• First session October 11, 2025

  • Weekly live sessions with the instructor from 1:00 to 3:00pm Eastern U.S. time

  • All sessions are recorded so you can watch them at your convenience

Session 1

Foundations of Islam

In this first session, we dive into the foundations of Islam through the lens of the unexpected. How did a small community in 7th-century Arabia suddenly transform into a world religion? What surprising twists, challenges, and encounters shaped its earliest beliefs and practices? We will explore how unforeseen events not only influenced faith and institutions but also opened the door to new cultural exchanges and magical beliefs, setting the stage for Islam’s diverse and evolving traditions.

Session 2

Folklore and Oral Traditions

Folkloric narratives often incorporate magical elements, illustrating the interplay between Islamic beliefs and local traditions. Storytelling, depicted in illuminated manuscripts or ceramics, can reflect moral lessons or cautionary tales that resonate with both religious and magical themes.

Session 3

Cultural Context of Magic

In many Islamic cultures, magic and the supernatural are often seen as part of the broader spiritual landscape. Practices such as talisman-making, amulets, and folk healing rituals are rooted in historical traditions and may coexist with formal religious practices.

Session 4

Protection and Healing

Through the use of plague amulets inscribed with Qur’anic verses, talismanic shirts, healing manuscripts, magical diagrams, and mosque inscriptions invoking divine mercy, we analyze the visual and material culture of protection, including the role of sacred geometry, calligraphy, planetary symbols, and jinn narratives in constructing tools of healing and warding.

Session 5

The Materiality of Magic in Medieval Islamic Manuscripts: A Study of Illuminated Texts

This time we focus on the material aspects of Islamic illuminated manuscripts, studying their role in magical practices and spiritual rituals. We will investigate the visual language of calligraphy, illumination, and symbolism in relation to magical thinking, particularly the ways that manuscripts themselves were imbued with divine or supernatural power.

Session 6

Apotropaic Use in Architecture: Protecting Spaces and People

Our final session examines the role of apotropaic practices in Islamic architecture, focusing on how architectural elements were designed and used to protect spaces and people from negative spiritual influences, harmful forces, or evil spirits. We will explore how apotropaic practices intersect with architecture and how certain architectural features, design principles, and decorative motifs were employed in buildings to provide spiritual defense, safeguard inhabitants, and control unseen forces.

Meet Your Instructor

Hend Elsayed

Hend Elsayed is an Art and Science Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Art History at the University of Toronto. She specializes in Islamic urban history and architecture, with a particular focus on the Mamluk period. Her research examines the intersections of space, law, and economy, exploring how religious architecture and endowment systems shaped urban development and economic change in late medieval Cairo. She has published on topics related to medieval urban and architectural history, and her current project at Toronto investigates the ecological effects of the Black Death on Cairo’s urban fabric. Her forthcoming book, Religious Architecture, Business, and Urban Growth in Medieval Cairo, will be published by Edinburgh University Press.

  • Start Learning

    First live discussion session October 11, 2025 at 1:00pm Eastern U.S. time

  • Access

    Course materials are available for 30 days after the last course session.