upShams al-Ma'arif al-Kubra, a manuscript copy, beginning of 17th century 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 al-Malki (, ), was a medieval mathematician and Islamic philosopher and a well-known

Sufi Sufism ( or ) is a mysticism, mystic body of religious practice found within Islam which is characterized by a focus on Islamic Tazkiyah, purification, spirituality, ritualism, and Asceticism#Islam, asceticism. Practitioners of Sufism are r ...

. Very little is known about him. His writings deal with 'Ilm al-huruf (, the esoteric value of letters) and topics relating to

mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

, '' siḥr'' "sorcery", and

spirituality The meaning of ''spirituality'' has developed and expanded over time, and various meanings can be found alongside each other. Traditionally, spirituality referred to a religious process of re-formation which "aims to recover the original shape o ...

. Born in Buna in the

Almohad Caliphate The Almohad Caliphate (; or or from ) or Almohad Empire was a North African Berbers, Berber Muslim empire founded in the 12th century. At its height, it controlled much of the Iberian Peninsula (Al-Andalus) and North Africa (the Maghreb). Th ...

(now

Annaba Annaba (), formerly known as Bon, Bona and Bône, is a seaport city in the northeastern corner of Algeria, close to the border with Tunisia. Annaba is near the small Seybouse River and is in the Annaba Province. With a population of about 263,65 ...

, Algeria), al-Buni lived in Ayyubid Egypt and learned from many eminent Sufi masters of his time. A contemporary of

ibn Arabi Ibn Arabi (July 1165–November 1240) was an Andalusian Sunni Sunni Islam is the largest branch of Islam and the largest religious denomination in the world. It holds that Muhammad did not appoint any successor and that his closest com ...

, 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

talisman A talisman is any object ascribed with religious or magical powers intended to protect, heal, or harm individuals for whom they are made. Talismans are often portable objects carried on someone in a variety of ways, but can also be installed perm ...

s and

divination Divination () is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of an occultic ritual or practice. Using various methods throughout history, diviners ascertain their interpretations of how a should proceed by reading signs, ...

Contributions

Theurgy

Instead occult (sorcery), this kind of magic was called ''Ilm al-Hikmah'' (Knowledge of the Wisdom), ''Ilm al-simiyah'' (Study of the Divine Names) and ''Ruhaniyat'' (Spirituality). Most of the so-called ''mujarrabât'' ("time-tested methods") books on sorcery in the Muslim world are simplified excerpts from the ''Shams al-Ma'arif''. The book remains the seminal work on

Theurgy Theurgy (; from the Greek θεουργία ), also known as divine magic, is one of two major branches of the magical arts, Pierre A. Riffard, ''Dictionnaire de l'ésotérisme'', Paris: Payot, 1983, 340. the other being practical magic or thau ...

and esoteric arts to this day.

Mathematics and science

In c. 1200, Ahmad al-Buni showed how to construct

magic square In mathematics, especially History of mathematics, historical and recreational mathematics, a square array of numbers, usually positive integers, is called a magic square if the sums of the numbers in each row, each column, and both main diago ...

s using a simple bordering technique, but he may not have discovered the method himself. Al-Buni wrote about

Latin square Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area around Rome, Italy. Through the expansion o ...

s and constructed, for example, 4 x 4 Latin squares using letters from one of the

99 names of God Names of God in Islam () are 99 names that each contain Attributes of God in Islam, which are implied by the respective names. These names usually denote his praise, gratitude, commendation, glorification, magnification, perfect attributes, ...

. His works on traditional healing remain a point of reference among Yoruba Muslim healers in

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

and other areas of the

Muslim world The terms Islamic world and Muslim world commonly refer to the Islamic community, which is also known as the Ummah. This consists of all those who adhere to the religious beliefs, politics, and laws of Islam or to societies in which Islam is ...

Influence

His work is said to have influenced the Hurufis and the New Lettrist International.

Denis MacEoin Denis M. MacEoin (26 January 1949 – 6 June 2022) was a British academic, scholar and writer with a focus on Persian, Arabic and Islamic studies. He authored several academic books and articles, as well as many pieces of journalism. Since 2014 ...

, in a 1985 article in '' Studia Iranica'', said that al-Buni may also have indirectly influenced the Twelver Shi'i radical movement known as

Bábism Bábism () is a Messianism, messianic movement founded in 1844 by Báb, the Báb ( 'Ali Muhammad). The Báb, an Iranian merchant-turned-prophet, professed that there is one incorporeal, unknown, and incomprehensible GodEdward Granville Browne ...

. MacEoin said that Bābis made widespread use of talismans and magical letters.

Writings

Khalili Collection Islamic Art mss 0300 fol 108b-109a

* ''Shams al-Maʿārif al-Kubrā'' (''The Great Sun of Gnosis''), Cairo, 1928. * ''Sharḥ Ism Allāh al-aʿẓam fī al-rūḥānī'', printed in 1357 AH or in Egypt al-Maṭbaʿa al-Maḥmudiyya al-Tujjariyya bi'l-Azhar. * ''Kabs al-iktidā'', Oriental Manuscripts in

Durham University Durham University (legally the University of Durham) is a collegiate university, collegiate public university, public research university in Durham, England, founded by an Act of Parliament (UK), Act of Parliament in 1832 and incorporated by r ...

Library. * ''Berhatiah'', Ancient Magick Conjuration Of Power. * ''Treatise on the Magical Uses of the Ninety-nine Names of God'' in the

Khalili Collection of Islamic Art The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art includes 26,000 objects documenting Islamic art over a period of almost 1400 years, from 700 AD to the end of the twentieth century. It is the largest of the Khalili Collections: eight collections ...

References

Notes

* Edgar W. Francis, ''Mapping the Boundaries between Magic. The Names of God in the Writings of Ahmad ibn Ali al-Buni''

External links

Shams al-Ma'arif al-Kubra - شمس المعارف ولطائف العوارف

{{DEFAULTSORT:Al-Buni, Ahmed 1225 deaths 13th-century Arab people Magic squares Medieval Egyptian mathematicians Buni Sufi writers Year of birth unknown People from Annaba People from the Almohad Caliphate