Magic of Olive Oil: Sex and Fluid Identities in the Premodern Mediterranean

Abstract

ABSTRACT This case study of Ibn al-Durayhim al-Mawsilī’s fourteenth-century compilation Kitaīb Manaīfiʻ al-Ḥayawaīn (Book of Animal Uses) demonstrates the magical uses of olive oil for the enhancement or impediment of sex when combined with certain animal by-products. These uses mirror similar details in other Mediterranean treatises on agriculture, food, magic, medicine, poetry, or religion, whether produced in the Abbasid Caliphate or al-Andalus. Olive oil was not necessarily the item that made certain dishes or objects magical, but rather it was a necessary binding medium that allowed the resulting products to enchant. Beyond this, olive oil as a liquid ingredient also serves as a metaphor for understanding the malleable and adaptable Mediterranean nature of those who used and consumed it. This approach allows contemporary scholars to uncover a richer understanding of the fluid and shifting Mediterranean cultural identity especially considering the manuscript’s varied provenance across the Sea throughout the centuries.