QSA 16 (1998)

INDICE Epigrafia araba, presentazione di Eros Baldissera,  p. 3

SOLANGE ORY  L'épigraphie arabe aujourd'hui, pp. 5-22

LUDVIK KALUS - FRÉDÉRIQUE SOUDAN Aperçu d'épigraphie islamique du Moyen Age. Presentation du projet Thesaurus d'épigraphie Islamique , pp. 23-44

FRÉDÉRIC IMBERT Inscriptions et graffiti arabes de Jordanie : Quelques réflexions sur l'établissement d'un récent corpus, pp. 45-58

SHEILA S. BLAIR  Inscriptions and Texts: Evidence from Early Islamic Iran, pp. 59-68

GIOVANNI OMAN  Il "cufico quadrato": tentativo di definizione delle tre varietà finora riscontrate, pp. 69-88

EROS BALDISSERA  Il mausoleo dell'imàm Ahmad bin Sa'ìd al-Bùsa'ìdì e le sue iscrizioni (al-Rustàq, Sultanato di Omàn), pp.  89-124

SEEGER A. BONEBAKKER - ALICE SCOTT  Santa Nefissa, pp. 25-141

GIUSEPPE SCATTOLIN The Oldest Text of Ibn al-Fàrid dìwàn? A Manuscript of Yusufaja Kütüphanesi of Konya, pp. 143-164

VINCENZO STRIKA Il "partenariato mediterraneo" e i suoi problemi, pp. 165-188

GIOVANNI CANOVA Il capitolo sugli animali velenosi nel Fath al-mulk di Diyàrbì (XVIII sec.), pp. 189-196

197-206 S.S. BLAIR, Islamic Inscriptions, Edinburgh 1998 (E. Baldissera); G. SCHOELER, Character und Authentie der muslimischen Uberlieferung über das Leben Mohammeds, Berlin-New York 1996 (R. Tottoli); R.G. HOYLAND, Seeing Islam as Others Saw it. A Survey and Evaluation of Christian, Jewish and Zoroastrian Writings on Early Islam, Princeton 1997 (R. Tottoli); S. BASHEAR, Arabs and Others in Early Islam, Princeton 1997 (R. Tottoli); A. PAGNINI, Mathal e verso a confronto. Una questione di poetica araba classica alla luce di un'analisi paremiologica, Firenze 1998 (A. Ghersetti); T. PAAJANEN, Scribal treatment of the literary and vernacular proverbs of al-Mustatraf in 15th-17th century manuscripts, Helsinki 1995 (R. Contini); T. NISHIO, The Arabic dialect of Qift (Upper Egypt). Grammar and classified vocabulary, Tokyo 1994 (R. Contini); M.C. LYONS, The Arabian Epic, Cambridge 1995 (G. Canova).

INTRODUZIONE

EROS BALDISSERA

Epigrafia araba
L'importanza della raccolta e lo studio delle fonti epigrafiche, primariamente dal punto di vista storico, ma anche sociale, linguistico, dell'evoluzione della scrittura e - non ultimo - degli studi prosopografici, è un dato di fatto acquisito ormai. Scienza ausiliaria dunque l'epigrafia, ma da cui non si può prescindere. Anche in campo arabo-islamistico da un paio di secoli ci si è volti allo studio delle iscrizioni in un ambito che, oltre all'arabo prima lingua dell'Islàm, vede rientrare anche il persiano e l'ottomano, che della grafia araba hanno fatto il loro mezzo espressivo. E se l'Islàm sottolinea che la penna è stata la prima cosa creata da Dio e la sua fondamentale funzione vien ribadita fin dai primi versi del Libro sacro dettati al Profeta dall'arcangelo Gabriele (Corano 96:4), è evidente l'importanza attribuita da quella civiltà alla scrittura e, per estensione, alla lingua araba e alla sua cultura, che in quel mezzo han trovato - e trovano - uno dei loro maggiori strumenti di diffusione. Fin dai primi secoli dell'Islàm l'artista arabo, incisore, architetto, scriba, tessitore, ne ha fatto gran uso per motivi estetici innanzi tutto, ma anche pratici, spesso con valenze politiche, religiose, fissando la calligrafia araba sui materiali più disparati. Ed è chiaro che nel momento in cui la curiosità e poi l'interesse per le `turqueries' prese corpo in Europa anche questo aspetto cominciò a esser preso in considerazione. A partire da Niebuhr e Tychsen - alla fine del XVIII sec. - e poi Marcel e Reinaud, passando per gli italiani Lanci e Amari, numerosi son stati gli studiosi della disciplina. Doveroso soffermarsi sul grande Max van Berchem, per proseguire con Wiet, Combe e Sauvaget, giungendo alle epoche più recenti con Grohmann, Sourdel-Thomine, Ocana Jimenez e all'oggi con Kalus e Ory. Tanto per citare i nomi degli specialisti più evidenti, conscio di averne tralasciato tanti altri pur degni di menzione. Non vorrei dimenticare però uno studioso italiano - ancora proficuamente attivo - che molto ha dato all'epigrafia araba e che annovera diversi discepoli fra cui si onora di far parte chi scrive: è Giovanni Oman che non ha voluto mancar di dare il suo contributo a questa raccolta di studi che i nostri 'Quaderni di Studi Arabi' han ritenuto di dedicare all'epigrafia araba.
Eros Baldissera

