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The interest in the book request thread for Voldemont's translation (now locked, alas) inspired me to start up a new thread on it.
A fascinating book, I'd venture so far as to call it the Arabic-speaking world's Key of Solomon--i.e., highly influential and popular book considered a must-have for any magical practice. Arabic, Urdu, and Turkish versions are abound and I'm glad for the growning interest in English-speaking occult circles. Although, surprisingly unlike the KoS, very little demon summoning! Jinn magic is the stereotype of Islamicate magic, but trafficking with jinns is relatively unpopular all things considered. After all, the popular conception is that sihr (forbidden magic, also translated as "black magic" or "witchcraft") works because of the illicit-magician's contact with jinns. Not that the Shams doesn't contain Jinn calling techniques, but they're more religiously aligned. A lot of popular jinn-calling methods involved a lot of religious purity including fasting, dhikr (ritual repetition, usually one of Allah's (SWT) 99 Names), prayer, and so on. Al-Buni in his famous work is more interested in talismans, specifically wafq (magic squares). He saw the universe in distinctly linguistic terms with the 28 letters of the Arabic alaphabet (and the holy phrases/names they make up) literally forming the universe, a distinctly Muslim understanding of the Neoplatonic magic that dominated at the time.
Magic squares represent a great bulk of Islamicate magic, and Buni's work includes a lot of them. Latin squares, numerical ones, mixed, squares formed for the abjad values (the numeric values associated with each Arabic letter), planets, Allah's (SWT) 99 Names, phrases like the Bismillah, and more. Chaos Magic aligned folks might find inspiration in how Al-Buni reccomends mixing the target's name with the planets which can then go on to make (you guessed it) more magic squares. Although these usually follow letterist understandings rather than just creating spur of the moment geometric sigils to charge with your spank-bank, but certainly inspirations for ways to generate barbarous names.
The squares and other talismanic images tend to also come with astrological, material, or ritual considerations (inscribing something when the Moon is in cancer, or writing a talisman on yellow silk, fumigating it with this or that or washing the ink off with water and then drinking the water--washing words, squares, and signs with water to have it "absorb" the effect is a very common practice in Islamicate magic).
But lest you think it's all just squares, Al-Buni comes to us with a lot of philosophy for the construction of the universe, occult understandings of common Islamic words or phrases (there's a lot on the occult meanings of the Bismillah, for example), or just a handy list of the 99 Names and the benefits they are supposed to provide if repeated often. I personally make great use of Al-Bari ("The Maker") which, when repeated, Al-Buni says "God shall reveal wonderful secrets and understanding of the subtleties of cause and effect."
Alas, it is late and I must break off this post here, but I hope it's helped whet people's appetite for what the book has to offer and perhaps tempt more souls to search for the Voldemont "Shams al-Ma'arif: Talismans and Magic Squares" PDF and share it with the rest of us. I realize this post has been very rambly, but hoping to also run across some other folks interested in this current. I'll try to return sometime soonish to post pictures from my copy of Revelore Press' translation of some excerpts from the Shams to give a more concrete idea of the book and spark some discussion about specific ritual techniques found in there.
Ah, meant to share some recommended reading, too. Besides Revelore's translated excerpts, Islamic Symbols and Sufi Rituals for Protection and Healing by Edgar Francis (despite its strange title) gives a good overview of the Shams and its author. Magic in Islam by Micheal Knight and The Arabic Influences on Early Modern Occult Philosophy by Liana Saif for general overviews of the magical in Islam. And many more I'm forgetting to list.
A fascinating book, I'd venture so far as to call it the Arabic-speaking world's Key of Solomon--i.e., highly influential and popular book considered a must-have for any magical practice. Arabic, Urdu, and Turkish versions are abound and I'm glad for the growning interest in English-speaking occult circles. Although, surprisingly unlike the KoS, very little demon summoning! Jinn magic is the stereotype of Islamicate magic, but trafficking with jinns is relatively unpopular all things considered. After all, the popular conception is that sihr (forbidden magic, also translated as "black magic" or "witchcraft") works because of the illicit-magician's contact with jinns. Not that the Shams doesn't contain Jinn calling techniques, but they're more religiously aligned. A lot of popular jinn-calling methods involved a lot of religious purity including fasting, dhikr (ritual repetition, usually one of Allah's (SWT) 99 Names), prayer, and so on. Al-Buni in his famous work is more interested in talismans, specifically wafq (magic squares). He saw the universe in distinctly linguistic terms with the 28 letters of the Arabic alaphabet (and the holy phrases/names they make up) literally forming the universe, a distinctly Muslim understanding of the Neoplatonic magic that dominated at the time.
Magic squares represent a great bulk of Islamicate magic, and Buni's work includes a lot of them. Latin squares, numerical ones, mixed, squares formed for the abjad values (the numeric values associated with each Arabic letter), planets, Allah's (SWT) 99 Names, phrases like the Bismillah, and more. Chaos Magic aligned folks might find inspiration in how Al-Buni reccomends mixing the target's name with the planets which can then go on to make (you guessed it) more magic squares. Although these usually follow letterist understandings rather than just creating spur of the moment geometric sigils to charge with your spank-bank, but certainly inspirations for ways to generate barbarous names.
The squares and other talismanic images tend to also come with astrological, material, or ritual considerations (inscribing something when the Moon is in cancer, or writing a talisman on yellow silk, fumigating it with this or that or washing the ink off with water and then drinking the water--washing words, squares, and signs with water to have it "absorb" the effect is a very common practice in Islamicate magic).
But lest you think it's all just squares, Al-Buni comes to us with a lot of philosophy for the construction of the universe, occult understandings of common Islamic words or phrases (there's a lot on the occult meanings of the Bismillah, for example), or just a handy list of the 99 Names and the benefits they are supposed to provide if repeated often. I personally make great use of Al-Bari ("The Maker") which, when repeated, Al-Buni says "God shall reveal wonderful secrets and understanding of the subtleties of cause and effect."
Alas, it is late and I must break off this post here, but I hope it's helped whet people's appetite for what the book has to offer and perhaps tempt more souls to search for the Voldemont "Shams al-Ma'arif: Talismans and Magic Squares" PDF and share it with the rest of us. I realize this post has been very rambly, but hoping to also run across some other folks interested in this current. I'll try to return sometime soonish to post pictures from my copy of Revelore Press' translation of some excerpts from the Shams to give a more concrete idea of the book and spark some discussion about specific ritual techniques found in there.
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Ah, meant to share some recommended reading, too. Besides Revelore's translated excerpts, Islamic Symbols and Sufi Rituals for Protection and Healing by Edgar Francis (despite its strange title) gives a good overview of the Shams and its author. Magic in Islam by Micheal Knight and The Arabic Influences on Early Modern Occult Philosophy by Liana Saif for general overviews of the magical in Islam. And many more I'm forgetting to list.
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