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Muḥyī al-Dīn al-Būnī (622/1225), `Abu al-`Abbas Ahmad ibn `Ali ibn Yūsuf al-Qurayshī

 

Muḥyī al-Dīn al-Būnī (622/1225)

الـبـونـي ، أحـمـد بن عـلـي

 `Abu al-`Abbas Ahmad ibn `Ali ibn Yūsuf al-Qurayshī Muḥyī al-Dīn al-Būnī 

 

An annotated Bibliography with select PDf. downloads ...

Stephen Lambden

In Progress - 1980s- 2018.

Last updated  19-04-2018

See Brockelmann, GAL  I/2:655f.; Deitrich EI2 12:156-7; GALS 1:910f; Fahd, [1966]1987:230ff; Ulmann, 1972: 234,390f, 415.

An Islamic theologian, mystic and magician Ahmad ibn `Alī al-Būnī  wrote around 40 Arabic books on Islamic esoterica and magic having a special facility with the theology of talismanic configurations of the Names of God. Most of his work is unedited and unpublished save for a few often non-critical editions.

al-Kashf fi `ilm al-harf, wa yalihi usul `ilm al-harf wa darabit al-afaq. 

  • Kitāb al-Kashf fī ʻilm al-ḥarf : manuscript, 1840. Houghton Library 1840 (Downloadable archival material : Arabic) 1 v. (42 leaves) . " Written in one column, 23 lines per page, in black and red. According to the colophon (f. 42v), copy completed on 6 Jumādá al-Ūlá 1256 AH [July 6, 1840 AD] MS Arab 229." (so World Cat.).

  • الـكـشـف في عـلـم الـحـرف، و يـلـيـه أصـول عـلـم الـحـرف و ضـوابـط الآفـاق لـلـحـكـيـم سـقـراط

  • Kitāb Kashf fī ‘ilm al-ḥarf, wa-yalīhi uṣūl ‘ilm al-ḥarf wa-ḍawābiṭ al-āfāq  ed. Ḥakīm Suqrāṭ. Beirut : Mu’assasat al-Nūr li'l-Maṭbū‘āt, 2004. 246 pp.

Kitāb Ghayat al-ghayat fi'l-aqsam wa'l-da'awat.

  • كـتـاب غـايـة الـغـايـات فـي الأقـسـام و الـدعـوات
  •  Kitāb Ghāyat al-ghāyāt fī al-aqsām wa'l-da‘awāt. Beirut: : Dār al-Mīzān, 2012.  36pp.

 

Kitāb shams al-ma`arif  wa latā'if  al-awārif ("The Book of the Sun of Gnosis and the Subtleties of Elevated things").

  •  كتاب شمس المعارف الكبرى

  • Shams al-maʻārif al-kubrā wa-laṭāʼif al-ʻawārif, Cairo :al-Maktaba al-miṣriyya, 1874. Includes Sharḥ ism Allah al-aʻẓam fi ̄al-ruḥ̄an̄i ̄: wa-yalih̄i Kitab̄ al-lumʻah fi ̄al-fawa'id al-ruḥ̄an̄iȳah ʻaziz̄at al-simʻah,

  • Kitāb shams al-maʻārif al-kubrá wa-laṭāʼif al-ʻawārif. 4 vols in 1. Lithograph. Bombay: XXXX., 1879.

  • Kitāb shams al-ma`arif ("The Book of the Sun of Gnosis"). 4 vols. Cairo n.d. Maṭbū‘āt al-Husayniyya al-Misriyya [?] [1905] 
  • Shams al-maʻārif al-kubrá wa-laṭāʼif al-maʻārif
  • شمس المعارف الكبرى ولطائف العوارف. مجموعة رسائل  = Shams al-maʻārif al-kubrā wa-laṭāʼif al-ʻawārif / ʻAbd al-Qadīr b ʻAlī al-Ḥusaynī al- Adhamī. 4 vols. in 1. lil-Shaykh Aḥmad ibn ʻAlī al-Būnī ; wa-yalīhi Risālat Mīzān al-ʻadl fī maqāṣid aḥkām al-raml ; wa-Risālat Fawātiḥ al-raghāʼib fī khuṣūṣīyāt awqāt al-kawākib ; wa-Risālat Zahr al-murūj fī dalāʼil al-burūj ; wa-Risālat Laṭāʼif al-ishārah fī khaṣāʼiṣ al-kawākib al-sayyārah / taʼlīf ʻAbd al-Qādir al-Ḥusaynī al-Adʹhamī. Cairo : Muṣṭafá al-Bābī al-Ḥalabī,  1345/1927-8. .
  • Shams al-ma'ārif wa-laṭā'if al-'awārif. 1/3 . Cairo : Muṣṭafá al-Bābī al-Ḥalabī, 1962. 

