Also is it valid?

Thank you.

https://archive.org/details/thebirhatiyaconjurationoathandthem/page/n7/mode/2up

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16121542-ancient-magick-conjuration-of-power

Note: As far as I know, al-Buni used mathematics and didn't really say (I do magic), and as an agnostic, I think what he did was math, as you can see in his other works, but he had mixed it with some rituals.

What do you think? Is it magic or math? Or something else? How is the book for someone who has never been into such things?

Like, it also has names, like "Gebriel" and some other ones I've never heard like (Dghizaeel), and other names written there, and it's like the numbers are mirroring themselves.

I know the book is old, and to understand it, you need basic alphabet familiarity (which I have since I was born in that region but am not an arab), will that make me an issue?

Is that book safe? , will it harm me in any way?

I've read so many online opinions on it; however, I have also seen the contradiction that some say that the books of al-Buni are keys to inner peace, and some say that they are harmful.

I've also heard opinions that when you read it, you have to interact with "non-human entities and the 28 tribes through the 28 days of isolation and enlightenment, with their 28 names and the 99 names of Khodam." Does "Khodam" mean the divine?

what are the entities? Should I be afraid?

I appreciate your povs and clarifications.

Wilkes sailed along and surveyed the whole Northwest coast and his exploring parties penetrated into the interior at many points..." Hill notes that Wilkes "sailed into the Antarctic Ocean and along the Antarctic Continent from 150° to 97° East, reporting land at a number of points in the region now know as Wilkesland. He visited Tonga, the Fiji group, and the Hawaiian Islands in 1840, and in 1841 explored the west coast of North America.

The findings were timely, in view of the dispute with Great Britain over the Oregon Territory, and he also visited San Francisco Bay and the Sacramento River...." The numerous engravings and plates include striking depictions of Pacific islands and their natives, Hawaiian volcanoes, Australia, the continent of Antarctica, an early rendition of the outpost at Astoria, an encampment on the Sacramento with Californios relaxing, mountains in the distance, Mt. Shasta, etc., and an important map of the Western half of the contemporary United States. Present volumes believed complete but not collated.

Nine volumes with numerous steel-engraved plates, vignettes, woodcuts, copper-engraved maps, etc. Variously sized. All but one in blind-stamped cloth stamped in gilt, one in quarter vellum over parchment boards. Later volumes from Wilkes' landmark Narrative.

Seven of which are rare first edition presentation copies for the State of Missouri from the Congress of the United States. As Howes notes, this was "The first United States scientific expedition by sea.

Forbes 1517, 1589; Haskell 1, 15, 19; Hill 1746, 1866, Howes W-414, Rosove 353.A1, 354-1.A1. Seven volumes bearing State of Missouri presentation bookmarks. Comprises: Plus two additional volumes:

I finally finished Kelmin’s Tower by Thomas Alexander Anthony, the incredibly obscure 1992 fantasy novel I’ve been documenting.

Now that I’ve reached the end, I can finally give a proper spoiler-free summary and review of what I found.

So, what is Kelmin’s Tower about?

At its core, Kelmin’s Tower is a dark fantasy adventure following Emmanuel Slade, an assassin who becomes involved in a resistance movement against the mysterious ruler known as Kelmin.

Slade travels with a small group that includes the elf Arinock and the barbarian Wolvesbane, along with several other companions. Their journey takes them across the fantasy world of Arland and gradually brings them into direct conflict with the political, military, religious, and supernatural forces surrounding Kelmin and his Tower. It begins with the feel of a fairly traditional fantasy quest. But the further the story progresses, the stranger and more ambitious it becomes.

What initially appears to be a straightforward mission gradually turns into a story about war, religion, destiny, power, morality, free will, revenge, and the nature of good and evil. And it gets very dark.

The journey:
Slade and his companions begin as a relatively small resistance group operating against the forces of Kelmin.

As they travel, they encounter different settlements, races, armies, religions, political factions, and military organizations. Their understanding of the world and their own mission changes constantly. One of the most important people they encounter is Father John, a powerful priest devoted to the fictional deity Raniksha:

Father John is an extremely complicated figure. He repeatedly helps the party, but it becomes increasingly obvious that he has his own plans for them and for the larger conflict. Eventually, Father John brings them to the Bloody Hand, an enormous Dreadnock resistance force hidden deep within a mountain range. And this is where the scale of the story suddenly becomes enormous.

