KURDISH
In general, the term Kurdish applies to a range of languages and dialects belonging to
the Iranian language family spoken in the Kurdish areas, from eastern Anatolia
via northern Iraq and northern Syria to western Iran and by significant groups
in Georgia and Armenia (see also Kurds). From a perspective of historical
linguistics, however, these languages can be divided into Kurdish proper on the
one hand and Gurani and Zazaki on the other. The latter two languages derive from
a different Old Iranian dialect than does Kurdish. The oft-heard assertion that
Kurdish derives from ancient Median is not borne out by the available data.
Kurdish proper can be divided into three
groups of dialects: Northern, Central, and Southern Kurdish. Northern Kurdish,
which is also known as Kurmanji, is now spoken in Turkey, northern Syria,
northwestern Iraq, northwestern Iran, Georgia, and Armenia. Central Kurdish, or
Sorani, is spoken in northeastern Iraq and the adjoining regions in Iran.
Southern Kurdish dialects, such as Lakki, are spoken in Iran in the provinces Ilam,
Kermanshah, and Lorestan. Southern dialects do not have a standard written form
and have not yet been adequately studied. zazaki is spoken in eastern Anatolia
in the triangle formed by Diyarbakir, Sivas, and Erzurum. Gurani or Hawrami,
once an important literary language in the region, is now spoken by a
relatively small number of people in the Iranian province of Kermanshah.
There is no evidence that a significant
written literature existed in any of these languages before the late sixteenth
century CE. The textual traditions of religious groups such as the Yazidis and
Ahl-i Haqq were composed during the medieval period; these were mainly transmitted
orally, but writing may have played a role in their genesis. For most forms of
written communication, however, Kurds used the dominant language of their
region Arabic, Persian, or Turkish so that no literary standard languages
evolved until later. The existence of a standard language often counteracts a tendency
for dialects and subdialects to diverge rapidly.
Their absence in the Kurdish sphere during
the medieval period may account in part for the profound differences that
developed between, for example, Northern and Central Kurdish. Although the
former dialect still has case endings and gender, the latter does not; contacts
with Gurani, it seems, caused Central Kurdish to adopt a number of grammatical
features of that language, which are unknown in Kurmanji. Therefore, from a grammatical
point of view, these dialects are very different from each other. Even
subdialects belonging to the same dialect group can show considerable
differences. Given the use of languages other than Kurdish for purposes of
writing and the considerable similarities in vocabulary, it seems unlikely that
dialectal or linguistic differences were perceived as markers of separate
linguistic identities during the Middle Ages.
Further Reading
Kreyenbroek,
Philip G., and Stefan Sperl, eds.The Kurds: A
Contemporary Overview. London and New York, Routledge, 1992.
Kreyenbroek,
Philip G., and Christine Allison, eds.Kurdish Culture and Identity. London and
New Jersey: ZED Books, 1996.
MacKenzie,
D.N.Kurdish Dialect Studies, 2 vols. London, Oxford University Press,
1961–1962.
KURDS
The word Kurd
is generally used for an ethnic and linguistic group living in a more or
less continuous area from the eastern part of Anatolia, via northern Iraq and
northern Syria, to the central western regions of modern Iran. During the
medieval period, some Kurdish groups lived in Transcaucasia. An account of
Kurdish society and history during the period from the mid-seventh to the
sixteenth centuries CE can at best be tentative, owing to the scarcity of reliable
data. A contributory factor to these uncertainties is that the word Kurd was
not necessarily used in medieval sources in the sense it has today. In
preIslamic, Sasanian Iran, it is thought, the word denoted the largely tribal
populations of the mountainous areas to the west of the Iranian heartland, so certain
non-Iranian tribes in those areas may have been referred to asKurd,whereas
sedentary people speaking an early form of Kurdish may not. Because a
significant part of the population in question spoke Iranian languages,
however, the word eventually came to be used particularly for speakers of these
languages. Except in discussions of historical linguistics, speakers of the Gurani
and Zazaki languages are generally regarded as Kurds.
During the period under discussion, Kurdish
society was strongly tribal in character, with tribal confederations,
(semi-)nomadic tribes, and subtribes and a sedentary population at the bottom
of the social structure. Tensions usually existed between the Kurds’ aspirations
to autonomy and the desire of surrounding states to control them. During the
early centuries of Islam, the Kurds were a force to be reckoned with. They are
known to have revolted several times against the Umayyads. They supported the
‘Abbasid alMa’mun against his brother al-Amin in the 810s CE, and they rebelled repeatedly when ‘Abbasid
power grew weaker during the second half of the ninth century. On the other hand,
Kurdish troops, with their reputation for military prowess, were often
recruited into the ‘Abbasid and later into the Seljuq army. Saladin (Salah
al-Din, born in 1138 of Kurdish parentage), who defeated the Crusaders and
founded the Ayyubid dynasty that ruled in Egypt, Syria, and Iraq, is the best
known of many Kurds who achieved fame as military leaders in the Islamic army.
Among the Kurdish tribes in the heartlands, Islamization was a slow process,
and large tribal groups were still said to be Magians (adherents of a
non-Islamic Iranian faith) during the early thirteenth century.
As ‘Abbasid power waned, several Kurdish
dynasties emerged for a time, most notably the Shaddadids (955–1075) in Transcaucasia,
the Marwanids (984– 1083) in the region from Diyarbakir in the north to the
Jazira area in the south, and the Hasanwayhids (959–1095) in the Zagros region.
None of these dynasties seem to have been very influential, and they were quickly
defeated when the Seljuqs and others reasserted their authority over the
region. The Kurdish areas suffered greatly under the Mongols from 1231 to 1258
and later again under Tamerlane in 1393 and 1401. With the new balance of power
between the surrounding Safavid and Ottoman states during the sixteenth
century, the Kurds entered a new phase in their history.
Further Reading
Van
Bruinessen, Martin.Agha, Shaikh and State: The Social and Political Structures
of Kurdistan. London and New Jersey: ZED Books, 1992.
Kreyenbroek,
Philip G., and Stefan Sperl, eds.The Kurds: A Contemporary Overview. London and
New York, Routledge, 1992.
Kreyenbroek,
Philip G., and Christine Allison, eds.Kurdish Culture and Identity. London and
New Jersey: ZED Books, 1996.
McDowall,
David.A Modern History of the Kurds. London and New York: I.B. Tauris, 1996
LIBRARIES
Maktaba is the Arabic word normally used to
mean ‘‘library,’’ but in classical Islam, corresponding appellations were used:
‘‘treasure house of books’’(khizanat
al-kutub) or ‘‘abode of books’’(dar
al-kutub,an expression that is still in favor for a national library, such
as the one in Cairo). In Iran, kitab-khana,
and in modern Turkey,ku¨tu ¨phane, are the equivalents. These institutions were
never one and the same in the Middle Ages as real public libraries, but the
most important were part of institutions of learning created on the initiative
of sovereigns or officials of the caliphal government and the different
dynasties. For that reason they were also often designated by the name of
institutions: House or Abode of Wisdom (bayt
or dar al-hikma), Abode of Knowledge (dar
al-‘ilm). From the AH fifth/eleventh CE century onward, they were often a
part of the higher colleges, called madrasas.
Individual scholars or officials, sometimes families, had also private
libraries.
Since antiquity, small libraries existed in
the great mosques of the most important towns of the empire, and many a scholar
bequeathed his library to the mosque of his city. With time, however, many
mosques also had large libraries. We shall only mention three of them. In
Baghdad, we have considerable information of the library of the mosque of Abu
Hanifa. Among many other famous people who bequeathed their private book
collections, the grammarian, Mu‘tazilite theologian, and exegete al-Zamakhshari
can be mentioned (d. 538/1143).
The library of the mosque of Qayrawan in
Tunisia had its time of glory under the Zirid al-Mu‘izz b. Bads (r.
406–54/1015–1062), but the tribesmen of Banu Hilal destroyed most of the book
collections.
Built in 245/859, the Qarawiyyin mosque of Fez
had a library founded by the Marinid sultan al-Mutawakkil Abu ‘Inan, which
opened its doors in 750/1349. However, an earlier sultan of the same dynasty,
Abu Yusuf Ya‘qub (r. 656–685/1258–1290), is credited with founding a book
collection at the same mosque, which had also the Mansuriyya library,
established ca. 996/1587 by the scholar-king of the Sa‘di dynasty, Ahmad
al-Mansur al-Dhahabi.
Three Great Libraries
According to the secretary of the Mamluk
chancellery, al-Qalqashandi (d. 82/1418), there were three great libraries in
Islam: the House of Wisdom in Baghdad, the library of the Fatimids in Egypt,
and the Spanish Umayyad in Cordoba.
Before then the historical data on public or
semipublic libraries are not well supported; for instance, the establishment of
the so-called House of Wisdom (bayt
al-hikma) in Damascus by the Umayyad caliph Mu‘awiya (r. 41–60/661–680).
