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Kashifī's Asrār-i Qāsimī and Timurid Magic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Pierre Lory
Pierre Lory*
Affiliation:
École Pratique des Hautes Études, Section des Sciences religieuses, Paris
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Extract

The Work of the Scholar, Moralist and Exegete, Husayn Kashifi, is Fairly well-known, and becomes even more so with the appearance of this special issue of Iranian Studies. On the other hand, the esoteric dimension of Kashifi's work has received far less attention. It represents, however, an integral part of the author's world vision. The goal of the present article is to cast light on the principal ideas and character of Kashifi's work on magic, entitled Asrār-i Qāsimī. This medium-sized book opens like any other, as if it were dealing with a subject as incontestable as pharmacology or astronomy. Its goal, however, is to outline the procedures that enable one to participate in the hidden laws that connect all living things. Kashifi's stated purpose is to make the contents of the voluminous general surveys of the Ancients on esotericism accessible to a wider Persian-speaking audience.

Type
Articles
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 36 , Issue 4: Husayn Vaᶜiz-i Kashifi , December 2003 , pp. 531 - 541
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for Iranian Studies 2003

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References

1. Asrār-i Qāsimī, lithograph edition of the Muhammad Hasan ᶜAlami Press, no date or place of publication (hereafter AQ). I would like to thank Živa Vesel for drawing my attention to this work and for making it available to me. I am also grateful to her for her advice and encouragement. See fig. 1.

2. AQ, 4–5.

3. AQ, 3.

4. AQ, 4.

5. Sezgin, Fuat, Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums (Leiden, 1971), 4: 3–7Google Scholar.

6. See D. B. MacDonald-[T. Fahd], “Sīmiyāᵓ,” EI 2, 9: 612–13.

7. AQ, 4.

8. AQ, 42, 57–58.

9. AQ, 47ff.

10. AQ, 13ff. For filiqtīr, see Winkler, H. A., Siegel und Charaktere in der muhammedanischen Zauberei (Munich, 1980)Google Scholar, 160ff.

11. AQ, 17. The text mentions “Husayn ibn Ishaq,” which is obviously a mistake. See also Ullmann, Manfred, Die Natur- und Geheimwissenschaften im Islam (Leiden, 1972), 364–65Google Scholar.

12. Ullmann, Die Natur- und Geheimwissenschaften, 383.

13. AQ, 62ff.

14. AQ, 67–68.

15. AQ, 82.

16. AQ, 82.

17. AQ, 86ff.

18. See Ullmann, Die Natur- und Geheimwissenschaften , 391–92.

19. AQ, 4.

20. AQ, 4.

21. AQ, 78.

22. AQ, 129–49.

23. See Sezgin, Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums, 4: 119; Ullmann, Die Natur- und Geheimwissenschaften, 381, and 298–99.

24. AQ, 96.

25. AQ, 110.

26. AQ, 115.

27. AQ, 120–21.

28. AQ, 103, 108–110, 112–14, 116, 123–24, and 126.

29. AQ, 123.

30. Ullmann, Die Natur- und Geheimwissenschaften , 368–78.

31. AQ, 3.

32. It was translated by Joseph Hammer in 1804. See Sezgin, Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums, 4: 281–83; Ullmann, Die Natur- und Geheimwissenschaften, 2–3 and 441.

33. AQ, 3.

34. AQ, 107.

35. AQ, 149.

36. Ullmann, Die Natur- und Geheimwissenschaften, 388–90.

37. AQ, 160.

38. AQ, 162–63.

39. Hayyan, Jabir ibn, Dix traités d’alchimie, trans. Lory, P. (Paris, 1996)Google Scholar, 62ff. and 227ff.

40. Ullmann, Die Natur- und Geheimwissenschaften, 231.

41. See Sezgin, Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums, 4: 125–26Google Scholar; Ullmann, Die Naturund Geheimwissenschaften, 193–94.

42. Holmyard, E. J., “Maslama al=Majrîṭiî and the Rutbatu’l=Ḥakîm,” Isis 6 (1924): 293–305CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

43. AQ, 3.

44. For example, the astral invocation in sīmiyā—AQ, 47.

45. AQ, 4.

46. AQ, 5.

47. Gholam Hosein Yousofi, “Kāshifī,” EI 2, 4: 705.

48. A useful assessment is found in Saliba, George, “The Role of the Astrologer in Medieval Islamic Society,” Bulletin d’éetudes orientales 44 (1993): 45–68Google Scholar.

49. AQ, 47.

50. AQ, 4.