Rare geomantic manual in a distinct Mashriqi recension

Salihi, Ibrahim ibn Shaban al- Al Bahr Azzakher Wal Falak Al Dai'r Fi Ilm Al Nabi Attaher Idris [The vast ocean and the revolving celestial sphere in the knowledge of the pure Prophet Idris]

€ 6.500,00

A rare Mashriqi manual of geomancy, preserving a practical and textually rich witness to al Salihi's work. This copy preserves an eastern Islamic witness to a text that is bibliographically recorded, survives in one Omani Mashriqui manuscript in the treasury of Sheikh Ahmed bin Muhammad bin Issa Al Harithi, Al-Qabil (see MS 102) and another 15th century Maghribi recension that we carry in our collection (see BN 68867), and thus is of extreme rarity in manuscript form.

The treatise is devoted throughout to 'ilm al-raml and is arranged as a working handbook for performance and interpretation. Its text moves through the operative logic of geomantic procedure with the directness of a manual meant for consultation rather than display.

The manuscript preserves a notably full practical character, with a variant arrangement of one chapter and additional instructions, including sections on food and on particular sand formations. These features give it strong value as an independent witness to the living transmission of the text.

Like the best working books of the occult sciences, it retains the visual grammar of the discipline itself, with geomantic dot figures and rubricated cues guiding use across the page.

Manuals of divination circulated not as abstract speculative texts but as portable tools of calculation, consultation, and applied judgment across the Islamicate world. This manuscript embodies that tradition with particular force, uniting practical instruction, diagrammatic clarity, and an appealing material presence in a rare survival of 'ilm al-raml.