Course: ARABIC 275 taught by Professor Luke Yarbrough - Encountering Arabic Manuscripts: Introduction to Arabic paleography and how to prepare editions of medieval manuscripts with critical apparatus and stemma.
Course Description: During past decades, an enormous number of previously unknown Arabic manuscripts have been discovered. While a vast range of medieval texts has been published in editions of varying quality, an equally large number of manuscripts remain unpublished. UCLA has outstanding collections of Near Eastern manuscripts in Arabic, Persian, and Ottoman Turkish, primarily in the fields of medicine, literature, philology, theology, law, and history. It is rich in works related to studies of theologians and scholars at different centers of learning in Iran during the Safavid period, noted for works of Shiite theology, Islamic sciences, and philosophy.
As part of their coursework, ten graduate students in Arabic 275 from Spring Quarter 2022 identified a noteworthy aspect of a manuscript with which they were working to create an exhibit artifact. We proudly present their work here.
by Brooke Baker:
Shown in the photo (left) is this Arabic manuscript’s waqfīya, or attestation of endowment. A waqf (pl. awqāf) can be understood as a philanthropic donation of land, buildings, or objects for the public interest. The practice reportedly dates back to the time of the Prophet Muhammad when the first waqf, the mosque of Qubā in Medina, was endowed. A key characteristic of awqāf is perpetuity, meaning the property must remain permanently endowed (1). The waqfīya pictured emphasizes this trait, noting that the endowment of this book is “immortal” and shall be “neither sold nor bequeathed.” Neither the institution housing the manuscript nor the beneficiaries are identified here. The founder of this waqf identifies himself as “the poor Ismāʿīl Efendī.” However, as this waqf was endowed in the year 1281 H/1864–65 CE, the founder is not to be confused with the famous Ottoman calligrapher İsmail Zühdi Efendi, who died in 1806 CE. This manuscript is a witness to ʿAbd al-Wahhāb al-Shaʿrānī’s sixteenth-century text al-Fulk al-mashḥūn fī bayān anna al-taṣawwuf huwa mā takhlaq bihi al-ʿulamaʾ al-ʿāmilūn, or The Laden Ship, Showing that Sufism is the Ethic of Scholars who Act Rightly (2). The full transcription and translation of the waqfīya is as follows: وقفت هذا الكتاب المسمى باخلاق الصغرى وقف مخلدا بحيث لا يباع ولا يورث وانا الفقير اسماعيل افندي في سنة ١٢٨١. “I endowed this book, which is called The Lesser Ethics, in an immortalized waqf, so that it is neither sold nor bequeathed, and I am the poor Ismail Effendi in the year 1281.”
(1) Monzer Kahf, "Waqf," in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam and Politics, Oxford Islamic Studies Online, http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/opr/t342/e0467 (accessed Apr 29, 2022).
(2) Collection of Arabic Manuscripts (Collection 895). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles, Box 116, MS 495.
also by Brooke Baker:
Pictured are two embossed stamps indicating the provenance of an Arabic manuscript witness to ʿAbd al-Wahhāb al-Shaʿrānī’s sixteenth-century text al-Fulk al-mashḥūn fī bayān anna al-taṣawwuf huwa mā takhlaq bihi al-ʿulamaʾ al-ʿāmilūn, or “The Laden Ship, Showing that Sufism is the Ethic of Scholars who Act Rightly” (1). The image on the left displays the Russian coat of arms, depicting a double-headed eagle with a scepter in its right claw, an orb in its left, and a crown above. The use of such coats of arms ceased with the Russian Revolution in 1917. The use of the royal Russian coat of arms may suggest the manuscript was housed in a Russian library. The second stamp is that of a paper mill that was established by the merchant I.G. Aristarkhov in the Kaluga district of Russia, near Moscow. The stamp reads “Фабрики № 6 Аристархова,” meaning “Type #6 by Aristarkhov’s mill.” This mill ran from 1839–1855 CE, and thus the terminus post quem, or earliest possible date of this manuscript’s copying, would be 1839 (2).
(1) UCLA Special Collections coll. 895 (Collection of Arabic Manuscripts) box 116 ms. 495.
(2) Thanks are due to Dr. Basil Lourié for generously providing this information.
by Daniel Diaz:
The final pages of this manuscript belong to an 1850 copy of Zahrat al-Kimām: fī Qiṣṣat Yūsuf, ʿAlayhi al-Salām, translated here as "The Blossom in the Tale: On The Story of Joseph, Whom We Hail." It was authored by the fourteenth-century religious scholar ʿUmar ibn Ibrāhīm al-Awsī al-Anṣārī (d. 1350). Originally miscataloged in the Danishpazhuh catalog as a "Stories of the Prophets'' book, this work differs from that well-known Muslim genre in that it elucidates only the Qur'anic story of the prophet Joseph, and in that it does so through a mix of prose and poetry.
