ashipu

ashipu

English

Alternative forms

• āshipu, asipu, āšipu

Noun

ashipu (plural ashipus or ashipu)

1. (historical) A magical healer in ancient Mesopotamia.
   • 1999, JoAnn Scurlock, in Abusch & van der Toorn (eds.), Mesopotamian Magic, p. 79:

     Whatever the patient's requirements, however, the āšipu is unlikely to have had time to acquire more than a basic working knowledge of the medicaments which he was attempting to use.

   • 2010, Barbara A Somervill, Empires of Ancient Mesopotamia, p. 120:

     The average Mesopotamian believed the cause of stomachaches, headaches, and other mysterious aches was a demon in the body. The remedy was to call an ashipu for a cure.

   • 2017, Ronald Hutton, The Witch, Yale University Press 2018, p. 49:

     Virtually all the evidence that we possess for the practice of Mesopotamian magic consists of the records amassed by and for the āshipu […]

Anagrams

• Hsia-p'u, hupias