The Wisdom of the East Series

Scouring through secondhand book stores, guided by his orientalist interests, this present author has, over the years, collected together a very modest set of a few volumes in the Wisdom of the East series. He would dearly love to collect the rest. These are a series published, mainly in the first few decades of the 20th C., and are very sturdy, nice-to-feel hardcover books in a convenient format brought to the English public through the selfless funds of the esteemed Mr. John Murray of London under the combined editorship of Mr. L. Cranmer-Byng and the English-Indian scholar Dr. S. A. Kapadia. (Shapurji Aspaniarji Kapadia). 

The stated purpose of the series is provided in a statement by the editors that would often preface the volumes:

THE object of the Editors of this Series is a very definite one. They desire above all things that, in their humble way, these books shall be the ambassadors of good-will and understanding between East and West, the old world of Thought and the new of Action. In this endeavour, and in their own sphere, they are but followers of the highest example in the land. They are confident that a deeper knowledge of the great ideals and lofty philosophy of Oriental thought may help to a revival of that true spirit of Charity which neither despises nor fears the nations of another creed and colour. Finally, in thanking press and public for the very cordial reception given to the "Wisdom of the East" Series, they wish to state that no pains have been spared to secure the best specialists for the treatment of the various subjects at hand.

There were, according to some accounts, a total number of 122 volumes published in the initial series each of which sold for the cost of five shillings. Many beyond that number were published subsequently. These days they can be found in secondhand stores for a few dollars. They were, in their day, very popular with the educated reading public and did an inestimable service in bringing oriental religious, philosophical and poetical literature within the reach of the English reading public. An advertisement for the series from the 1920s introduces the volumes in this way:

'The series and its purpose: This Series has a definite object. It is, by means of the best Oriental literature – its wisdom, philosophy, poetry, and ideals – to bring together West and East in a spirit of mutual sympathy, goodwill, and understanding. From India, China, Japan, Persia, Arabia, Palestine, and Egypt these words of wisdom have been gathered.'

The series was widely celebrated, and for good reason. Here are a few of the positive reviews offered of the series in the press of the time:

The Athenaeum. - "We wish that there were more of them; they are dreamy, lifelike, and fascinating."

St. James's Gazette - "The quaint and picturesque little 'Wisdom of the East' Series."

The Academy. - "Slim, tastefully bound little volumes." 

Manchester Courier. - "Worthy of close study by all who would penetrate to the depth of Eastern thought and feeling."

Literary Guide. - "We wish success to this little series of books."

Outlook. - "This Series is published to help in the process of renewing the spiritual and moral life of the West." 

The Scotsman. - "This Series should not fail to please readers of the more studious sort."

Southport Guardian. - "This Series will find considerable favour with all Students of Eastern Literature and Eastern Philosophy."

The Northern Weekly. - "I must confess that I am attracted by the Literature of the East. This week I have been reading the dainty little books issued by the Orient Press."

Bristol Mercury. - "We commend these little books to all who imagine that there is no knowledge worth having outside Europe and America."

Glasgow Herald, - "This new Series has a definite and lofty aim, and is deserving of support. The books are small, cheap, and well adapted for the pocket. Every page is regularly refreshing and stimulating."

North Devon Journal. - "The difference between Eastern and Western modes of thought is pointedly exemplified by this Series."

Halifax Guardian, - "They are well worth perusal and are presented to the reader in that attractive form which the Orient Press has been happy enough to hit on."

Field, - " Such books are valuable aids to the understanding of a far-off age and people, and have a great interest for the student of literature."

Irish Times. - "The volumes are charming in form, low in price, and excellent in matter."

Publishers' Circular. - "We unhesitatingly recommend them to all who can appreciate the ideal of goodness and holiness and the highest form of culture."

Public Opinion. - " These tiny books have much to commend them."

And here are several covers from the series:

The Instruction of Ptah-Hotep

The Master-Singers of Japan

The Awakening of the Soul by Ibn Tufail

Japanese No Plays

An Anthology of Modern Indian Poetry

A useful collection of works in this series in ebook format can now be found at the Sacred Text Archive. Follow the link here. 