This library should have been herited by his grandson Khalid b. Yazid, who
never became a caliph, and who the legend has
made
an alchemist. The Umayyad central administration in Damascus followed Byzantine
practices by and large, and the language of administration, until the reform of
‘Abd al-Malik (r. 65–86/685–705), was Greek. Umayyad employed Christians in
their administration, the most famous of them being St. John of Damascus, and
they could benefit from them in collecting books and translating some of them
into Arabic. However, because as in the seventh century the Byzantine high culture
was indifferent to pagan Greek learning. As hellenism was the defeated enemy,
it was probably impossible in this intellectual climate to conceive of a
translation movement, supported by Greek-speaking Christians, of secular Greek
works into Arabic, as D. Gutas has shown. So it is possible to put in doubt the
importance of the so-called House of
Wisdom in Damascus, and its library.
With the ‘Abbasid revolution, the foundation of
Baghdad, and the transfer of the caliphate to Mesopotamia, the situation of the
Arab empire changed drastically. A new multicultural society developed in
Baghdad: Aramaic speakers, Christians and Jews, Persian-speakers, and Arabs
were concentrated in the cities. The ‘Abbasids had to rely on the local
Persians, Christian Arabs, and Arameans for their administration. The culture
of these people in the employ of the ‘Abbasids was hellenized, but without the
animosity of the Orthodox Christian Byzantine circles in Damascus against the
ethnic Greek learning. For these reasons, the transfer of the caliphate form
Damascus to Iraq had the paradoxical consequence of allowing the preservation
of the classical Greek heritage, and this was not without consequences for
matters of the library.
It is said that the institution of the House
of Wisdom underwent its greatest development in Baghdad in the time of the
‘Abbasid caliph al-Ma’mun (r. 198–208/813–833), who is considered responsible for
it. The library should have come into being in conjunction with the House of Wisdom, probably on the model of the Academy
of Gundishapur. However, it is also possible that a library (khizana) could have already existed
during the time of his father, Harun al-Rashid (r. 170–193/786–809) and his
viziers, the Barmakids, who had begun to have Greek works translated (see
Pre-Islamic Learning into Arabic).
In fact, we know nothing about the construction,
the location, and the date of foundation of the House of Wisdom. For some scholars,
such as D. Gutas: ‘‘In reality we have absolutely no mention in our most reliable
sources of any such ‘founding.’’ In Sasanian times, the palace library
functioned as an idealized national archive. The term House of Wisdom is a translation
of the Sasanian designation for a library, as it appears clearly from a
statement of Hamza al-Isfahani (d. after 350/961). It seems that the Islamic House
of Wisdom was a library, most likely established as a bureau under al-Mansur
(r. 136–158/754– 175). It may have been a part of the ‘Abbasid administration,
modeled on that of the Sasanians. It was devoted to the translation of texts
from Persian to Arabic, and to the preservation of the translated books. Under
al-Ma’mun it seems to have gained another function related to astronomical and
mathematical activities. For the same scholar, the GrecoArabic translation
movement does not seem to have been related to any of the activities of the
House of Wisdom. It was also not an academy for teaching the ancient sciences.
According to al-Qalqashandi, the greatest lustre shines on the second great
library the library of the Fatimids in Cairo, a branch of the Ismailis. The
Fatimid rulers aimed to create rivals to the Baghdad tradition. They founded a
completely new Cairo alongside the old, erecting a magnificent palace and a mosque,
al-Azhar. They fitted out libraries in the palace and also in the mosque,
including their own House of Wisdom, called also Abode of Knowledge (dar al-‘ilm) in the vast palace
covering half of their new capital city of Cairo. According to a contemporary writer, al-Musabbihi (d.
420/1030), caliph al-Hakim (r. 386–411/996–1021) endowed the dar al-ilm with
books on a range of subjects, from his palace treasury, and paid for the
scholars to teach there and, crucially, for support staff and furnishings. The
institution was open to all who wished to study there and included writing
materials. The institution came under the jurisdiction of the government’s head
of propaganda (da‘i al-du‘at), who
invited learned men to meet there twice weekly. A new catalogue prepared in
435/1045 listed at least six and a half thousand volumes on astronomy,
architecture, and philosophy. The palace and academy libraries flourished
during prosperous years preceding the reign of caliph al-Muntasir (r.
427–487/1036–1094), but the library was looted during the civil wars in
461/1068. It was closed when the Fatimid
dynasty came to an end (567/1171). Salah al-Din sold the palace treasures, including
the books, but fortunately some of them were repurchased by enlightened men
such as Salah al-Din’s learned counselor and secretary (not his vizier), the
bibliophile al-Qadi al-Fadil al-Baysani (d. 596/1200). It is said that he gave
one hundred thousand volumes to the school he had established, al-Madrasa al-Fadiliyya. According to
another report, he collected seventy thousand volumes on diverse subjects. The
great Mu‘tazilite exegete and theologian ‘Abd al-Salam al-Qazwini (d.
488/1095), who had lived for a long time in Cairo, had a collection of forty
thousand volumes, of which some had been purchased from people who had
plundered the Fatimid palace. As usual, the figures quoted by Arabic authors
for the Fatimid library vary widely. AlMaqrizi gives three figures: 120,000,
200,000, and 601,000 volumes, but Abu Shama says two million!
The third great library, according to
alQalqashandi, was that of the Umayyad in Spain. When the Fatimids made their
entry in Cairo, al-Hakam (II) al-Mustansir (r. 350–366/961–976), occupied a
prominent place among the scholars and bibliophile princes of Islam. He created
a vast library at Cordoba on the model of the ‘Abbasid libraries of Baghdad, with
some four hundred thousand volumes and a catalogue in forty-four registers of twenty
sheets each. The problem in these hyperbolic figures is in the fact that among
these ‘‘volumes’’ could have been also ‘‘fascicles’’( juz’s). The library was in the palace of Cordoba, under the
management of the eunuch Bakiya. The splendor of the library was dimmed under
al-Hakam’s son and successor, Hisham, in order to please the orthodox Maliki religious
scholars—what was, above all, distasteful to them was the collection of books
pertaining to the ancient sciences, that is, works of philosophy, astronomy,
and so forth. The all-powerful al-Mansur allowed them to remove and burn these
books. In 1011, when Cordoba was locked in battle with the Berbers, the minister
Wadih sold the major part of the library to obtain money for the war; the rest
of the books were despoiled.
Other Libraries
Besides the three libraries enhanced by
alQalqashandi, other great libraries existed. The Buyids, a Persian house that
nourished Shi‘i sympathies and exercised hegemony over Iraq and Western Persia
(334–447/945–1055), took into their service men with an interest in books. Rukn al-Dawla, who ruled Rayy in Western
Persia, had in his service Abu l-Fadl Ibn al-‘Amid (d. 360/970), a celebrated scholar
with a large library, of which the historian
Misakawayh was the librarian. The disciple, secretary, and then successor
of Ibn al-‘Amid, the man of letters al-Sahib Ibn ‘Abbad (d. 385/995) had a
library in Rayy; the theological works alone amounted to four hundred camel-loads
(or two hundred and six thousand volumes). When Mahmud (b. Sebu ¨ktigin) of
Ghazna, the defender of the ‘‘orthodox’’ Sunni faith, invaded Rayy, he had some
of these books burnt as ‘‘heretical literature’’ and some sent to his capital
city in 420/1029. He also plundered all the treasures of the last Buyid Majd
al-Dawla, including 50 loads of books, excluding those that had Mu‘tazilite
content or dealt with philosophy and which were therefore burnt under the
corpses of the crucified ‘‘heretics.’’ A third Buyid vizier, the servant of
Baha’ al-Dawla, Zaydit Abu Nasr Sabur b. Ardashir (d. 416/1025), founded an
Abode of Knowledge (ca. 383/993), in the Baghdadi quarter of ‘‘Between the two
walls’’ (quarter of al-Karkh). Its
library should have counted ten thousand volumes (according to other sources,
one hundred thousand to four hundred thousand), including one hundred exemplars
of the Qur’an in the handwriting of Banu Muqla. After the death of Sabur, it
seems that the Shi‘i poet, grammarian, and theologian al-Sharif al-Murtada (d.
436/1044) was in charge of it. It was used by many scholars, such as the Syrian
man of letters Abu l-‘Ala’ al-Ma‘arri, during his brief sojourn in Baghdad
(399–400/1009– 1010). This library was destroyed by fire during Tughril Beg’s
march on Baghdad in 451/1059. Bahram b. Mafanna (d. 433), the vizier of Abu Kalijar,
which was the penultimate Buyid Amir in Baghdad, established at Firuzabad in
Fars: a library consisting of seven thousand volumes, of which four thousand
were folios in the handwriting of Abu ‘Ali Ibn Muqla and Abu ‘Abd Allah Ibn
Muqla.
Almost every college(madrasa)in Baghdad had a
small or large library of its own. Those attached to the Nizamiyya college (inaugurated
in 459/1067), founded by the famous Saljukid vizier Nizam al-Mulk (d. 485/1092),
and to the Mustansiriyya college, founded in 631/1234 by the caliph Mustansir,
were particularly remarkable for their large size, as well as the value of
their books. Other towns such as Nishapur, Samarqand, Tus, Bukhara, Shiraz,
Isfahan, Herat, Najaf, Kerbela, Damascus, Jerusalem, Cairo, Tunis, Mecca, Medina,
and Oman also had colleges with libraries, or libraries without colleges.
