some magic characters written on the body of one of his female slaves, and, exasperated by jealousy, commanded her, with a threat of instant death, to tell him who had done this. She confessed that a woman had taken her to the sheykh Ṣádoomeh, and that he had written this charm to attract to her the Bey's love. Upon hearing this, he instantly sent some attendants to seize the magician, and to put him to death, and throw him into the Nile; which was done.[138] But the manner in which the seizure was made, as related to me by one of my friends, deserves to be mentioned. Several persons, one after another, endeavoured to lay hold upon him; but every arm that was stretched forth for this purpose was instantly paralyzed, through a spell muttered by the magician; until a man behind him thrust a gag into his mouth, and so stopped his enchantments.