Necronomicon

The Necronomicon, whose name roughly translates as “an image of the law of the dead,” is an ancient tome of evil knowledge which features prominently in H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos.

Here is a fragment from the book.

Overview
Said to have been written by the “half-crazed Arab” Abdul Alhazred who hailed from Yemen and worshiped both the Outer God Yog-Sothoth and the Great Old One Cthulhu, the Necronomicon was originally titled Al Azif, an Arabic term used to describe the noises made by insects during the darkest hours of the night. After wandering for years through many dark and forsaken places in his earlier years, Alhazred eventually settled in Damascus where he penned the volume shortly before his mysterious death in the year 738 AD.

In the following years, the writings gained notoriety amongst certain circles of scholars of the period, and was eventually translated into Greek in the year 950 AD, when it was given the name by which it is most commonly known today.

Over the centuries, the Necronomicon has been banned by several rulers and religious leaders in an attempt to destroy mankind’s knowledge of the evil entities and practices contained within, but has always managed to survive in some form or other, and there still exist several complete copies, and many more fragmentary ones, in the modern world.

Contents
The exact contents of the Necronomicon are unknown to all but a few, as even the act of reading the book is enough to turn some men’s minds to thoughts of evil, but it is a lengthy work, as evidenced by the fact that Wilbur Whateley referenced a spell appearing on page 751 of the unabridged copy held within Miskatonic University’s library. However, it is claimed to hold descriptions of many of the Outer Gods and Great Old Ones, along with several methods on the summoning and binding of these creatures, along with many others.

Known Copies
Only five institutions worldwide are known to have complete copies of the Necronomicon in their possession, although it is widely believed than many others exist in the collections of private individuals.

The locations of the known five copies are:
 * The British Museum
 * The Bibliothèque nationale de France
 * Massachusetts’ Harvard University
 * The University of Buenos Aires
 * Miskatonic University, also of Massachusetts.