The present author will try his best to gather together a comprehensive inventory in order of publication of the initial series on this page as accurate information comes to his notice:

The Sayings of Lao Tzu, trans. by Lionel Giles, 1905

Sad'is Scroll of Wisdom,trans. by Arthur N. Wallaston, 1906

The Book of Odes, A Selection of Ancient Chinese Poetry from the Shih Ching, trans. by L. Cranmer-Byng, 1908


The Conduct of Life, The Universal Order of Confucius, trans. by Ku Hung Ming, 1908


The Book of Filial Duty, A Translation of the Hsaio Ching, trans. by Ivan Chen, 1908

The Alchemy of Happiness, by Al-Ghazzali, trans. by Claud Field, 1909

The Confessions of Al-Ghazzali, trans. by Claud Field, 1909


Musings of a Chinese Mystic, A Collection of Texts Featuring Chuang Tsu, trans. by Lionel Giles, 1909


The Splendour of God, A Collection of Ba'hai Sacred Texts, 1909, trans. by Eric Hammond

Duties of the Heart, by Rabbi Bachye, A 12th C. Spanish Rabbi's Systematic Treatment of Ethics, trans. by Edwin Collins, 1909


The Path of Light, a translation of the Bodhicharyavatara of Santideva, a Key Mayahana Buddhist Text, trans. by L. D. Barnett, 1909.

The Teachings of Zoroaster, A Collection of Zoroastrian Texts, trans. by S. A. Kapadia, 1909


The Burden of Isis, A Translation to a Set of Hymns to the Goddess Isis, trans. by James Teackle Dennis, 1910

The Wisdom of Israel, A short Look at Jewish Wisdom Literature from the Talmud and Midrash, trans. by Edwin Collins, 1910

Ancient Jewish Proverbs, trans. by Abraham Cohen, 1911


The Bustan of Sadi, trans. by A. Hart Edwards, 1911


Sadi: The Bustan of Sadi, trans. by A. Hart, 1911


The Diwan of Abu'l-Ala, trans. by Henry Baerlein, 1911


The Religion of the Koran, by Arthur W. Wollaston, 1911


Brahma-Knowledge, A Short Exposition of Hindu Vedanta Philosophy, by L. D. Barnett, 1911


Yang Chu's Garden of Pleasure, trans. by Anton Forke, 1912


Taoist Teachings from the Book of Lieh-Tzu, trans. by Lionel Giles, 1912


Arabian Wisdom, Islamic Wisdom from the Koran, Hadith & Traditional Proverbs, by John Wortabet, 1913


The Diwan of Zeb-un-Nissa, trans. by Magan Lal & Duncan Westbrook, 1913

The Way of Contentment, by Hoshino, trans. by Kaibara Ekken, 1913


Buddhist Scriptures, A Short Collection of Buddhist Scripture, trans. by E. J. Thomas, 1913


Master Singers of Japan, An Anthology of Classical Japanese Poets, by Clara A. Walsh, 1914


The Religion of the Sikhs, by Dorothy Field, 1914


A Feast of Lanterns, A Collection of Classic Chinese Poetry, trans. by L. Cranmer-Byng, 1916

The Secret Rose Garden, of Sa'd Ud Din Mahmud Shabistari, trans. by Florence Lederer, 1920


The Buddha's Way of Virtue, A Translation of the Dhammapada, trans. by W.D.C. Wagiswara & K. J. Saunders, 1920


Ancient Egyptian Legends, trans. by Margaret Alice Murray, 1920


Buddhist Psalms, A Key Pureland Text, trans. by S. Yamabe & L. Adams Beck, 1921

An Anthology of Modern Indian Poetry, ed. by Gwendoline Goodwin, 1927

Yours,

Harper McAlpine Black

The Flight into Egypt

Nothing has alienated this writer from the "social gospel" of contemporary Christian do-goodery than the obsessive sentimentality some of his Christian acquaintances have towards asylum seekers and refugees. It has been a controversial issue in Australia for over a decade, and recently it has emerged as a global controversy and, in fact, one of the defining issues of our time. The constant refrain of these Christian acquaintances, and the cornerstone of their case, is simply that "Jesus was a refugee!" They draw attention to the gospel story of the Flight into Egypt by the Holy Family under threat of infanticide by Herod. Joseph, Mary and the baby Jesus packed up from Bethlehem, or Nazareth, or whatever they were resident in Judea or Galilee, and fled across the desert to Egypt. They were, that is, refugees - seeking refuge from a tyrant. It is a familiar theme in Christian art. Here is a wonderful version of it by Carpaccio:

And here is another, in the International Gothic style of Gentile de Fabriano, a personal favourite:

For a more contemporary rendering here is lovely version by the Georgian naif artist Natalia Slovinskaya:

And among the orientalists here is a wonderfully atmospheric painting by Luc-Olivier Merson entitled 'Rest on the Flight into Egypt':

So, there is no denying that the refugee is a gospel-based Christian theme. But in answer to these Christians who want to use it as a justification for their own 'open border' policies, the following two points need to be said:

1. Jesus didn't flee from the Middle East to Germany or Canada or Australia. He fled to the nearest safe haven. Egypt is immediately next door to Judea. And,

2. He went home again. In the same gospels we see Jesus in the Temple in Jerusalem as a boy, so presumably he and his parents returned to Judea after the threat of Herod was over.

Strictly speaking, therefore, the gospel models set practical limits to refuge. The model offered - since these Christians want to use the gospels as the model for refugee advocacy - is that refugees should flee to the nearest safe haven from the threat they face and they should return home again after the threat has passed. That, in short, is what Jesus did. That is the answer to the question, What would Jesus do?

This, broadly speaking, is the view this present writer takes to this vexed issue. There is, of course - by any Christian or other humanitarian reckoning - an obligation to shelter the refugee, but at the same time there are real limits to that obligation, and those limits are reached once a refugee becomes an immigrant. Refugees do not have the right to pick and choose what haven they shelter in. They are obliged to go to the nearest suitable haven. And then, when danger has passed, they are obliged to return home. If they exceed these limits they are no longer refugees but immigrants.

This is the proper response to the following picture which is circulating around social media:

It is not a picture of Syrian or Libyan refugees fleeing to Europe, it is a picture of southern European refugees fleeing to North Africa from the dangers of the Second World War. Once again, the same limits apply. Yes, Europeans fled to North Africa from the Nazis, but please note: (1) at the time North Africa was the nearest safe haven and (2) they went home again. (It might also be added that if you look closely they were mostly women and children.) That is what is different now. Currently we have waves of people - most of them young men - from Africa and the Middle East heading to Germany, not merely looking for safe haven but looking for residency. That is what makes them immigrants, not refugees. And to immigrants, different rules apply.

Yours,

Harper McAlpine Black

The Young Queen

                                    

On the evening of the day that Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, became the longest reigning British monarch in history the present author had retired to a hotel with several other gentlemen to discuss the state of the world over a few crafted ales. In bringing up the matter of the Queen's extraordinary longevity, one of the gentlemen made the observation that Her Majesty had, when young, been particularly beautiful. The adjective used, in fact, was "hot". This was generally agreed, even among those of us not particularly given to monarchist leanings. 

To celebrate the Queen's lengthy and on-going reign, and her great dedication to duty, therefore, readers will find below a short collection of photographs of the young Queen to demonstrate the same. She was, when young, a very beautiful woman. And, it must be said, her beauty is matched with her style and her timeless elegance. In a century of chaos, ugliness and corruption that has included, amongst other things, the dissolution of the British Empire - something once inconceivable - she has remained steadfast and unshaken in her duty, unfaltering in her wisdom, a perfect pillar of tradition. She is certainly the greatest asset of the British in our times and the only remaining recommendation for monarchy that we have. 

Yours,

Harper McAlpine Black

The Camp of the Saints

It is surely time for a new edition of Mr. Jean Raspail's seminal apocalyptic novel The Camp of the Saints. First published in 1973 it last returned to the bestseller lists in 2011 and continues to sell well. The reason is its prescience. It is a novel about mass Third World migration destroying European civilisation. It has been condemned as racist and xenophobic but the scenario it presents grow more eerily real by the day. 