Later, Istanbul also had libraries (such as Su ¨lemaniye Ku ¨tu ¨phanesi,
established in 1557; Ko ¨pru¨lu ¨, 1661; Nurosmaniye, 1755; Raghib Pasha, 1763;
and Murat Molla, 1775). In India, the first Rohilla chief of Rampur, Nawab Sayyad
Faizullah Khan (r. 1175–1193), was a great patron of learning. He was at the
origin of a library that was enlarged by his successors. Many private collections of books are still extant among
Khariji Ibadi families (or now in public libraries) of the Algerian Mzab. The
Zaydi imams of Yemen also had libraries that contained many Mu‘tazili works.
Bibliophiles’ Collections
and Scholars’ Libraries
Despite the high prices of books, many
individual bibliophiles and scholars collected fine libraries. Of the
traditionist and soldier of the Holy War, a model for pious Muslims ‘Abd Allah
b. Mubarak (d. 181/797)—it is said that: ‘‘the number of his books from which
he transmitted [hadith] was twenty thousand.’’ Here we cannot speak of a
library; the so-called books were more notebooks written to help with memory.
When the historian al-Waqidi died in 207/822, he left six hundred bookcases (qimatr). Ibn Hanbal’s (d. 241/855)
library amounted to twelve and a half camel loads, whereas that of his contemporary
(who was also a traditionist like Ibn Hanbal) Yahya b. Ma‘in (d. 233/847)
filled one hundred and fourteen or one hundred and thirty bookcases and four
large jars. Of course, for these two scholars the books or notebooks of their
library consisted of hadith materials or related matters like statements on the
reliability of hadith transmitters. The library of the son of the Buyid Mu‘izz
al-Dawla (d. 356/957) in Basra comprised some fifteen thousand volumes, in
addition to fascicles and unbound sheets. Al-Qadi al-Fadil’s brother is
reported, with some hyperbole as usual, to have amassed two hundred thousand
titles, each title in a number of copies. Al-Qifti (d. 646/1248), too, was a
fervent book collector. His collection is said, again with some hyperbole, to
have been the largest ever amassed. He traveled to faraway places and paid
large sums (he never married and had no children) for books. He bequeathed his books
(worth some fifty thousand dinars) to the ruler of Aleppo, the Ayyubid al-Malik
al-Nasir. The library of the physician Sa‘id al-Samiri (executed in 649/1251)
contained ten thousand volumes. The Cordoban Maliki judge Abu l-Mutarrif Ibn
Futays ‘Abd al-Rahman (d. 402/1011) was a great collector of books. He always
had six copyists working for him. He never lent a work but would willingly get
it copied and make a gift of it.
The historian Ghars al-Ni‘ma Muhammad b.
Hilal (d. 480/1088), of the celebrated al-Sabi’ family (physicians, and then official
and literary men under the ‘Abbasids and Buyids), collected at Baghdad a small
library of one thousand volumes (with a waqf, in 452/1060), in various Islamic
sciences, to which admission was granted to a limited number of students. He
had the hope of replacing the library founded by Baha’ al-Dawla. After the
death of Ghars al-Ni‘ma, the ‘‘vile and avaricious’’ superintendent of the
library sold the books on the excuse that the installment of the Nizamiyya
college in Baghdad had made Ghars
al-Ni‘ma’s library superfluous.
The libraries of the Shi‘i scholars were no
less impressive than those of the Sunni. For instance, six hundred Jarudi Zaydi,
author of the Kufan Ibn ‘Uqda (Ahmad, d. 333/944) wanted to move his books.
They amounted to six hundred loads, and the costs was accordingly one hundred
dinars. We have already encountered previously the case of al-Sahib Ibn ‘Abbad.
Al-Sharif al-Murtada, already mentioned, left at his death thirty thousand
juz’s (fascicles), whereas others say eighty thousand volumes.
‘‘Traveling in quest of knowledge,’’ or
seeking knowledge, offered to scholars the opportunity of visiting many libraries
and of collecting books. The Iranian Avicenna (d. 428/1037), for instance,
benefited from the libraries of the Iranian princes. His first visit to the
royal library was in Bukhara on the invitation of the Samanid King Nuh (II) b.
Mansur. He describes this personal event in the following words: ‘‘I found there
many rooms filled with books which were arranged in cases row upon row. One room
was alloted to works on Arabic philology and poetry; another to jurisprudence,
and so forth, the books of each particular science having a room to themselves.
I inspected the catalogue of ancient Greek authors and looked for the books
which I required: I saw in this collection books of which few people have heard
even the names, and which I myself have never seen either before or since.’’ He
also used the libraries of the town of Gurgang in Khwarizm, of the Buyids in
Rayy and in Hamadhan (Shams al-Dawla), of the Kakuyids (‘Ala’ al-Dawla Muhammad)
in Isfahan, and so forth. The example of the celebrated man of letters, bookseller
and copyist Yaqut al-Rumi is also representative of that. He ad extended visits
to the library of Ibn al-Qiti in Aleppo, the two libraries of the family
al-Sam‘ani in Marw, and so on.
Rule, be accepted at face value; a lot of them
are hyperbolic. Many of these libraries, both ‘‘public’’ and private, had
catalogues, but none of the six first centuries of Islam are known to have come
to us. Perhaps the earliest extant known to us is the catalogue of the library
of the Qayrawan mosque, dated 693/1294. A manuscript dated 694/1295 and
entitled The Selection of [the books] in the Libraries of Aleppo was not, as
its title indicates, the catalogue of a special library. One of the methods to
ascertain accuracy consists in the writing of exhaustive monographies on authors. This was done, for instance, for
the Shi‘i scholar Ibn Tawus (d. 664/1266), who was born in Hilla and established
himself in Baghdad. He wrote a catalogue of his library, which is now lost.
However, thanks to a precise study, we know that his library contained some one
thousand five hundred titles. It included works on all major branches of
knowledge of his time. He had a ten volume copy of Koranic commentary of the Mu‘tazilite
Abu ‘Ali al-Jubba’i (d. 303/915). Apart from the number of volumes, which is a
problem, there is another one that is encountered when speaking of figures in
Islamic libraries: the term juz’ (fascicle), which can refer to several things:
a gathering of sheets (often some twenty folios or more), forming a separate
volume; a number of booklets bound together; a volume consisting of a number of
booklets; or a notebook.
Primary Sources
Ibn
al-Nadim. The Fihrist of Ibn al-Nadim: A TenthCentury Survey of Muslim culture.
2 vols. Ed. and transl. Bayard Dodge. New York: Columbia University Press, 1970.
Further Reading
Balty-Guesdon,
M.G. ‘‘Le Bayt al-Hikma de Baghdad.’’ ArabicaXXXIX (1992): 131–50. Bilici, F.
‘‘Les bibliothe`ques vakif-s a` Istanbul au XVIe sie`cle, pre´mices des grandes
bibliothe`ques publiques.’’ REMMM47–88 (1999): 39–59.
Bloom,
Jonathan Max.Paper Before Print: The history and impact of paper in the Islamic
world. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001.
Busse,
Heribert.Chalif und Grossko¨nig: Die Buyiden im Irak (945–1055). Wiesbaden:
Steiner (in Kommission), Beirut: Institut der DMG, 1969; reprint Wurzburg:
Ergon
Verlag, 2004 (pp. 523–529, for the libraries). De´roche, Franc¸ois,Le livre manuscrit
arabe: Pre´lude a ` une histoire. Paris: Bibliothe `que Nationale de France,
2004.
Eche,
Youssef.Les Bibliothe`ques Arabes Publiques et SemiPubliques en Me´sopotamie,
en Syrie et en E ´gypte au Moyen Aˆ ge. Damas: IFEAD, 1967.
Endress,
Gerhard. ‘‘Hanschriftenkunde.’’ In Grundriss der arabischen Philologie, I. Ed.
Wolfdietrich Fischer. Wiesbaden: Ludwig Reichert Verlag, 1982, 271–296.
Gutas,
Dimitri. Greek Thought, Arabic Culture: The Greco-Arabic translation movement
in Baghdad and early ‘Abbasid society (second–fourth/eighth–tenth centuries).
London and New York: Routledge, 1998.
Hamada,
Muhammad Mahir.The Libraries in Islam(in Arabic). Beirut: Mu’assasat al-Risala,
1981 (1970) (originally Hamadeh, M.M. ‘‘Islamic Libraries during the Middle
Ages’’. Ph.D dissertation, University of Chicago, 1962).
Al-Jawahiri,
Khayal M. Mahdi.On the History of Libraries in the Arabic Countries (in
Arabic). Damascus: Ministry of Education, 1992.
Kohlberg,
Etan.A Medieval Muslim at Work: Ibn Tawus and his library. Leiden: Brill, 1992.
Kraemer,
Joel L.Humanism in the Renaissance of Islam: The Cultural Revival during the
Bouyid Age. 2d revised edition. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1992 (1986 1 ).
Makdisi,
George. ‘‘Muslim Institutions of Learning in Eleventh-Century Baghdad.’’ BSOAS
XXIV (1961): 1–56. Reprint in Id., Religion, Law and Learning in Classical
Islam. nr. VIII.
———.Religion,
Law and Learning in Classical Islam. London: Variorum, 1991.
