Sirr al-ʿālamayn: un Ġazālī apocrifo o inaspettato?
Abstract Sirr al-ʿālamayn wa kašf mā fī’l-dārayn is a work whose attribution to al-Ġazālī has long been debated, and whose authenticity today is almost unanimously denied. In what may be considered as its second part, it contains some passages relating to alchemy and its operations that seem to be worthy of reflection. Such passages, present in a work attributed to Ġazālī, do not necessarily cast further doubts on its attribution; because if on the one hand some passages are to be considered perhaps a bit too ‘audacious’, on the other a non-negligible part of the work is dedicated to Ġazalian themes treated in a way that appears parallel to what is expressed in authentic works. After examining different arguments for and against the attribution to Ġazālī, arguments destined however to leave the question open, we realize that the Sirr being or not being a work by Ġazālī is not the most interesting thing in our research: for a historian of science, and in particular of alchemy, the main contribution of this work is in the role that it plays over time in its diffusion and among its readers: be it authentic or not authentic, this work, as attributed to Ġazālī, probably contributed to creating or consolidating the image of a Ġazālī connoisseur of alchemy and magic, and perhaps also to relating the search for transmutation to the search for God; a not insignificant circumstance, if we consider the progressive affirmation of a ‘spiritual’ reading of alchemy and transmutation.