The Necronomicon, also called the Book of the Dead or Kitab al-Azif in Arabic, is a fictional textbook of magic that appears in stories written by horror author H. P. Lovecraft and his followers. It was first mentioned in Lovecraft's 1924 short story "The Hound," which was written in 1922. Earlier, in 1921, Lovecraft's story "The Nameless City" included a quote from the supposed author of the book, the "Mad Arab" Abdul Alhazred. The book describes the Old Ones, their history, and methods for summoning them.

Other writers, such as August Derleth and Clark Ashton Smith, also included references to the Necronomicon in their works. Lovecraft supported other authors using his ideas, believing that shared references helped create a believable background of horror. Many readers have thought the book is real, leading booksellers and librarians to receive many requests for it. Some people have even added it to rare book catalogs as a joke, and one student placed a card for it in the Yale University Library's catalog.

Because of its fame, real publishers have created many books with the title Necronomicon since Lovecraft's death.

Origin and etymology

H.P. Lovecraft did not explain how he came up with the name Necronomicon. He said the title appeared to him in a dream. Some people believe Lovecraft was influenced by Robert W. Chambers’ book The King in Yellow, which tells a story about a strange and unsettling play. However, Lovecraft did not read that work until 1927.

Donald R. Burleson suggested that the idea for Necronomicon may have come from Nathaniel Hawthorne. Lovecraft himself noted that "mouldy hidden manuscripts" were a common feature in Gothic literature.

Lovecraft wrote that the title Necronomicon means "an image of the law of the dead" in Greek. This comes from the words nekros (dead), nomos (law), and eikon (image). Other people have translated the title differently, such as "Book of the names of the dead" or "Book of dead names." S. T. Joshi pointed out that Lovecraft’s explanation of the title’s meaning is mostly incorrect. He noted that the ending of the word -ikon is not related to "image" but is a grammatical suffix. Joshi translated the title as "Book considering (or classifying) the dead."

Lovecraft often said that Necronomicon was entirely his invention. In a letter to Willis Conover, he explained:

"Most of the 'terrible and forbidden books' are made up. There was never a real person named Abdul Alhazred or a real book called Necronomicon. I created these names myself. Robert Bloch made up the name Ludvig Prinn and his book De Vermis Mysteriis. Clark Ashton Smith invented the book Book of Eibon. Robert E. Howard created the name Friedrich von Junzt and his book Unaussprechlichen Kulten. As for real books about dark, occult, or supernatural topics, they are not very common. That is why it is fun to invent fictional works like Necronomicon and Book of Eibon."

The name of Necronomicon’s supposed author, Abdul Alhazred, is not a correct Arabic name. The word "Abdul" in Arabic means "servant" and is a noun. The word "Alhazred" is a name that includes a word meaning "the," which is not how real Arabic names are structured. Lovecraft first used "Abdul Alhazred" as a pseudonym when he was five years old. He likely thought "Abdul" was a first name and made up "Alhazred" as a surname that sounded Arabic.

Fictional history

In 1927, H.P. Lovecraft wrote a short, fictional story about the history of the Necronomicon. This story was published in 1938, after Lovecraft's death, as "History of the Necronomicon." According to this account, the book was originally called Al Azif, an Arabic word that Lovecraft explained as "a sound made by insects at night, thought to be the howling of demons." This definition was based on a note by Rev. Samuel Henley in his translation of the book Vathek. Henley wrote about "nocturnal insects that foretell evil," referencing the legend of Beelzebub, "Lord of the Flies," and a verse from Psalm 91. In some 16th-century English Bibles, like Myles Coverdale's 1535 version, the verse mentions "bugges by night," while later translations say "terror by night." An Arabic-English dictionary translates `Azīf (عزيف) as "the sound of the wind or a strange noise." Gabriel Oussani described it as "the eerie sound made by jinn in the desert." The tradition of `azif al jinn (عزيف الجن) is connected to the phenomenon of "singing sand."

In the "History," the book's author, Alhazred, is described as a "half-crazed Arab" who worshipped Lovecraftian beings like Yog-Sothoth and Cthulhu in the early 700s CE. He was from Sanaá, Yemen, and visited the ruins of Babylon, the hidden parts of Memphis, and the Empty Quarter of Arabia. In his later years, he lived in Damascus, where he wrote Al Azif before dying suddenly in 738. According to Ibn Khallikan, he was "attacked by an invisible monster in daylight and eaten before many terrified witnesses." Later, Lovecraft wrote that Al Azif was secretly shared among philosophers. In 950, it was translated into Greek and renamed Necronomicon by Theodorus Philetas, a fictional scholar from Constantinople. This version led to dangerous experiments before being banned and burned in 1050 by Patriarch Michael, a real historical figure who died in 1059.

After this, the book was rarely mentioned until it was translated from Greek into Latin by Olaus Wormius. Lovecraft said this happened in 1228, though the real Olaus Wormius lived much later (1588–1654). Both the Greek and Latin versions were banned by Pope Gregory IX in 1232. However, Latin editions were reportedly printed in 15th-century Germany and 17th-century Spain. A Greek edition was printed in Italy in the early 16th century. The Elizabethan magician John Dee (1527–c. 1609) is said to have translated the book into English, but Lovecraft wrote that this version was never published and only fragments remain.

Lovecraft noted that the Arabic version of Al Azif had already disappeared by 1050, though he mentioned a vague report of a secret copy appearing in San Francisco in the 20th century, which later burned. The Greek version was not reported after the burning of a man's library in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692, likely a reference to the Salem witch trials. In the story "The Diary of Alonzo Typer," a character finds a Greek copy of the book. According to the "History of the Necronomicon," studying the book is extremely dangerous, as those who try to learn its secrets often suffer terrible fates.