Page 226 (image, right) concludes the book with three main elements: praise to God and salutations to the Prophet Muhammad; the scribe's self-effacing colophon; and two "bayts," or lines of poetry, in Persian, headlined in red ink. While perhaps peculiar to novice readers, self-abasement statements were a very common part of the colophon, the statement that denotes the end of a manuscript (Quiring-Zoche 2013, 57). Despite not being decorated in any special way, the middle section in this second-to-last page is in fact the colophon (Gacek 2009, 74).
The scribe was a certain Ḥāfiẓ Muṣṭafā ibn Ḥasan. Little else is known about him, since scribes were rarely recorded in historical sources like biographical dictionaries. However, the Persian lines of poetry in the otherwise Arabic-language book are probably original and suggest that the scribe was an Arabic-educated Persian speaker.
His statement of completion in Arabic found in the middle of the page reads as follows:
وقد تشرف بكتابة هذا كتاب الشريف العبد الذليل الضعيف السيد حافظ مصطفى بن حسن عفى عنهما خالق المنح والمحن في اليوم التاسع والعشرين من جمادى الأولى في سنة ألف ومائتين وستين وست بهجرة من له العز والشرف.
"The honor of copying this noble book goes to the weak and humble servant, Hāfiẓ Muṣṭafā son of Ḥasan—may the Creator of Hardships and Rewards forgive them both—[who finished copying] on the twenty-ninth of the month of Jumādā al-Ūlā in the Year 1266 of the Hijra of [the Prophet Muhammad], who deserves glory and honor [May 24th, 1850]".
References
Gacek, Adam. Arabic Manuscripts: A Vademecum for Readers. Leiden: Brill, 2009.
Quiring-Zoche, Rosemarie. “The Colophon in Arabic Manuscripts. A Phenomenon without a Name.” Journal of Islamic Manuscripts 4, no. 1 (2013): 49–81. https://doi.org/10.1163/1878464-13040102.
by Deniz Çıtak:
Image caption: A quote on calligraphy attributed to Plato, as recorded in Collection of Arabic Manuscripts (Collection 895). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles, Box 26, MS 57, “Majmūʿa (miscellany)”
This stray leaf is one of the dozens that have been stuffed into an eighteenth-century Ottoman manuscript miscellany. The first of these is titled al-Majālis al-Waʿẓiyya. It appears to be the practice sheet of a calligraphy student working on his naskh script. This particular folio is likely from the early twentieth century and offers insight into what a student might have written while practicing calligraphy. A rough translation of the text is, “Plato said that calligraphy is spiritual engineering made apparent through a corporeal tool. God have mercy on him.” What is interesting is that this quote seems to be associated not with Plato, but either with Euclid (1) or a Seljuq-era calligrapher Yāqūt ibn ʿAbdullāh al-Mawṣilī, who was a scribe for the Seljuq sultan Malikshāh in the eleventh century (2).
also by Deniz Çıtak:
Image caption: A colophon attributed to Eyüb ibn Muṣṭafâ al-Gümülcinî (Ayyūb ibn Muṣṭafā al-Kūmuljīnī), as recorded on UCLA Special Collections, Collection 895 (Minasian Collection), Box 26, MS 57, “Majmūʿa (miscellany)”
This colophon at the end of the first section of the majmūʿa provides us with the name of the writer, the location, the date of the writing of this edition as well as the date and location of the original work, though without providing the author’s name. The work itself was completed in “al-Qusṭanṭinīyya” (Constantinople) on Wednesday, the 6th of Ramadan 1119 (1 December 1707). This edition was completed at Medrese Valide Sultan, today known as Valide-i atik Medresesi, in Istanbul’s Üsküdar neighborhood on the Asian side of the city (1). Al-Gümülcinî, the copyist, indicates that he has completed the work at noon during the month cemâzielevvel (Jumādā al-Ūlā) in the year 1146 hijri (October–November 1733) without indicating an exact day. Based on his nisba, al-Gümülcinî, we may conclude that Eyüb ibn Mustafâ hails from Ottoman Gümülcine, a town in the Western Thrace province of modern Greece today known in Greek as Komotini. The colophon also includes a call upon God to forgive the sins of the writers, with a self-deprecating epithet, and those who have prayed for them.