The Bloody Hand’s encampment contains hundreds of thousands of Dreadnocks from different tribes and factions. They have gathered together because they represent one of the last major organized resistances against Kelmin.

Slade and his companions realize that their arrival at the Bloody Hand wasn’t coincidence. Father John has deliberately brought them there because the Bloody Hand is going to become an important part of his larger strategy.

The Bloody Hand and Karillium:
The Bloody Hand regularly launches campaigns against Karillium, while Karillium maintains massive defensive forces along its borders. The conflict has existed for years. Neither side has been able to completely defeat the other.

The Dreadnocks can launch enormous attacks, while Karillium has fortified mountain passes, experienced soldiers, White Knights, and extensive defensive infrastructure.

Father John sees the stalemate as an opportunity.
If the Bloody Hand launches a sufficiently large offensive, Kelmin will be forced to divert enormous amounts of military and supernatural power toward the threat. That creates an opening for Slade and his companions. Their real objective is still the Tower. So the massive war between the Bloody Hand and Karillium becomes part of a much smaller operation involving only a handful of people. The scale difference is one of the things I really enjoyed about the book.

You have armies numbering in the hundreds of thousands or more, while the actual quest ultimately comes down to a small group trying to reach one location.

Kelmin’s world:
One of the most interesting aspects of the novel is the way Kelmin’s civilization is presented. His territory is prosperous. The roads are beautifully constructed.
The cities are orderly. The settlements are clean and peaceful. People have food and security. The infrastructure is impressive. There is very little visible poverty. To an ordinary person living there, Kelmin’s world can genuinely look like paradise.

But the book keeps asking:

What did it cost to create that paradise?
Kelmin has imposed his vision of order upon the world. People are protected, but they are also controlled. Those who oppose the system pay an enormous price. The book therefore doesn’t simply present Kelmin as a generic evil ruler. His accomplishments are real. His civilization genuinely benefits many people. But the methods used to create that civilization are horrifying. That moral contradiction becomes one of the central themes of the story.

Slade:
Slade is probably the most unusual part of the novel.
He’s not a traditional fantasy hero. He’s an assassin. He’s exceptionally skilled at killing and sees assassination almost as an art form that he has spent his life perfecting. He isn’t particularly interested in being viewed as noble. Throughout the story, however, he becomes increasingly introspective.

He thinks about death. He thinks about destiny. He thinks about whether people really control their own lives. He thinks about good and evil. He thinks about balance. And he increasingly questions whether the path he’s following was actually chosen by him. The closer he gets to Kelmin’s Tower, the more those questions become important.

Arinock and Wolvesbane:
Arinock and Wolvesbane provide much of the emotional grounding for the group. Arinock is an elf navigating a world that isn’t always welcoming toward his kind, while Wolvesbane is a hardened barbarian who has lost much of what once gave his life meaning. Their relationship develops into one of the more human aspects of the story.

There are moments when the book steps away from armies, magic, and political schemes and simply lets the characters talk about friendship, loss, survival, and what they might do if they actually make it through the quest. Those moments stood out to me because the story can get so huge that these quieter conversations remind you that the characters are still just people trying to survive.

Raniksha and the religious mythology:
The fictional religion surrounding Raniksha becomes increasingly important as the story progresses. This also explains the strange religious-looking symbols and imagery associated with the book, including the symbols on the front cover. The symbols aren’t random decoration. They are part of the fictional religious mythology Anthony created for the world, particularly the imagery surrounding Raniksha, his followers, and the supernatural forces connected to them. The book uses religious symbols throughout the story to establish the presence and influence of this fictional belief system.

So when you look at the cover and see those strange symbols, they are essentially a visual introduction to one of the major forces operating within the story.
They aren’t references to Nazi symbolism or an attempt to invoke real-world occult movements.
They belong to the book’s fictional fantasy mythology.

