QUADERNI DI STUDI ARABI

20-21, 2002-2003

INDICE

 

Geert Jan van Gelder, Forbidden Firebrands: Frivolous iqtibas

(Quotation from the Qur’an) According to Medieval Arab Critics    3-16

 

Seeger A. Bonebakker, Supplement: Variations on the Theme

 of Hirfat al-adab         17-38

 

Arie Schippers, Changing Narrativity in Changing Society: the Dicotomy

 Between the “Early” and the “Later” Stories in Tanukhi’s Relief After

 Hardship       39-51

 

Antonella Ghersetti, Littérature et tatfil : sur un ouvrage erronément

 attribué à Ibn al-Jawz†             53-62

 

Pierre Larcher, ’Ayy(u) shay’in, ’ay sha'in, ’esh : moyen arabe ou arabe moyen ? 63-78

 

Khalid Sindawi, The Image of Husayn ibn ‘Ali in Maqatil Literature         79-104

 

Yehoshua Frenkel, The Qur’an versus the Cross in the Wake of the

 Crusade: The Social Function of Dreams and Symbols in Encounter

 and Conflict (Damascus, July 1148)       105-132

 

Maria Pia Pedani, The Mamluk Documents of the Venetian

 State Archives: Historical Survey           133-146

 

Frédéric Bauden, The Mamluk Documents of the Venetian State

Archives : Handlist        147-156

 

Anne Shönig, Reflections on the Use of Animal Drugs in Yemen   157-184

 

Giovanni Canova, “Cacciatori di miele” : dalla poesia hudhaylita

 alle pratiche tradizionali nel Dhofar (Oman)     185-206

 

Francesca Bellino, Mosè, il falco e la colomba: origine, trasformazioni

 e intrecci di una storia della letteratura islamica                                          207-228

 

Luis Roger Rodríguez Paniagua, Acerca del origen de las tabaqat           229-244

 

 

NOTE E DOCUMENTI

 

Antonella Ghersetti - Frédéric Bauden, « Comment servir le souverain ». À Propos d’un traité pseudo-platonicien indédit                                            245-250

 

RECENSIONI   251-268

 

R. Weipert, Classical Arabic Philology and Poetry. A Bibliographical Handbook of Important Editions from 1960 to 2000, Leiden-Boston-Köln 2002 (A. Ghersetti); J. Hameen-Anttila, Maqama. A History of a Genre, Wiesbaden 2002 (A. Ghersetti); H. Kilpatrick, Making the Great Book of Songs. Compilation and the author’s craft in Abû l-Faraj al-I¡bahânî’s Kitâb al-aghânî, London-New York 2003 (A. Ghersetti); Y. Ragheb, Les messagers volants en terre d’Islam, Paris 2002 (R. Dorigo); A. HAMILTON, Arab Culture and Ottoman Magnificence in Antwerp’s Golden Age, Oxford-London 2001 (M.P. Pedani); W.M. Brinner (transl. and notes), 'Ara'is al-majalis fì qisas al-anbiya' or “Lives of the Prophets” as Recounted by Abu Ishaq Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Ibrahim al-Tha'labi, Leiden–Boston–Köln 2002 (R. Tottoli); A. Afsaruddin, Excellence and Precedence. Medieval Islamic Discourse on Legitimate Leadership, “LeidenBoston–Köln 2002 (R. Tottoli); S. Carboni, Glass from Islamic Lands, London 2001 (E. Baldissera); P.M. Costa, Historical Mosques and Shrines of Oman, with a contribution by E. Baldissera, Oxford 2001 (M.A. Lala Comneno); P.M. Kurpershoek, Oral Poetry and Narratives from Central Arabia, IV, A Saudi Tribal History: Honour & Faith in the Traditions of the Daw…sir, Leiden-Boston-Köln 2002 (G. Canova); R. BIVONA e G. IGONETTI, Muhammad ibn Ša½a ed Aurélie Picard: due figure in filigrana tra potere coloniale e spionaggio, tra politica e immaginario, Napoli 2002 (I.  Zilio Grandi).

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FRÉDÉRIC BAUDEN

THE MAMLUK DOCUMENTS OF THE VENETIAN STATE ARCHIVES:

HANDLIST

 This article provides a brief handlist of all the Arabic documents from the Mamluk period preserved at the Venice State Archives. They were either issued by the Mamluk authorities, either in the sphere of the Venetian community in Alexandria or Cyprus. Most of them are the originals, but in a few cases they are only preserved in a Venetian translation. The unpublished documents will progressively be dealt with and published according to the interest they may present.