Pedersen,
Johannes.The Arabic Book. Transl. Geoffrey
French.
Princeton, NJ: PUP, 1984 (in Danish, Copenhagen, 1946).
———. ‘‘Some
Aspects of the History of the madrasa.’’ Islamic CultureIII (1929): 525–537.
Pinto, Olga.
‘‘The Libraries of the Arabs during the Time of the Abbasides.’’ Transl. F.
Krenkow.Islamic Culture III (1929): 210–248.
Sibai,
Mohamed Makki.Mosque Libraries: An historical study. London and New York:
Mansell, 1987 (originally a Ph.D dissertation, Indiana University, 1984).
Touati,
Houari.L’armoire a` sagesse:Bibliothe`ques et collections en Islam. Paris: Aubier
(Collection historique), 2003.
Walker,
Paul. ‘‘Fatimid Institutions of Learning.’’Journal of the American Research
Center in Egypt 34 (1997): 179–200.
Wasserstein,
D.J. ‘‘The Library of al-Hakam II alMustansir and the Culture of Islamic
Spain.’’Manuscripts of the Middle East5 (1990–1991, 1993): 99–105
LINGUISTICS, ARABIC
‘‘In Arabic the only Semitic language that
has remained the language of a whole civilization ideas spring forth from the
matrix of the sentence like sparks from the flint.’’ If Louis Massignon finds
the Arabic language inseparable from the civilization it enveloped, then Arabic
linguistics played an indispensable role in setting Islamic scholarship ablaze.
Following the advent of the Qur’an in the
seventh century CE, the intellectual fervor spurred by the direct contact Arabs
and non-Arab Muslims alike had with other civilizations made it impossible for the
learned among them not to reflect on the sacrosanct language of the Qur’an. The
exchange of knowledge and ideas in the first Islamic centuries between the
Arabs and the Byzantines, Greeks, Indians, and
Persians—initially in the garrison towns of Basra and Kufa and later in the imperial capitals
of Damascus and Baghdad—occurred alongside the development of the Arabic linguistic
tradition. As other fields advanced, they borrowed heavily from the logic and methodologyzz
of the linguistic sciences. Certainly law and jurisprudence, the prose, poetry
and polite learning of the Islamic period (adab), scriptural exegesis, and
theology all have their methodological roots in Arabic linguistics. In
addition, medicine, mathematics, and the natural and applied sciences were
expounded upon and expanded primarily in the Arabic language. Thus the Arabic
language became the primary tool for research and a sine qua non to the
development of Islamic civilization.
Pietistic and pragmatic concerns also
necessitated the development of the linguistic sciences. Most, if not all,
Arabic linguists were employed as reciters of the Qur’an in their official
capacities. One motivation for linguistic analysis of the Arabic language was to
explain the recitational variants of the Qur’an, which Muslims throughout the
world use in their obligatory salah (prayers). Moreover due to the rapid
expansion of the Arab empire, and with it of Islam, the need emerged for
teaching correct readings and recitations of the Qur’an to the newest members
of the faith, because mistakes in pronunciation can significantly alter the
Qur’an’s meanings. Extant manuscripts exhibit a native Arabic-speaking laity
and their charges making basic grammatical errors (see Arabic, Middle Arabic),
which suggests that Arabic grammars became necessary for teaching Arabic to the
Arabs and the faithful for practical reasons.
Indeed, by the 800s, little more than one and
a half centuries after the death of Islam’s ‘‘unlettered Prophet,’’ the Arabic
linguistic sciences constituted a paradigm or ‘‘normal science’’ as defined by
Thomas Kuhn, which is an established method that facilitates problem solving
and attracts scholars to the field. This paradigm is not a single grammarian’s
possession but is rather constitutive of the entire Arabicist assemblage, and
is still accepted as authoritative by modern scholarship, so much so that when
researchers today find results that contradict the normal science, they ascribe
the divergences to their own error rather than to any shortcomings of the
paradigm.
Although paradigms of Arabic phonology,
morphology, grammar, and lexicography were first articulated in the works of
al-Khalil ibn Ahmad (d. ca. 786), random data collection, field research, error
analysis, corpus collection, anomaly study, and symbolic generalization had been
pursuits of the scientific community to which Al-Khalil belonged since the writing
of the Qur’an more than one hundred years earlier and the collection of
pre-Islamic poetry a little later. However, before al-Khalil’s systematized Arabic
linguistic paradigm, only facts about Arabic existed, and all facts were
equally relevant. Al-Khalil condensed and formalized morphological rules into symbols
from which all word patterns derive. Based on these patterns, he devised the
first Arabic dictionary, the Kitab
al-‘Ayn, that served as a comprehensive and systematic accounting for all
the Arabic lexemes. His most famous student, Sibawayh (d. ca. 793),
authoredAl-Kitab, which is regarded to this day as the prototypical descriptive
grammar for Arabic. In this way, normal science developed while continually
complementing but not superseding what was inherited from previous generations.
Hence the Arabic linguistic tradition presaged the rise of the Arabic language as
the lingua franca of the Islamic world, a state of affairs that lasted well
into the medieval periode.
Primary Sources
Ibn al-Nadim, Muhammad Ibn Ishaq. The Fihrist
of al-Nadim: A Tenth-Century Survey of Muslim Culture. Vol. 1, ch. 2 (Grammarians
and Scholars of Language). Ed. and transl. Bayard Dodge. New York: Columbia University
Press, 1970.
Solomn,
Sara. ‘‘Sibawayhi’s Al-Kitab Chapters 1-6: Translation & Notes.’’ Journal of
Arabic Linguistics Tradition 1 (2003): 35–52. Available online at www.jalt.net/
(2003– 2005).
———.
‘‘Sibawayhi’s Al-Kitab Chapters 7–13: Translation & Notes.’’ Journal of
Arabic Linguistics Tradition 2 (2004): 13–27. Available online at www.jalt.net/ (2003–2005).
Further Reading
Bakalla,
Muhammad Hasan.Arabic Linguistics: An Introduction and Bibliography. London:
Mansell, 1983.
Bohas,
Georges, Jean-Patrick Guillaume, and Djamel Eddin Kouloughli. The Arabic
Linguistic Tradition. London: Routledge, 1990.
Carter,
Michael. ‘‘Les Origines de la Grammaire Arabe.’’ Revue des E´ tudes
Islamiques40 (1972): 69–97.
Dilworth B.
Parkinson. ‘‘Arabic Linguistics Society Bibliography of Arabic Linguistics:
Supplement to Bakalla (1983).’’ Available online at www.lib.umich.edu/area/
Near.East/ALSLING.html
(1994). Kuhn, Thomas S.The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1962.
Massignon,
Louis. ‘‘Aspects and Perspectives of Islam.’’ In Testimonies and Reflections:
Essays of Louis Massignon, ed. and transl. Herbert Mason. Notre Dame:
University of Notre Dame Press, 1989.
Owens,
Jonathon. Early Arabic Grammatical Theory: Heterogeneity and Standardization.
Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 1990.
Ryding,
Karin C. ‘‘The Search for a Paradigm: Linguistic Analysis in Medieval Mesopotamia.’’The
International Journal of Islamic and Arabic Studies, 6 (1989): 31–37.
Versteegh,
Kees.The Arabic Language. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997.
MAHMUD OF GHAZNA
Abu’l-Qasim Mahmud (971–1030 CE, r. 998–1030)
was the second ruler of the Ghaznavid dynasty in the eastern Islamic lands. The
eldest son of Sebuktigin (a Turkish commander under the Samanid dynasty of
Transoxiana) and the daughter of a chief of Zabulistan, Mahmud fought along
with his father in the internecine warfare that characterized the end of the
Samanid empire and was awarded honorifics and command of the army of Khurasan.
In 994, Mahmud secured direct investiture of
Khurasan from the ‘Abbasid Caliph al-Qadir, consolidated Samanid domains
south of the Oxus, including Ghazna, and brought under control the dynasties of
the upper Oxus that had paid tribute to the Samanids.
Mahmud’s reign saw constant campaigning, an unbroken
string of victories, and the establishment of the largest empire in the eastern
Muslim world since the ‘Abbasids. His massive centralized administration,
financed by often excessive taxation of Khurasan and Afghanistan, laid the
foundations for a Persianate state in India and provided a militarystate model
for later Muslim rulers. Mahmud’s empire building combined direct conquest with
the creation of tribute-paying states. He defeated the Qarakhanids near Balkh
(1008), the Khwarazmshahs in Gurganj (1017), the Ismaili rulers of Multan
(1010), and the Buyids in northern Persia (1029), and he made vassal states out
of the Farighunids in Juzjan (998), the Shers of Gharchistan (998), the
Saffarids in Sistan (1003), and the rulers of Makran and Kushdar in Baluchistan
(998 and 1011, respectively). The 1008 defeat of a confederacy of Hindushahis,
headed by Anandpal of Waihind, also ensured success in northern and central
India. Mahmud’s signature campaigns against Hindu religious centers, including
the Somnath temple in Gujarat in 1020, brought an influx of bullion to Ghazna
and further financed Mahmud’s sophisticated bureaucracy and professional army.