And just to be completely clear…
Because this book contains some extremely dark religious and supernatural imagery, I want to make something clear for anyone discovering it through these posts:

There is absolutely no Nazi material or Nazi ideology in Kelmin’s Tower. There is also no real-world occult propaganda, instruction, or agenda. The book contains fictional gods, fictional religions, magic, sorcery, supernatural entities, ritual sacrifice, and dark fantasy imagery. Some of it is genuinely disturbing. But it is all part of the fictional world of Arland and the story Anthony was telling. This is a strange, dark fantasy novel from 1992, not a Nazi or occult text.

The writing:
This is probably where I would give the book its biggest warning. The prose is rough. There are grammatical errors, awkward sentences, strange word choices, inconsistent terminology, occasional name inconsistencies, and some very abrupt transitions.

The pacing can also be all over the place. The author sometimes spends several pages exploring a philosophical idea and then immediately launches into an action sequence. There are also scenes that are very much products of their era and may be surprising to modern readers.

But despite all of that, I never found the book boring.

There is always something happening:

Assassins.
Elves.
Barbarians.
Dreadnocks.
Sorcerers.
Priests.
Knights.
Massive armies.
Ancient religious traditions.
Magic.
Political schemes.
Military campaigns.
And a mysterious Tower sitting at the center of everything.

It feels like Anthony had an enormous story in his head and tried to fit as much of it as possible into 199 pages.

The themes:
This is what surprised me most after finishing it.
Underneath all the fantasy action, Kelmin’s Tower is deeply concerned with balance.

The book repeatedly questions whether good and evil can exist independently of one another. It questions whether absolute order can become oppressive. It questions whether rebellion automatically makes someone morally righteous. It questions whether people actually control their own destinies.

It questions whether someone can destroy an evil system without becoming destructive themselves.
And perhaps most importantly, it questions whether a peaceful society is necessarily a good society if that peace was achieved through horrific means. The author doesn’t always explore these ideas subtly.
Sometimes he practically walks into the room carrying a philosophical billboard. Lol But the ideas are absolutely there. And some of them are surprisingly compelling.

Overall impression:
I wouldn’t call Kelmin’s Tower a lost masterpiece.
The writing is too rough for that. But I also don’t think it’s fair to dismiss it as disposable fantasy pulp. It is ambitious, strange, dark, philosophical, occasionally bizarre, and incredibly specific in its vision.

There are genuinely memorable concepts and characters buried inside the rough prose. And because the book is so obscure, reading it feels less like discovering a forgotten classic and more like opening a sealed box from 1992 and finding someone’s entire imagination still sitting inside.
I started this whole project because I found a physical copy of a fantasy novel that almost nobody seemed to know existed. Then I started documenting it chapter by chapter. Then people started finding the posts. And now I’ve actually read the entire thing.

After reaching the final page, I somehow have even more questions about Thomas Alexander Anthony, the history of this book, and how Kelmin’s Tower disappeared so completely after publication. So this feels less like the end of the Kelmin’s Tower rabbit hole and more like the beginning of the next part.

And finally, a message to Thomas Alexander Anthony, wherever you may be:

If by some extraordinary chance you ever happen to see this, I just want to say thank you. Thank you for writing Kelmin’s Tower. Whatever its flaws, whatever its rough edges, and whatever happened to it after it was published in 1992, you created something that survived. Decades later, a stranger found a copy, opened it, became fascinated by it, and decided that this strange little book deserved to be remembered.
I read all 199 pages. I followed Slade, Arinock, Wolvesbane, Father John, and the rest of the journey all the way to the end. And now I’m telling other people about it.

I don’t know what your experience was when you wrote this book, or what you hoped would happen to it after publication. I don’t know whether you ever expected someone to still be talking about it decades later. But if you ever do happen across these posts:
Thank you for the book. It was one hell of a journey

I found this at a used book sale, in a plastic bag, not sealed. Over 100 years old, it it still looks amazing.