Appearance and contents

The Necronomicon is mentioned in many of H.P. Lovecraft's short stories and in his novellas At the Mountains of Madness and The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. However, Lovecraft did not provide many details about how the book looks or what it contains. He once wrote that "if anyone tried to write the Necronomicon, it would disappoint those who have been frightened by mysterious mentions of it."

In the story The Nameless City (1921), a rhyming couplet appears twice and is said to be written by a character named Abdul Alhazred. The lines are:
"That is not dead which can eternal lie.
And with strange aeons even death may die."

The same lines appear in The Call of Cthulhu (1928), where they are identified as a quote from the Necronomicon. Lovecraft refers to this couplet as "much-discussed" in that story. Other writers, such as Brian Lumley in The Burrowers Beneath, have also used the lines, adding a paragraph before them in their work.

In his story History of the Necronomicon, Lovecraft mentions that it is rumored the artist R. U. Pickman (from his story Pickman's Model) once owned a Greek version of the book. However, the book and Pickman disappeared in early 1926.

The Necronomicon is described as a very large book in The Dunwich Horror (1929). In the story, a character named Wilbur Whateley visits Miskatonic University's library to look up the "unabridged" version of the Necronomicon. He needs a spell from page 751 of a defective copy of the book he inherited. The story includes a passage from the Necronomicon that describes ancient beings called the Old Ones and their connection to a powerful entity named Yog-Sothoth. This passage describes how the Old Ones exist beyond human understanding and how they influence the world in ways people cannot see.

Lovecraft does not clearly describe the Necronomicon's physical appearance in his stories. It is often shown as a black-letter book, but it is also sometimes depicted as being bound in different types of leather and having metal clasps. In The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, a character named John Merrit finds the Necronomicon hidden inside a book labeled Qanoon-e-Islam on a shelf.

Many commercially available versions of the Necronomicon do not include the details Lovecraft described. The Simon Necronomicon, in particular, has been criticized for this.

Locations

According to Lovecraft's "History of the Necronomicon," only five institutions worldwide keep copies of the original Necronomicon. The Miskatonic University also keeps a Latin version translated by Olaus Wormius, which was printed in Spain during the 17th century. Other copies, Lovecraft wrote, were kept by private individuals. Joseph Curwen, as mentioned, owned a copy in the story "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward" (1941). A version is kept in Kingsport in the story "The Festival" (1925). The origin of the copy read by the narrator in "The Nameless City" is unknown. A version is read by the main character in "The Hound" (1924).

Hoaxes

H.P. Lovecraft believed that a well-written horror story should feel real and be structured like a believable fake. To achieve this, he often wrote his stories as if they were real-life reports or eyewitness accounts, leading some readers to think they might be true. Lovecraft felt guilty when he learned that fans searched libraries for real copies of the fictional book Necronomicon. Pranksters sometimes listed the Necronomicon for sale in bookstores or library catalogs. The Vatican has received requests for this book from people who believe the Vatican Library possesses a copy.

In the 1950s, several fake Necronomicon books were published, but none claimed to be genuine. These early hoaxes combined parts of real occult texts with references to Lovecraft’s stories. In 1973, George H. Scithers published a fake Necronomicon through his company Owlswick. The book included an introduction by L. Sprague de Camp, which claimed the text was untranslatable and described a fictional history of failed translators who died mysteriously. In reality, the book used repeated, meaningless symbols from a fictional language called Duriac. When some buyers believed it was real, Scithers tried to convince them otherwise. Around the same time, LaVeyan Satanists and other occult groups began using Lovecraft’s fictional mythology in their rituals.

Inspired by Scithers’ book, more fake Necronomicon editions were created. The most famous was the Simon Necronomicon, published in 1977 by a pseudonymous author named "Simon." This book had little connection to Lovecraft’s fictional universe but instead used Sumerian mythology as evidence of its authenticity. The author claimed the book came from an ancient manuscript older than Lovecraft’s stories, though no such manuscript exists. The book included references to two real-life thieves arrested for selling stolen manuscripts, but these individuals had no link to the Simon Necronomicon. It is likely that Peter Levenda, who owns the copyright to Simon’s works, wrote the book. Levenda has denied this. Another notable hoax was edited by George Hay in 1978, with an introduction by writer Colin Wilson. The book was created using a computer analysis of a "cipher text" from John Dee, but the "translation" was actually written by occultist Robert Turner. This version was more similar to Lovecraft’s style than the Simon Necronomicon and included quotes from Lovecraft’s stories.

In 2004, Necronomicon: The Wanderings of Alhazred was published by Canadian occultist Donald Tyson. Tyson clearly stated that the Necronomicon is fictional, but his book still caused controversy. Tyson later wrote Alhazred, a novel about the life of the Necronomicon’s fictional author.

Kenneth Grant, a British occultist and follower of Aleister Crowley, wrote in his 1972 book The Magical Revival that there was an unconscious connection between Crowley and Lovecraft. He believed both men drew from the same hidden spiritual forces: Crowley through magic and Lovecraft through dreams that inspired his stories and the Necronomicon. Grant claimed the Necronomicon exists as a spiritual book in the Akashic records and can be accessed through rituals or dreams. Grant’s ideas about Lovecraft were included in the introduction to the Simon Necronomicon and were also supported by Tyson.