Despite financial success, however, Mahmud established Muslim dominion in India
only up to Lahore, where he left a governor in 1020 and which remained a frontier
for campaigns for two centuries.
Although it was the subject of controversy,
the religious impetus of Mahmud’s Indian campaigns was minimal; he fought
equally tenaciously against Muslim rivals and maintained many Hindu troops as a
check on their Turkish counterparts. However, Mahmud did project himself as a
staunch Sunni and supporter of the ‘Abbasid caliphs. The dynasty as a whole
favored the Hanafi school, but some sources reveal Mahmud’s sympathy for the
Karramiyya sect as well as his later decision to become a Shafi’i.
Ghazna inherited Samanid administrative and
cultural traditions and, under Mahmud, became second only to Baghdad in
importance. Keen to join the larger Muslim tradition of sponsoring scholarship and
the arts, Mahmud founded an academy and a royal museum that were enriched by
the libraries of conquered cities. Although Mahmud spoke Turkish, his court
oversaw new developments in Persian, most notably in lyrical romances and
romantic epics as well as a budding Turkish literature. Well after his death,
Mahmud’s Indian campaigns inspired epic and hagiographical literature, and his
relationship with a slave created the famous poetical pairing of ‘‘Mahmud and
Ayaz.’’ Luminaries of Mahmud’s court included the poets Firdawsi (of Shahnama fame), Farrukhi, Manuchihri,
and Unsuri, and the polymath al-Biruni.
Further Reading
Bosworth,
Clifford E.The Ghaznavids. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1963.
———.
‘‘Mahmud of Ghazna in Contemporary Eyes and in Later Persian Literature.’’Iran4
(1966): 85–92.
———.
‘‘Farrukhi’s Elegy on Mahmud of Ghazna.’’Iran 29 (1991): 43–9.
Habib,
Mohammed.Sultan Mahmud of Ghaznin, 2nd ed. Delhi: S. Chand, 1967.
Nazim,
Muhammad.The Life and Times of Sultan Mahmud of Ghazna. Cambridge, UK:
Cambridge University Press, 1931
MAHMUD-AL-KATI, AFRICAN SCHOLAR
Mahmud-al-Kati was a scholar of Soninke
origin who died near Timbuktu in 1593. He married one of the daughters of Akiya
Dawud, who reigned in the Songhay Empire from 1549 until 1582. He wrote a work
about the history of the Songhay Empire that was later incorporated in the Ta’rikh al-Fattash,a compilation of
texts to which sons and in-laws later added data or edited the existing text.
This compilation is currently one of the most important sources for the history
of the Sudan and for that of the Songhay Empire in particular. The authorship
and interpretation of some parts of this compilation are still points of
scholarly debate.
Further Reading
Hopkins,
John F.P., and Nehemiah Levtzion.Corpus of Early Arabic Sources for West
African History. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1981
MAIMONIDES, RABBI MOSES BEN MAIMON
(1135–1204)
Maimonides is one of the most illustrious and
influential Jewish figures of the medieval period. He was born in Cordoba,
where tolerant and enlightened Muslim rulers had turned the city into a center
of excellence for Jewish and Muslim knowledge. His lineage was scholarly his
father, Maimon, was dayyan (judge of the religious court) of the city and Maimonides
received the best of Jewish education and Islamic sciences.
As the result of religious persecution by the
Almohads of North Africa, who invaded the caliphate of Cordoba, Maimon and his
family left Cordoba in 1148 and wandered in Spain and North Africa for eight or
nine years, finally settling in Fez in 1160. It was during this difficult
period of wandering that Maimonides began his halakhic activity. His commentary
on the Mishnah, written in Arabic, is an attempt to explain the meaning of the
Mishnah without expecting the reader to have knowledge of the minutiae of the Talmudic discussions and
commentaries. Also, it is the beginning of his lifelong efforts to harmonize
Aristotelian philosophy with revelation. In the book, he discusses his Thirteen
Principles of Faith, the first such creed in Jewish law, which include the
three principles of Unity, Incorporeality, and Immutability of God.
In Fez, Maimonides continued his general
studies but concentrated specifically on medicine. He also began his continued and
consequential response with Sephardi Jewish communities, which lasted until his
death. Maimonides’ personal experiences of religious persecution and wandering
had caused him to have an empathic awareness of human suffering. His consoling and
educating outlook in these matters is well demonstrated by his famous letters
to communities under religious persecution. In his Iggeret ha-Shemmad (Letter on Forced Conversion),also known as Iggeret Kidush ha-Shem (Letter of the
Sanctification of the Divine Name), while utterly condemning religious persecution,
he did not advocate martyrdom for the persecuted Jews. His religious decision
was that Jews must leave the country where they are obliged to negate the
divine law; this was certainly the decision that Maimonides and his family
followed. Despite bitter experiences with religious persecution, Maimonides did
not become an anti-Muslim and declined to classify Muslims as idolaters.
Around 1165, Maimonides and his family were again
put under pressure to convert. They left Morocco and took a hazardous boat
journey to Acre, which was at the time under Christian rule. The family sailed for
Egypt, and, after a short stay in Alexandria, settled in the Jewish quarter in
Fostat near Cairo.
In Fostat, Maimonides took up the honorary
position of becoming the religious leader of the community as well as continuing
his intellectual output. His first wife had died young, so in Egypt he married
his second wife and had his only son, Abraham, to whose education he devoted
himself. He completed his commentary on the Mishnah in 1168. A year later, the tragic
drowning of his beloved brother, David, a merchant who had supported Maimonides
in his studies, dealt him a heavy blow. Maimonides rejected the idea of earning
his living as a paid rabbi. Being a religious leader was an honor, not a means
of employment. He advised his student that it was better to earn a meager living
as a weaver than as a paid rabbi. Maimonides chose to practice medicine, and,
in 1170, he became personal physician to the family of Sultan Salladin of Egypt,
a position that he kept until his death.
The two most scholarly and influential books of
Maimonides are Mishneh Torah (Repetition
of the Law) and Dalalat al-Ha’irin (The Guide of the Perplexed).
Mishneh Torah, the only work that
Maimonides wrote in Hebrew, is an authoritative legal code that revolutionized
the study of Jewish law. Written in a lucid and succinct Hebrew for an educated
and believing Jew, it is the first attempt in Jewish history at an innovative
systemization and categorization of the Jewish Law based on rational
philosophy.
The greatest Jewish Aristotelian and the
supreme rationalist, Maimonides’ magnum opus isThe Guide, which was completed
in 1200. Written in terse philosophical language, it is a systematic exposition
of Aristotelian philosophy and its synthesis with Jewish faith. The book
addresses a faithful and religious Jew, who, having studied philosophy, is
troubled by the anthropomorphic biblical references to God. Maimonides
demonstrated that all such readings should be understood allegorically and went
on to present God as an Aristotelian first cause and self-intellectualizing intellect.
Furthermore, Maimonides posits the theory that the human individual’s share in
divine providence is proportionate to his intellectual perfection.
Further Reading
Encyclopaedia
Judaica, vol. xi. Goitein, S.D.A Mediterranean Society, vol. v. University of California
Press.
Pines,
Shlomo.The Guide of the Perplexed. Chicago, University of Chicago Press. Twersky,
Isadore.A Maimonides Reader. Behrman House, Inc., Library of Jewish Studies.
MAJLISI, AL
Al-Majlisi Muhammad Baqir ibn Muhammad Taqi (1627/28–1699/1700)
was one of the most authoritative and prolific hadith (tradition) scholars
within Shi‘ism. During the reign of the last Safavid Shahs, he was appointed Shaykh
al-Islam of Isfahan (1686/ 87) and thereby also assumed an unprecedented political
importance. Western judgment of both his activities and his character has
remained extremely controversial until today, ranging from a cautiously benevolent
assessment (Donaldson) to outright condemnations for his fanaticism (Browne,
Lockhart, Turner). Among Shi‘i authors, by contrast, al-Majlisi’s decisive role
in spreading Shi‘ism thought in Iran is nearly universally acknowledged.
Al-Majlisi managed to popularize his teachings by writing numerous works in an
easily understandable Persian style in which he summarized the essential
doctrines for the common people. At the same time, he used his power to fight anything
that he considered to be a heresy. Apart from non-Muslims (above all Hindus), his
main enemies came from within Islam, and he propagated a relentless persecution
of Sunni Muslims as well as of Sufism.
Al-Majlisi’s most important field of interest
was the hadith, which in Shi‘ism is not restricted to the traditions of the
Prophet Muhammad but also comprises the sayings of the twelve Imams, most
important among them being Muhammad al-Baqir and Ja‘far al-Sadiq. His
encyclopedic compilation Bihar al-anwar
(Oceans of Lights) is the monumental continuation and perfection of earlier
works, such as alKulayni’sal-Kafi. Far more than a mere collection of legal
prescriptions, the 110 volumes of this work may be regarded as the cornerstone
of Shi‘i identity. The scope of topics ranges from epistemology, theology, and
law to cosmography, medicine, social behavior, ritual purity, and the Qur’an.