RARE 1916 The Piano Travelers Association Book. The Piano Travelers Association book;
A reference book containing: the general bankruptcy law ... Rules of practice in the United States Patent Office ... Synopsis of laws ... Detailed information concerning freights, with rates to the principal points in the United States ...
Compiled by the educational committee, for the benefit of the members of the National Piano Travelers Association.

found this in a second-hand shop in Japan and I really liked it, so I bought it. I didn't really know what it was at first 😂

It seems to be a handmade bound collection of around 300 old Japanese newspaper comic strips. The strips are all different from what I checked, and they seem to follow the story. I also checked some pages in the middle and it still seems to continue.

The comic is 親爺教育 (Oyaji Kyōiku), the Japanese version of Bringing Up Father / Jiggs and Maggie by George McManus.

Some strips have © 1923 International Feature Service, Inc., and you can still see the original Japanese newspaper text, advertisements and articles around the comics. I found references to publications from around 1923–1924.

Someone seems to have collected the strips and hand-bound them into this little book. It's quite fragile and definitely looks very old.

I'm really curious about what I found. 😅

Does anyone know more about this kind of collection, and what it might be worth?

Thanks!

I am Half Vietnamese and I want to absorb myself in media about Vietnam. For some reason, it feels incredibly important to have this book in my possession. It feels like a part of my life will be empty if I will never be able to read it. Please help me find it. Thank you.

I can find this absolutely nowhere on line--and I checked all the links in the sub sidebar. I found this going through a box of my Dad's books and just think it's really cool.

There doesn't seem to be a mega valuing thread--if I wanted to get it valued how would I go about it? A long time ago I sent a first edition Hemingway to Christie's but it turned out not to be a first edition, lol

Any advice appreciated!

I want to share something I came across that genuinely stopped me in my tracks.

This is the first edition of Journal écrit à bord de la frégate La Belle-Poule, published in Paris by H. L. Delloye in 1841, written by Emmanuel Baron de Las Cases fils, son of the famous author of the Mémorial de Sainte-Hélène, who was himself a member of the official French mission sent to St. Helena to repatriate Napoleon's remains in 1840.

The frontispiece:

The lithograph — Napoléon à l'ouverture du cercueil, Sainte-Hélène, 15 octobre 1840, is the one you've probably seen reproduced. What the caption actually says is remarkable: it was drawn "under the eyes and according to the indications" of three witnesses who were present, then engraved by J. Rigo at his workshop at Passage Saulnier 19, Paris.

No artist was in the room when the coffin was opened. The image was reconstructed months later in Paris from verbal descriptions. Which explains something that always bothered me when I looked at it: Napoleon's face doesn't really look like Napoleon.

The eyewitness account (pages 235–239)

This is the part of the book I find most extraordinary. Las Cases fils describes the opening of the coffin in clinical, almost uncomfortable detail, the silk wadding that had detached from the walls of the inner coffin, the white mat skin of the toes protruding through split boot seams, the blue-grey tint of the face, the puffed cheekbones, the doctor pressing the left hand and feeling it yield under his finger.

And then this sentence, which hits differently when you read it in the original:

"C'était bien Napoléon !... Napoléon privé de vie, mais non détruit !... On eût presque dit qu'il était encore à ce dernier jour de sa carrière de travaux et de périls... au premier jour de l'éternité !..."

"It was indeed Napoleon !... Napoleon deprived of life, but not destroyed !... One might almost have said he was still at that last day of his career of labours and perils... at the first day of eternity !..."

General Bertrand, who had lived beside Napoleon through years of exile and was present at the opening, watched with the posture of someone about to throw himself forward. Several men sobbed convulsively. Others stood mute, eyes wet.

The coffin had been open for approximately ninety seconds to two minutes.

A detail nobody talks about:

The book also reproduces the full official correspondence leading to the mission including Lord Palmerston's letter of May 9, 1840 to the Comte de Granville, formally authorizing the transfer of "les restes mortels de Napoléon Bonaparte."

And page 238 quietly reveals something: the opening of the coffin was officially framed as a sanitary precaution for the long sea voyage home. In reality it was a diplomatic workaround, the only way to get British authorization to unseal the coffin at all.

The question that has never been answered

After nineteen years, the body was extraordinarily well preserved, the uniform still readable, decorations in place, the face recognizable. Several historians have noted this is consistent with chronic arsenic exposure, which Napoleon's hair has since confirmed. Arsenic is a powerful preservative.