  • Kitāb shams al-ma`arif ("The Book of the Sun of Gnosis"). 4 vols./ Pts. in 1 vol. Beirut: Maktabah al-Thaqafiyya (576pp+16 index). *
  • Shams al-maʻārif al-kubrá wa-laṭāʼif al-ʻawārif. Muʼassasat al-Nūr li'l-Maṭbūʻāt, 2000.  616 pp.
  • Shams al-maʻārif al-kubrá wa-laṭāʼif al-ʻawārif. PDf.+  McGill University Library -Archive. org =
  • https://archive.org/details/McGillLibrary-131812-5180
  • Pt. I = Kitāb shams al-ma`arif al-kubrā. (in the above Cairo+Beirut  ed.) pp. 1-142.
  • Pt. II = Kitāb shams al-ma`arif al-kubrā. (in the above Cairo+Beirut  ed.) pp. 143-266.
  • Pt. III = Kitāb shams al-ma`arif al-kubrā. (in the above Cairo+Beirut  ed.) pp. 266-535

     Majmū`at Arba` Rasā'il (Compendium of Four Treatises") of Sayyid `Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni al-Adhami (ADD/ADD).

  • Pt.IV = Majmu`at Arba`a Rasā'il (Compendium of Four Treatises") (pp.537-576):
  • [1] Risālah Mīzān al-`adl fī maqāṣid aḥkām al-raml  (pp.537-552)
  • [2] Risālah  Fawa'tih al-raghā'ib khuṣūṣiyyāt awaqāt al-kawākib (pp.552-558)
  • [3] Risālah Zahr al-maruj fi dala'il al-buruj  (pp.558-566)
  • [4] Risālah Latā'if al-Ishārāt fī Khasā'is al-kawakib al-siyāra (pp.566-576).

    _____________

  • Kitāb shams al-ma`arif ("The Book of the Sun of Gnosis"). ADD
  • Long recension
  • Medium length recension
  • Short recension

    Talismans : le soleil des connaissances.

    Aḥmad ibn ʻAlī Būnī; Pierre Lory; Jean-Charles Coulon; Saïd Benjelloun,

    •   Talismans : le soleil des connaissances.  [Based on al-Buni's Shams al-ma`arif] Orients éditions, 2013, 92pp.  "Translated for the first time in French, this treatise describes Sufi science of letters and correspondence with numbers, stars, and angels in aesthetic geometric forms known as magic squares. A small book of talismans, handwritten by Saïd Benjelloun, is attached to the volume" (so World Cat.).

    İmam Ahmet Bin Ali El-Bûni.,

    [TAM METIN (BLI UK BİLGİLER HAZİNESİ]

    Massive Turkish translation of the Shams al-Ma`ārif al-Kubrā of al-Būnī  in 4 Pts.  within 2 vols. containing many clearly printed diagrams and numerous excerpts from the Arabic text.

    • Pts1-2  = ŞEMS'UL MAARIFUL EL KÜBRA ., Turkish Trans., Araştırmacı Gazeteci Yazar Nebil Fazıl Alsan., Istanbul: Seda Yayinlari (1062pp.)
    • Pts. 3-4 = ŞEMS'UL MAARIFUL EL KÜBRA ., Turkish Trans., Araştırmacı Gazeteci Yazar Nebil Fazıl Alsan., Istanbul: Seda Yayinlari (1058pp.)

     _________________

    Kitāb Latā'if al-Ishārāt fī asrār al-ḥurūf al-`ulwiyyāt ("Book of the Subtleties of the Allusions regarding the Mysteries of the Elevated Letters").