SOLANGE ORY

L'épigraphie arabe aujourd'hui
Arabic inscriptions have already been studied at length and these studies are of great interest in matter of information, but nowadays computer science enables us to extend and increase this knowledge, by connecting the numerous information produced by the inscriptions in order to compare their interpretations in various areas and at different ages of muslim civilisation. And that is why we have elaborated a specific computer software (EPIMAC) which allows us to analyze and study each inscription in all his aspects (localization, materiality, dating, study of support, decoration, previous publications, etc.) and contents (nature of the text, formulary, language, onomastic, palaeography, etc.). This software enables the creation of different research tools which will enable epigraphists to widen and deepen their knowledge of Arabic inscriptions: - a repertoire of themes and information included in Arabic inscriptions - a vocabulary dictionary used in Arabic epigraphy: the roots of this dictionary come from different inscriptions text formulas acquired during the data acquisition procedure. The computer has regrouped them in a thesaurus and gives for each one the usage frequency, the localisation, the datation and the original formula - an index of the proper names and conferred titles that figure in the inscriptions - a list of linguistic phenomena provided by the inscriptions (archaisms, dialectisms, grammar and spelling mistakes etc.) - a bibliographic repertoire of the data inscriptions acquired (and only linked to these) that goes through the content of each of the previous publications.

Aperçu d'épigraphie islamique du Moyen Age. Presentation du projet Thesaurus d'épigraphie islamique
Up till recently, the arabic inscriptions from the whole Islamic world, from the beginning of islam until 800 h., were collected in the famous Répertoire Chronologique d'Épigraphie Arabe (RCEA), edited by the Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale in Cairo. Eighteen volumes have been published collecting more than 7000 inscriptions, all in arabic. The development of new technologies gives new possibilities for describing inscriptions, and especially for a rapid recovery of words, dates etc. between thousands and thousands of inscriptions. That is the reason why the concept of the old project was updated and a new project, called Thesaurus d'Épigraphie Islamique, was developed and is described in this article. The goal is now to collect not only inscriptions in arabic but also in persian and turkish, up till the year 1000 h. By looking at this new system adapted to the possibilities given by computer, one can appreciate the rich and varied aspects of Islamic epigraphy in the Middle Ages.

Inscriptions et graffiti arabes de Jordanie : Quelques réflexions sur l'établissement d'un récent corpus
This corpus of Arabic inscriptions from northern Jordan has been established on the basis of epigraphic prospections which were held between 1985 and 1995 in Amman, al-Zarqà', Irbid and al-Mafraq districts (the historical Balqà'). About 200 Arabic inscriptions were collected. Most of them (60 %) date from the 2nd/8th and 3rd/9th centuries. This corpus is principally composed of Kufic graffiti from the Umayyad and Abbassid periods which were discovered in the north-east desert area. Inscriptions from the Ayyubid and Mamluk periods, engraved in naskhi style, make up about a quarter of the corpus. Most of them are official texts depicting construction and restoration work while other graffiti testify to the passage of travellers there. The corpus, whose origins are anchored in a rural and steppe environment, is very different from the urban model; most of its interest in fact lies in the popular style of its graffiti. In the future, epigraphic studies will have to take into account these rather exceptional texts and their precious information concerning with history of people's mentality and their relationship with their religion.

Inscriptions and Texts: Evidence from Early Islamic Iran
This short note presents one rare case where the inscription on a surviving building, the tomb tower built at Mihmandust outside of Damghan in 490/1096-97, confirms information given in a contemporary text and helps us understand the kinds of information that chroniclers from early Islamic times recorded about inscriptions.

Il "cufico quadrato": tentativo di definizione delle tre varietà finora riscontrate
The author tries to define a particular kind of Arabic script called by some experts in English "square cufic", in French "coufique carré" and in Italian "cufico quadrato". According to the author's views, we may distinguish three varieties: 1. the letters are composed with black and white square tesserae; 2. the same white and black tesserae are joined at opposite angles; 3. the text is incised in a monocolour plaster cast. The visual effect is almost the same notwithstanding the different techniques. As an appendix: an interpretation of an inscription of the third variety of square cufic found in the mausoleum of Pir-i-Bakran in Iran.