Below is a transcription of the text followed by a translation from the thirteenth line:
الحمد لله الذي يسّر لنا الاتمام• هذه الموعظة الشريفة في بلدة قسطنطنية في مدرسة والده سلطان •على يد أفقر الطلاب• إلى الله الملك الوهّاب أيوب بن مصطفى الكوملجيني• عاملهما الله تع (تعالى) بلطفه العميم الجسيم• غفر ذنوبهما وذنوب لمن دعا لهما بالخير والسعادة • وهو ولي الخير والإجابة• في وقت الضحي في شهر جمادى الأولى سنة ست وأربعين ومائة وألف• من هجرة النبوية•
Praise be to God who has made the completion easy for us. This holy sermon in the municipality of Istanbul at the Madrasa Valide Sultan, by the hand of the neediest of seekers for God, the Sovereign, the Giving: Eyüb son of Mustafa from Gümülcine. May God treat both of them with His great and outspreading kindness and forgive their sins and the sins of those who pray for their good and happiness. He is the master of goodness and of granting prayers. At noon time in the month of Jumādā al-Ūlā in the year 1146 of the Prophetic hijra.
(1) https://www.uskudar.bel.tr/tr/main/erehber/medreseler/45/valide-i-atik-medresesi/735
by Tim Garrett:
A handy instrument in an Islamic scribe’s toolbox was the misṭara (pl. masāṭir), or ruling board. Such a tool (See Figure C*) would consist of a wooden, pasteboard, or even cardboard frame with thread or cord attached at (theoretically) regular intervals. Before beginning to write upon a blank leaf, copyists could place the misṭara underneath it and, using their thumbs, press the paper against the threads to form a series of standardized page layouts. Some masāṭir would also feature diagonal lines for the text’s margins, leaving ample space for glosses or commentary.
You can see that the copyist of the manuscript above (Collection 895, Box 133, Manuscript 642) exercised admirable zeal when using his misṭara, leaving such deep indentations in the paper as to still be clearly visible more than 150 years after he wrote upon it. As the text lacks significant commentary, the diagonal lines in the margins are especially visible.
also by Tim Garrett:
This manuscript (Collection 895, Box 133, Manuscript 642), a 19th century copy of Risālat al-shajara al-nuʿmāniyya fī dawlat al-ʿuthmāniyya (The Tree of Nu’man’s concerning the State of the Ottomans), is a never-before-published apocalyptic prophecy allegedly written by the famous 13th-century Sufi mystic Ibn ʿArabī. In the above section, the author claims to have read in the stars the first letters of the first names of 14 Ottoman sultans to come: S, S, S, M, M, A, M, ‘, M, M, A, M, A, S. Given that the founder of the Ottoman dynasty would not be born until fifty years after Ibn ʿArabī’s death, the mystic’s clairvoyance is quite impressive as the historical record of Ottoman rulers from the period 1512–1691 runs as follows:
Selim I, Suleiman I, Selim II, Murad III, Mehmed III, Ahmed I, Mustafa I, ‘Osman II, Mustafa I, Murad IV, Ibrahim I, Mehmed IV, Suleiman II, and Ahmed II.
Though perfectionists may complain that the author appears to have mixed up the order of Suleiman II and Ahmed II, this particular excerpt from the prophecy may nevertheless help us either to affirm Ibn ʿArabī’s gift of prophecy or to discern the text’s original date of creation (which modern scholars date to the late 17th century at the earliest.)
by Azeem Malik:
The photograph shows the final text-bearing folio (f. 37v) of this undated, possibly eighth/fourteenth- or ninth/fifteenth-century manuscript of al-Ghazālī’s (d. 505 AH/1111 CE) al-Durra al-fākhira fī kashf ʿulūm al-ākhira (“The Precious Pearl of the Knowledge of the Hereafter”) (UCLA Library Special Collections, Coll. 895, Mss. 694). We see on this folio a silent reading note, left behind by one of the book’s readers or owners. This note, written perpendicular to the main text block on the outer margin of the folio, reads:
naẓara fī hādhā l-kitāb wa-nasakhahu al-faqīr Khalīl rājī ʿafw rabbih al-jalīl, s[anat] 1105.
“The poor Khalil, who seeks the forgiveness of his Lord, the Majestic, looked at this book and made a copy of it, 1105 AH/1693–4 CE.”
Though the individual named here is difficult to identify, given that there is no information besides a personal name, these reading and study notes, referred to in Arabic as either naẓar or muṭālaʿa (Gacek, Glossary, 93, 142; Gacek, Vademecum, “Ownership Statements,” 90; al-Mashūkhī 97–100), can offer glimpses into the transmission history and circulation of particular texts (Gacek, Vademecum, 256–257).
The late date of this reading notice (1105/1693–4) is significant: Garrett Davidson has shown that from the tenth/sixteenth through the thirteenth/nineteenth century, silent reading notices such as this one became a more common feature of Arabic manuscripts while audition notices (samāʿāt) declined in use. Though both types of notice were arguably ways of “appropriating the manuscript and commemorating and memorializing the event of its reading,” this trend suggests a historical shift in reading culture away from prioritizing public recitation to preferring silent reading, a change that might correlate with a greater interest on the part of Muslim scholars of that period in the rational sciences such as theology (the genre to which this book belongs) rather than transmitted sciences such as ḥadīth (Prophetic traditions) (Davidson 98–99).
