A closer look
If you thought words only had power in a metaphorical sense, the thirteenth-century sorcerer Ahmad al-Buni would like a word. In his deeply controversial and heavily banned text, the Shams al-Ma'arif, he fully fleshed out 'Ilm al-Huruf' (the Science of Letters). He theorized that the 28 letters of the Arabic alphabet were the literal atomic building blocks of the universe, each corresponding to specific planetary movements and angelic hierarchies. By calculating the exact numerical value of a desired outcome and constructing complex geometric talismans out of the corresponding letters, a practitioner could supposedly reprogram reality like a cosmic hacker.
