Hall 2 · Works
A multi-volume corpus of havas and prayer, printed for half a century, banned in 1962 and republished.
In brief
Gizli İlimler Hazinesi is the eight-volume work Mustafa İloğlu compiled on prayer, vefk and the science of havas. İloğlu published the work by his own means during his lifetime; after his death, his heirs transferred the publishing rights to Seda Yayınları.
Gizli İlimler Hazinesi is one of the most frequently printed works in the Turkish literature of havas and prayer. The work consists of eight volumes and, in common editions, is bound as two books.
Mustafa İloğlu states that he compiled the work over fifteen years, combining his own knowledge with old Arabic manuscripts he found in Lebanon, the Hejaz and Morocco. He explained the purpose of the roughly 2,500-page corpus as reaching this knowledge himself so that the public might be protected from the exploitation of sorcerers and charm-mongers.
Source: Bilinmeyen magazine — interview with Celal Kodamanoğlu
Reading room
The first 20 pages of each of the eight volumes of Gizli İlimler Hazinesi can be previewed by turning the book’s own pages. Open a volume with “Open preview”; a page-flipping reader appears within the page.
The introductory, methodological volume of the corpus. It opens with the author’s preface explaining why he compiled the science of havas; the rules of abjad numerology, the secrets of the letters, the properties (havas) of the Beautiful Names of God (Asmāʾ al-Ḥusnā) and the first basic vefk (magic-square) tables (the threefold method) appear here.
Built on methods for determining the ascendant hour, the zodiac signs and the planetary hours. It covers square vefk tables from order three to nine, the magnetism and hypnotism accounts of the period, and the 16 basic figures of geomancy (ʿilm al-raml) with their interpretations.
It treats the individual expositions of the Beautiful Names of God (the Name of Majesty, al-Raḥmān, al-Raḥīm, al-Malik, al-Quddūs, etc.) and the seal (hatem) drawings belonging to them. Formulas of healing, attraction (celb) and subjugation (teshir) are examined in detail in this volume.
It begins with the effects of Qurʾanic verses. The most debated sections of the corpus, the ones featured in booksellers’ lore — the seals of the spirits and the shields of protection — are gathered in this volume.
It focuses on the great litanies of the Sufi orders and prayers of healing: Wird al-Sattār, Dawr al-Aʿlā, Ḥizb al-Baḥr. The undoing of sorcery and bindings (ibṭāl al-siḥr) and spiritual remedies appear in this volume.
Arranged according to the classical havas school’s method of the Twelve Chapters (12 Bab): the conditions of preparation for an operation, the rules of ascetic discipline (riyazet) and fasting, incenses, the timing of the hours and the methods of scrying (mendel) are given systematically.
The most comprehensive astrological and star-book volume of the corpus. It presents the determination of states through the star-book, the Greater Abjad calculation tables, separate character analyses of the 12 zodiac signs for women and men, and planetary tables.
It begins with the commentary on Sūrat al-Fātiḥa in the science of havas (Fātiḥat al-Kutub); it continues with formulas for the attraction of love (celb-i muhabbet) and subjugation (teshir) and spiritual treatments, and ends with the closing prayer (Hātime) the author set down as he completed the work.
For copyright reasons, only the first 20 pages of each volume are offered as a preview.
You can find the work’s echo among the public and reader comments in the The Book’s Echo hall.