Bibliography
Collection of Arabic Manuscripts, ca. 1600–1899 (No. 895), Ms. 694. UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library.
Davidson, Garrett A. Carrying on the Tradition: A Social and Intellectual History of Hadith Transmission across a Thousand Years. Brill, 2020.
Gacek, Adam. The Arabic Manuscript Tradition: A Glossary of Technical Terms and Bibliography. Brill, 2001.
Gacek, Adam. Arabic Manuscripts: A Vademecum for Readers. Brill, 2009.
Gacek, Adam. “Ownership Statements and Seals in Arabic Manuscripts.” Manuscripts of the Middle East, vol. 2, 1987, pp. 88–95.
al-Ghazālī, Abū Ḥāmid. Kitāb al-Durra al-fākhira fī kashf ʿulūm al-ākhira, edited and translated by Laurence Gautier as La Perle Préciuse. H. Georg, 1878. HathiTrust Digital Library, https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/007937371/Home.
al-Mashūkhī, ʿĀbid Sulaymān. Anmāṭ al-tawthīq fī al-makhṭūṭ al-ʿArabī fī al-qarn al-tāsiʿ al-hijrī. Maktabat al-Malik Fahd al-Waṭanīyah, 1994.
Smith, Jane Idleman. The Precious Pearl: A Translation from the Arabic. Scholars Press, 1979.
also by Azeem Malik:
In these photographs, we see that this undated manuscript of al-Ghazālī’s (d. 505 AH/1111 CE) al-Durra al-fākhira fī kashf ʿulūm al-ākhira (“The Precious Pearl of the Knowledge of the Hereafter”) (UCLA Library Special Collections, Coll. 895, Mss. 694) exhibits a binding technique that was very common for premodern Islamic manuscripts. Individual gatherings of folia are joined together using two-station link-stitch sewing, a technique in which a thread passes through a hole (sewing station) over a portion of the spine fold of a gathering (a collection of folios) on one side, then passes out through another hole/station (Scheper 63). The two stations are marked by arrows in Fig. 1. The additional threads visible at the top and bottom of the image in Fig. 1 are not used to hold the gathering together; rather, they are “primary endband tiedowns” that connect the gathering to the endbands (Scheper 63, 78–82; Figs. 2 and 3).
Karin Scheper’s analysis of 1,056 manuscripts housed at Leiden University Library has shown that link-stitch sewing on two stations was the most common sewing system for pre-19th-century (CE) Islamic manuscripts produced in the Middle East, the Caucasus, the Balkans, Central Asia, and India (38, 273–4). Though these facts do not help us date Mss. 694 with precision nor determine its geographic origins, Scheper’s findings help us rule out the Maghreb and Southeast Asia as possible places for its production.
References
Collection of Arabic Manuscripts, ca. 1600–1899 (No. 895), Ms. 694. UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library.
al-Ghazālī, Abū Ḥāmid. Kitāb al-Durra al-fākhira fī kashf ʿulūm al-ākhira, edited and translated by Lucien Gautier as La Perle Préciuse. H. Georg, 1878. HathiTrust Digital Library, https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/007937371/Home.
Scheper, Karin. The Technique of Islamic Bookbinding: Methods, Materials, and Regional Varieties. 2nd rev. ed. Brill, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004387263.
by Julie Ershadi:
Image caption: A portion of the introduction to the main text, the Shikārnāma-i Khusravī. Folio 4 r, Minasian Collection of Near Eastern Manuscripts (Collection 1147). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles, box 167, ms. 1404.
This photo shows the introduction to a tenth/sixteenth-century copy of the Shikārnāma-i Khusravī, a Persian-language manual on premodern animal husbandry, including veterinary care and the use of leopards and falcons in hunting expeditions. This introduction explains that the original Middle Persian text dates to the rule of Anūshīrvān, a king of the Sasanid dynasty who achieved a legendary reputation for justice and good governance: “Given that there was no pleasure, grace, or enjoyment for him comparable to that of hunting, and he spent most of his time in this activity, one day a group of nobles well-practiced in hunting were near him, discussing the subject of hunting and husbandry, including books and experiences they had had. The king summoned [his adviser] Khwāja Buzurjmihr Ḥakīm and said: ‘I want you to [go out] and collect the names of the hunting books which in the reigns of previous kings had been held in their libraries, as well as to call upon the masters of those times...and expand upon that which would be a summary of what you gathered from these books and of what these [experts] know. Reproduce these materials in the Pahlavi language in the form of a manual which will last through time and, should problems [in husbandry and hunting] arise, serve as a reference.” In the fifth/eleventh century, a New Persian translation was finalized, of which ms. 1404 is a copy (1).
