Shams al-Ma'arif or Shams al-Ma'arif wa Lata'if al-'Awarif[lower-alpha 1] is a 13th-century grimoire centered on Arabic magic and claimed to be a manual for achieving esoteric spirituality. It was written by the scholar Ahmad al-Buni who wrote it while living in Algeria; he died around 1225 CE (622 AH).[1] The book is a patchwork of bits and pieces of al-Buni's authentic works, and texts by other authors.[2] Scholars like the proto-Salafiibn Taymiyya have criticized the book and labeled al-Buni as a deluded devil worshipper.[3][4][relevant?]
In contemporary form, the book consists of two volumes, Shams al-Ma'arif al-Kubra[lower-alpha 2] and Shams al-Ma'arif al-Sughra,[lower-alpha 3] the former being the larger of the two.[5][6] The first few chapters introduce the reader to magic squares, and the combination of numbers and the alphabet that are believed to bring magical effect, which the author claims is the only way to communicate with jinn, angels and spirits. The table of contents that was introduced in the later printed editions of the work contains a list of unnumbered chapters (faṣl), which stretch to 40. However, before the printing press and various other standardisations, there were three independent volumes that circulated, each one differing in length.[7]
While being popular, it also carries a notorious reputation for being suppressed and banned for much of Islamic history.[8] However, it continues to persist, in being read and studied up to the present day, despite its questionable veracity and negative implications.[9][10] Some Sufi orders, such as the Naqshbandi-Haqqani order have occasionally recognised its potential spiritual value, provided that the reader understands it.[11]
Another title by the same author, namely Manba' Usul al-Hikmah "The Source of the Essentials of Wisdom", is considered its companion text.
Although a translation into English has not been undertaken, there have been numerous renditions of a few of the more popular rituals found within the main treatise, as well as those that lie in its accompanying text. Some of these rituals have had various degrees of notability, but one of recurring presence in many publications is that of the Birhatiya[12][13][14] (also known as The Ancient Oath or Red Sulphur[15]).
In 2022 a partial English translation by Amina Inloes was published by Revelore Press as "Shams al-Ma’arif: The Sun of Knowledge An Arabic Grimoire: A selected Translation"[16]
In 2023 another English translation of the Shams al Ma'arif was published by Johann Voldemont as ''Shams al-Ma'arif:Talismans and Magic Squares'' which focuses primarily on the talismans and magic squares contained within the text.[17] Outside of the Arab and Western world, several editions of the book have been published in the Urdu and Turkish languages.[18][19][20]
↑ Owen Davies, Grimoires: A History of Magic Books, Oxford University Press, 2009, p. 27
↑ Gardiner, Noah (2012), Forbidden Knowledge? Notes on the production, transmission, and reception of the major works of Ahmad al-Buni, Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies 12 (2012). University of Michigan.
↑ Gardiner, Noah (2017), Esotericist Reading Communities and the Early Circulation of the Sufi Occultist Aḥmad al-Būnī’s Works, Arabica 64 (2017) 405-441. Brill.
↑ Shamsu al-Ma‘aref al-Kubrah, Al Nour Library, Beirut, Lebanon: 2006.
↑ Shamsu al-Ma‘aref al-Sughra, Al Nour Library, Beirut, Lebanon: 2005.
↑ Francis Maddison, Emilie Savage-Smith, Ralph H. Pinder-Wilson, Tim Stanley, Science, Tools And Magic Vol. 12, Oxford University Press, 1997, p. 65
↑ Michael Ipgrave, Scriptures in Dialogue: Christians and Muslims Studying the Bible and the Qur'an Together, Church Publishing Inc, 2004, p. 42
↑ Gardiner, Noah (2017), Esotericist Reading Communities and the Early Circulation of the Sufi Occultist Aḥmad al-Būnī’s Works, Arabica 64 (2017) 405-441. Brill.
Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī, or simply Rumi, was a 13th-century poet, Hanafi faqih, Islamic scholar, Maturidi theologian and Sufi mystic originally from Greater Khorasan in Greater Iran.
Sufism, also known as Tasawwuf, is a mystic body of religious practice found within Islam which is characterized by a focus on Islamic purification, spirituality, ritualism, asceticism, and esotericism. It has been variously defined as "Islamic mysticism", "the mystical expression of Islamic faith", "the inward dimension of Islam", "the phenomenon of mysticism within Islam", the "main manifestation and the most important and central crystallization" of mystical practice in Islam, and "the interiorization and intensification of Islamic faith and practice".
Shams-i Tabrīzī or Shams al-Din Mohammad (1185–1248) was a Persian Shafi'ite poet, who is credited as the spiritual instructor of Mewlānā Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Balkhi, also known as Rumi and is referenced with great reverence in Rumi's poetic collection, in particular Diwan-i Shams-i Tabrīzī. Tradition holds that Shams taught Rumi in seclusion in Konya for a period of forty days, before fleeing for Damascus. The tomb of Shams-i Tabrīzī was recently nominated to be a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Shams ad-Dīn adh-Dhahabī, also known as Shams ad-Dīn Abū ʿAbdillāh Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿUthmān ibn Qāymāẓ ibn ʿAbdillāh at-Turkumānī al-Fāriqī ad-Dimashqī was an Athari theologian, Islamic historian and Hadith scholar.
Picatrix is the Latin name used today for a 400-page book of magic and astrology originally written in Arabic under the title Ghāyat al-Ḥakīm, which most scholars assume was originally written in the middle of the 11th century, though an argument for composition in the first half of the 10th century has been made. The Arabic title translates as The Aim of the Sage or The Goal of The Wise. The Arabic work was translated into Spanish and then into Latin during the 13th century, at which time it got the Latin title Picatrix. The book's title Picatrix is also sometimes used to refer to the book's author.
Shihāb al-Dīn Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn Ḥajar al-Haytamī al-Makkī al-Anṣārī known as Ibn Hajar al-Haytami al-Makki was a renowned Sunni Egyptian scholar. He was the leading jurist of the Shafi'i school of though, a mujtahid, muhaddith, historian and theologian. He came from the Banu Sa'd tribe who settled in the Al-Sharqiah province in Egypt. Ibn Hajar was specialized in Islamic Jurisprudence and well known as a prolific writer of the Shâfi'î school. With Shihab al-Din al-Ramli, he represents the foremost resource for fatwa for the entire late Shâfi‘î school.
Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAjība al-Ḥasanī was an influential 18th-century Moroccan scholar and poet in the Sunni Darqawa Sufi lineage.
Tāj al-Dīn Abū'l-Faḍl Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Karīm ibn Abd al-Rahman ibn Abdullah ibn Ahmad ibn Isa ibn Hussein ibn ʿAṭā Allāh al-Judhami al-Iskandarī al-Shādhilī was an Egyptian Malikite jurist, muhaddith and the third murshid of the Shadhili Sufi order.
Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn ‘Abd al-Raḥmān al-Sakhāwī was a reputable Shafi‘i Muslim hadith scholar and historian who was born in Cairo. Al-Sakhawi refers to the village of Sakha in Egypt, where his relatives belonged. He was a prolific writer that excelled in the knowledge of hadith,tafsir, literature, and history. His work was also anthropological. For example, in Egypt he recorded the marital history of 500 women, the largest sample on marriage in the Middle Ages, and found that at least a third of all women in the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt and the Bilad al-Sham married more than once, with many marrying three or more times. According to al-Sakhawi, as many as three out of ten marriages in 15th century Cairo ended in divorce. His proficiency in hadith has its influences trace back heavily on his Shaykh al-Hafiz, ibn Hajar al-`Asqalani. He died in Medina.
