Monographs by Noah Gardiner
This brief monograph is a close examination of the chapter dealing with the occult “science of le... more This brief monograph is a close examination of the chapter dealing with the occult “science of letters and names” (ʿilm al-ḥurūf wa-l-asmāʾ) in the sixth faṣl of Ibn Khaldūn’s (d. 808/1406) famous al-Muqaddimah. It is argued that his views on this Sufi occult discourse are best understood in light of a rising tide of interest in lettrism, other occult disciplines, and millenarianism among the learned classes of eighth/fourteenth century Cairo, especially at the court of his patron, the Mamluk sultan al-Malik al-Ẓāhir Barqūq. On the basis of multiple recensions of the work, the text is approached as one that the author adapted over time according to his shifting personal situation and contentions with various interlocutors. Particular attention is paid to Süleymaniye MS Damad Ibrahim 863, the recension prepared for donation to Barqūq’s sultanal library. A critical edition of the chapter on lettrism as it appears in that manuscript is included, as well as a new translation of the chapter.
86 pages.
ISBN 978-3-86893-290-4.
Available from EB Verlag: https://www.ebv-berlin.de/epages/15494902.sf/de_DE/?ObjectPath=/Shops/15494902/Products/%22ISBN%20978-3-86893-290-4%22
Edited volumes by Noah Gardiner
Articles by Noah Gardiner
This is my contribution to a volume of articles on translating terms associated with the study of... more This is my contribution to a volume of articles on translating terms associated with the study of esotericism and the occult sciences to/from various languages. The full volume is available open-access at https://correspondencesjournal.com/volume-11/issue-1/.
God, He blows the spirit's breath into my mind, into my thought-the breath of Isrāfīl's last trum... more God, He blows the spirit's breath into my mind, into my thought-the breath of Isrāfīl's last trumpet! al-Ḥallāj (d. 309/922) (trans. Carl Ernst, 110) ∵
Part of the publication costs of this book were generously funded by the Gerda Henkel Stiftung as... more Part of the publication costs of this book were generously funded by the Gerda Henkel Stiftung as part of a two-year (2019-2020) individual research grant named "Shīrīn Maghribī: A Key Agent in the Transmission of Mystical Knowledge in 14th to 17th Century Sufi Networks" (research grant no. AZ 40/Fs/18). Cover illustration: Second circle about the manifested aspect of Existence and the manifested aspect of Science (dāʾira-yi duvvum dar ẓāhir-i wujūd va ẓāhir-i ʿilm) in Muḥammad Shīrīn Maghribī, Jām-i jahān-namā (ms Istanbul, Süleymaniye Kütüphanesi, Pertev Paşa 606, dated 1063/1653, fols. 130b-131a).
Mamluk Studies Review, 2017
The Antiochene occultist, littérateur, and professional court intellectual ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Bisṭ... more The Antiochene occultist, littérateur, and professional court intellectual ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Bisṭāmī (d. 858/1454) is best known as someone whose writings influenced Ottoman thought and ideologies of rule during and beyond his lifetime. It is argued here that al-Bisṭāmī’s writings shed important light on Mamlūk intellectual history as well, particularly regarding the rising interest in occultism in the Mamlūk cities of the late-fourteenth and fifteenth centuries—including at the court of the sultan al-Malik al-Ẓāhir Barqūq. Attention is paid to al-Bisṭāmī’s major work on the occult “science of letters and names” (ʿilm al-ḥurūf wa-al-asmāʾ), Shams al-afaq fī ʿilm al-ḥurūf wa-al-awfāq, which is approached as an “encyclopedic” work structurally reflective of major trends in Mamlūk thought and literature despite its seemingly obscure topic. The focus is on al-Bisṭāmī’s account of his initiation into the science of letters and names among various teachers in Cairo, Damascus, and Alexandria, and what this account reveals not only of the bustling occult scene in these cities, but also of broader changes that were afoot in Mamlūk learned society, especially with regard to issues of manuscript culture.