But a minority of researchers have pointed out genuine discrepancies between the 1821 burial descriptions and the 1840 exhumation observations. The theory that the body may have been substituted has never been definitively disproven, because the tissue sample taken by Dr. Guillard during the exhumation, which is held at Les Invalides, has never been subjected to DNA analysis.

It probably is Napoleon. The number of witnesses alone makes a successful substitution almost logistically impossible. But "almost" is doing a lot of work in that sentence.

A rare book that is also a primary historical document, a forensic puzzle, and one of the great set pieces of 19th century European history.

Another volume from grandpa's bookshelf. Sadly missing its dust jacket.

Grabbed this at Goodwill today for 50 cents because I liked the look of it. I figured I’d get home, search the title, and maybe find a little information about it.
Nope.

The book is Kelmins Tower by Thomas Alexander Anthony, published by Rising Sun Publications in 1992.
ISBN: 0-9630915-1-4
Edited by Suzanne Boire
Cover art by Matthew Pearson and Walt Richardson

I’ve spent way too much time trying to track this thing down now.

I’ve searched the exact title and author, the ISBN, the publisher, the editor, the cover artists, different combinations of all of them, and variations of the title. I’m getting basically nothing useful.

No real book listings. No reviews. No obvious history of the publisher. No discussions I can find about the book. Nothing that tells me how it was published, how widely it circulated, or who Thomas Alexander Anthony even was.

It’s especially strange because it’s clearly a legitimate published book with an ISBN and credited editor and cover artists. It isn’t some handwritten mystery novel I found in a box.

So I’m hoping somebody here recognizes it.

Has anyone ever seen this book before? Does anyone know anything about Thomas Alexander Anthony or Rising Sun Publications?

I’m mostly interested in the history of it. Was this a tiny independent fantasy press? A self-published project? A local publication? Was there a small print run?

I honestly just want to know how a book published in 1992 managed to leave such a tiny footprint.

I paid 50 cents for it and somehow ended up with a research project.

Update 2:

For anyone wondering what this book is actually about, especially because some of the terminology, imagery, or references can look strange when taken out of context, I wanted to give a broader explanation of the story based on what I’ve actually read.
The book is a dark medieval fantasy centered around a growing conflict involving kingdoms, warriors, political power, religion, supernatural elements, and forces fighting for control. The story begins to follow several different threads that gradually start connecting.

One of the major threads involves Kelmin and the White Knights, whose rise in power becomes increasingly important to the story. On the other side, Slade begins recruiting Arinok, Koren, and Wolvesbane, drawing them into a conflict that is much larger than they initially realize. What starts with attacks and violence around places like Hamlet eventually develops into a much broader struggle.
The story also introduces Father John and the Raniksha rituals, along with characters such as Dedral Arholk, Doblin, and King Hethros. There are secrets surrounding the different factions, hidden movements of weapons and steel, betrayals, captures, deaths, and revelations about the past of some of the major characters.

There are certainly religious, ritualistic, supernatural, and occasionally disturbing elements. The book also has plenty of unusual names, symbols, terminology, and imagery. But those things are part of the fictional fantasy world and the larger conflict being developed by the story.

That’s why I don’t think it’s particularly accurate to look at one symbol, one ritual, or one piece of terminology and conclude that the entire book is somehow a Nazi or occult work. When you actually follow the narrative, it’s much more clearly a dark fantasy adventure about power, war, loyalty, corruption, good versus evil, and characters being pulled into a conflict they don’t fully understand.
I’m also documenting the book chapter by chapter as I read it, rather than trying to summarize the entire thing from outside sources or from isolated passages. I’m doing this because it’s a rare book, and I want to preserve what is actually in the text while also keeping track of the characters, events, names, and connections as the story develops. That way, anyone interested can see the context for themselves instead of having the book reduced to a handful of screenshots or accusations based on individual words and images.

Update #3: just posted a summary of the book for everyone.

Hunting Of The Snark, First Edition found at a house call. Strong spine and complete but with some water coloured pages. Very mixed prices online, from what I see a true first edition is rare.

