Kitab al-Ajnas ("The Book of the Races") is a Solomonic grimoire attributed to Asif ibn Barkhiya, the legendary vizier and chief minister of Prophet Sulayman (Solomon). This first complete English translation opens a window into one of the most important texts of the Arabic magical tradition, providing an unabridged rendering of a work that has circulated in manuscript and print across the Islamic world for centuries.
The text is organized around the seven categories (ajnas) of spiritual beings -- the races of jinn who inhabit the unseen world. Each category is governed by a king, and the grimoire provides the practitioner with the specific seals, divine names, adjurations, covenants, and ritual procedures necessary to summon, bind, and dismiss these beings under the authority of Prophet Sulayman.
Among its contents, the reader will find the preparation and consecration of the Seal of Mitatrun, the supreme angelic talisman; detailed protocols for the adjuration of the seven jinn kings, including Barqan, Shamhurash, Maymun, and others; the Solomonic covenant -- the binding pact established between the practitioner and the spirit world; exorcism methods, healing formulas, and protective amulets; the famous Barhatiyya invocation, one of the most widely cited conjurations in Arabic occult literature; and dozens of talismanic ciphers, magic squares, and ritual diagrams reproduced from the printed source.
Non-Arabic mystical syllables (voces magicae or "barbaric names") have been transliterated exactly as they appear, preserving their precise form. Arabic text is presented alongside English translation and scholarly transliteration throughout. Talismanic seals and ciphers have been reproduced as images to preserve their ritual integrity.
This translation is intended for scholars, historians of religion, and serious students of the Western and Islamic esoteric traditions. It is presented as a work of historical and academic interest.