Most important, however, is the doctrine of the Imamate: approximately one‐third of the entire work is devoted to the Shi‘i understanding of history,
the virtues of the Imams, and eschatology as embodied by the hidden twelfth Imam,
the Mahdi. Apart from this compilation, al-Majlisi composed a number of other
works about the hadith, most notably Hilyat
al-Muttaqin (The Adornment of the God-fearing), Haqq al-Yaqin (The Absolute
Truth), and Hayat al-Qulub (The Life of the Hearts).
Primary Sources
al-Majlisi,
Muhammad Baqir. Bihar al-Anwar, 110 vols.
Beirut,
1983.
———.Hilyat
al-Muttaqin. Tehran, 1964.
———.Haqq
al-Yaqin. Tehran, 1959.
———.‘Ayn
al-Hayat. Tehran, 1955.
———.Hayat
al-Qulub. Qom, 1963.
———.The Life
and Religion of Mohammed, as Contained
in the
Sheeah Traditions of the Haya ˆt-ul-Kuloob. Translated from the Persian by Rev.
James L. Merrick. Boston: Philips, Sampson, and Company, 1850.
Further Reading
Arjomand,
Said Amir.The Shadow of God and the Hidden Imam: Religion, Political Order and
Societal Change in Shi‘ite Iran from the Beginnings to 1890. Chicago and London:
The University of Chicago Press, 1984.
Babayan,
Kathryn.Mystics, Monarchs, and Messiahs: Cultural Landscapes of Early Modern
Iran. Cambridge, Mass, and London: Harvard University Press, 2002.
Browne,
Edward G.A Literary History of Persia. Volume IV: Modern Times (1500–1924).
Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1959.
Brunner,
Rainer. ‘‘The Role ofHadithas Cultural Memory in Shiite History.’’Jerusalem
Studies in Arabic and Islam 30 (2005): in print.
Cole,
Juan.Sacred Space and Holy War: The Politics, Culture and History of Shi’ite
Islam, Chapter 4. London and New York: I.B. Tauris, 2002.
Donaldson,
Dwight M.The Shiite Religion: A History of Islam in Persia and Irak. London:
Luzac & Company, 1933.
Hairi,
Abdul-Hadi. ‘‘Madjlisi, Mulla Muhammad Bakir.’’ InEncyclopaedia of Islam, vol.
5, 1086–88. Leiden: Brill, 1986.
Kohlberg,
Etan. ‘‘Bihar al-Anwar.’’ InEncyclopedia Iranica, vol. 4, 90–3. London and New
York: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1990.
Lockhart,
Laurence.The Fall of the Safavid Dynasty and the Afghan Occupation of Persia.
Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1958.
Pampus,
Karl-Heinz.Die Theologische Enzyklopa¨die Bihar al-Anwar des Muhammad Baqir
al-Madjlisi (1037–1110 AH¼1627–1699 A.D. Ein Beitrag zur Literaturgeschichte der
Safawidenzeit. PhD dissertation. Bonn, 1970.
Turner,
Colin.Islam Without Allah? The Rise of Religious Externalismin Safavid
Iran.Richmond, VA:Curzon,2000.
MAJUSI, AL-, OR HALY ABBAS
‘Alı
ibn al-‘Abbas al-Majusı (fl. AH 364/975 CE) eminent name in Islamic
medicine as the author of a single known work, al-Kitab al-Malakı Kamil al O`ina ‘a al-O ibbıya (The Royal Book:
Completion of Medical Art;the title has often been abridged to just one of
its two components), one of the most renowned Arabic medical compendia.
Life
Apart from the
few data that can be gleaned from his names
and his unique book, no reliable biographical evidence about al-Majusı is extant; this suggests that he never made it to the caliphal and
(political turmoil notwithstanding)
cultural capital of Baghdad. Rather, al-Majusı(‘‘the
Magian’’; his name indicates a Zoroastrian family background, as his father’s
and his own fairly nondenominational
given names may do also) appears to
have studied and practiced in his native
Iranian province of Fars or rather
its administrative center Shıraz at
the time the residence of the ambitious and powerful Buyid governor ‘Aud
al-Dawla. Al-Majusı’s teacher of
medicine, Musa ibn Sayyar, having
operated within the Bu yid orbit, he himself inscribed his work to ‘Aud al-Dawla, indeed presenting it to him
exclusively; perhaps only after the dedicatee’s death did it become accessible
to the wider public. On the basis of
‘Aud al-Dawla’s royal (malakı) title
as extant in al-Majusı’s work, its presentation to him can be dated to the
interval 363–367/ 974–978, the only
approximately precise date in alMajusı’s life (the presumed year of his death,
384/994, cannot be ascertained).
The Royal Book
The
Royal Book: Completion of Medical Art ranks as one of the foremost examples
of classical Islamic Galenism, primarily because of its extensive scholarship,
lucid exposition, and dominant rationalism (i.e., the near-total absence of
occult material) but also because of its wide reception in subsequent
centuries; despite its being overshadowed by Avicenna’s Canon Medicinae (Kitab al-Qanunfıl-O’ ibb, Canon of
Medicine), it continued to be perused not merely within Islamic civilization
but also in Hebrew and Latin Europe. In Constantine the African’s pioneering
adaptation (ca. 1080 CE), it was titled Pantegni,
whereas Stephen of Pisa/Antioch stayed closer to the original in his own
translation of 1127 and its title, Liber Regius(and variants). According to a
pattern established since late antiquity, the author presents the entire
syllabus of medical learning in one book; however, not merely in his own view,
his work surpasses his predecessors both quantitatively and qualitatively. It
is neatly divided into two sections theory and practice of ten treatises each
and that cover the areas of anatomy, physiology, dietetics and preventive
medicine, etiology and symptomatology of localized and general ailments,
diagnosis by the pulse and uroscopy, medicinal therapy and surgery, and,
finally, pharmacy.
Further Reading
Burnett,
Charles, and Danielle Jacquart, eds.Constantine the African and ‘Alı¯ ibn
al-‘Abba ¯s al-MaE ˆu¯sı¯: The Pantegniand Related Texts. Studies in Ancient
Medicine, vol. 10. Leiden: Brill, 1994.
Micheau,
Francoise, ‘‘‘Alı¯ibn al-‘Abba ¯s al-MaE zˆu¯sı¯et son Milieu.’’ Ibid., 1–15.
Richter-Bernburg,
L. ‘‘Observations on al-Maju¯sı¯, the Author ofLiber Regius.’’ Journal for the
History of Arabic Science4 (1980): 341–2, 363–75.
Sezgin,Fuat,ed.The
Complete MedicalArt—Ka¯milal-O` ina ¯‘a al-Oˆibbı ¯ya—by ‘Alı¯ibn al-‘Abba ¯s
al-Maju ¯sı¯, 2 vols., Publications of the Institute for the History of
Arabic-Islamic Science; Ser. C, vol. 16, 1–2. Frankfurt am Main: Institute for
the History of Arabic-Islamic Science, 1985.
Ullmann,
Manfred,Islamic Medicine. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1978.
———.Die
Medizin im Islam, 140–6. Leiden and Ko ¨ln: E.J.z Brill, 1970.
MALAY PENINSULA
Early Knowledge and Trade
From around the second century CE, the Malay
Peninsula was a major meeting point along the maritime zcounterpart to the Silk
Road. During the early tenth century, Abu Zayd of Siraf even described the
narrow isthmus at Kra as the midpoint between the lands of the Arabs and China.
Although there is evidence of some overland traffic at Kra carried between
Krabi on the west coast and Chaiya in the east the vast bulk of international
shipping, with holds filled with Chinese ceramics and Middle Eastern glass and
glass products (some of which are thought to have contained unguents or
perfumes), seems to have passed through the Straits of Malacca to the south.
For this reason, the history of the peninsula is inextricably linked to the
major island Sumatra and most especially to East Sumatra, which is the site of
a series of kingdoms. Of these, the eighth- and ninthcentury rulers of Srivijaya
claimed some authority ove the Straits and as far north as Kra from their bases
in Palembang and Jambi.
At various points in the region, Chinese,
Indian, zand Middle Eastern vessels would harbor to take on supplies and await
the appropriate monsoonal winds to carry them further on their respective journeys.
Indications are that eastward-bound vessels would have skirted the Sumatran
coast, calling at Lamreh in present-day Aceh before docking at the major ports
in East Sumatra. Then, after gaining the appropriate shift in winds, they would
head north through the Riau Archipelago and on to Tioman island, the coast of
Champa, and southern China beyond.
At all of these points, the prestige goods of
the archipelago’s seas and forests were exchanged. These included shells,
alluvial gold, ambergris, forest products such as resins and rare birds,
camphor wood, textiles, and perhaps most famously spices. Some spices, such as
cloves, were in use in both Rome and China by the second century. These, like
nutmeg and mace, had already been brought from their sources farther afield in
the Moluccas and the Banda archipelago by archipelagic shipping.
Muslim knowledge of the straits passage
varied in accordance with the security and prosperity of both the maritime routes
and the mainland Silk Road. Much of what was known until the time of al-Idrisi reflected
information gathered during the ninth century, at a time when the ‘Abbasids
were actively pursuing the Indian Ocean trade with China from the Persian Gulf
port of Siraf. It is in these accounts that there are clear references to
peninsular Kra, the north Sumatran Lamreh (known in the texts as Ramni or Rami),
and echoes of the claims of the eighth-century rulers of Srivijaya, known to
Abu Zayd as Sribuza or even as Zabaj, a term long used as a coverall for the lands
of the Malay peoples inhabiting both sides of the Straits.
