Obj. ID: 45436  Ilan Amulet, Morocco, circa 1875

The following description was prepared by William Gross:

Kabbalistic diagrams resembling Porphyrian trees have been known at least since the sixteenth century as “Ilanot” [Heb. pl. Arborae; sing. "Ilan"]. [First such reference known to me is in the work of Guillaume Postel, who refers to "Ilanoth" as a genre of rabbinic literature.] Ilanot constitute visual representations of kabbalistic cosmologies from the relatively simpler forms of the thirteenth century to the far more complex and ramified systems in Lurianic Kabbalah from the sixteenth century onward. The increasing complexity of cosmic trees between the thirteenth and eighteenth centuries directly reflects the exponential ramification of kabbalistic theosophy that took place over those centuries. Given the overwhelmingly visio-spacial conceptions of the divine in its evolutionary “becoming” in these mystical traditions, Ilanot could serve as cosmic maps. This divine cartography aspired to capture the syncronic interrelations between the various facets of the godhead and creation as well as their diachronic, evolving emergence.

This Ilan is a fine early copy of the Ilan originally drafted by Isaac Kopio and one of the most widely reproduced kabbalistic divinity maps. Kopio ( late 17th-early 18th c.) was a Lurianic kabbalist who traveled extensively throughout his native North Africa, as well as Italy and the Ottoman Empire. His Ilan is the most outstanding expression of the transfer of European Kabbalah to North Africa, and his is the only Ilan known to have been fashioned there.At the top of the scroll is a striking figure, already present in, the earliest kabbalistic manuscripts of the fourteenth century. The image is of the first letters of each of the ten Se# rot nested within esch other. The khaf of Keter is outermost, and the mem of Malkhut is at the center. Next are diagrammatic representations of the Divine Faces (Parzufim) that show the clear influence of the European scrolls associated with Meir Poppers.

What’s an Ilan? Any synoptic diagrammatic presentation of kabbalistic cosmology. The basic graphical forms could range from the arboreal to the boldly anthropomorphic. Lurianic Ilanot, in their lengthy and complex presentations, often feature both, as well as spreadsheet-like tables. The iconic decadal tree is an Ilan, as is the intricately Baroque Hammerschlag Ilan. Diagrams expressing particular concepts within a larger framework, such as the illustrations that frequently accompany certain cosmogonic discussions in the Lurianic corpus, would doubtfully have been called ilanot by anyone. However simple or complex the pictorial-diagrammatic features of an Ilan, extensive textual material is frequently embedded in and around the geometrical forms. The texts may be paraphrastic chapter headings, original compositions, or the study notes of a student. Their connection to the pictorial features alongside which they appear is usually clear, with the text providing a verbal key to the quality or process depicted graphically. That said, in complex Ilanot, simple keying gives way to more complex and even inscrutable connections. Indeed, these manuscripts demand to be treated as “integrated systems of communication” that raise “questions about how verbal and visual patterns of meaning were constructed, combined, and modified.”

 The Ilan Aroch is a scroll that was prepared by some scholars of the kabbalah, apparently as a sort of guide to their studies of the discipline.  These scrolls are exceedingly rare in a large size. But, toward the end of the 19th century, these scrolls were prepared in miniature as well. But they were used not as a scholarly guide, but as practical kabbalah - an amulet. These scrolls, put into a silver case, lost their original meaning and became simply a means of warding off evil. Such amuletic scrolls were prepared from a common form and are almost always nearly identical, even if with a few features of the larger form. This is a Sephardic scroll with very unusual features in the last section. The few such amuletic Ilanot from Morocco are more elaborate with more text that the simpler types from Eretz Israel. This scroll comes in its original silver case as is instructed on most amuletic Ilanot. This is written on sheep skin on seven sections that are glued together.

 Scroll # 14 - 13 frames  (026.012.008) 1880ca? mid-east parchment ink written sewn 7.6X198cm [composite of prt. # 3 minus text, and # 13]

                                    1.       Aqudim and Keter

                                    2.       Form of Sefirot at Shevirah

                                    3.       Cont'd [2 & 3 from pov of A"K]

                                    4.       11 concentric circles of A"K, from A"K to Assiah; followed by TNT"A etc. of A"K

                                    5.       again, A"K ibid and then Hesed and Gevurh of A"K

                                    6.       A"K engarmenting to head of Arikh, and differentiation of upper Sefirot of 45 and 52 [Tetrqagrammaton values]

                                    7.       Atik engarmenting Arikh

                                    8.       13 attributes of Arikh

                                    9.       corresponding forms of Tetrag

                                    10.      Arikh engarmenting Abba vImma and top of Zeir

                                    11.      Contin'd

                                    12.      6 Partzufim differentiated from body of Arikh

                                    13.      final 2 Partzufim ibid. - ends in Atzilut [Emanation]