The plot concerns an ill-founded humanitarian gesture by the Belgian government whereby it offers asylum and passage to Europe to poor citizens of Calcutta. The Belgian embassy is quickly inundated with the swarming poor of that city as parents seek to give their children to the Belgians. The Belgians withdraw the offer too late. This begins a flood of illegal immigrants into southern France that grows to apocalyptic proportions. By the end of the novel the whole of Europe has been over-run by people from Africa, Asia and the Middle East. It is a novel about the dangers of open borders. It raises important questions about how the West should handle the prospect of mass immigration. 

In the last month or so, of course, we have seen the immigration policies of the EU unravel as European polities struggle to cope with a tide of unfortunate immigrants from North Africa and Syria. Large numbers of people are on the move - too many for the current system to cope. In large measure this is a problem of Europe's own making and it is difficult to feel much sympathy for the strain of Germany and others in dealing with the crisis: the crisis is a direct result of NATO's aggressive policies in Libya and Syria. Like the Americans in Iraq, they have recklessly dismantled entire nations and created a mass of displaced human beings. There is some justice in the fact that these people are heading for Europe. Why not? it was the Europeans who destroyed their countries in the first place. 

But, of course, the problem is much greater than that. Western sponsored wars in Libya and Syria (and Iraq and Afghanistan) are the acute cause of the problem, but even without those wars large numbers of people - unprecedented numbers - are on the move across the globe. Raspail's apocalypse is nearer to reality now than at any time since it was first published. 

Monseuir Raspail himself is an interesting writer. He is a traditional Catholic and strongly opposed to liberalism and communism. Widely travelled, his particular interest has been those peoples and places that have failed to come to terms with modernity. This is a matter that increasingly occupies the current writer too: the problem of failed modernities. There are many in the world, most notably Arabo/Islamic modernity, and they are feeding a growing tide of immigration pressure upon Europe, North America, Australia and other so-called First World nations. Le Camp des Saints is suddenly essential reading again for a fictional backdrop to the eventual consequences of this contemporary crisis.

An English translation in ebook format is available here.

Yours,

Harper McAlpine Black

Timothy O'Sullivan - Photographs of the Wild West

It is somewhat rare for the present writer to venture into the sepia nostalgia of the old American West. He is far more interested and more at ease in the settlement of New Holland and has no enduring fascination for the rugged contours of the American frontier as do others. He has friends and acquaintances, for instance, who love the western as a film genre - a consuming fetish on their part - and who are thus moved to view that era and land as almost mythic; he does not usually share that indulgence, although these days he admits that the fascination is not entirely without basis. 

Recently he encountered the quite stunning photography of a Mr. Timothy O'Sullivan, a pioneering photographer who travelled throughout the Old West with a horse-drawn dark room and who photographed the people and the landscapes of that time and place. He is best known as a photographic observer of the American Civil War - his most celebrated picture is the 'Harvest of Death' showing the Union dead at Gettysburg - but his visual accounts of the territories of Utah, Nevada, Wyoming, Arizona and New Mexico, through which he journeyed in the late 1860s and 70s, are profound. These are remarkable pictures. It is hard not to be moved by the grandeur of the harsh landscape. Amongst other things he provides a visual record of the Indian peoples of those regions. 

Mr. O'Sullivan died of tuberculosis at the age of forty-two in the year 1882.

Here are a few examples of his surviving plates. For enlarged views, click on each picture. 

This picture shows the wagon of the photographer, his dark room and developing equipment in the rear of the wagon. Thus equipped, and with only rudimentary comforts, Mr. O'Sullivan traversed the harsh deserts and landscapes of the Western frontiers alone. 

The junction of Green and Yampah Canyons, Utah, 1872

Pyramid Lake, Nevada

A view of Santa Fe.

Inscription Rock, New Mexico, 1873

Shoshone Falls, Idaho

Canyon de Chelly, Arizona. Readers will note the tents in the foreground which provide a sense of scale.