Although the nameZabajhas clear salience and importance
in the early Arab accounts, its etymology has been disputed. Some have seen it
as a distant pronunciation of an Indian adjectival form, Javaka, eaning
‘‘peoples of Java,’’ whereby Java is understood to refer to both Sumatra and
Java. However, comparison with reconstructed forms of the Chinese gloss for an
older archipelagic state based in Sumatra called Jaba (Jia-ba-dej; i.e., Jabadesh) and the phonetic agreement of this
form with Greek names for the same entity (Zabai, Iabadiou) are much closer to Zabaj.
Even so, by the time al-Idrisi did record
information relating to the areas once covered by Zabaj and Kra, Palembang—the
former chief entrepoˆt of Srivijaya had
long been reduced by a raid from the Tamils of southern India in 1025. In any
case, as Jacq-Hergoualc’h has suggested, various entrepoˆts on the east coast of
the Malay Peninsula, such as Tambralinga, already exercised a degree of
independence well before the eleventh-century raids, especially during periods
of relative quiet in the China trade. One might also draw the same conclusions
for many of the Malay and Khmer ports in the region. Certainly various toponyms
are emphasized in the geographies of al-Biruni and al-Idrisi at the expense of
Zabaj and Sribuza, including Malayu (Jambi), Fansur, and Rami, as well as the more
stable mainland entities of Cambodia (Qmar) and Champa (Sanf ).
During the late thirteenth century, the
region of Sumatra and the Malay peninsula came under the hegemony of the
Javanese kingdoms of Singasari and then Majapahit after a Mongol intervention
in 1293. Both dynasties actively sought to monopolize both intra- and extraregional
trade. It is also apparent that Javanese claims of suzerainty were accepted by both
the southern Song and the later Yuan (Mongol) dynasties. The view of a
Java-dominated world was also accepted in the Indian Ocean. The geographies of
Yaqut and his successors refer more and more to Java as a regional construct
and relegate Zabaj and its affinates to the fields of cosmography and the
bizarre.
Although Arab geographic knowledge vacillated
in accordance with the rumors of shifting patterns of authority in a distant
region, the success and continuity of trade was not tied exclusively to the
durability of the states that sought advantage from it. One scholar has remarked
about the relative durability of trading guilds often tied to ethnic and
religious networks, whether Tamil, Arab, or Chinese as compared with the kingdoms
that rose and fell along the same coasts. Although it seems clear that most Muslim
vessels were bound for China, this was not the only West Asian trade to touch
on insular Southeast Asia. Documents from the Geniza trove, found in Cairo
during the late nineteenth century, suggest that there was also direct contact
between Egypt, Kra, and the west coast of Sumatra at Fansur between the tenth
and thirteenth centuries. This was handled by Jewish merchants and their Malay
partners, and it facilitated the movement of the all-important spices from the
Indian Ocean into the Mediterranean through the port of Alexandria.
Java, Spice, and Conversion
Today the area that constitutes the
nation-states of Indonesia, Brunei, and Malaysia is largely Muslim and Shafi’i
in orientation. Although the presence of Muslim traders seems certain from at
least the ninth century, there is great uncertainty about how or when Islam
came to prevail in the western reaches of the archipelago. The first epigraphic
evidence of any Muslim ruler comes from the northern tip of Sumatra, the site
of the former port kingdom of Samudra (also known as Pasai). Here is to be
found the restored tomb of a sovereign called Malik al-Salih, conventionally
dated to 1297. Even so, Samudra is not remembered by Malay accounts as the
first Muslim kingdom of the archipelago. Malay literature speaks instead of the
neighboring port of Perlak as the first
Muslim kingdom and the agent of the conversion of Samudra Pasai. This
chronology is confirmed by the account of Marco Polo, who passed through the
Straits in approximately 1291 and mentioned the existence of a major island
called Java Minora that consisted of eight separate kingdoms. Of these he
described Ferlec (Perlak), Basma, Samara, Dagroian (Indragiri), Lambri
(Lamreh), and Fansur and remarked that, although most were under the rule of
the Great Khan (of Java), Ferlec had been recently won over by the Muslim
merchants who frequented the place.
Although trade must have played a vital role
in the conversion of Sumatra’s entrepoˆt ports, indigenous accounts stress the
role of saints from the Middle East who had ventured to the islands via ports
in southern India. The great lag between first contact and royal conversionas opposed
to the local instances that must have occurred betwen traders and locals has
caused some scholars to suggest the possibility of a new missionary impulse led
by Sufis after the Mongol sack of Baghdad. A. H. Johns once proposed that these
activities were perhaps entwined with the activities of trade guilds, whereas
others have pointed to the complex nature of conversion in the archipelago
involving merchants of many ethnic groups (Tamil, Persian, Chinese, and Arab)
who came to play a greater role at courts.
One possible argument for the slow spread of
Islam in the region after the late thirteenth century is that itwas connected
to a weakening in previous structures in the face of the spread of Javanese
power and then a vacuum caused by its decline. According to the account of
Prapanca, which was written during the mid-fourteenth century, the Javanese
sent military expeditions into the Straits in the 1270s, and the various
statelets of Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula remained loyal vassals. However,
it is possible that the Javanese appointed relatively disinterested outsiders
as local governers or tax collectors with ties to the all-important
international trade and zmost probably with Ayyubid Yemen and Egypt. The fact
that Malik al-Salih adopted an Ayyubid-style name and that the first known
individual in the Middle East with a patronymic connection to Southeast Asia
was a mystic active in Aden and the Red Sea Coast linked to the spice trade,
Abu ‘Abd Allah Mas‘ud b. ‘Abd Allaˆh al-Jawi (fl. ca. 1277–ca. 1315) points to
such a connection. Furthermore, the hagiographic stories about ‘Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani,
which were collected and edited by an adept of al-Jawi, ‘Abd Allaˆhb. As‘ad
al-Yafi‘i (1298–1367), were later reworked as Malay, Javanese, and Sundanese
recensions, and they appear to have influenced one of the earliest stories of royal
conversion in the archipelago. One legend of alJilani speaks of his gaining the
gift of eloquence from the sputum of the Prophet. The king of Pasai was said to
have been converted in a dream in which the Prophet also spat in his mouth and
gave him the ability to recite the Qur’an in its entirety.
When Ibn Battuta passed through the region in
around 1345, he, too, commenced his account of the island of Sumatra by
remarking that it was the island of the Javanese people. He also made sure to
note that it was the source of the famous incense Luban Jawi (benzoin). Meanwhile,
within the area of Java, which he seems to have located as the lands below the Peninsula
in toto, Ibn Battuta detailed his experiences in two kingdoms. One of these was
Samudra, which then consisted of a walled settlement upriver under the authority
of a ruler called Malik al-Zahir, a form that echoes that of his predecessor Malik
al-Salih. The next court he visited—and where he received a much more cursory
welcome—was called Mul Jawa. Although his slighting description of its
non-Muslim king could have been applied to any number of potentates east of
Samudra and indeed is most often identified with Java or the Peninsula, this
was most likely Jambi given that Ibn Battuta was following the same
well-worn route that his predecessors
had followed for more than five centuries.
Whatever the roots and reasons for royal
conversion, the spread of Islamic rule and its concomitant symbolic forms including
dress, Arabic script, and Titles gathered momentum during the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries, although this process often contained clear reference to
the previously prevailing Indianized traditions. For example, the next major known
inscription after the tomb of Malik al-Salih comes from the eastern side of the
Malay Peninsula at Trengganu. This inscription, datable to either 1303 or 1387,
takes the form of a large stone engraved in Malay written in a modified Arabic
script and records the adoption of new Islamic rules. Even so, although the
rules and script pay tribute to Islamic models, much of the terminology
including the name of God is drawn from Sanskrit and Malay. Certainly rules and
rulings were adopted by local sovereigns. According to Ibn Battuta, the ruler
of Samudra was an avid discussant on matters of Shafi’i law, the school that
now predominates in the region to the practical exclusion of all other forms.
The Malacca Sultanate
As Islam spread down the coasts of Sumatra
being adopted by the courts of Aru and Deli in the 1400s it also gained
adherents on the peninsula. It may also have served a useful purpose for
escapees from Javanese hegemony seeking international support. According to
what is often regarded as the preeminent account of Malay royal lineage,
theSulalat al-Salatin (Malay Annals),
the dynasty of Malacca was founded around 1400 by a refugee prince from
Palembang after an interim period in Temasek, now occupied by the city of
Singapore.
Oliver Wolters has presented the Malaccan
story as an account stressing the continuum of authority from long-lost
Srivijaya, although much interpretation is required to extract the precise
details from the narrative. What is clear, however, is that the city came, in the
fifteenth century, to play the role once performed by Palembang and Jambi as
the key mediator for the China trade in the Straits, with its rulers continuing
the practice of monopolistic protection, close partnership with the sea peoples
who both patrolled the islands and gathered its hinterland products, and good
harbor facilities with low taxation.