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FRANCESCA BELLINO

MOSE', IL FALCO E LA COLOMBA:

Origine, trasformazioni e intrecci di una storia della letteratura islamica

In the present contribution it is discussed the Muslim story of Moses, the hawk and the dove. Its motif has origin in Indian literature and in particular in the Buddhist tradition, where the protagonist is the king Zivi (the Buddha in former times). An important channel of transmission of the story to Islamic literary tradition has been the Persian anthology Tuti-nama. In its Turkish translation, Moses definitely becomes the protagonist. The versions in the Tanbih al-ghafilin of Abu l-LayÅ al-Samarqandi (d.1002), in the Musibat-nama of Farid al-Din ‘Attar (d. 1230) and in the Kitab al-Nawadir of al-Qalyubi (d. 1659) are evidence of a considerable spread of this story in the Islamic literature. 

Furthermore, the story is largely attested in numerous Arabic manuscripts mostly coming from Maghreb. The article discusses the content and the literary peculiarities of eight Arabic versions, compared to others versions attested in Aljamiado and Swahili literature. In some Arabic manuscript versions, it is evident a significant connection with the narratives about the Munajat Musa. Finally is translated the version of the story preserved in the Ms Alger 1919.

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S.A. BONEBAKKER 

SUPPLEMENT: VARIATIONS ON THE THEME OF HIRFAT AL-ADAB

In QSA 19, pp. 147-161 I discussed the term hirfat al-adab which can be understood in two ways, `exercising the profession of a man of letters' and `misery inherent to being a man of letters' leading to a double entendre. In course of time the hirfat al-adab came to be restricted mostly to the ill luck of the poets who often were kept waiting for the expected reward for a poem addressed to a dignitary and occasionally to the kuttab who depended on those dignitaries for their salaries.

It may be appropriate to quote, as an appendix to the paper in the previous issue of QSA, a selection of examples illustrating the misery of the man of letters in various ways, with or without reference to the proverbial hirfat al-adab.

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GIOVANNI CANOVA

"CACCIATORI DI MIELE'' : DALLA POESIA HUDhAYLITA

ALLE PRATICHE TRADIZIONALI NEL DHOFAR (OMAN)

The Banu Hudhayl are a bedouin tribe whose territory was situated in the mountainous regions between Mekka and Taif. Among the various ancient tribal collections of poems, their diwan is the only one to have reached us in its entirely, through the recension of al-Sukkari (d. 888). In the first part of this article the verses of Sa`ida b. Ju'ayya and Abu Dhu'ayb are presented, which describe the collection of honey : the `honey hunter' would descend the rock faces using long ropes until he

reached the wild bee nest and took the honeycomb. In the second part, the writer describes his own field research in southern Arabia. In Dhofar, the southern region of Oman, a form of honey collection comparable to that described by the Hudhayli poets fifteen centuries ago is still present. The bee colonies make their nests in the cracks of rocks or in the caves in the Qara mountains, and specialized collectors travel through the mountains procuring the honey. The area is well-known for its incense trees: when the blossom is in abundance the honey is perfumed with incense. At the end of the article are the following: an appendix presenting words gained from Hudhayli poems relating to bees and honey, a list of terms communicated to the writer by Jibbali honey collectors, and some photographic documentation.

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YEHOSHUA FRENKEL

THE QUR’AN VERSUS THE CROSS IN THE WAKE OF THE CRUSADE:

THE SOCIAL FUNCTION OF DREAMS AND SYMBOLS IN ENCOUNTER AND CONFLICT (DAMASCUS, JULY 1148)

In the present study attention was focused on literary aspects of the Arab sources that recount the Second Crusade story. It was claimed that these narratives, in a sense, frame the story, which in fact embodies numerous sub-texts. The detailed description of the fighting, negotiations and politics served not only to illuminate past events but also to promote Muslim way of life and participation in the Holy War (jihad). The main actors in these accounts are men of religion; sacred objects are also prominent, often combined with myth. In addition to painting the ideal picture of the role of men of religion in Islamic society and civilian participation in the jihad, the authors stresses the deep gap that exists between Islam and Christianity. The resulting picture is one of total war between the two sides, with no room for détente or coexistence. Indeed, the writers aimed to humiliate the Christian enemy and to glorify the Islamic warriors – all for the sake of entertaining their audiences. The Arabic texts analysed in this study are indeed based in historical material, but they are clearly influenced by fictional elements (e.g Muruj al-dhahab by al-Mas‘udi). They include several sub-stories which do not limit themselves to a history of war and diplomacy but, rather, are intended to stimulate the spirit and mind of readers and listeners. One example to support this assumption can be found in the reports narrated by Usama Ibn Muqidh, such as the “The fighting leopard”. I profess that this story was told in order to inspire the Muslim public, not to inform. As such it corresponds very much to the description that was analysed in the current study.