(1) For a detailed review of the surprisingly convoluted literary history of the Shikārnāma-i Khusravī, including palaeographic and philological analysis of three previously miscatalogued manuscript holdings at libraries in Iran, see Mojalli-zāde, Amin et al. “Shekārnameh-ye malekshāhi va ahammiyyat-e ān dar tadvīn-e tārīkh-e ʿelm.” Tārīkh-e ʿelm, issue 11, volume 1(?), 1392. pp. 123-138.
also by Julie Ershadi:
(image left) The fly-leaf at the end of the UCLA Shikārnāma-i Khusravī, showing a wide variety of paratextual expressions in multiple hands, some quite refined and some more reminiscent of a child’s letterform practice. UCLA coll. 1147, box 167, ms. 1404, f231v. Los Angeles, California.
As a whole, this codex contains many distinct instances of paratexts and marginalia, or what Göerke and Hirschler have defined as documentary sources: “in contradistinction to the genre of narrative sources…rather fragmentary remains that bear witness to specific individual or collective acts,” fragments such as tombstones, letters, inscriptions, and of course manuscript notes (1). Here, in this richly tattered bundle of pages, a cacophony of letterform practice, poem fragments, severely faded stamps, notes, and still-undeciphered statements capture the imagination by whispers: a faint stamp at the foot of f. 231v, pictured above, would seem to show a nūn and other letters, perhaps the name of whoever or whatever institution wished to establish ownership. The head of the page bears a partial line from a ghazal by Ḥāfiẓ of Shiraz, the well-known lyric poet in the employ of the Injuid and Muẓaffarid courts of 14th–century Shiraz. The remaining paratextual expressions are partially legible and written in at least two hands, one quite refined and one reminiscent of a child’s letterform practice and Qurʿānic verse memorization. Elsewhere, we find two paratexts, not pictured here but found on ff. 1 and 113 (the latter generously dated 1284/1905 C.E., approximately two hundred years after the production of ms. 1404). They appear to discuss the Shikārnāma-i Khusravī itself and/or this particular copy. They begin with sentences whose subject is the phrase “This book” but whose predicate is all but ephemeralized; a word here or a letter there reveals itself to the fledgling palaeographer’s eye, but the meaning sits just out of reach, and what is missing in expertise cannot be made up for in enthusiasm.
(1) Görke, A. and K. Hirschler, Manuscript Notes as Documentary Sources. Orient-Institut: Beirut, 2011. Pp. 10–11.
An Eighteenth-Century Mughal Seal by Hinesh Shah
Image caption: Seal of Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn Khān, servant of Mughal emperor, Muḥammad Shāh.
This seal, which appears on the first page of Dārā Shikūh’s Majma‘ al-Baḥrayn as found in UCLA Library Special Collections, Wellcome Collection of Near Eastern Manuscripts (Collection 1148), Box 17, MS 97, appears to read as follows: Muḥammad Shāh Ghāzī Bādshāh [Fidwī?] Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn Khān.
This seems to be an ownership seal of a certain Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn Khān, who seems to have been a servant of the Mughal emperor, Muḥammad Shāh (r.1131/1719-1161/1748). All words are clearly legible apart from fidwī. However, similar manuscript seals can be found in the manuscript collections of Aligarh Muslim University in India, which bear the following text: Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn Khān Fidwī Muḥammad Shāh Bādshāh Ghāzī (1). Although a date does not appear to be visible, it should be noted that Muḥammad Shāh died in 1161AH/1748CE. Thus, it is likely that the manuscript was written before 1748.
(1) M.H. Razvi, M.H.Qaisar, Catalogue of Manuscripts in the Maulana Azad Library, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh (Aligarh: Maulana Azad Library, 1981), 57, 122-3.
Dārā Shikūh on the States of Being by Hinesh Shah
In this short extract from folio 9 of the Mughal prince Dārā Shikūh’s (d.1069/1659) Persian-language Majmaʿ al-Baḥrayn (UCLA Library Special Collections, Wellcome Collection of Near Eastern Manuscripts [Collection 1148], Box 17, MS 97), Dārā discusses the states of being. In the lines preceding the ones here, he notes that according to the Sufis, there are four states of being. These are: the world of humans (nāsūt), the world of angelic beings (malakūt), the world of divine omnipotence (jabarūt) and the world of the divine essence (lāhūt) (1). According to other Sufis, there is a fifth: the world of similitude (ʿālam-i mithāl). In the extract here, however, Dārā refers to the four states of Upaniṣadic philosophy using Sanskrit terms, namely: waking (jāgrat), dreaming, (swapna), deep sleep (suṣupta), and the fourth state (turīya) (2). These four states are discussed in the Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad (3). Jāgrat is equated with nāsūt, swapna with malakūt, suṣupta with jabarūt and turīya with lāhūt. Here, Dārā demonstrates his deep familiarity with both the Islamic and Indic religious traditions of South Asia.
