Ahmad al-Buni

Arab mathematician, philosopher and Sufi

Sharaf al Din, Shihab al Din, or Muḥyi al Din Abu al Abbas Aḥmad ibn Ali ibn Yusuf al Qurashi al Sufi, better known as Aḥmad al Būnī al Malki (أحمد البوني المالكي, ), was a medieval mathematician and Islamic philosopher and a well known Sufi. Very little is known about him. His writings deal with 'Ilm al huruf (علم الحروف, the esoteric value of letters) and topics relating to mathematics, siḥr (sorcery) and spirituality. Born in Buna in the Almohad Caliphate (now Annaba, Algeria), al Buni lived in Ayyubid Egypt and learned from many eminent Sufi masters of his time. A contemporary of ibn Arabi, he is best known for writing one of the most important books of his era; the Shams al Ma'arif, a book that is still regarded as the foremost occult text on talismans and divination.

Instead of sihr (Sorcery), this kind of magic was called Ilm al Hikmah (Knowledge of the Wisdom), Ilm al simiyah (Study of the Divine Names) and Ruhaniyat (Spirituality). Most of the so called mujarrabât ("time tested methods") books on sorcery in the Muslim world are simplified excerpts from the Shams al ma`ârif. The book remains the seminal work on Theurgy and esoteric arts to this day.

In c. 1200, Ahmad al Buni showed how to construct magic squares using a simple bordering technique, but he may not have discovered the method himself. Al Buni wrote about Latin squares and constructed, for example, 4 x 4 Latin squares using letters from one of the 99 names of God. His works on traditional healing remain a point of reference among Yoruba Muslim healers in Nigeria and other areas of the Muslim world.

His work is said to have influenced the Hurufis and the New Lettrist International. Denis MacEoin, in a 1985 article in Studia Iranica, said that al Buni may also have indirectly influenced the Twelver Shi'i radical movement known as Bábism. MacEoin said that Bābis made widespread use of talismans and magical letters.