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ANTONELLA GHERSETTI

LITTÉRATURE ET TATFIL : SUR UN OUVRAGE ERRONÉMENT ATTRIBUÉ A IBN AL-JAWZI

In this article we try to ascertain the authority of an adab work on the tufayliyyin, al-Qawl al-nabil bi-iikr al-tatfil, that has been attributed both to Ibn al-Jawzi and al-Aqfahsi. A thorough analysis of the ms. Chester Beatty 4770 (attributed to Ibn al-Jawzi) and a comparison with the information on the other extant mss. kept in Cairo (attributed to al-Aqfahsi), along with an evaluation of internal evidence, induce us to discard the authority of Ibn al-Jawzi.

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PIERRE LARCHER

'AYY(U) SHAY'IN, 'AYSHIN, 'ESH : MOYEN ARABE OU ARABE MOYEN?(1)

purpose of this paper is a case study. The editors of Sharh al-Shafiya, written by Radi al-din al-Astarabadhi (died in 688/1289), found in his text an occurrence of the word 'aysh, that they spelled 'ayshin. A lengthy footnote was added, but the footnote is, in fact, for the most part, a quotation from another book, the Shifa' al-ghalil, written by Shihab al-din al-Khafaji (died in 1069/1659). Three opinions are examined in this

footnote : 1) 'ayshin is an ancient and perfectly correct variant of 'ayyu shay'in ; 2) it is a so-called muwallada expression, i.e. not pure Arabic ; 3) it is an expression that has the same meaning as 'ayy shay' without being a simplified form of it. The first opinion conforms to Arabic linguistic ideology and it is prefered by the editors, like, before them, Shihab al-din al-Khafaji. The second, by the use of the term muwallada,

may be interpreted as the appearance of a Middle Arabic form, between Old Arabic 'ayyu shay' in and New Arabic 'esh. The third may reflect a situation of diglossia. In this situation 'ayshin may be a simple classicization of the colloquial form ' e$ sh and it belongs to the mixed Arabic (neither Classical nor Colloquial). Finally, this text presents us with the problem that one finds in understanding Arabic : should we

interpret the available data historically and/or sociolinguistically ?

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MARIA PIA PEDANI

THE MAMLUK DOCUMENTS OF THE VENETIAN STATE ARCHIVES:

HISTORICAL SURVEY

The business intercourses which had place between Venetian and Muslim merchants lasted for centuries. In particular, the contacts between the city of the Lagoon and Mamluk Egypt gave origin to several documents which lay scattered in the different boxes, still kept in the Venetian State Archives. Most of them are in Latin and Italian but there are also some in Arabic. The aim of this essay is to present the historical background of these documents, produced in the Mamluk period, and to discover the reasons why they were produced, the persons involved, the kind of business they refer and the life of the Venetian colony in Alexandria and Cairo.

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LUIS ROGER RODRÍGUEZ PANIAGUA

ACERCA DEL ORIGEN DE LAS TABAQAT

This article proposes a synthesis of the two traditional lines of research regarding the origin of the Tabaqat. According to these two theories, the biographic dictionaries of Tabaqat originated either in the old preislamic genealogical traditions, or in the methods of commentary and criticism developed by the ‘ulama’ and the Muslim jurists. Following this new perspective, both possibilities should be viewed simultaneously, so as to form one single theory. According to this theory, this type of work is an essentially islamic product that easily come to be part of the Jahili traditions. The article also examines matters such as the chronology of the first works of this genre, the range of topics and the repercutions they had on its environments and on minority islam groups.