    • Kitāb Latā'if al-Ishārāt fī asrār al-ḥurūf al-`uluwiyyāt. Lithograph edition. Cairo: Add., 1317/1899.  
    •  

    Gardiner, Noah.

    • `Stars and Saints: The Esotericist Astrology of the Sufi Occultist Aḥmad al-Būnī'. Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft, v12 n1 (2017): 39-65

    "Abstract: The Ifrīqiyan cum Cairene Sufi Aḥmad al-Būnī (d. c. 622/1225) is a key figure in the history of the Islamic occult sciences, particularly with regard to the "science of letters and names" (ʿilm al-ḥurūf wa-l-asmāʾ). This paper examines his lettrist treatise Laṭāʾif al-ishārāt fī al-ḥurūf al-ʿulwīyāt (The Subtleties of the Allusions regarding the Superior Letters) to argue that parts of it amount to an esotericist unveiling of the hidden realities underlying "profane" astrology. Al-Būnī identifies the world-shaping efflux of forces from the celestial spheres with the continuous flow of the letters of God's creative speech, and implies a central role for Sufi saints and adepts in mediating these astral-lettristic radiations. He thereby adds an occult-scientific twist to views deeply embedded in Sufi tradition of the saints as key executors of God's word and will on earth. Al-Būnī's approach to astrology can be seen as part of a transconfessional wave of esotericism in the late-medieval Mediterranean that heralded shifting ideas about the order of nature and the relationship between divine and human agency" ( cited from World Cat.).

    Kitāb al-uṣūl wa'l-ḍawābiṭ (Book of the Fundamentals of the XXX).

    • Kitāb al-uṣūl wa'l-ḍawābiṭ  apparebntly an  introduction to the hidden sciences.

     

    Kitāb Siḥr al-`ushāq fi jalab al-Mushtaq ("The Book of Magic for the enticement of the Object of Yearning").

    • Kitāb Saḥr al-`ushāq fi jalab al-mushtāq ("The Book of Magic..."). mss. (96pp.).

    al-Luʼluʼ al-manẓūm fī al-ṭalāsim wa-al-nujūm

    ‏اللؤلؤ المنظوم في الطلاسم والنجوم ‏

    • al-Luʼluʼ al-manẓūm fī al-ṭalāsim wa-al-nujūm. Cairo : al-Maṭbaʻah wa-al-Maktabah al-Saʻīdīyah, c.1910?.

    Sharḥ sawakiţ al-Fatiha al-sharlfa  (Commentary upon the Sawaqiţ of the Noble [Surah of] the Opening" [Q.1]")

    • Shark sawakiţ al-Fatiha al-sharlfa.
    •  

    According to Deitrich this work is "on the consonants th. Dj_. kh, z sh. ẓ. f. which do not occur in the first Sūra;

    Sharḥ  ism Allah al-a`zam... ("Commentary upon the Mightiest Name of God..")

    • Sharḥ ism Allāh al-a`ẓam fī al-ruḥānī wa yalīhi kitāb al-lama`at fī fawā'id al-ruḥānīyya `aẓīẓat al-sama`at ("Commentary upon the Mightiest Name of God in Spirituality and its relationship to the Book of Brilliance in the mighty, reputable spiritual instructions" ) Cairo: al-Maktaba al-Mahmūdiyya al-Tijāriyya bi'l-Azhar, 1358/ 1939 (119+ index). 124 pp.
    • Šarḥ ism Ăllāh al-aʻẓam fī ăr-rūḥānī : wa-yalīhi Kitāb al-lumʻa fī al-fawāʼid ar-rūḥāniyya ʻazīzat al-sumʻa.

    al-Lama' al֊ nūrāniyya ("The Luminous Brilliance")

    • ADD = a work on the Divine Names  (see Fahd, op. cit., 237 f.).

    al-Istighathaha

    • Igathath fi ḥall alfaẓ al-Istighathah

    al-Makkī,  Sayyid `Alī (d. 1888).