Translation:
And according to the sages of India, the term awasthā, which applies to these four worlds, is fourfold: waking (jāgrat), dreaming (sapna), deep sleep (sukhūpta), and the fourth (tūriyā). Jāgrat resembles nāsūt which is the manifest and waking world (ʿālam-i ẓāhir wa-ʿālam-i bīdārī). And sapna resembles malakūt which the world of souls and dreams (ʿālam-i arwāḥ wa-ʿālam-i khwāb) and sukhūpta resembles jabarūt in which the impressions of the two worlds and the distinction between “I” and “you” do not exist. Many of the sages of the two communities are not knowers of this world. However, the Master of the People (sayyid al-ṭāʾifa) Abū ‘l-Qāsim Junayd-i Baghdādī (d. 298/910), may God sanctify his soul, reports and states that Sufism is sitting for some time without treatment (4). The Shaykh of Islam, ‘Abd Allāh-i Anṣārī asked, “What is sitting without treatment?” (5) He said, “[It means] finding without searching and beholding without looking, because in the act of beholding, the spectator is an illness. So ‘time without treatment’ is sitting in that time such that the impressions of the world of nāsūt and the world of malakūt do not pass through the mind.”
References:
(1) See: R. Arnaldez, “Lāhūt and Nāsūt”, Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition; TJ. de Boer and L. Gardet, “ʿĀlam”, Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition.
(2) Dārā refers to these as jāgrat, sapna, sukhūpta, and tūriyā respectively.
(3) The Upanishads, trans. Patrick Olivelle (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988), 475.
(4) Junayd is one of the most famous of the early pious masters. See: A.J. Arberry, “al-D̲j̲unayd”, Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition.
(5) This appears to be the famous ‘Abd Allāh Anṣārī of Herat. See: S. de Laugier de Beaureceuil, “Abdallah Ansari,” Encyclopædia Iranica, I/2, pp. 187-190
by Ava Hess:
In this line drawing from a late-sixteenth century manuscript produced in Lahore, we see a dolphin with the unmistakable head of a lion. This is a representation of Delphinus, a small constellation in the northern celestial hemisphere (or Northern Sky). It comes from one of the most celebrated works of medieval Islamic astronomy, ‘Abd al-Raḥmān al-Ṣūfī’s Book of Fixed Stars, which drew on and improved the star groupings known in Ptolemaic traditions as well as those from pre-Islamic Arab traditions. Completed around 964 CE, al-Ṣūfī’s treatise catalogued 48 constellations for which he included ‘star maps’ along with charts listing star coordinates and magnitude estimates. Many manuscripts of this text were copied in the centuries to follow, including this one acquired by the Armenian manuscript collector Caro Owen Minasian in the 1930s. In them we find a rich tradition of figural art that demonstrates the diversity of Islamic visual representation (1). Artists illustrated these ‘star maps’ according to the aesthetic preferences of their own regions and time periods—often using gold dots to denote the precise locations of specific stars within a given constellation, while embellishing and inventing aspects of its overall form.
(1) For more on this pictorial tradition depicting the constellations, see: Moya Carey, "Al-Sufi and Son: Ibn al-Sufi’s Poem on the Stars and Its Prose Parent," Muqarnas, vol. 26 (2009): 181-204, Brill.
also by Ava Hess:
This late-16th-century manuscript from Lahore reproduces one of the most celebrated works of medieval Islamic astronomy, ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi’s Book of Fixed Stars. Completed around 964 CE, this treatise drew on and improved the star groupings known from Ptolemaic traditions as well as those from Pre-Islamic Arab traditions. For the 48 constellations al-Sufi identified, he included illustrations, written descriptions, and charts listing star coordinates and magnitude estimates.
Across the premodern Islamic world, the positions of the stars and constellations were typically studied on celestial globes, where they appear in reverse to how they actually appear to us in the night sky (1). Al-Sufi recommended that constellations be represented twice, as mirror images of each other, in order to help the student of astronomy be able to visually recognize them in both directions. Thus most manuscript witnesses of the Book of Fixed Stars reproduce each constellation as double, flipped illustrations (2).
The two folios shown in this photograph relate to the northern constellation of Andromeda, named after the princess of a Greek myth who is chained to a rock as a sacrifice to the sea monster Cetus and referred to here as “the enchained one” in Arabic (المسلسلة; al-musalsala). On the recto (left) we see the constellation represented as a woman with a caption above her that reads, in translation, “the constellation of ‘the enchained one’ as one sees it in the sky,” whereas the caption on the verso (right) reads, “the constellation of ‘the enchained one’ as one sees it on the globe.” Curiously, the celestial globe view that we would expect to see on the verso has been omitted—and, in fact, we do not find globe views anywhere in this manuscript. These omissions might suggest that the manuscript remained unfinished, or perhaps they are evidence of a certain disconnect or conflicting intentions between the manuscript’s scribe and its illustrator.
