Shams Al-Marif & the Cabbalistic Sufi Ahmad al-Buni (1200 AD)

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Shams Al-Marif....(The Sun of Great Knowledge)......is the leading text of Islamic Occultism, written by the mysterious Cabbalistic Sufi Ahmad al-Buni...... The Shams al-Ma’arif rivals the Picatrix in importance. Most of the "time-tested" books on sorcery in the Muslim world are simplified excerpts from the Shams al-Ma’arif......http://www.antiochgate.com/9_buni_shams.htm

Ahmad ibn ‘Ali al-Buni (Arabic: أحمد البوني‎), his complete name is Sharaf al-Din or Shihab al-Din Ahmad ibn Ali ibn Yusuf al-Buni al-Maliki al-ifriqi...... (died 1225) was a well known Sufi and writer on the esoteric value of letters and topics relating to mathematics, sihr (sorcery) and spirituality, but very little is known about him. .....A contemporary of Ibn Arabi, he is best known for writing one of the most important books of his era; the Shams al-Ma'arif, a book that is still regarded as the foremost occult text on talismans and divination. It was to be banned soon after as heretical by followers of the Islamic orthodoxy.

"Shams al-Ma'arif or Shams al-Ma'arif wa Lata'if al-'Awarif (Arabic: كتاب شمس المعارف ولطائف العوارف‎, lit. "The Book of the Sun of Gnosis and the Subtleties of Elevated Things") is a 13th-century grimoire written on Arabic magic and a manual for achieving esoteric spirituality. It was written by quasi-Qabalistic Sufi Sheikh Ahmad bin Ali Al-buni in Egypt, who died around 1225 AD. The Shams al-Ma'arif is generally regarded as the most influential textbook of its type in the Arab and Muslim worlds, and is arguably as important as, if not more than, the Picatrix in both hemispheres. .....the book consists of two volumes; Shams al-Ma'arif al-Kubra and Shams al-Ma'arif al-Sughra, the former being the larger of the two. 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 insists is the only way to communicate with genies, angels and spirits......While being popular, it also carries a reputation for being suppressed and banned for much of Islamic history......Modern Sufi circles such as the Balkan-based Naqshbandi-Haqqani order have recognised its legitimacy and use as a compendium for the occult, and hold it in high regard........Another title by the same author, namely Manba' Usool al-Hikmah ("The Source of the Essentials of Wisdom"), is considered its companion text.".....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shams_al-Ma%27arif

"Picatrix is the name used today, and historically in Christian Europe, for a 400-page book of occult magic and astrology originally written in Arabic under the title غاية الحكيم Ghāyat al-Ḥakīm, which most scholars assume was originally written in the middle of the 11th century.....it is a composite work that synthesizes older works on magic and astrology. One of the most influential interpretations suggests it is to be regarded as a "handbook of talismanic magic" & "the most thorough exposition of celestial magic in Arabic"......as indispensable as the Corpus Hermeticum or the writings of Albumasar for understanding a conspicuous part of the production of the Renaissance, including the figurative arts."......The Spanish and Latin versions were the only ones known to Western scholars until Wilhelm Printz discovered an Arabic version in or around 1920.".....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picatrix

The Bunî Pamphlet....Whereabouts: In an unknown private manuscript collection in Istanbul, according to some rumors this collection is in Beyazit Library.

"Ahmad ibn 'Ali ibn Yusuf al-Buni....(died 1225 AD).... was a well known Sufi and writer on the esoteric value of letters and topics relating to mathematics, sorcery and spirituality, but very little is known about him. Al-Buni lived in Egypt and learned from many eminent Sufi masters of his time. He wrote one of the most famous books of his era, the Shams al-Ma'arif al-Kubra (Sun of the Great Knowledge) which is one of the most widely read medieval treatises on talismans, magic squares and occult practices. This work rivals the Picatrix in importance. This book was later banned by orthodox Muslims as heretical, but continues to be read and studied......His another infamous work is called Bunî Risalesi(the Bunî Pamphlet), which is kept hidden from public and academic knowledge because of its contents. It is told that the 1208 page Bûni Pamphlet explains how to summon and dominate a djinn or a demon with charms and spellsi, the preparations of these spells and charms are also included with every detail. Only a few pages of the manuscript have leaked in 800 years and the very few people, which had the chance to see the original manuscript, has never(or according to some rumors could never) spoke about it."......http://artifactsofistanbul.blogspot.com/

Qalam al-tabli.....The Egyptian Magician al-Buni and His Work... ......http://www.islamicmanuscripts.info/mekka-angawi/Witkam-2007-Buni-Gazing.pdf

"Ahmad ibn ‘Ali al-Buni (Arabic: أحمد البوني‎), his complete name is Sharaf al-Din or Shihab al-Din Ahmad ibn Ali ibn Yusuf al-Buni al-Maliki al-ifriqi (born in Bône (Annaba), Algeria died 1225) was a well known Sufi and writer on the esoteric value of letters and topics relating to mathematics, sihr (sorcery) and spirituality, but very little is known about him. Al-Buni lived in Egypt and learned from many eminent Sufi masters of his time......A contemporary of Ibn Arabi, he is best known for writing one of the most important books of his era; the Shams al-Ma'arif, a book that is still regarded as the foremost occult text on talismans and divination. It was to be banned soon after as heretical by followers of the Islamic orthodoxy...Al-Buni also made regular mention in his work of Plato, Aristotle, Hermes, Alexander the Great, and obscure Chaldean magicians.."

Shams al-Ma'arif al-Kubra ..... The Sun of Great Knowledge

Ahmad al-Buni .......Shams al-Ma'airf al-Kubra (the Great Sun of Gnoses), Cairo, 1928.

Magic and the Occult in Islam: Ahmad al-Buni (622H/1225CE?) and his Shams Al-Ma'arif .......https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTdWHuBexmc......A lecture by Saiyad Nizamuddin Ahmad (Department of Arabic and Islamic Civilizations, American University in Cairo) delivered at the Warburg Institute, University of London, School of Advanced Study, on 1 May 2013.

JINN in Islam: "Beings of airy bodies, intelligent, imperceptible, capable of appearing under different forms and of carrying out heavy labours. They were created of smokeless flame, while mankind and the angels (the other two classes of intelligent beings) were created of clay and light.".....
"The caravan... came at last, at the fall of a certain night, to a column of stone to which a strange being was chained, one half of whose body was visible and the other half deeply hidden in the ground. The upper half seemed to be that of something of monstrous birth imprisoned there by some infernal powers. It was black and large as the trunk of an old and naked palm-tree; it had two great black wings and four hands, of which two were like the taloned feet of lions. A shaggy covering of rude onager-tail hairs moved savagely upon the terrible head, while under the roofs of the sockets flamed two red eyes, and a third shone immovable green like that of a tiger or a panther, between the twin horns of the bull-like brow."....The Book of the Thousand and One Nights

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

June 2015

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