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Original title 'Al Azif' - azif being the word used by the Arabs to designate that nocturnal sound (made by insects) suppos'd to be the howling of daemons.
For his novels, the American writer H P Lovecraft, created the fictional book The Necronomicon. In Lovecraft´s gothic world of horror The Necronomicon is a book containing appalling truths about the concealed history of the world and dark rituals with the power to destroy all life on earth. Ever since Lovecraft through his novels aroused interest in The Necronomicon both inquisitive readers and students of the occult have discussed the possibilities of The Necronomicon´s real life existence. What is the dark truth hidden behind H P Lovecraft´s fictional grimoire?
Over the years many theories have been presented and many fake copies of the book have appeared. But the best clues to the true history behind the mythical Necronomicon we find in Lovecraft´s own writing. Lovecraft is careful to say that his Necronomicon is a work of fiction, but in his own biography of Necronomicon (History of the Necronomicon. 1927) he makes many deliberate mistakes that give us clues to the truth behind Lovecraft's fiction. A truth that Lovecraft himself probably was well aware of, but didn’t consider appropriate to reveal through his short stories and novels.
Lovecraft tells us that his Necronomicon is written during the 700's AD by the mad Arab, Abdul Al Hazred, in Damascus. But who was the real author of this remarkable book? The astrologer and writer, Abu 'Ali al-Hasan, has been indicated by many. Also the Jewish mystic Alhazen ben Joseph has been proposed. Most, however, suggests that Lovecraft's mad Arab Abdul Al-Hazred´s real name was Abu al-Husayn, known as Ibn al-Rawandi or Rhazes.
The NecronomiconRhazes was born in 827 A.D in Marwarrudh, present-day northern Afghanistan. Early in his life he joined the Islam-critical Mutazila of Baghdad, and gained prominence among them. He also studied Kabbalah, Sufism, Arabic and Christian Gnosticism. He writes several books in both theology and philosophy, the most famous of these being the Kitab al-Zumurrud (The blinding emerald), of which only fragments remain.
After his years of occult studies Rhazes began to undertake pilgrimages and expeditions to remote and wild places. He spends several months with an unknown master deep in the ad-Dahna desert before he disappears for more than 10 years without a trace in the Rub 'al Khali´s red desert. According to his own writing, he lives during this time in the lost mythical city of Iram, where he is studying ancient and secret teachings.
When he finally leaves Iram and the Rub 'al Khali desert, he travels to Alexandria and Cairo and then to the necropolis of Saqqarah in Memphis. Rhazes devoted the rest of his life to the study of the occult and to the writing of his book, Al Azif. According to the medieval historian Ibn Khallikan, the aged Rhazes probably dies in Damascus in the year 911 A.D, while the German history scholar and theologian Josef van Ess place Rhaze´s death in Alexandria in 919 A.D. Both refer to the Jewish writer and mystic Ephraim ibn al-Za'faran, who without mentioning any details, claims that the aged Rhazes died a very violent death.
Grigorij Jefimovitj RasputinThe Al Azif is spread in only a few copies among Arab mystics and theologians. The book is banned as soon as the contents become known and all known copies are destroyed. During the early 1100'sAl Azif is translated into Greek, probably in The Monastery of Saint Paul the Anchorite in Egypt, and given the title Νεκρονομικòν (Necronomicon). In 1211 the Greek translation is banned, and all known copies burned by the Constantinople Patriarch Michael IV Autoreianos.
In the early 14th century the Al Azif is for the first time translated into latin by Arnaldus Villa Nova (1235-1311), probably based on a now lost Arabic original. In 1389 Pope Boniface IX bans both Arnaldus the Villas Latin translation and the earlier Greek. Boniface orders all the copies he could find to be burned.
Some sources claim that one of the Greek translations of the Necronomicon comes to Russia at the fall of Constantinople in 1453. The book was allegedly kept in the in the Czar's private library until the fall of the Tsarist empire. There are rumours about additional copies that were printed during the 1500s. Rasputin claimed to own one of these books, which supposedly was a gift from Tsar Nicholas´s third wife. None of these copies are known today.
The only known copy of the original Arabic Al Azif text, and the banned Greek translation, was destroyed or stolen when Bedouins looted the Monastery of Saint Paul the Anchorite and burned its library in the year 1448 A.D.
In 1541 the German alchemist and mystic Theophrastus Paracelsus prints his own German translation of Arnaldus the Villa Nova's version. A copy of Paracelsus's book is said to have been taken as booty by the Swedes in Prague in 1648 but was probably destroyed in the great fire at the Royal Palace in Stockholm in 1697.
During the early 1600s the English mystic Dr John Dee completes his translation of the Villas Latin Necronomicon into English. The text is not published until after Dr. Dee's death. Meric Casaubon prints Dee’s English translation in a very small edition in 1651.
In 1652 the Danish physician Olaus Wormius is having Arnaldus the Villa Nova's Latin translation printed in Germany.
The Necronomicon, in all its versions, are considered by experts to be one of humanity's most dangerous books. The horrific insights and dark truths that this book, in a frighteningly convincing way, gives its readers, has often led to insanity and death. In addition to the ancient truths and foreboding prophecies, the book also contains spells and incantations, which in the wrong hands can do unthinkable damage. All known copies of The Necronomicon are therefore kept under lock and key and are not available to the public. Several organizations and society’s are for different reasons searching for any copies of the book that is still in private hands. Any attempt to spread the Necronomicon´s content has failed due to accidents which are either blamed on the curse that seem to accompany the book, or on any of the conspiracies that surrounds everything concerning The Necronomicon.
Our copy of Dr. John Dee's English translation of the Necronomicon, in Meric Casaubons 1651 edition, are included in the original inventory lists and we do not know how it originally ended up in our collections.
The book and its contents are not accessible to the public. We exhibit only those pages from the book that authorities in the area considerers harmless.
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