Kitab al-Majmu (Arabic:كتاب المجموع,romanized: Kitāb al-Majmūʿ,lit.'Book of the Collection') is a book that is claimed to be a primary source of teaching ofAlawism. This claim has been asserted by someSunni Muslims and former Alawites.[1] They claim the book is not openly published and instead is passed down from initiated Master toApprentice; however, the book has been published by Western scholars, and both the original Arabic and French translation are available on the Internet Archive.[2]
Kitab al-Majmu contains sixteen suras (chapters) incorporated by Sulayman al-Adani in hisKitab al-Bakura...Kitab al-Majmu was published with a French translation byRené Dussaud in hisHistoire et Religion des Nosairis, 161-98. The Arabic text of the same is found in Abu Musa al-Hariri'sal-Alawiyyun al-Alawiyya (Dubai: Dar al-Itisam, 1980), 145-74.
The man who revealed the alleged book was Sulayman al-Adani, an Alawite convert to Christianity.[5]
It is also known asal-Dustoor, and has been attributed to an 11th-century Alawite missionary,al-Maymoun al-Tabarani;[6] however, Yaron Friedman says that the Dustur and Kitab al-Majmu are different texts and their identification is a mistake.[7]
Yaron Friedman suggests that Kitab al-Majmu was influenced by Jewish esoteric traditions found in theSefer Yetzirah; Friedman in particular points to the similarity of the texts in their letter mysticism, comparing Sefer Yetzirah's "great secret" (sod gadol) ofaleph-mem-shīn to Kitab al-Majmu's secret (sirr) ofʿayn-mīm-sīn.[8]
Some Alawites insist that theKitab al-Majmu is fabricated, some even suggesting that it is a forgery created by 19th century Christian missionaries.[9]
^Matti Moosa,Extremist Shiites: The Ghulat Sects, Syracuse University Press, 1987, p. 503, note 25
^Salisbury, Edward E. (1866). "Notice of كتاب الباكورة السليمانية فى كشف اسرار الديانة النصرية تأليف سليمان افندى الاذنى. The Book of Sulaimân's First Ripe Fruit, Disclosing the Mysteries of the Nusairian Religion".Journal of the American Oriental Society.8:227–308.doi:10.2307/592241.JSTOR592241.
^Matti Moosa (1987).Extremist Shiites: The Ghulat Sects. Syracuse University Press. p. 260.ISBN9780815624110.
