The Necronomicon is an ancient manual of incantations
which was rediscovered in the 1920's.
Certain details of the text were published
by that writer of horror, H.P.
Lovecraft, though Lovecraft was but one of several authors of the time who mention the cursed book in their works.
In reality the Necronomicon was composed in
the year 735 by Abdul Alhazred,
who was also known as the "Mad Arab".
The lost city of Babylon was discovered by
modern man in the 17th century by the Italian
adventurer Pietro Della Valle.
It was also found one thousand years earlier
by the "Mad Arab".
Abdul Alhazred was a seeker of forbidden knowledge.
He probed the Egyptian tunnels beneath the
ruins of Memphis before the collapse of the
passages buried their secret contents.
For ten years he lived as a hermit in that
part of the Arabian desert where the sand
rings like a bell, attracting the unwary with
its song before swallowing the victim whole.
There he explored the empty streets of the
"City of Pillars" mentioned in the Koran.
After its inhabitants were annihilated by
God, the city remained standing.
The original title of the Necronomicon was
"Al Azif".
"Azif" was the Arab word used for the sound
of insects in the night which the superstitious
believed to be the whispering of demons.
Alhazred spent his final years in Damascus
where he wrote "Al Azif".
He died in the middle of a crowded marketplace
in front of a hundred witnesses.
Seized by an invisible force, he was torn
by it, limb from limb.
Alhazred was known for treating the religion
of Islam with indifference.
He worshipped an entity unknown at the time,
which he called Cthulhu.
The original text has been lost but in 950
A.D. a rare copy fell into the hands of Theodorus
Philetas of Constantinople.
He translated it into Greek and gave it another
name... the Necronomicon, which translates
as "the book of the laws for the dead".
When the Bubonic Plague swept through Copenhagen,
unlike other physicians of Middle Ages, Olaus
Wormius remained in the city to minister to
the sick.
Dr. Wormius was also a student of antiquity
and he translated the Necronomicon into Latin.
The last copy of the Greek version is believed
to have perished in Salem Massachussetts,
the same year in which the famous witch trials
were held.
The private library that held it was burned
to the ground.
The Latin translation was immediately banned
by Pope Gregory IX.
Of the Latin volumes that still exist, single
copies are held under lock and key by the
British Museum, the Bibliotheque Nationale
in Paris, the Widener Library at Harvard and
the library of the University of Buenos Aires.
Other copies of the Latin version are held
privately.
Microsoft magnate Bill Gates is rumored to
possess one of them.
The Necronomicon is suppressed by governments
and organized religions.
Merely reading it is said to lead to dire
consequences, misfortune and madness.
But because of insitutional suppression of
the work we have few details of its contents,
nor is there any photograph of its appearance.
H.P.
Lovecraft was often asked about the Necronomicon.
He did not believe it was the product of human
imagination.
He must have been one of the anonymous owners
of the terrible book, keeping it secret lest
he attract the attention of the authorities.
He described it as voluminous, having more
than 750 pages, bound in leather and secured
by metal clasps.
Lovecraft quotes a chilling passage directly
from the pages of the Necronomicon.
"The hands of the Old Ones are at your throats,
yet you do not see them.
Their habitat exists on a different plane,
but occupies the same space as your guarded threshold.
Man rules now where they once ruled, soon
they shall dominate where man dominates now."