    • Ighātha al-malhūfīn min al-ummah al-Muhammadiyya fi ḥall alfaẓ al-Istighātha al-Būnīya, ed.  Shaykh Muhammad  Jaljal al-Qalyūbī + Shaykh Muhammad Ahmad al-Shaybani [?].  Cairo: al-Azhar al-Sharif., 1325/1907 (224pp.). Book completed for printing 4th Rabī` al-Thānī 1325 = 17th May 1907.

    Manba` usul al-hikma - Contains 4 Treatises of al-Buni.

    منبع أصول الحكمة المشتمل على أربع رسائل مهمة في أصول العلوم الحكمية من العلوم الحرفية و الوفقية و الدعوات و الأقسام و غير ذلك 

    • [1] al-Uṣūl wa-al-ḍawābiṭ al-ḥikmah --
    • [2] Bughyat al-mushtāq fī maʻrifat waḍʻ al-awfāq --
    • [3] Sharḥ al-burhatīyah, al-maʼrūf bi-Sharḥ al-ʻahd al-qadīm --
    • [4] Sharḥ al-juljulatīyah al-kubrá 
    • Manbaʻ uṣūl al-ḥikmah al-mushtamil ʻalá arbaʻ rasāʼil muhimmah fī uṣūl al-ʻulūm al-ḥikmīyah min al-ʻulūm al-ḥarfīyah w'al-waqfīyah wa-al-daʻawāt wa-al-aqsām wa-ghayr dhālika. Cairo : Muṣṭafá al-Bābī al-Ḥalabī wa-awlādihi, 1951  335, 31 pp.  Also contains writings of Muḥammad al-Shāfiʻī Khalwaṭī and  ʻAlī ibn Muḥammad Ṭandatāʼī.

    • Manba` usul al-hikma mushtamal `ala arba` rasa'il muhimma fi usul al-`ulum al-hikma... Imam al-Kabir wa'l-Hikmat al-Shahir Abu `Abbas Ahmad ibn `Ali al-Buni, Beirut: al-Maktabat al-Thaqafiyya, n. d. [199?].
    •  

     

    Select Secondary sources on Ahmad ibn `Ali  al-Būnī and his writings.

     Ahrens, W.

    • Die "magischen Quadrate" Al-Būnī's, in Is!., xii (1922), 157-77.
    • Die "magischen Quadrate" Al-Būnī's, in Is!., xiv (1925), 104-10.

    Bergsträsser, G.

    • Zu den magischen Quadraten, in ibid., xiii (1923), 227-35.

    E. Doutte,

    • Magie et religion dans l'Afrique du Nord, Algiers 1909.

    Dietrich, A.

    `al-Būnī  in EI2 [Supp. = ] vol. 12 pp. 156-7. A rather dismissive article.

    Fahd, Toufic.

    • Le Divination Arabe. Leiden:   1966.see pp.230-3.

     Francis, Edgar Walter

    • Islamic symbols and Sufi rituals for protection and healing : religion and magic in the writings of Ahmad ibn Ali al-Buni (d. 622/1225). Thesis/dissertation 2006. Chicago, IL :: Kazi Publications, 2017. 

      Reproduction of the dissertation of the same title for the author's doctorate in Islamic Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, 2005. iv, 192 pp.   Contents =

    • Introduction --
    • Chapter 1. Theories of magic, religion, and science --
    • Chapter 2. Islamic perspectives on magic --
    • Chapter 3. Magic in the Islamic world before al-Būnī --
    • Chapter 4. The biography and bibliography of Aḥmad ibn ʻAlī al-Būnī --
    • Chapter 5. Magical means and methods in al-Būnī's corpus --
    • Chapter 6. Numbers and Arabic letters in al-Būnī's corpus --
    • Chapter 7. The names of God in al-Būnī's corpus: the beautiful and the greatest --
    • Chapter 8. The power of the Quran and its verses in al-Būnī's corpus --
    • Conclusions: al-Būnī's corpus: "magic," "religion," or "science?"  (so World Cat.).

    Gardiner, Noah.