Gold Hill, Nevada, 1867

The Pah-Ute. 

The Fortieth Parallel Survey Team, 1867

Formations in the Washakie Badlands, Wyoming, 1872

View of the White House, the Ancestral Pueblo Native American (Anasazi) ruins,
Canyon de Chelly, Arizona,  taken in 1873.

Yours,

Harper McAlpine Black

Charles W. Barlett

One of the most striking  and haunting illustrators of pre-partition India was, without question, Mr. Charles W. Barlett. Many European artists attempted to render the landscape and scenes of the sub-continent according to European conventions, some better than others, but few forged an authentically oriental mode which was at the same time faithful to the European observer. Mr. Barlett's work is outstanding in exactly this respect.

The characteristic feature of his style is that he combines a Japanese woodblock technique ( the ukiyo-e or 'Floating World' style) with subjects taken from the Indian landscape, along with portrayals of Mahometan and Hindoo life. He had the usual training in the European tradition but early in his career encountered the increasingly popular Japanese minimalist aesthetic. Accordingly, he later went to Japan to study and there mastered Japanese techniques. His second wife 'Kate' was from a wealthy family and had the resources to enable them to travel widely. This included a prolonged tour of British India. Eventually the couple settled in Hawaii and never returned to England. He is best known and often counted as an artist of those luscious islands.

The present writer is of the view that his woodblocks of Indian subject matter, made in and after 1913, are superb. Several of the better examples can be seen below. His studies of the Taj Mahal in Agra are especially outstanding. Here we see a beautiful and unique conjunction of orientalist sensitivity: a Japanese style applied to Indian subject matter by an English artist in a compelling and seamless synthesis.This is everything that is best about the orientalist artists, the capacity of assimilate and transcend and yet remain themselves. Select a picture to see the enlarged version. 

Twilight in Agra

Caravansarai at Peshwar

The Golden Temple, Amritsar

Benares

Benares

The Taj Mahal from the desert

The Taj Mahal 1916

Yours,

Harper McAlpine Black

The Gospel of Barnabas

From time to time readers will encounter tantalising stories in the media and these days its 'social' adjuncts of a long lost gospel that has been recently rediscovered that proves the Mahometan version of the life of Christ. Great claims are made for this gospel and it is usually said to be in the possession of museum authorities in Turkey. The media story keeps reappearing. The present author must have seen it four or five times now over a period of twenty years. It is an item of sensationalist drivel that bored journalists recycle on a regular basis. 

The document in question - although it is often not named in these stories - is the medieval Gospel of Barnabas. It is surely one of the strangest of texts from the occidental Middle Ages. It has long been an object of fascination because it does indeed present a Mahometan or at least Islaamified version of the life of Christ. It is clearly a work of the Middle Ages, although there remains the possibility that it contains material from earlier periods - even from the early Christian era.

Over the years it has been the centrepiece of the present author's academic work. Unfortunately, it has been - and continues to be - entangled in the febrile inter-religious disputes of Christian and Mahometan apologists. For their part, the Musulmans claim that it is the long lost Injeel of the Prophet Isa. The Christians, on the other hand, want to dismiss it as a worthless or even a "vile" forgery. The present writer is firmly of the view that it is best to consider it separate from this atmosphere of polemic.

You can find some work on this fascinating and mysterious text here:

http://medievalbarnabas.wix.com/fra-marinos-treasure

Here is a page from the said document. As readers can observe it contains Arabic margin notes. These have never been explained. In fact, we do not know who wrote this gospel text, when, where or why. After twenty or so years of research this writer believes he has a few clues but much of the mystery remains. Cross-posts of a few items on this mysterious Gospel of Barnabas will be placed here in the near future.