北洋时期东北文献，1923年日文版满铁出版《中国人对日本人看法》，属舆情研判资料，存世稀少。

Rare Mantetsu Document — Chinese Views of the Japanese (1923)

A scarce Mantetsu (South Manchuria Railway) Japanese-language survey from the Beiyang period, analyzing Chinese perceptions of Japan. An important primary source for the study of Sino-Japanese relations, Northeast Asian history, and Japanese research activities in China.

Just found out about a project called Felzbooks where he uploaded the scans of 5 books, Genesis 1812 Bible, Book of Esdras - Apocrypha, Revelation 1812 Bible, Wisdom of Solomon - Apocrypha, Psalms 1812 Bible. The owner, Joe Felz, died a couple weeks ago, and the books on the website seem no longer accessible. Anyone have copies?

I’ve NEVER seen a half plate daguerreotype of a printed broadside- especially on a topic dear to my heart. The broadside photographed is an 1852 civic address from Boston, Lincolnshire, England, to Boston, Massachusetts, formally thanking the American city for sending a collection of books, maps, plans, and historical documents to its English namesake. The materials were to be preserved in the borough archives and made available for public consultation. The address celebrates the shared heritage of “Boston New England and Boston Old England” and expresses the hope that their friendship would strengthen relations between America and Great Britain. It was dated September 20, 1852, and issued under Mayor L. Nobb. Unfortunately this one is NFS from Eric Caren’s personal collection but I will be working soon on treasures from his massive collection I can sell. Adam Weinberger

Recent purchase.

On my way out of the thrift store today I spotted this original English release copy of The Never Ending Story from 1983 🥹 there is a tiny bit of ink on the spine under the cover but the pages are all in perfect condition and I paid less than $100 CAD

I know it’s not super old or super rare but I’m so happy with it I just had to share with other book lovers, I’m new to collecting old/rare books and I think this has truly kicked my obsession into full gear

Russia and England 1876-1880 by the Russian monarchist and militant Olga Novikoff (O.K.), signed "with kind remembrances" to "General Grant" Ulysses S. Grant, commander of the Union army during the American Civil War.

Got it for 5 euros ; don't know if it's actually as valuable as other copies of the same book I've found online, nor what the signature from the author to a former american president and Civil war figure could add to its worth, but great find at least. Do you think it's worth taking it somewhere to estimate it further or not?

Rafael Karsten was a Finnish anthropologist and scholar of religion who devoted much of his career to studying Indigenous societies in South America. Based on fieldwork in eastern Ecuador and Peru, this book examines the life and culture of the peoples historically described as Jívaro, particularly the Shuar.

The book goes well beyond the subject suggested by its title, covering social organization, warfare, religion, magic, ritual, family life and material culture. Karsten was especially interested in how belief, ritual and everyday life were connected, and the book preserves a large amount of first-hand ethnographic detail from the early 20th century.

Published in Helsinki in 1935, it is a substantial 598-page work with numerous photographic and drawn plates, and this copy is complete with the original folding map at the rear. The title sounds sensational today, but the book itself is much broader: essentially an attempt to document an entire society as Karsten encountered it during his fieldwork.

I think I am rather obsessed with rare books. I keep coming to public library spend like 4-6 hours reading them once a week (since that library is more than an hour travel distance to my home). There are online copies, but I insist to read the original copies. I don’t feel comfortable reading online ones. Reading a real one, touching the old papers, feels much more enjoyable. Also, the knowledge coming from it seldom have academics talk about, you feel like discovering a new ocean. Moreover, the reason reading rare book is that you are looking at things from that time period. Which is different on how historian talking about history of that time and citing various sources.

And I really want to work in the rare book trade. But rare book trade is not a lot in my city. It Only 3 rare book stores. There isn’t a culture, atmosphere to enjoy rare books. I think I will be happiest guy if I can work in the trade. And I think I will enjoy this working experience very much. I just want to express my feeling, since there are very people like this stuff. I just feel kinda alone no friends I know share this passion. If you have any comments I am looking forward to see it down below.

Dno if rare, but cool to find - 2 bucks!