We are all familiar with the opening lines of lines of Al Azif.  The author, as was common in that period, writes of himself in the third person:
 

There was a scribe in the land 
Who was named Abdul al Hazred. 
He was the son of Abou Ben al Hazred, 
- May Allah be gracious to him! 
He dwelt in Sanaá, at a noble house 
Upon the Wadi's bank. Good it seemed to him, 
Near the temple of El, Where he heard the Tales of the Elders. 
It came to him in mind, And in his chief thought 
That he would of the World's dark Past tell noble deeds. 
What the gods and creatures and men were named, 
And whence they came,
Who the earth First had. 

Abdul al Hazred began the Journey Wide over this land, 
And procured the noble tales and books 
Which he took for pattern. 
Of all the wonders to be found and the truths to be discovered, 
There is none more profound than that the Fear of God and those Who-would-Use-it-for-their-Gain drive the rest of
Humanity to seek protection in the Enemies of God.

The Necronomicon, as Al Azif has come to be known, is the story of Alhazred's travels in search of Nathica, the Persian princess, who disappeared in an exhibition of magic (seemingly as the price of the incantation) and his joining up with Afrasiab and the demons of the Desert of Lop in their search for Ibn Schacabao.  Through side stories and bacground for adventures, the work encompasses the entire history of the pre-human and early human period. 

During his travels Alhazred stumbled upon knowledge of the Great Race, the Old Ones, the Old Gods, and the spawn of Cthulhu. His writings explain man's attraction and integration with them and predicts the future return of the creatures. It explains the various cults that continue the practices of the Old Ones and Cthulhu and who either wish for their return or battle against it. It also shows how the past and present sometimes mesh and meet at times making past and present impossible to separate. 

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