Yours,

Harper McAlpine Black

The Flying Carpet - Vasnetsov

Without dwelling on contemporary political events in the Ukraine, it is very clear that the Euro-American/Russian divide has been renewed in what amounts to a neo-Cold War. The present writer is of the view that this is a situation largely contrived and orchestrated by NATO and concerns geopolitical squabbles over resources and military domination. It certainly has little to do with "freedom" and "liberty" and other noble principles. On the whole, and in view of these events, he grow more sympathetic to the Russians, and Russian civilisation, by the day, and this has led him to delve further into the extraordinary artistic legacy of the Russian people. (Actually, it is not only an artistic legacy, but a spiritual tradition. Russia is not merely a country. It is a civilisation - a Christian civilisation - of extraordinary beauty and depth.) 

Accordingly, his explorations of Russian art lead him to uncover more and more treasures. Most recently, he discovered the works of Viktor Vasnetsov, born 1848, died 1926. He is counted as a Russian "romantic" who specialised in depictions of Russian mythology and folklore, but he was also an icon painter who produced profound Christian works including great frescoes in Russian cathedrals. He should be counted among 'orientalists' (Russia is 'east', after all) because there is a distinctly oriental ambience and oriental motifs in many of his works. For example, there are his paintings that feature that most oriental of motifs, the magic carpet. Perhaps his most famous painting is a picture of the Russian folk hero Ivan Tsarevich on a quest for the Firebird of Slavic legend on a flying carpet. Here:

Ivan Tsarevich is no one in particular. (The flying carpet is often associated with the more concrete hero, Baba Yaga.) Ivan Tsarevich is just a ubiquitous and pervasive hero in Russian legend. The Firebird is a feature of Slavic mythic adventures where, typically, the hero must seek out the bird having first discovered one of its feathers. Vasnetsov's painting of the quest is a bold, sweeping image that brings these two features of Russian folklore together through the oriental vehicle of the flying rug. The painting is often entitled Samolet (ie. air craft). You will note the crescent moon in the clouds.

The flying carpet is a motif the artist used several times. Here is another instance, more gentle and less spectacular and fantastic:

The magic or flying carpet, of course, alludes to the prayer rug - a device for spiritual flight, the ascent of the spirit. In this sense it is related to the symbolism of the cloud. Here is another painting - this time on a familiar religious theme, Madonna and Child (Bogomater) - by Viktor Vasnetsov:

There is much more to be said about this parallel. The flying carpet and the hovering cloud are closely related symbols. They recur in oriental myth and folklore - the Arabian Nights, for instance - often. Hopefully, this can be explored in future posts along with other works by this neglected artist. Vasnetsov is a wonderful artist with a rich folio of paintings and drawings covering both mythological topics and Christian iconography (in the Orthodox tradition.) 

Yours,

Harper McAlpine Black

Aleister Crowley and the Occult Orient

Crowley of Arabia. 

In the recent annals of Western occultism one figure looms large: Mr. Aleister Crowley. There is no need to rehearse his credentials here; of all the figures who embraced the occult revival of the late 19th C. he, more than anyone else, took it by the horns and pursued it with a life-long dedication. He was endowed with both a small fortune to spend and a very considerable and creative intellect to apply to the task. Raised by Plymouth Brethren Puritans, he devoted his adult life to the tireless exploration of occultism and magic, both white and black, and at length created his own religious edifice - "Crowleyanity" as some have called it - the cultus of Thelema, advanced by several organisations of Mr. Crowley's creation such as the O.T.O. (Order of the Templars of the Orient) and the A.A. (The Silver Star). Today, Mr. Crowley retains a wide and growing following having long been a darling of the counter-culture who were impressed by his libertine bisexuality, his endless indulgence of drugs and his personal war on Christian morality.