(1) Savage-Smith, Emilie, and Andrea Belloli. Islamicate Celestial Globes: Their History, Construction, and Use. Smithsonian Institution Press: Washington, D.C., 1985
(2) Carey, Moya. "Mapping the Mnemonic: A Late Thirteenth-Century Copy of Al-Ṣūfī’s Book of the Constellations." In Arab Painting, pp. 65-71. Brill, 2010.
by Saad Shaukut:
One of the ownership statements visible on the top of the recto in the image shows that the manuscript was owned by a certain Aḥmad ‘Abdullah Ṣāliḥ Ḥilmī in the Islamic month of Ṣafar in the year 1125 or 1127 (1713 or 1715 CE). Another ownership statement visible on the bottom right of the recto shows that the manuscript was owned by a certain Aḥmad Afandī, a resident of Cairo, Egypt, in the Islamic month of Dhū al-Qa‘dah in the year 1225 AH (1810 CE). A third ownership statement seen on the bottom of the verso does not contain a date and has an illegible place of ownership. Two ownership stamps can also be seen. In addition, several verses of poetry, a note on the concept of ʿārīyah (gratuitous loan) in Islamic law, and a note on the definition of khabar al-wāḥid (singular report) can be seen here, all of which are apparently unrelated to the content of the text. Since the manuscript lacks a colophon, the name of its scribe and its date of production cannot be determined.
also by Saad Shaukut:
In this image, al-Taftāzānī’s sharḥ (commentary) on al-Nasafī’s al-ʿAqāʾid al-Nasafīyya (the creed of an-Nasafī) can be seen within the textblock. In the marginalia and between the text, glosses on this commentary and intertextual references by several different scholars can be found. These two opening pages contain glosses by the following scholars,
- Kidhar Shah al-Mantashāwī (d. 853/1450).
- Aḥmed Mūsā al-Khayālī (d. 870/1465).
- A scholar identified only as Muḥyī al-Dīn, who could be either Muḥyī al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Ibrahīm al-Niksār (d. 901/1495) or Muḥyī al-Dīn Muḥammad al-Shahīr (d. unknown) who was active in the mid-ninth/mid-fifteenth century.
- A certain scholar identified as only Ṣalaḥ al-Dīn (d. unknown) in the bibliographical sources. He was reportedly a teacher of the Ottoman Sultan Bāyezīd II (r. 886-917/1481-1512).
- An unknown author identified only by the Eastern Arabic numerals ١٢.
- Two as yet unidentified scholars.
There are also intertextual references from an unnamed commentary on ʿAḍud al-Dīn al-Ījī’s (d. 756/1356) Kitāb al-Mawāqif fī ‘ilm al-kalām. On the top left corner of the verso, a gloss by an unnamed author can be seen in a different hand from the rest of the glosses, possibly pointing to a later addition to the manuscript.
The manuscript contains several other glosses and intertextual references in addition to the ones mentioned above. The rich marginalia found in this manuscript can serve as a useful source for constructing the history of transmission and reception of this well-known Sunni Islamic creedal text.
by Daniel Diaz:
The manuscript above is an 1850 copy of Zahrat al-Kimām: Fī Qiṣṣat Yūsuf, 'Alayhi al-Salām, translated here as "The Blossom in the Tale: On The Story of Joseph, Whom We Hail," written by the fourteenth century religious scholar, ʿUmar ibn Ibrāhīm al-Awsī al-Anṣārī (d. 1350). It features a commentary on the life of the Prophet Joseph in both prose and poetry.
The manuscript's binding follows Déroche's Type II classification (Gacek 2006: 26), which refers to books that feature an envelope flap designed to provide additional protection to the fore-edge of a codex–a feature particularly "distinctive of Islamic bindings" (Met Museum). The inner lining of the envelope flap in Figure 1 is done with marbled paper. This colorful paper is achieved by lowering the sheet onto a prepared bath of "size" (a glutinous substance made of animal matter) containing colorful patterns (Carter & Barker, 2004: 148). The fore-edge flap lining contains a patterned textile, while the cover itself is made of pasteboard–namely, stacks of recycled manuscript paper (Islamic Manuscript Basics). The recycled nature of this paper can be seen in the faint lettering close to the spine.
The above manuscript retains its original leather binding, illustrated in Figure 2. Although it is difficult to see in the photograph, a close view with the naked eye reveals a pattern of arrows consisting of dashed circles tooled onto the leather, each of which points to the center from all the cardinal and ordinal directions, as reproduced in Figure 3 (cr. Lissette Diaz).
References:
Carter, J. and Barker, N., 2006 (Reprint). ABC for book collectors. Johanneshov: TPB. PDF.
Gacek, Adam. Arabic Manuscripts: A Vademecum for Readers. Leiden: Brill, 2009. PDF.