Arabica, 2017
The Ifrīqiyan cum Cairene Sufi Aḥmad al-Būnī (d. ca 622/1225 or 630/1232-1233) is a key figure in... more The Ifrīqiyan cum Cairene Sufi Aḥmad al-Būnī (d. ca 622/1225 or 630/1232-1233) is a key figure in the history of the Islamicate occult sciences, particularly with regard to the " science of letters and names " (ʿilm al-ḥurūf wa-l-asmāʾ). Drawing on textual and manuscript evidence, this paper examines the role of esotericism—religious secrecy and exclusivity—in al-Būnī's thought and in the promulgation and early circulation of his works in Egypt and environs. It is argued that al-Būnī intended his works only for elite Sufi initiates, and that, in the century or so after his death, they indeed circulated primarily in " esotericist reading communities, " groups of learned Sufis who guarded their contents from those outside their own circles. This tendency toward esotericism, and the eventual exposure of al-Būnī's texts to a wider readership, are contextualized in relation to broader developments in late-medieval Mediterranean culture. Résumé Le soufi ifrīqiyien puis cairote Aḥmad al-Būnī (m. ca 622/1225 ou 630/1232-1233) est une figure clef de l'histoire des sciences occultes islamiques, en particulier en ce qui concerne la « science des lettres et des noms » (ʿilm al-ḥurūf wa-l-asmāʾ). En s'appuyant sur des données textuelles et manuscrites, cet article examine le rôle de l'ésotérisme—
Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft, 2017
The Ifrīqiyan cum Cairene Sufi Aḥmad al-Būnī is a key figure in the history of the Islamic occult... more The Ifrīqiyan cum Cairene Sufi Aḥmad al-Būnī 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. In doing so 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, adding a uniquely occult-scientific twist to views deeply embedded in Sufi tradition of the saints as key executors of God’s word and will on earth. In the conclusion, al-Būnī’s approach to astrology is discussed as part of a transconfessional wave of esotericism in the late-medieval Mediterranean, one that heralded shifting ideas about the order of nature and the relationship between divine and human agency.
Keywords:
Al-Būnī, astrology, esotericism, occultism, science of letters, Ibn al-ʿArabī, Arabic manuscripts, Kabbalah, 13th century, Mediterranean, intellectual history
Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies, 2012
This article is a preliminary presentation of findings from an extensive survey of the large manu... more This article is a preliminary presentation of findings from an extensive survey of the large manuscript corpus of works attributed to the 7th/13thcentury Sufi and putative 'magician' Aḥmad al-Būnī. In addition to addressing the texts themselves, the survey has included attention to patterns over time in the reproduction of works, and to paratexts such as transmission certificates and ownership notices. Through detailed presentation of the latter, the article serves in a part as a methodological demonstration. It presents: 1) new information on al-Būnī's life; 2) a brief overview of the major works of the medieval Būnian corpus, with a proposal that five of these works can be attributed most securely to al-Būnī; 3) a discussion of the spread of Būnian works between the 8th/14th and 10th/16th centuries; and 4) evidence that the work through which al-Būnī is best known, Shams al-maʿārif al-kubrā, is in significant ways a product of the early 11th/17th century, and that at least two lines of teachers claimed for al-Būnī in this work were plagiarized from the works of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Bisṭāmī. It is argued that the tenor of al-Būnī's teachings and the history of their reception have been broadly misunderstood due to reliance on printed editions and a modern scholarly disinclination to regard the occult sciences as a serious topic of inquiry. It ends with a call for more complete integration of manuscript studies into the broader field of Islamic historical studies.
Journal of Islamic Manuscripts, 2011
The article describes the recent discovery by Noah Gardiner of the holograph fair copy of the thi... more The article describes the recent discovery by Noah Gardiner of the holograph fair copy of the third volume of al-Maqrīzī's Khiṭ aṭ ('description of Egypt') in the Library of Michigan University (Michigan Islamic MS 605). It is the only known Maqrīzī holograph in the Americas.
Short Pieces by Noah Gardiner
History of Science, 2023
This roundtable brings together contributions from nine senior, mid-career and junior scholars wh... more This roundtable brings together contributions from nine senior, mid-career and junior scholars who work on the history of science in pre-1800 Islamicate societies.
Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2020
This book is printed on acid-free paper and produced in a sustainable manner.
