This book contains the select proceedings of a panel that never happened. Originally conceived by Marco Moriggi, we convened the panel Syriaca Magica as part of the XIII Symposium Syriacum, which was to be held in Paris in the July of 2020. Because of the global COVID pandemic, and the accompanying uncertainty, we decided to press ahead with plans to publish the papers ahead of any future meeting. Still, we are grateful to the Société d’ études syriaques for its assistance, and in particular to Françoise Briquel Chatonnet, Alain Desreumaux, Muriel Debié, Margherita Farina, and Flavia Ruani. We are also grateful to James Nathan Ford for his assistance, particularly with the preparation of the chapter by Gaby Abousamra, and to the staff at the publisher, E.J. Brill, for their patience and professionalism, particularly Katelyn Chin and Erika Mandarino. We would also like to express our thanks for the research funds received by Moriggi, which were provided by the 2020/21 PIACERI research support program at the Università di Catania—Dipartimento di Scienze Umanistiche (S.WART Project, director Professor Dr Stefano Rapisarda). Finally, we thank our loved ones for their continued support: Marco thanks his wife, Maria Teresa, and his daughter, Lea, for the hectic and vibrant life they share together, and Siam thanks his wife, Anne, for her grammatical exactitude and inexplicable love.
Marco Moriggi and Siam Bhayro
Milan and Exeter, June 2021