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Pub.Cat Books issues full English versions of important texts that have previously appeared in English only in part, or not at all. Full means full: each volume, each table, with nothing silently omitted.
The catalogue
Two titles have been published to date, and each one is a complete English translation of its source text. You can order the digital files or the printed volumes straight from us, or pick up the Kindle and paperback editions on Amazon.
All formats and prices listed together
Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī al-Būnī, died c. 1225
The foundational work of Islamic letter mysticism, complete in English: four parts in two volumes, 1,446 pages, with all 479 figures reproduced on 225 facsimile plates.
Aḥmad ibn ʿUmar al-Dayrabī, died 1151 AH (1738 or 1739 CE)
A Cairo manual of tested remedies, charms and magic squares, written by an al-Azhar jurist and, to the best of our knowledge, translated into English for the first time, with the Mujarrabāt of al-Sanūsī printed in the margin.
Shams al-Maʿārif al-Kubrā and Mujarrabāt al-Dayrabī
The PDF and EPUB of both titles in one purchase. Bought separately they total $22.98.
The first title
This work, composed by the Berber scholar Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī al-Būnī, who passed away in Cairo in around 1225 and was a contemporary of Ibn ʿArabī, stands as the seminal text in Islamic letter-mysticism. It deals with the study of Arabic letters, magic squares, and the attributes of the divine Names.
Over 800 years the work circulated through Ottoman record offices, West African madrasas and the Mughal imperial court, copied out by scribes each time. This version presents the full text of all four parts in English, with each illustration transcribed and reproduced in facsimile.
The complete set spans 1,446 pages in two volumes and includes all four sections of the longer recension, accompanied by a translator's preface examining al-Būnī's biography and the manuscript history.
Start here
Four introductory reference pages for those new to the subject. No registration or subscription required.
The story of a Sufi scholar from Annaba, his lifespan, his era, and how he became the most widely plagiarised and most fiercely criticised writer in the Islamic mystical tradition.
ʿIlm al-ḥurūf explained in plain terms: how every Arabic letter is tied to a number, an element and a planet, and how scholars put that system to use.
What a wafq really involves, how such a figure is put together, and why a set of arranged numerals became regarded as a charm.
A frank look at every English-language edition currently available, covering even those that suit particular readers better than our own.
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