Xref: utzoo news.groups:15156 talk.religion.newage:5031 Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!rutgers!elbereth.rutgers.edu!cje From: cje@elbereth.rutgers.edu (Cthulhu's Jersey Epopt) Newsgroups: news.groups,talk.religion.newage Subject: Al Azif (was Re: Poll results on newsgroup name) Message-ID: Date: 28 Nov 89 21:12:36 GMT References: <982@mit-amt.MEDIA.MIT.EDU> <50495@oliveb.olivetti.com> <1989Nov10.023949.17957@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu> <20752@ut-emx.UUCP> <21086@ut-emx.UUCP> <9020@hoptoad.uucp> <1989Nov25.225355.11761@athena.mit.edu> Organization: Miskatonic U. Computer Operations & User Services Lines: 28 Cc: cje In article <1989Nov25.225355.11761@athena.mit.edu> cordelia@athena.mit.edu (Graywing) [Andy Ellis] writes: > A couple of questions for the more knowledgeable: ... > d> know of the truth of the former existance of _Al Azif_? Are you asking if the *Al Azif* ever existed? If so, the answer is no. Lovecraft invented it out of whole cloth. (For those not "in the know", *Al Azif* is, in H. P. Lovecraft's stories, an Arabic work of "demonology" which was later translated into the Greek "Necronomicon". "Al Azif" is supposed to refer to a buzzing sound made by certain nocturnal insects, a sound which was popularly regarded as being the howling of demons.) Did HPL base *Al Azif*/*Necronomicon* on a real text? Possible, but doubtful. Lovecraft never demonstrated any serious interest in the occult or in ancient occult texts; he just used them as fodder for various stories. It's unlikely that he would have seen some fabulously rare text -- he wasn't that serious a scholar. -- Yog-Sothoth Neblod Zin, Chris Jarocha-Ernst UUCP: {ames, att, harvard, moss, seismo}!rutgers!elbereth.rutgers.edu!cje ARPA: JAROCHAERNST@CANCER.RUTGERS.EDU CCIS, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ 08855-0879 Brought to you by Super Global Mega Corp .com