And who better than Kemal S, an ironically elitist dilettante who digs sketchy coffee houses, Sufis, and Hermeticism? For the first time in a very long while indeed, I’m relieved to find a nice post on the Voynich Manuscript from someone with sufficient culture and wit to appreciate its enraging crosstalk without lapsing into Wikipedia-esque cut’n’paste brainlessness. Bless you, K, even if I’m unable to stretch to your standard fees (“Coffee, a kiss, and a back massage”, allegedly).
Notes for passing researchers: “Kashf al-Asrar al-Makhfiya” translates roughly as “Key to the secrets of the hidden ones”; while even though كتاب كنـز أسرار translates as “Treasure book secrets”, the manuscript name listed is [Makhtut] Ibn Sina Kanz Al-Asrar, a medieval grimoire attributed to Ibn Sina (i.e. Avicenna) but which actually looks to me more like handwritten copies of Powerpoint presentations taken by a bored Arabic MBA student. Finally, Malik ibn Anas was a real 8th century Imam and teacher, but I would be somewhat surprised if a dourly sagacious religious authority such as him wrote a “Kitab al-Sirr” (book of the secret)… but I guess you never know. 😉
Article on Book of Trasures:(if this is the same)
Max Meyerhof. ‘The “Book of Treasures”, an early Arabic Treatise on Medicine”, Isis, Vol.14, No.1,(May 1930) pp.55-76.
Meyerhof ends the article by regretting that he could not discuss “the most interesting pharmacopoeia of the Dhakhira. Many rare drugs are named with their Greek, Persian and sometimes Syriac names;several unknown compound preparations deserve investigation.”
The full title is The Treasury of Medical Science, though it is usually called the Book of Treasures
An exceedingly bored Arab MBA student at that..
The beauty of the Kitab al-Sirr is that it truly is a kitab al-sirr, the thing’s been lost for 700 years so God knows what the secret could have been, for all I know (and this is likely) it could have been on division of inheritance..
Malik ibn Anas, on a more serious note, was a man of secrets, particularly of political natures. I suspect him of having a rather extensive knowledge of the early civil strife that plagued early Islam. He was beaten by a local governor for certain political allusions he made regarding a couple of rebellions against the standing Caliph, but after was treated with a degree of deference, respect, and almost fear by the standing Caliph.
Kemal: the best secrets are always the ones at which we can only guess. Thanks for the post, and for dropping by too! 🙂
I’d appreciate p.o.v. of people with more experience in treating Voynichese.
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