Islamic Manuscript Basics, Binding | Islamic Manuscript Basics (kislakcenter.github.io), accessed May 20, 2022.
Met Museum, Flap of Bookbinding: 14th Century, accessed May 20, 2022.
by Leone Pecorini Goodall, Visiting Graduate Student from the University of Edinburgh:
Ownership notices allow us to ascertain the provenance of the manuscript and who the previous owners were. It reads:
“fī 9 Ṣafar 1237 malakahu ʿAbd al-Laṭīf b. Muḥammad b. Jāsir”
“On the ninth of Ṣafar (fourth of October) 1237/1821, ʿAbd al-Laṭīf b. Muḥammad b. Jāsir took ownership of it [the manuscript].”
Compared with other ownership notices, this one is particularly terse, without the typical supplication (duʿāʾ) for the owner. In addition, the name of the owner is not abbreviated as had become common by the 12th/18th century (1). Despite being short and naming an unidentifiable figure, given the absence of any other date of compilation this notice provides a terminus ante quem for the manuscript’s production as it is the only surviving ownership notice it contains. The manuscript has been cut and reordered significantly, lacking the beginning and end of the text. This ownership notice can be found on f. 70 verso, which is concerned with the end of the caliphate of Abū Bakr (r. 632–634) and the beginning of that of ʿUmar b. al-Khaṭṭāb (r. 634–644). The positioning of this ownership notice on one of the last folios of the current ordering of the manuscript, is further evidence of the MS having been cut and repasted out of order, since ownership notices are typically found at the beginning or end of the text. No folios remain recounting the reign of Abū Bakr, so if the text did follow a chronological structure and were to be reordered using the surviving folios, this would be the beginning of the text block as it survives in the UCLA collection. Ultimately, this ownership notice also allows us to speculate that the manuscript was cut and rebound after 1237/1821 given that if the MS was in its present order by the time it came into ʿAbd al-Laṭīf’s possession the ownership notice would not have been placed during the reign of ʿUmar but rather earlier on in the textblock.
References:
(1) Gacek, Adam. Arabic Manuscripts: A Vademecum for Readers. Leiden: Brill, 2009. https://brill.com/view/title/14879.
also by Leone Pecorini Goodall, Visiting Graduate Student from the University of Edinburgh:
Image caption: Title page for the beginning of the Mamluk dynasty (r. 648/1250 – 923/1517) found on f. 45r of an undated but probably tenth/sixteenth century manuscript of the otherwise unattested Mukhtaṣar Akhbār al-Duwal from the Minasian Collection of Near Eastern Manuscripts, MS. 955.
It reads: “al-dawla al-Ẓāhiriyya: tawallā al-Malik al- Ẓāhir rukn al-dīn Baybarṣ Miṣr wa al-Shām fī dhī al-Qaʽda sanat thamān wa khamsīn wa sittamiʾa (The state of the Ẓāhiriyya: al-Malik al-Ẓāhir Rukn al-Dīn Baybarṣ took command over Egypt and Syria in dhū al-Qaʽda (October–November) of 658/1260).”
The above is a subheading from the beginning of the entry on the Ẓāhiriyya Mamluks starting with the reign of the eponymous founder of that branch, al-Malik al-Ẓāhir Baybarṣ (r. 658/1260–676/1277). The text is a history of Muslim rulers from the Rāshidūn caliphs (632–661) until the Burjī Mamluks (1382–1517). What is unique about this entry is the reference to the dynasty as the Ẓāhiriyya as well as the spelling of Baybarṣ with a ṣād (ص) rather than the more common sīn (س) that is found in later historiography. The use of Ẓāhiriyya may indicate a late Mamluk composition of the text as the dynasty is not often referred to in this way in later historiography. The Madrasa and tomb of the ruler in Damascus is still known to this day as al-madrasa al-Ẓāhiriyya, however, indicating a more contemporary usage of this term (1). The spelling of Baybarṣ with a ṣād rather than sīn is attested in the Syrian recension of the folkloric poem Sīrat al-Malik al-Ẓāhir Baybarṣ (2). This confusion is not present in most printed editions due to editors often times standardizing variant forms and spellings. Thus manuscripts can tell us much about the development of terms and the standardization of the Arabic language. Confusion between sīn and ṣād is quite common in post-classical Arabic and the vicinity of ra (ر) can often prompt this change. This can even be seen in the Qurʾān where we see the variant ṣirāṭ (road) rather than the more common sirāt (3).
References:
(1) “Al-Madrasa al- Ẓāhiriyya.” Accessed May 10, 2022. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=monument;ISL;sy;Mon01;18;ar.
(2) Zakhariya, Katya, and Iyas Muhsin Hasan. Sirāt al-Malik al-Ẓāhir Baybarṣ: Ḥasab al-riwāyah al-Shāmīyah, 2000.
(3) See for example, Q (1:7); Q (67:22); Q (24:46)