Tumtum the Indian: A Treatise on the Planetary Spirits and their Governance (Arabic Islamicate Occult Manuscripts in Translation)

Tumtum al-Hindi ("Tumtum the Indian") is one of the most celebrated grimoires in the Arabic occult tradition, attributed to a legendary Indian sage whose esoteric knowledge was transmitted into the Islamic magical corpus. This handwritten manuscript represents a practical manual of stellar magic, talismanic operations, love spells, and spiritual conjuration drawn from the intersection of Indian and Islamic esoteric traditions.The text is structured as a series of discrete operational chapters (abwab), each providing complete instructions for a specific magical goal. The operations span a wide range of practical concerns: attraction and love magic (jalb, tahyij, tahbib), reconciliation between estranged persons (sulh), gaining favor and acceptance (qabul), inspiring awe and reverence (hayba), securing livelihood and provision (rizq), and binding spiritual servants to ongoing service. Each chapter typically specifies the required incense, the appropriate planetary hour or day, the divine names or barbaric names to invoke, and the talismanic seal or magic square to inscribe.Among the text's distinctive features are its extensive use of hand-drawn talismanic seals and magic squares, its invocations combining Quranic verses with barbaric names (voces magicae) in the Solomonic tradition, and its practical instructions involving everyday materials such as pepper, salt, candles, and aloeswood. The adjurations frequently invoke the authority of Prophet Solomon (Sulayman) and his covenant with the jinn, a theological framework shared across the Arabic occult canon.This first complete English translation preserves the full text without abridgment or editorial commentary. Prayers, invocations, and ritual formulae are presented in a three-layer format: English translation, scholarly transliteration following the ALA-LC standard, and the original Arabic script. Barbaric names and non-Arabic mystical syllables have been transliterated exactly as they appear, preserving their precise ritual form. All 88 talismanic seals, magic squares, and ritual diagrams have been reproduced as images directly from the source manuscript to maintain their visual integrity.The original manuscript is a handwritten codex that has survived for centuries in the Arabic-speaking world. This translation is intended for scholars of Islamic esotericism, historians of religion, comparative occultists, and serious students of the Arabic magical tradition. Read more