Web by Noah Gardiner
The online home of the international workshop Islamic Occult Studies on the Rise. https://islamic... more The online home of the international workshop Islamic Occult Studies on the Rise. https://islamicoccult.org
Dissertation by Noah Gardiner
University of Michigan. Without their curation efforts over the years-indeed, over the centuriesh... more University of Michigan. Without their curation efforts over the years-indeed, over the centurieshistorians such as myself would be all but useless. The present wave of digitization efforts that librarians have been pioneering will continue to make the kind of research conducted for this study more and more feasible, and I hope that those of us in medieval Islamic studies and related fields will rise to the occasion of utilizing and sharing with our students the incredible resources they are making available. I would like extend particular thanks to Jon Rodgers, Near East librarian at the Hatcher Graduate Library, as well as to his associate Evyn Kropf, with whom I first had the pleasure of working as a cataloger in the library's recent effort to re-catalog and digitize its Islamic manuscript collections.
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Monographs by Noah Gardiner
86 pages.
ISBN 978-3-86893-290-4.
Available from EB Verlag: https://www.ebv-berlin.de/epages/15494902.sf/de_DE/?ObjectPath=/Shops/15494902/Products/%22ISBN%20978-3-86893-290-4%22
Edited volumes by Noah Gardiner
https://brill.com/view/journals/arab/64/3-4/arab.64.issue-3-4.xml
Articles by Noah Gardiner
Keywords:
Al-Būnī, astrology, esotericism, occultism, science of letters, Ibn al-ʿArabī, Arabic manuscripts, Kabbalah, 13th century, Mediterranean, intellectual history
Short Pieces by Noah Gardiner
Web by Noah Gardiner
Dissertation by Noah Gardiner
86 pages.
ISBN 978-3-86893-290-4.
Available from EB Verlag: https://www.ebv-berlin.de/epages/15494902.sf/de_DE/?ObjectPath=/Shops/15494902/Products/%22ISBN%20978-3-86893-290-4%22
https://brill.com/view/journals/arab/64/3-4/arab.64.issue-3-4.xml
Keywords:
Al-Būnī, astrology, esotericism, occultism, science of letters, Ibn al-ʿArabī, Arabic manuscripts, Kabbalah, 13th century, Mediterranean, intellectual history
Abstract for my paper:
Samuel Zinner, "Overcoming Mind-Body Dualism in World and Text: Ancient Jewish and Modern Scientific Trajectories"
Abstract
Language origins are group-action oriented. Perception and speech, a mutually-reinforcing loop, serve action. The triad perception, speech, action is rooted in biology, neurobiology, and local “environment.” However, the speaker-thinker-actor is an integral element of the environment; consequently, mind is neither solely subjective nor world solely objective. Speech or writing can never fully convey thought, and often speech or writing conveys thought inadequately or even inaccurately. Conversely, however, thought can never fully exhaust the inherent meanings or implications of speech or writing. There are thus incapacities and inadequacies inherent in both thought and language/speech that is either spoken or written. When examining the origins and functions of language, one can therefore privilege neither interior thought nor exterior speech. Merleau-Ponty’s “body-subject” (modified) overcomes Cartesian dualism. “Modified” because body is neither exclusively subject nor exclusively object. Culture is inseparable from biology, neurobiology, and environment; culture, religion, morality, like language, are therefore not entirely arbitrary or conventional. Words (like culture generally) are determined by/within the parameter constraints of interacting/overlapping biological, neurobiological, and environmental systems. Cultural traditions, e.g., alphabet and number symbolisms, can exhibit tendentious or local aspects, but are nevertheless based in larger biological, neurobiological, and environmental systems that are both inseparably objective-subjective and yet neither of these exclusively. The inseparable dyad biology/body-culture/spirit can be illustrated in Judaism by traditions related to text. Gematria and acrostics at first sight seem like “hidden” textual components, yet they constitute part of the text’s “outward” body. A text’s straightforward statements have potentially (not actually) infinite unsaid and unsayable implications. A text’s “inward” and “outward” components consequently each possesses qualities that are hidden and revealed, indicating the ultimately artificial nature of the dyad inward-outward/esoteric-exoteric. Much of the “senses of scripture” models in Abrahamic religions is influenced ultimately by Philo of Alexandria’s model of the physical performance of the Torah’s commandments forming the Torah’s textual body, which provides access to the text’s hidden, allegorical “soul.” Philo thus anticipates medieval kabbalah, e.g., the zoharic Maiden in the Palace parable. The Jewish emphasis upon the acted, embodied word is congruent with the action-oriented origins of language/speech in which act predominates over theory.