    • Stars and Saints: The Esotericist Astrology of the Sufi Occultist Aḥmad al-Būnī. Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft, v12 n1 (2017): 39-65

    "Abstract: The Ifrīqiyan cum Cairene Sufi Aḥmad al-Būnī (d. c. 622/1225) is a key figure in the history of the Islamic occult sciences, particularly with regard to the "science of letters and names" (ʿilm al-ḥurūf wa-l-asmāʾ). This paper examines his lettrist treatise Laṭāʾif al-ishārāt fī al-ḥurūf al-ʿulwīyāt (The Subtleties of the Allusions regarding the Superior Letters) to argue that parts of it amount to an esotericist unveiling of the hidden realities underlying "profane" astrology. Al-Būnī identifies the world-shaping efflux of forces from the celestial spheres with the continuous flow of the letters of God's creative speech, and implies a central role for Sufi saints and adepts in mediating these astral-lettristic radiations. He thereby adds an occult-scientific twist to views deeply embedded in Sufi tradition of the saints as key executors of God's word and will on earth. Al-Būnī's approach to astrology can be seen as part of a transconfessional wave of esotericism in the late-medieval Mediterranean that heralded shifting ideas about the order of nature and the relationship between divine and human agency".(so World Cat.).

    Gawhary, Mohamed M,

    • Die Gottesnamen im magischen Gebrauch in den Al-Buni zugeschriebenen Werken, Dissertation, Bonn. 1968. "Enth. auch: Die dtsch. Übersetzung des ägyptischen Zauberbuches al-Kawākib al-lammāʻa. Die leuchtenden Sterne betreffs der sofortigen Unterwerfung der Könige der Ginnen, von ʻAbdallah al-Maġāwirī" (so World Cat.),

    Hamès, Constant.

    • Entre recette magiques d'Al-Bûnî et prière islamique d'Al-Ghazâlî : textes talismaniques d'Afrique occidentale. Systèmes de pensée en Afrique noire. Cahier 12, 1993, pages 187-223.

    "By analyzing talismanic formulae and texts from western Africa that are written in Arabic and inspired by Islam, two types of formulations can be distinguished that make it theoretically possible to obtain advantages of all kinds and satisfy individuals' needs. The first type can be liked to a ritualized prayer (duʻâ, supplication/request), of which the dominant model in Islamic culture can be found in al-Ghazâlî's (d. 1111) writings. The second type of formula has a place in magic as practiced within Islam; it is inspired by the model that figures in writings al-Bûnî's (d. 1225) writings.--original abstract. Summaries in English and French, pages 232-233. Published as special thematic issue Fétiches II: puissance des objets, charme de mots / edited by Albert de Surgy." (so World Cat.)

    Pielow, Dorothee Anna Maria,

    • Die Quellen der Weisheit : die arabische Magie im Spiegel des Usul al-Hikma von Ahmad 'Ali al-Buni (= Arabistische Texte und Studien, Bd. 8).  Hildesheim : Georg Olms Verlag, 1995

    Ruska, Julius,

    • `Article'  ADD HERE in Isi.. xxii (19340, 307-10 . 

    Ruska "deserves the credit for having drawn attention to the abstruse chapter on alchemy in the Shams and its sources; since this chapter fits somewhat unnaturally in the work, it may indeed have been added by a later author who was familiar with al-Rāzī՝s Kitāb al-Asrar (cf. Isi.. xxii [1934]. 307-10 .

    Vajda, Georges.

    • `Sur quelques elements juifs et pseudo-juifs dans l'encyclopédie magique de Bûnî. in Goldziher Mémorial Volume, 1, (Budapest 1948). 387-92.

    "Vajda has pointed to Jewish and pseudo-Jewish elements in the Shams al-ma'anf, especially with regard to the names of God, the angels the idea of thakūfa (from Hebrew teķūfā, something like "quarter of a year'՝ and several other derived meanings): Sur quelques elements juifs et pseudo-juifs dans l'encyclopédie magique de Bûnî. in Gold^iher Mémorial Volume, ï, Budapest 1948. 387-92." (EI2 XII:156).

    Winkler, H.

    • Siegel und Charaktere in der Muhammedanischen Zauberei (Berlin-Leipzig, Walter de Gruyter, 1930) On pages 67-80 there is a German translation of materials from al-Buni pertaining to the Talisman of the seven seals and the Mightiest Name of God.

     

     

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