The Necronomicon: Origin & History
H.P. Lovecraft’s invented book, the Necronomicon, has spawned thousands of literary ideas, all over the world; both mysterious and mystical. Some believe in its real existence, others acknowledge that it is completely the invention of Lovecraft, still others persist regardless of Lovecraft’s own words:
“Now about the “terrible and forbidden books” - I am forced to say that most of them are purely imaginary. There never was any Abdul Alhazred or Necronomicon, for I invented these names myself. Robert Bloch devised the idea of Ludvig Prinn and his De Vermis Mysteriis, while the Book of Eibon is an invention of Clark Ashton Smith’s. Robert E. Howard is responsible for Friedrich von Junzt and his Unaussprechlichen Kulten…. As for seriously-written books on dark, occult, and supernatural themes - in all truth they don’t amount to much. That is why it’s more fun to invent mythical works like the Necronomicon and Book of Eibon.”
–based on the semantical phrase he uses, “most of them”, –he implies that perhaps, some form of the book does exist. Lovecraft claimed that the name for the book came to him in a dream, but later explained that the name meant “an image of the law of the dead” based on a rough understanding of the Greek language. Later on, he would describe the history of the book, according to the fictional author, Abdul Alhazred.
A History of The Necronomicon, was not published until after Lovecraft has already died, but in it, he explains more of the fictional background for the Necronomicon. The author, was an imagined man called Abdul Alhazred, an Arab, according to Lovecraft, though the first name is only properly Arab, and it means “slave of”. Alhazred, is not an Arab name, though a branch of Lovecraft’s family was surnamed “Hazard”, and some believe he draws his inspiration from that source.
According to Lovecraft’s history of the book, Abdul was a half insane Arabian man, who worshipped the Lovecraftian gods, such as Cthulu, and Yog-Sothoth, and other such entities. Abdul’s history was thus: having originated from Sanaa, in Yemen, he later traveled to the ruins of Babylon, the underground of Memphis in Egypt, and the Empty Quarter in Arabia, where he discovered the “nameless city” beneath Irem, –the subject of a story by Lovecraft, titled The Nameless City. In the years before his mysterious and inexplicable death, Abdul wrote Al Azif, (Azif meaning a night sound, in Arabian) the book that would be later named the Necronomicon by a fictional Greek philosopher.