All of this is well documented. What is less well understood and has received less commentary is the extent to which Mr. Crowley falls into the category of 'Orientalist' and, indeed, the extent to which the so-called 'occultism' to which he was dedicated was and is an essentially orientalist enterprise. That is to say, it consists of appropriations from the real or imagined 'East'. Especially the imagined. In the case of Crowley his orientalism is easy to demonstrate. While ostensibly an exponent of the 'Western' path and a Master of occidental magic, the whole content of his doctrine is oriental in origin. For a start, the central structure of his teaching is an adaptation of the Hebrew Cabala based, largely, upon the alphanumerics of the Hebrew alphabet. To this he has added elements of yoga (via his teacher, a Mr. Allan Bennet) and a liberal dose of Taoism (very largely via the I Ching). This is all then incorporated into the distinctly quasi-Mahometan Masonic structures of the O.T.O. (Knights of the Orient) with, above all, a supposed sacred text called the Book of the Law which was written by this Mr. Crowley in Cairo in 1904. The 'Book of the Law' is nothing less than a pastiche of the Koran dressed up in Egypto-magickal clothing. Endlessly restless, Crowley travelled to India, journeyed across China and toured North Africa and the French Levant in search of his own variety of enlightenment. His journeys to Russia and his work as a British spy are less well documented.

Crowley dressed as a Chinaman. 

Crowley trekking in the Himalayas. 

It is very noticeable that there is little or no truly occidental content in this mixture. Like other Victorians, Crowley looked eastwards. In particular, when he needed a model for his system he looked to Mahometan models and to Soofism. Very few sources give full credit to this fact. The clues are all there, though, in books such as Mr. Israel Regardie's The Eye in the Triangle. Mr. Regardie notes that Crowley had immersed himself in the study of Mahometanism and had learnt to recite portions of the Koran just prior to the "revelations" of 1904. According to Crowley's own account (he is notoriously unreliable in accounts regarding himself, it should be observed) he and his poor wife Rose were living in Cairo when he, Crowley, was contacted by a "praeta-human intelligence" named "Aiwass" who appointed him Holy Prophet of the New Aeon and dictated the Book of the Law to him. That this is a carbon-copy of the story of the Prophet Mahomet having the new law of the Koran dictated to him by the Angel Jibreel is all too obvious. It is remarkable that more people have not commented upon it. In setting himself up as "Prophet" Mr. Crowley has modelled himself upon the Prophet of Islaam. It is a very obvious appropriation. There are stylistic and other parallels too. Those the new prophet deputised in his new religion he named "Caliph", among other strongly Mahometan gestures. While he was a vicious and embittered enemy of Christianity, Aleister Crowley wrote approvingly of many aspects of Islaam and adopted the prophetic structures of Islaam in his self-made quest for illumination.

The debt of Crowley to Masonic-Soofism and to Mahotemism more generally deserves to be the subject of a major study, or at least it deserves to be among the issues considered in a broader study of the "occult" as an orientalist phenomenon. We might start, for example, by noting that the magickal cypher ABRAHADABRA - one of the keys to Mr. Crowley's cryptic Cabala - is, like most "barbarous names" and "magical formulae" - just a European corruption of Arabic words. This is true of European occultism in general. It is a fringe phenomenon - a dabbling with the Other. (The Occult-as-Other and, conversely, the Other-as-Occult.) Aleister (his real name was Alexander) Crowley is a particularly transparent case. He was indeed a very English and very Victorian adventurer who became fascinated by the Orient, but in his case by the Orient as source of the mysterious, the occult (which is to say 'hidden') and, by extension, as source of the Sinister. It is a very persistent and very deep theme in European culture - Islaam as the Hidden, the Dark. Crowley devoted his life - brutish and coarse and grossly self-indulgent as it was - to exploring exactly that. It makes him one of the most interesting and colourful characters in this genre and a worthy focus for any study of the general topic, Mahometanism as the source of the occult.

Amongst other things the case of Crowley underlines what we might call the arena of shadows on the borderlands between European and Mahometan (Occidental and Oriental) civilisation. Think of the Occident and the Orient as being like tectonic plates. Where they meet there are fissures, eruptions, tremors, earthquakes. What is called the "occult" in the West is, very often, if not usually, a manifestation of those borderlands. The present writer proposes this as a general thesis. No consideration of Islaamic/West relations can be complete without some address to this borderland of shadows. There are deep and dark forces in that borderland. It is impossible - and very unwise - to consider Islaam/West relations without taking such forces into account. Arguably, as the two civilisations intermingle in the contemporary blending of 'globalism' and the supposedly 'post-colonial era' many of such forces are now loosed upon the world.


Yours,

Harper McAlpine Black