Il mausoleo dell'imàm Ahmad bin Sa'ìd al-Bùsa'ìdì e le sue iscrizioni (al-Rustàq, Sultanato di Omàn)
Rustàq, ancient capital of Oman, in XVIIIth was home of the Imam Ahmad bin Sa'ìd, the founder of the al-Bùsa'ìdì dynasty which has held power since then, when internal strife and a civil war weakened the Ya'àriba rule and Persians took advantage of the confused situation and occupied Masqat. But Ahmad bin Sa'ìd defeated them and Oman flourished under his government. At his death his son and successor Sa'ìd builded for him a mausoleum near the famous fort of the city and it was place of pilgrimage until the end of XIXth, when it was abandoned. After restauration of 1990 it got again its ancient splendour. With a short historical note and a presentation of the life and work of the Imam, this study presents the sepulchral monument and its inscriptions on five tombstones.

Santa Nefissa
Dans une précieuse étude, intitulée Ricerche sugli arabismi italiani, G.B. Pellegrini a inséré un chapitre sur une certaine Santa Nefissa qui figure dans plusieurs oeuvres littéraires en poésie et en prose datant du XVIéme siécle. Les passages qu'il cite étant d'un caractùére indécent, on se demande comment ce personage dont le nom dérive sans aucun doute de Sayyida Nafìsa, sainte femme vénerée au Caire, pourrait avoir subie une telle dégéneration du moment qu'elle entre dans la littérature de badinage italienne ou elle figure comme une sorte de protectrice de la prostitution. Parmi les voyageurs anglais qui ont visité le Caire au XVIIéme siécle se trouve Sandys qui, citant "les Chrétiens", identifie la Sayyida Nafìsa vénerée par les Égyptiens avec un personnage qui en guise de propagandiste de l'Islam se serait soumise à quiconque désire dormir avec elle. Cette fable pourrait bien être la base de l'image de Santa Nefissa présentée par les auteurs italiens. Une autre hypothése serait d'en chercher l'origine dans la notorité des visites de tombes, y inclus celle du mausolée de SN, par des femmes légantes cherchant une excuse valable pour une promenade, ou même une rencontre secrète. Mais qui étaient ses "Chrétiens" cités par Sandys? Auteurs européens, italiens ou anglais, amateurs de récits de voyage ou de contes de marins, auteurs que Sandys pourrait bien avoir connu avant son départ? Chrétiens habitant au Caire qui étaient plus ou moins au courant de la pensée musulmane? On ne saurait pas le dire, mais la dernière hypothèse s'impose comme la meilleure dés qu'on se rend compte que la vénération de SN était regardée avec beaucoup de ré serve par les savants orthodoxes musulmans.

The Oldest Text of Ibn al-Fàrid dìwàn? A Manuscript of Yusufaja Kütüphanesi of Konya
In the present article is described the finding and the contents of a text of Ibn al-Fàrid's dìwàn in the codex No. 7838-12(9) of Yusufaja Kütüphanesi (Konya, Turkey). This manuscript appears to be the oldest extant text of Ibn al-Fàrid's dìwàn and witnesses the state of the dìwàn's text as it was known in ÿSadr al-Dìn al-Qùnawì's Sufi circles in Konya, around the middle of the 7hH/13th AD, i.e. around 640/1242 - 650/1252. This find confirms, in an unexpected way, the hypothesis put forward by Arberry about the text of Ibn al-Fàrid's dìwàn, i.e. that the original corpus of Ibn al-Fàrid's dìwàn consisted of only fifteen odes. The rest of the dìwàn, edited a century after the poet's death by his grand son, 'Alì sibt Ibn al-Fàrid (d. ca. 735/1335) appears to be not as sure as the first part of it. In conclusion, it seems that a new critical edition of Ibn al-Fàrid's dìwàn is now needed and that the three oldest known manuscripts, namely the ones of Konya, Chester Beatty and Leiden, examined in the article, constitute a quite sure basis for it. This is the work that lies ahead and the author hopes to carry it out in a near future.

Il "partenariato mediterraneo" e i suoi problemi
The paper is dealing with the very many problems of the proposed partnership between the EU and the Mediterranean Arab Countries. Emphasis is given to the historical background in order to understand the declining Arab economies, and the very reasons which prevented their development. The paper underlines as well the debates on politics and economy, which are going on all over the Arab World, emphasizing how Islam built in the Middle Ages an economic doctrine, which, however, had little chance to be implemented. The present globalization is considered a threat to the roots of Islam, but on economic terms the result will probably be a compromise.

Il capitolo sugli animali velenosi nel Fath al-mulk di Diyàrbì (XVIII sec.)
Shaykh Abù l-'Abbùs al-Diyarbì (d. 1738) wrote many works on juridical and eschatological matters, but he is renowned for a popular treatise on therapeutic experiences. The contents reflect the typical scheme of Mujarrabàt books: apothropaic and curative peculiarities of some Kuranic sùras and verses (e.g. Kur. 1; 2: 255; 36; 112 and especially the mu'awwidhatàn, 113 & 114); virtues of God's most beatiful names; spells against the evil eye; diseases and practical means of treatment, by religion, magic, and medicine. After a brief introduction, the paper presents a translation of the chapter dedicated to snakes and scorpions and how to neutralize their venom by incantations (ruqà).

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