which language it could be ?

[TribalBlades]

are these symbols by chance from pre-islamic times?

[David]

Originally Posted by TribalBlades

are these symbols by chance from pre-islamic times?

I'd say that would be very difficult to prove, though many occult minds like to believe these symbols ancient. Many of these magickal alphabets that are not from actual languages don't really appear in writing until the 15th or 16th centuries.
BTW, while certainly talismanic and i suppose technically a "seal" i would not refer to this as one of Solomon's seals. Originally Solomon's Seal was said to be a signet ring used to command spirits and demons. There have been many variations of the seal depicted over the centuries, most often in disk form as a medallion and featuring either the 6-pointed star of the pentagram.
http://www.google.com/search?q=seal+...w=1394&bih=768

[VVV]

David,

If you are referring to the Western Esotericism (i.e. Christian) and their, and later Jewish, versions of the stars in your link you might be correct about the age (and in most cases they are much later).
But in this case it is Islamic Esotericism. For instance the main Islamic authority, al-Buni died in 1225!
The 7 seals of Solomon was not his invention, even if he of course covers them in his works, which means that they are much older than this.
Your story about the signet ring is mentioned in text from Doutté above and it is the seal #1 of the traditional seven. It alternates in shape between the six-sided (Canaan) or the pentagram (Doutté).

Michael

[VVV]

I just double checked in a reference work on Islamic artifacts. According to Savage-Smith the 7 seals of Solomon first started to appear in the 12th century on talismans etc.

Michael


Reference: Savage-Smith, Emelie. 1997. Magic and Islam, in Francis Maddison and Emelie Savage-Smith (eds.). Science, Tools & Magic (The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art). Part II. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

[David]

Originally Posted by VVV

I just double checked in a reference work on Islamic artifacts. According to Savage-Smith the 7 seals of Solomon first started to appear in the 12th century on talismans etc.

Michael


Reference: Savage-Smith, Emelie. 1997. Magic and Islam, in Francis Maddison and Emelie Savage-Smith (eds.). Science, Tools & Magic (The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art). Part II. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Hey Michael. Here is an interesting link to more info on the Seven Seals. What i notice in my research is that these seals are usually simply called the Seven Seals, not the Seven Seals of Solomon. I think what may have happened is that some folks have melded these two ideas. Tradition has it that the Seal of Solomon was a single signet ring. I believe the Seven Seals are something separate from that. That is probably the source of my confusion here.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/89426578/T...of-the-Symbols

[VVV]

Thanks David,

Graham's article is about the non-islamic origin of these signs, which of course is the reason that he is skipping the (Seven Seals) "of Solomon" in his article to make his point.
However, in the Islamic reference works which he quotes from (I have glanced through Winkler and read almost all of the other mentioned, three of them are even quoted above) these signs are described as the seven seals of Solomon. And if we can agree that the context is Islamic, and not Jewish or Babylonian, on this blunderbuss then this decides which culture that rules what they should be called. If the star (#1) would have been on a Jewish artifact I would have chosen to name it the shield of David, instead of the seal of Solomon etc...
I will read the article when I find time BUT what disturbs me is that there is nothing to find about where this article was published, and even on the author himself, on Google Scholar.
This implies that even if he may know what he talks about nobody else seems to have checked his article to confirm this is the case. So unfortunately for some reason he does not seem to have any credibility as a scholarly reference himself, in contrast to the references I have brought up (and also Graham is using).

Michael

[David]

Originally Posted by VVV

And if we can agree that the context is Islamic, and not Jewish or Babylonian, on this blunderbuss then this decides which culture that rules what they should be called. If the star (#1) would have been on a Jewish artifact I would have chosen to name it the shield of David, instead of the seal of Solomon etc...

I think we can probably be fairly certain that we are dealing with this seal in an Islamic context. However i don't quite understand your above statement since both Solomon and David were kings of Israel and of the Jewish faith long before the origins of Islam. Both the six-pointed star and the 5-pointed star were used in that culture as well. I have indeed heard the 5-pointed star referred to as the "Shield of David" while the 6-pointed star is more often referred to as the "Star of David" (Magen David), however the 6-pointed star is also often referred to as the "Shield of David" as well. Likewise, in terms of the one single "Seal of Solomon" (Solomon's ring) as a symbol, both the pentagram and the hexagram have been associated with this. What i'm getting at here is that over the years there has been so much conjecture as well as changing ideas in various cultures to the point were no matter what your academic credentials might be, having a definitive answer as to exactly what these seals are or if there is any validity to connecting them to Solomon or not seems pointless.