History of the Necronomicon

by H. P. Lovecraft 

Original title Al Azif - azif being the word used by the 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 & the subterranean secret of Memphis & spent ten years alone in the great southern desert of Arabia - the Roba El Khaliyeh or "Empty Space" of the ancients - & "Dahna" or "Crimson" desert of the modern Arabs, which is held to be inhabited by protective evil spirits & monsters of death. Of this desert many strange & 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, & of his final death or disappearance (738 A. D.) Many terrible & conflicting things are told. He is said by Ebn Khallikan (12th cent. biographer) to have been seized by an invisible monster in broad daylight & devoured horribly before a large number of fright-frozen witnesses. Of his madness many things are told. He claimed to have been the fabulous Irem, or City of Pillars, & to have found beneath the ruins of a certain nameless desert town the shocking annals & secrets of a race older than mankind. He was only an indifferent Moslem, worshipping unknown entities whom he called Yog-Sothoth & Cthulhu.

In A. D. 950 the Azif, which had gained a considerable tho' surreptitious circulation among 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, & the Latin text was printed twice - one in the 15th century in black-letter (evidently in Germany) & once in the 17th - (prob. Spanish) both editions being without identifying marks, & located as to time & place by internal typographical evidence only. The work (both Latin & Gk.) 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 & no sight of the Greek copy (which was printed in Italy bet. 1500 & 1550) has been reported since the burning of a certain Salem man's library in 1692. A translation made by Dr. Dee was never printed, & exists only in fragments recovered from the original MS. Of the Latin texts now existing one (15th cent.) is known to be in the British Museum under lock & key, while another (17th cent.) is in the Bibliotheque Nationale at Paris. A 17th cent. edition is in the Widener Library at Harvard, & in the library of Miskatonic University at Arkham. Also in the library of the Univ. of Buenos Ayres. Numerous other copies probably exist in secret, & a 15th 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 16th cent. 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 rapidly suppressed by the authorities of most countries, & by all the branches of organized 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".

H. P. Lovecraft

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. (& Gr.) suppr. By Pope Gregory IX

14... black-letter edition published (Germany)

15... Gr. text printed in Italy

16... Spanish printing of Latin text