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ARIE SCHIPPERS

CHANGING NARRATIVITY IN A CHANGING SOCIETY

THE DICHOTOMY BETWEEN THE “EARLY” AND THE “LATER” STORIES IN TANUKHI’S RELIEF AFTER ADVERSITY

This article deals with the difference between “earlier” and “later” stories in Tanukhi’s Relief after Adversity.Some features which characterize the realistic settings of Tanukhi’s stories of the second type are discussed such as those dealing with the representation of caliphs, women and merchants, as well as with the local ambience in which the stories take place, and the logic of the actions of the protagonists of the stories.

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HANNE SCHÖNIG

REFLECTIONS ON THE USE OF ANIMAL DRUGS IN YEMEN

Both, textual evidence and empirical research have encouraged the reflections on the use of animal drugs in Yemen. The manuscript from the Maktabat al-AÎqÁf in Targhm (WÁdgh ÍaÃramawt) consists of two parts: a chapter from “FawÁjid fgh’l-Ôibb min Íilyat al-banÁt wa’l-banghn” by MuÎammad BaÎraq (15./16. c.) containing folk medicinal prescriptions, and the chapter on the hoopoe (hudhud) in al-Qaz­wghngh’s  (d. 682/1283) cosmography “ÝAjÁjib al-makhlÙqÁt”. The “Kutub ManÁfiÝ al-Îa­ya­­wÁn” spread the knowledge on the sympathetic properties of animal drugs, which de­termine their place within magical practices, all over the Islamic world.

Magic is an integral part of folk medicine, and in Yemen, beliefs on spiritual causes of disease such as the evil eye, black magic and spirits are common and we find a wide range of drugs and treatments corresponding to the magical character of the disease. The scarcity of animal drugs there is, however, conspicuous, compared with other Arabic/ Islamic countries, such as especially Morocco. In spite of the common stock of written knowledge, the mediation and use of this knowledge may vary considerably in different parts of the Islamic world, as local traditions and cultural contacts play an important role.

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KHALID SINDAWI

THE IMAGE OF HUSAYN IBN ‘ALI IN MAQATIL LITERATURE[1]

Authors of maqatil endeavour to arouse in their readers’ hearts a sense of similarity of Husayn  ’s image with the images of the Prophet and of Husayn’s father, ‘Ali, Husayn is therefore defined as resembling his father and grandfather in his traits and in his behaviour, in his exterior appearance – his face and his beard, in his way of clothing, and his personal belongings. Maqatil authors make use of every possible means to attribute to Husayn the exterior and interior characteristics of his grandfather. They seek thereby to show that Husayn has the same characteristic attributes as his grandfather: his clothing, his garments, his turban, his sword, his horse, and his camel – all these had belonged to his grandfather and passed on to him by legacy. Since prophets and their scions are endowed with special traits, with signs and wonders, so all their belongings and the items they inherited from their ancestors are endowed with particular attributes and supernatural properties.

Besides, the Shi‘ites believe that all objects, belongings, clothing, and arms bequeathed by the prophets to their heirs originate from Paradise. They were owned by the first prophet, Adam, and from him they descended into the hands of the last prophet, Mu|ammad. He in turn bequeathed them to ‘Ali, and from ‘Ali they passed to the succeeding imams. We can therefore understand the excitement of the Umayyad army over Husayn’s body, their seeking to plunder his turban, his burnous, his sword, and his armour. They knew indeed that these items were highly valuable.

At the beginning of this article we noted the fasioning of Husayn’s image into a saint’s image, characterized by the following features: miraculous birth to a virgin mother and predicted by special signs, superior traits throughout his life, and finally, a martyr’s death. Authors of maqatil intend to bestow upon Husayn the attributes of a saint by developing, among other things, a similarity between him and the historic figures of Jesus and of Ya|ya (John the Baptist). Husayn is like them in his virtues, his powers, his gift to work miracles, and also the tragic fate that befalls him.

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GEERT JAN VAN GELDER

FORBIDDEN FIREBRANDS: FRIVOLOUS IQTIBAS (QUOTATION FROM THE QUR'AN) ACCORDING TO MEDIEVAL ARAB CRITICS

Iqtibas, literally ``taking a firebrand from a fire'', is the technical term for

quoting, either in prose or in poetry, from the Qur'an or the Hadith without explicit acknowledgment. This is extremely common in Arabic literature, and normally it is recommended. It is different when the quotation is deliberately given a twist by its new context, especially when a jesting, frivolous or even bawdy interpretation is suggested.

Nevertheless, this irreverent treatment of the sacred text is by no means rare. This article discusses the opinions of some medieval Arab critics on this phenomenon.