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To: cat@luckymojo.com From: "Mark Swaney"Subject: Brethern of Purity Date: Fri, 11 Feb 2000 14:06:54 -0600 Cat, In performing a search for some curious stuff, I found your web site, surprise, surprise, surprise. Anyway, in doing a rather detailed and in-depth study of the history of magic squares (and other mystical mathematical devices), I have come across the "Brethern of Purity". They were an Islamic group from the 10th century in the area of Iraq. They published an encyclopedia of mathematical and philosophical knowledge that is noted as being the first document to give the magic squares 3-9. This is an important achievement because they would be the first to construct magic squares of the unevenly-even variety (6, 10, 14, etc.). As usual, the early work on the squares was associated with the religious ideas of the Brethern of Purity. The Editor of the Encyclopedia was one of the Imams or "Popes" of the Islamic people, I have little to no knowledge of the history of Islam, I will have to learn more about it, it is seems to be important to my continuing study of the relationship between mathematics and mysticism. Anyway, back to your web page, you list the book "The Mystery of Numbers" by Annemarie Schimmel, which I am most certainly going to get through inter-library loan, but first I want to ask you if you have a copy of the book, what do you think about it, etc. My searching in the field of mystical mathematics is turning out to be very interesting and I think that a lot of undiscovered territory awaits treatment and publication. If only I were 3 people instead of only 1. As someone who has obviously spent a great deal of time researching these arcane subjects, maybe you can shed some light on the motives. Why on Earth would anyone devote their energy to these things? Has doing so done you any good? Any harm? Any opinion on the wisdom of the search? Mark Swaney
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