History of the Necronomicon.pdf

History of the Necronomicon

by H.P. Lovecraft

Written 1927

Published 1938

Original title Al Azif -- azif being the word used by Arabs to designate that nocturnal

sound (made by insects) suppos'd to be the howling of daemons.

Composed by Abdul Alhazred, a mad poet of Sanaá, in Yemen, who is said to have

flourished during the period of the Ommiade caliphs, circa 700 A.D. He visited the ruins

of Babylon and the subterranean secrets of Memphis and spent ten years alone in the

great southern desert of Arabia -- the Roba el Khaliyeh or "Empty Space" of the ancients

-- and "Dahna" or "Crimson" desert of the modern Arabs, which is held to be inhabited

by protective evil spirits and monsters of death. Of this desert many strange and

unbelievable marvels are told by those who pretend to have penetrated it. In his last years

Alhazred dwelt in Damascus, where the Necronomicon ( Al Azif ) was written, and of his

final death or disappearance (738 A.D.) many terrible and conflicting things are told. He

is said by Ebn Khallikan (12th cent. biographer) to have been seized by an invisible

monster in broad daylight and devoured horribly before a large number of fright-frozen

witnesses. Of his madness many things are told. He claimed to have seen fabulous Irem,

or City of Pillars, and to have found beneath the ruins of a certain nameless desert town

the shocking annals and secrets of a race older than mankind. He was only an indifferent

Moslem, worshipping unknown entities whom he called Yog-Sothoth and Cthulhu.

In A.D. 950 the Azif , which had gained a considerable tho' surreptitious circulation

amongst the philosophers of the age, was secretly translated into Greek by Theodorus

Philetas of Constantinople under the title Necronomicon . For a century it impelled certain

experimenters to terrible attempts, when it was suppressed and burnt by the patriarch

Michael. After this it is only heard of furtively, but (1228) Olaus Wormius made a Latin

translation later in the Middle Ages, and the Latin text was printed twice -- once in the

fifteenth century in black-letter (evidently in Germany) and once in the seventeenth

(prob. Spanish) -- both editions being without identifying marks, and located as to time

and place by internal typographical evidence only. The work both Latin and Greek was

banned by Pope Gregory IX in 1232, shortly after its Latin translation, which called

attention to it. The Arabic original was lost as early as Wormius' time, as indicated by his

prefatory note; and no sight of the Greek copy -- which was printed in Italy between 1500

and 1550 -- has been reported since the burning of a certain Salem man's library in 1692.

An English translation made by Dr. Dee was never printed, and exists only in fragments

recovered from the original manuscript. Of the Latin texts now existing one (15th cent.)

is known to be in the British Museum under lock and key, while another (17th cent.) is in

the Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris. A seventeenth-century edition is in the Widener

Library at Harvard, and in the library of Miskatonic University at Arkham. Also in the

library of the University of Buenos Ayres. Numerous other copies probably exist in

History of the Necronomicon

secret, and a fifteenth-century one is persistently rumoured to form part of the collection

of a celebrated American millionaire. A still vaguer rumour credits the preservation of a

sixteenth-century Greek text in the Salem family of Pickman; but if it was so preserved, it

vanished with the artist R. U. Pickman, who disappeared early in 1926. The book is

rigidly suppressed by the authorities of most countries, and by all branches of organised

ecclesiasticism. Reading leads to terrible consequences. It was from rumours of this book

(of which relatively few of the general public know) that R. W. Chambers is said to have

derived the idea of his early novel The King in Yellow .

Chronology

Al Azif written circa 730 A.D. at Damascus by Abdul Alhazred

•

Tr. to Greek 950 A.D. as Necronomicon by Theodorus Philetas

•

Burnt by Patriarch Michael 1050 (i.e., Greek text). Arabic text now lost.

•

Olaus translates Gr. to Latin 1228

•

1232 Latin ed. (and Gr.) suppr. by Pope Gregory IX

•

14... Black-letter printed edition (Germany)

•

15... Gr. text printed in Italy

•

16... Spanish reprint of Latin text

This should be supplemented with a letter written to Clark Ashton Smith on November

27, 1927:

I have had no chance to produce new material this autumn, but have been

classifying notes & synopses in preparation for some monstrous tales later

on. In particular I have drawn up some data on the celebrated &

unmentionable Necronomicon of the mad Arab Abdul Alhazred! It seems

that this shocking blasphemy was produced by a native of Sanaá, in

Yemen, who flourished about 700 A.D. & made many mysterious

pilgrimages to Babylon's ruins, Memphis's catacombs, & the devil-

haunted & untrodden wastes of the great southern deserts of Arabia -- the

Roba el Khaliyeh, where he claimed to have found records of things older

than mankind, & to have learnt the worship of Yog-Sothoth & Cthulhu.

The book was a product of Abdul's old age, which was spent in Damascus,

& the original title was Al Azif -- azif (cf. Henley's notes to Vathek ) being

the name applied to those strange night noises (of insects) which the Arabs

attribute to the howling of daemons. Alhazred died -- or disappeared --

under terrible circumstances in the year 738. In 950 Al Azif was translated

into Greek by the Byzantine Theodorus Philetas under the title

Necronomicon , & a century later it was burnt at the order of Michael,

Patriarch of Constantinople. It was translated into Latin by Olaus in 1228,

but placed on the Index Expurgatorius by Pope Gregory IX in 1232. The

original Arabic was lost before Olaus' time, & the last known Greek copy

perished in Salem in 1692. The work was printed in the 15th, 16th, & 17th

•

History of the Necronomicon

centuries, but few copies are extant. Wherever existing, it is carefully

guarded for the sake of the world's welfare & sanity. Once a man read

through the copy in the library of Miskatonic University at Arkham -- read

it through & fled wild-eyed into the hills... but that is another story!

In yet another letter (to James Blish and William Miller, 1936), Lovecraft says:

You are fortunate in securing copies of the hellish and abhorred

Necronomicon . Are they the Latin texts printed in Germany in the

fifteenth century, or the Greek version printed in Italy in 1567, or the

Spanish translation of 1623? Or do these copies represent different texts?

This text has been converted into PDF by Agha Yasir

www.ech-pi-el.com

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