Sources and editions
The public-domain editions Hekhal hosts and the modern critical editions it references throughout the apparatus. Every primary-text page on the site links to its specific source; this page provides the project-wide overview.
Public-domain editions hosted on Hekhal
Hekhal hosts the following public-domain editions in full or in selection. Each is accessible through its primary-text page on the site; the colophon at the bottom of each text page documents translator, year, license, and source.
| Text | Translator / Editor | Year | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sefer Yetzirah | W. W. Westcott | 1887 | Sacred-Texts.com |
| Sefer ha-Bahir | Editorial summaries (Hekhal Editorial) | 2026 | Hebrew text via Sefaria (CC-BY) |
| The Mystical Theology | John Parker | 1897 | tertullian.org |
| The Cloud of Unknowing | Evelyn Underhill | 1922 | Internet Archive |
| The Interior Castle | E. Allison Peers | 1946 | Internet Archive (Burns & Oates) |
| Risala al-Ahadiyya | Hekhal Editorial (selections + summaries) | 2026 | Manuscript tradition; Weir 1901 reference |
| Mishkat al-Anwar | W. H. T. Gairdner | 1924 | Internet Archive |
Modern critical editions referenced
Hekhal does not reproduce modern translations under copyright; the site links out where they can be accessed. The editions below are the contemporary scholarly references Hekhal cites throughout its codex apparatus and editorial commentary. Researchers should consult these directly for serious philological-academic work.
Jewish mystical tradition
- Hayman, A. Peter. Sefer Yetsira: Edition, Translation, and Text-Critical Commentary. Mohr Siebeck, 2004. The contemporary critical reference.
- Kaplan, Aryeh. Sefer Yetzirah: The Book of Creation. Samuel Weiser, 1990. Standard accessible practitioner reading.
- Abrams, Daniel, ed. The Book Bahir: An Edition Based on the Earliest Manuscripts. Cherub Press, 1994. Critical edition.
- Kaplan, Aryeh, trans. The Bahir. Samuel Weiser, 1979. Standard accessible translation.
- Matt, Daniel C., trans. The Zohar: Pritzker Edition. 12 vols. Stanford University Press, 2003-2017. The contemporary scholarly Zohar.
- Sperling, Harry, and Maurice Simon, trans. The Zohar. 5 vols. Soncino Press, 1934. The principal public-domain Zohar.
Christian apophatic and Eastern traditions
- Suchla, Beate Regina, ed. Corpus Dionysiacum. Patristische Texte und Studien 33, 1990. The contemporary critical Greek Pseudo-Dionysius.
- Luibhéid, Colm, trans. Pseudo-Dionysius: The Complete Works. Paulist Press, 1987. Standard contemporary English.
- Hodgson, Phyllis, ed. The Cloud of Unknowing and Related Treatises. Early English Text Society, 1944 (rev. through 1982).
- Walsh, James, trans. The Cloud of Unknowing. Paulist Press, 1981. Contemporary English reference.
- Kavanaugh, Kieran, and Otilio Rodriguez, trans. The Collected Works of St. Teresa of Avila. ICS Publications, 1980. The standard scholarly Carmelite collection.
- Palmer, G. E. H., Philip Sherrard, and Kallistos Ware, trans. The Philokalia. 4 vols. Faber and Faber, 1979 onward. The principal English-language Hesychast anthology.
Islamic mystical and philosophical traditions
- Buchman, David, trans. The Niche of Lights (al-Mishkat al-Anwar). Brigham Young University Press, 1998. Contemporary bilingual Ghazali.
- Chittick, William C., trans. The Sufi Path of Knowledge: Ibn al-'Arabi's Metaphysics of Imagination. SUNY Press, 1989. Standard Akbarian reference.
- Chittick, William C., trans. The Self-Disclosure of God: Principles of Ibn al-'Arabi's Cosmology. SUNY Press, 1998. Companion volume.
- Austin, R. W. J., trans. Ibn al 'Arabi: The Bezels of Wisdom. Paulist Press, 1980. Standard Fusus al-Hikam.
- Walbridge, John, and Hossein Ziai, trans. The Philosophy of Illumination. Brigham Young University Press, 1999. Contemporary critical Suhrawardi.
Hellenistic and Hermetic traditions
- Copenhaver, Brian P., trans. Hermetica: The Greek Corpus Hermeticum and the Latin Asclepius. Cambridge University Press, 1992. Contemporary scholarly Hermetic.
- Armstrong, A. H., trans. Plotinus: Enneads. 7 vols. Loeb Classical Library, 1966-1988. Standard contemporary Plotinus.
- MacKenna, Stephen, trans. Plotinus: The Enneads. 1917-1930. Public-domain Plotinus, hosted publicly.
- Clarke, Emma C., John M. Dillon, and Jackson P. Hershbell, trans. Iamblichus: De Mysteriis. Society of Biblical Literature, 2003. Contemporary scholarly Iamblichus.
- Dodds, E. R., ed. and trans. Proclus: The Elements of Theology. Oxford University Press, 1933. Standard scholarly Proclus.
Aggregator and archive sources
Hekhal draws on several open-access primary-source aggregators for its public-domain hosting and for cross-reference verification. The principal sources:
- Sefaria (sefaria.org) — Hebrew and Aramaic Bible, Mishnah, Talmud, large portions of Zohar in original Aramaic. CC-BY licensed; republishable with attribution.
- Sacred-Texts.com (sacred-texts.com) — comprehensive public-domain religious-text archive maintained by John Bruno Hare. Pre-1929 translations across Jewish, Islamic, Christian, Hellenistic, Hindu, Buddhist, Daoist, and other traditions.
- Internet Archive (archive.org) — book scans of pre-1929 public-domain editions. Principal source for Underhill, Peers, Gairdner, and adjacent translators.
- tertullian.org (tertullian.org) — Roger Pearse's archive of late-antique Christian texts; Parker's Pseudo-Dionysius among others.
- HathiTrust (hathitrust.org) — academic library digital archive; supplemental for scholarly editions in the public domain.
Citation
Researchers citing material that Hekhal references but does not host should cite the original source — the modern critical edition or the journal article — not Hekhal. Hekhal is a reference-and-orientation layer; the underlying scholarship deserves its own citation. Where Hekhal's editorial framing or apparatus is what the citing work draws on, citing Hekhal alongside the underlying sources is appropriate. Every page provides the technical citation panel for this purpose. See editorial standards for the formal articulation.
Reporting source issues
Errors of source attribution, missing citations, broken links to source archives, or incorrectly licensed material should be reported through the eventual GitHub issue tracker (planned for later phases) or through direct email to Hekhal Editorial. Source-correction reports are reviewed in the editorial cycle described on the methodology page.