Sharaf al-Din, Shihab al-Din, or Muḥyi al-Din Abu al-Abbas Aḥmad ibn Ali ibn Yusuf al-Qurashi al-Sufi, better known as Aḥmad al-Būnī Almalki, was a medieval mathematician and Islamic philosopher and a well-known Sufi. Very little is known about him. His writings deal with 'Ilm al-huruf and topics relating to mathematics, siḥr (sorcery) and spirituality. Born in Buna in the Almohad Caliphate, al-Buni lived in Ayyubid Egypt and learned from many eminent Sufi masters of his time.
Shahab al-Din Abu Hafs Umar Suhrawardi was a Persian Sufi and nephew of Abu al-Najib Suhrawardi. He expanded the Sufi order of Suhrawardiyya that had been created by his uncle Abu al-Najib Suhrawardi, and is the person responsible for officially formalizing the order. Suhrawardi is the author of the ʿAwārif al-Maʿārif, which is recognized as a masterpiece work in Tasawwuf.
Shams al-Din is an Arabic personal name or title.
Baha al-Din Muhammad-i Walad, more popularly known as Sultan Walad, was the eldest son of Jalal Al-Din Rumi, Persian poet, Sufi, Hanafi Maturidi Islamic scholar and one of the founders of the Mawlawiya (مولویه) order.
Abd al-Wahhab al-Sha'rani was a highly influential Egyptian scholar. He was an eminent jurist, traditionist, historian, mystic and theologian. He was one of the Islamic revivalists and scholastic saints of the sixteenth century. He is credited for reviving Islam and is one of the most prolific writers of the early Egyptian-Ottoman period. His legal, spiritual, and theological writings are still widely read in the Muslim world today. He is regarded as "one of the last original thinkers in Islam." He was the founder of an Egyptian order of Sufism, eponymously known as Šaʿrāwiyyah. The order gradually declined after Shaʿrani's death, although it remained active until the 19th century.
Al-Jāmiʿah Dār al-Maʿārif al-Islāmiyyah, popularly known as Darul Marif, is a Qawmi jamiah situated at Bahaddarhat, Chittagong, Bangladesh. Sultan Zauq Nadvi is the founder director of the Jamiah.
Akbari Sufism or Akbarism is a branch of Sufi metaphysics based on the teachings of Ibn Arabi, an Andalusian Sufi who was a Sufi and philosopher. The word is derived from Ibn Arabi's nickname, "Shaykh al-Akbar," meaning "the greatest master." 'Akbariyya' or 'Akbaris' have never been used to indicate a specific Sufi group or society. It is now used to refer to all historical or contemporary Sufi metaphysicians and Sufis influenced by Ibn Arabi's doctrine of Wahdat al-Wujud.
Sīmiyā’ also rūḥāniyya, or ‘ilm al-ḥikma is a doctrine found commonly within Sufi-occult traditions that may be deduced upon the notion of "linking the superior natures with the inferior...", and broadly described as theurgy.
Abū Abd-Allah Najm al-Dīn Aḥmad bin Ḥamdān bin Shabīb bin Ḥamdān al-Ḥarrānī al-Ḥanbalī commonly known as Ibn Hamdan—was a Hanbalite Muslim scholar and judge (1206–1295). Ibn Hamdan was born and raised in Harran and later in his life went on trips to Damascus, Aleppo and Jerusalem, later settling in Cairo. Ibn Hamdan was appointed judge in Cairo and he lived there until his death in 1295.
Belief and practice in Magic in Islam is "widespread and pervasive" and a "vital element of everyday life and practice", both historically and currently in Islamic culture. The topics also generating a "staggering" amount of literature.
Tabaqat al-Shāfi'iyya al-Kubra is a voluminous encyclopedic biographical dictionary written by the Shafi'i-Ash'ari scholar Taj al-Din al-Subki, in which he presents biographies of scholars of the Shafi'i legal school in Sunni Islam, from the time of Muhammad ibn Idris al-Shafi'i all the way to his own contemporary time.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
