Ahmad al-Buni


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. Very little is known about him. His writings deal with 'Ilm al-huruf and topics relating to mathematics, siḥr "sorcery", and spirituality. Born in Buna in the Almohad Caliphate, al-Buni lived in Ayyubid Egypt and learned from many eminent Sufi masters of his time.
A contemporary of ibn Arabi, he is best known for reputedly 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, though his authorship of the text has been questioned.

Contributions

Theurgy

Instead occult, this kind of magic was called Ilm al-Hikmah, Ilm al-simiyah and Ruhaniyat. Most of the so-called mujarrabât books on sorcery in the Muslim world are simplified excerpts from the Shams al-Ma'arif. The book remains the seminal work on Theurgy and esoteric arts to this day.

Mathematics and science

In c. 1200, Ahmad al-Buni showed how to construct magic squares using a simple bordering technique, but he may not have discovered the method himself. Al-Buni wrote about Latin squares and constructed, for example, 4 x 4 Latin squares using letters from one of the 99 names of God. His works on traditional healing remain a point of reference among Yoruba Muslim healers in Nigeria and other areas of the Muslim world.

Influence

His work is said to have influenced the Hurufis and the New Lettrist International.
Denis MacEoin, 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. MacEoin said that Bābis made widespread use of talismans and magical letters.

Writings