Background reading

The science of letters

In Arabic, letters double as numerals. That one detail gave rise to a whole field of study, and al-Būnī cannot be properly understood without it.

Letters as numbers

Prior to the adoption of the numerals now known as Arabic, letters were used to represent numbers. This practice is referred to as abjad, a term derived from its opening four letters, and it gives a numerical worth to each of the alphabet's twenty-eight characters.

The opening nine letters correspond to the numbers one through nine. Following that, the next nine cover ten to ninety. The subsequent nine span one hundred to nine hundred, and the twenty-eighth letter denotes one thousand.

This has nothing to do with the supernatural. It is straightforward mathematics, and for centuries it was the standard method of recording figures. Copyists employed it for folio numbers and calendar dates much as Roman numerals appear on a clock dial today.

Where it stops being arithmetic

When each word is assigned a numerical value, any two words sharing that value are linked by a hidden bond. This is the principle behind ʿilm al-ḥurūf, the science of letters.

For a researcher within this intellectual framework, the link was no mere chance to be dismissed. Arabic served as the language of divine revelation, with the Qur'an declaring itself to have been revealed in lucid Arabic. If that language was selected by God, then its grammatical and structural features hold meaning about the order of the universe, and the numeric connections between terms form an inherent part of that design, not a quirk of writing systems.

Beyond the figures themselves, the tradition added further layers of meaning. Every letter corresponded to one of the four elements, rotating through fire, air, water and earth as the alphabet progressed. Each was also connected to a planet and to one of the twenty-eight lunar mansions, the stages the moon traverses over a month. With twenty-eight letters and twenty-eight mansions, this alignment was seen as proof rather than chance.

What it was used for

Three things, roughly.

Interpretation. Reading the Qur'an for meanings carried in the numerical values of its words, particularly the mysterious disconnected letters that open twenty-nine of its chapters and that nobody has ever satisfactorily explained.

Contemplation. Using the Names of God and their letter-values as objects of sustained meditation. This is the least controversial use and the one closest to mainstream Sufism.

Procedure. The creation of talismans, frequently in the form of magic squares, where the numeric values of a divine Name are set out in an evenly proportioned grid. It is this application that brought the practice its notoriety, and it forms the greater part of what Shams al-Maʿārif includes.

A note on how to read this

It is not necessary to accept any of it in order to consider it worth reading. The framework is coherent within itself, held the attention of serious thinkers for a millennium, and influenced creative work, building design, medical practice and governance throughout a vast region. Grasping what learned individuals held to be true, and the reasoning behind it, is a sensible aim.

We are not asserting that any of it brings about a physical outcome.