THE ISLAMIC CONNOTATION IN THE GEMATRIC PEN-NAMES OF FRANÇOIS RABELAIS
Tine Kurent
François Rabelais1 signed his books on Gargantua et Pantagruel2 with pen-names. The gematric3 value of his pseudonyms, NASIER, M. ALCOFRIBAS, and ALCOFRIBAS NASIER, are 66, 99 and 152, respectively.
With numbers 66 and 99, Rabelais identified himself as the Apocalyptic beast,4 according to the report by St, John the Divine: And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had horns like a lamb.5 The ram's and buck's horns are indeed similar to the Indian figures 66 and 99.
Besiders, number 66 is the gematric sum of the divine name of ALLAH,6 written with Arabic letters.7 Numerals 99, turned upside down, look like ciphers 66.
The presence of the divine name in the number 66 resulted in the building of domes above mosques, 7 modules in diameter. Before the introduction of the Greek PI, the ratio circumference: diameter was approximated with the ratio 22 : 7. The small Dervish-Pasha mosque, Travnik, Bosnia, is crowned with a dome, 7 modules of 3 Byzantine feet in diameter. The dome's circumference is therefore 66 feet.8
1	François Rabelais, 1494?—1553, French satirist, monk and medic.
2	Pantagruel, 1533, by Alcofribas Nasier. Gargantua, 1535, by Nasier. Pantagruel, 1545, by M. Alcofribas.
3	About gematria, see Kurent, T., Gematrija v merah arhitekture na Slovenskem. — Zbornik za zgodovino naravoslovja in tehnike, 10, Slovenska matica, Ljubljana, 1989. Summary: Gematric Writing with Numerals in Dimensions of Some Slovenian Architectures.
4	Kurent, T., Rabelaisova anagrama NASIER in M. ALCOFRIBAS. — Zbornik ljubljanske šole za arhitekturo 1987, Ljubljana, 1987.
—	id., Matematični izvor povesti o triglavem zmaju, pesmi o Pegamu, zveri v Apokalipsi in druge zveri iz Rabelaisovih anagramov. — Slavistična revija, 35, 3 2983
—'id., 666—999. — Kulture istoka, V., 15, 1988.
—	id., Arhitekturna numerologija po Rabelaisu. Architectural Numerology after Rabelais. Raziskovalna skupnost Slovenije, Ljubljana, 1987.
—	id., La signature gematrique de Rabelais par les Nombres 66 et 99. — Acta neophilologica, XIX, 1986.
5	Revelation, 13 : 11.
6	Lalek Bakgtiar, Sufi. Expressions of the Magnificent Quest. — Thames and Hunson, 1979.
7	The Science of Letters, Ilm-i-abjad.
—	Kurent, T., Gematrični ključi. — Zbornik LSA 1988.
8	Kurent, T., Vidmar, A., The Dimensional Composition of the Dervish-Pasha Mosque in Travnik, Bosnia. — In preparation.
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