Most relevant to present concerns, however,
is that the ruler of Malacca appears to have adopted Islam with the
encouragement of the lord of Pasai. The subsequent history of Islam during this
period is often presented by Malaysian national and colonial historiography as
a golden age, with Malacca playing the dominant role in Straits shipping.
It is clear that Malacca became an important
hub for trade with the wider region through its ties to international commerce.
Recognition from the Chinese emperor in 1405 combined with statements of
loyalty to both the neighboring powers of
Tai Ayudhya and Java’s Majapahit, would also have served this end. Ultimately,
it surpassed Samudra in influence, although it, Aru, and Kedah on the peninsula
remained strong rivals. Sultan Muzaffar Shah (d. ca. 1459) even managed to
incorporate much surrounding territory Dinding, Selangor, Muar, and Bintan and
secured the allegiance of Pahang on the east coast of the peninsula. Malaccan
influence was also felt across the strait, in Inderagiri and Kampar, which had
access to the mineral wealth and pepper plantations of the Minangkabau
highlands. The successors of Sultan Muzaffar then added Bernam and Perak on the
peninsula, the Riau archipelago, and Siak. By the time of the last ruler,
Mahmud Shah (r. 1488–1528), the Sultanate took in Pahang on the east coast, the
west coast between Perak and Johor, large swathes of the east coast of Sumatra,
and insular possessions in the South China Sea and the Riau archipelago. Even
so, it was never in total control of the passage and always had to contend with
the rivalry of other Malay states to the north under the influence of the Thais
and the still-active Sumatran entities of Aru and Samudra-Pasai.
At the beginning of the sixteenth century,
Malacca was the principal Muslim power that was responsible for the wider
dissemination of the faith to the further reaches of the archipelago (e.g., in
the spice-gathering zones of the Moluccas) and indeed the propagation of its
form of Malay as the prestige language of interethnic communication. Its ruler
was confident enough to pledge his fealty to China and Ayudya, but he no longer
regarded Java as a threat. Indeed, Malacca was now the primary magnet for both
intra-archipelagic and international trade. Its regional foci were reflected in
the appointment of four different harbormasters to deal with the traffic from
Gujerat; the peoples of southern India, Bengal, Pasia, and Pegu; those from
Java, Palembang, Banda, and the Moluccas; and those of China, Champa, and the
Ryukyu archipelago.
Because of the volume of trade and its
strategic location, Malacca was identified by the Portuguese as the key
regional prize after their arrival in the Indies in 1509. The city was captured
by Albuquerque in 1511.
Some have seen this moment as one of
galvanization for the Muslims of the archipelago against Christian aggression,
but such claims are overstated. Significantly, the displaced Sultan Mahmud
appealed to China for aid. By the same token, the taking of Malacca did not
guarantee any Portuguese monopoly in the region but rather a chance to compete
with the emerging states of importance. Among these, Aceh, which overwhelmed
most of north Sumatra—including Samudra gained in influence in the 1520s. The Acehnese
also seem to have engaged in a degree of trade with the Portuguese, just as the
rulers of Samudra had done, even allowing a Portuguese factory to be established
there. Peninsular Johor also maintained trade relations, although only after a long
period of intermittent attacks. It was then forced into an uneasy alliance with
Malacca after 1536. Despite Acehnese ambitions of regional hegemony and trading
relations with the Ottoman Empire, it would appear that it was only in the
middle of the century and perhaps with encouragement from local Ottoman spice
procurers that Aceh engaged Malacca in open warfare. To this end, the Acehnese
rulers requested aid from the Ottomans, and a fleet was even dispatched in the
1560s. However, it was forced to deal with an uprising in Yemen, and what
forces did arrive were primarily in the form of large cannon and artillery experts.
Aceh remained a regional force well into the
seventeenth century in the company of the comprador states of Banten in Java
and Johor on the peninsula. It was also during the seventeenth century that the
Atlantic nations became more actively involved in the spice trade to the cost of
their Portuguese and Spanish predecessors. Both the Dutch and the English
sought to establish factories in Aceh, but they were refused and settled
instead in ports further to the east at Batavia and Bencoolen. In the emerging
struggle, Portugal was slowly excluded, even if Portuguese retained its
importance alongside Malay as a language of regional importance. Malacca itself
was finally taken by the Dutch in 1641.
The Doctrinal Importance of
Aceh
Whereas Malacca holds center stage in modern Malay
accounts of Islam and Islamization, it was Aceh that played the preeminent role
in determining the future course of Malay Islam and indeed the mystically
leaning Islam of many of the courts of the archipelago, such as Banten and
Cirebon on West Java. Unlike earlier periods, there is a great deal of textual
evidence surviving from the seventeenth century showing that north Sumatra was
regarded as the leading site for interpretations of Sufism in the archipelago,
especially as compared with Malacca, for which there is little evidence of
great scholarly concern with Islamic matters outside of those of trade and legislation.
Some of the earliest known MalayoMuslim writings were composed by Hamzah
alFansuri, whose patronym indicates that he came from the west Sumatran region
of Fansur, which was long noted as a source of excellent camphor. Indeed, camphor
is often referred to in his poetry, which also hints at induction into a Sufi
order in Ayodhya and further travels to Mecca and Jerusalem. Although alFansuri
was long thought to have died in Aceh during the late sixteenth century, the
evidence again based on a headstone points instead to his passing in Mecca in
1527.
Whereas al-Fansuri was clearly a member of a mystical
order, he left no known writings of an expository nature regarding his belief
or his scholarly affiliations. Instead, the first such indigenous writings come
from the pen of a scholar who acknowledged his intellectual debt to al-Fansuri,
Shams al-Din al-Samutra’i (often spelled al-Samutrani; d. 1630), who
highlighted the place of Malay as the primary language of exegesis of Arabic
and Persian works.
Certainly Southeast Asia remained interlinked
with an Indian Ocean world. The earliest accurately datable Malay work, the Taj al-Salatin,which was composed in
Johor in 1601, makes repeated references to events and persons in India and to
Arabic and Persian books read there. Even so, the intellectual motor of change
lay not so much in the historical links with India itself but with the ongoing
interaction with expatriate communities throughout the entire Indian Ocean, whether
among Malays abroad in the Yemen and the Hejaz or with peripatetic scholars linked
by trade and patronage of the courts.
One of the most famous such e´migre´s was
apparently a Hadrami from India, Nur al-Din al-Raniri (d. 1656), who rose to prominence
at the Acehnese court around 1637 under Sultan Iskandar II (r. 1636–1641) and
who is often remembered for his condemnation of the works of al-Fansuri and
al-Samutra’i as constituting deviant or heterodox understandings of Sufism. Under
al-Raniri, a form of local inquisition was instigated, which resulted in the
public burning of these works, and, apparently, of some of the followers. However,
al-Raniri is also remembered more widely for his major contribution to
Malayo-Islamic juridical literature, the Sirat
al-Mustaqim,which remains one of the most important works of Shafi’i
jurisprudence used in Malay-literate religious networks; it is often regarded
as a work that sits in good company with the works of al-Ghazali. It is also
noteworthy that, although the Islamization legends of Kedah (on the east coast
of the Malay Peninsula) backdate Islamization to a putative connection with
Pasai, the name of the primary saint and the works cited in this regard are
clearly linked to al-Raniri and his Sirat.
The contentious ascendancy of al-Raniri was
undone in 1641, when a local challenger who was remembered as a scholar and
mystic from the Minangkabau highlands gained the favor of the reigning sultana,
Taj al-Alam Safiyat al-Din Shah (1641–1675); this was not unsual for Southeast
Asia, with queens having ruled over Islamic states such as Pasai and later in Patani.
Although al-Raniri instituted a campaign against
ostensibly deviant forms of mysticism, he was himself a Sufi. One Indonesian
scholar, Azyumardi Azra, sees him as a key leader in a centuries-long program
of reform and further Islamization in the archipelago as a whole. Still, the
message of teachers like al-Raniri appears to have gained greater acceptance
over time but in a more accommodationist local guise. This was presented by Abd
al-Ra’uf al-Sinkili (1615–1693), who served under Iskandar II’s female
successor, Sultana Safiyat al-Din, and composed the first complete Malay
exegesis of the Qur’an. This work, the Tarjuman
al-Mustafid, was based heavily on the tafsir of ‘‘the two Jalals,’’
al-Mahalli (1389–1459) and alSuyuti (1445–1505). Although al-Sinkili’s work is
now increasingly rare, he laid the groundwork for the lasting importance and
popularity of the Jalalayn in Southeast Asia.
Further Reading
Andaya,
Barbara Watson, and Leonard Andaya.A History of Malaysia, 2nd ed. Houndmills:
Palgrave, 2001.
Azra,
Azyumardi.The Origins of Islamic Reformism in Southeast Asia: Networks of
Malay-Indonesian and Middle Eastern ‘Ulamaˆ’ in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries.
Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2004.
Coede`s,
George. The Indianized States of Southeast Asia. Honolulu: East West Center
Press, 1968.
Cortesa˜o,
Armando, ed. and transl.The Suma Oriental of Tome´ Pires (...) and the Book of
Fransisco Rodriguez (...). London: The Hakluyt Society, Second Series no. 89,
1944.
Goitein,
S.D.Letters of Medieval Jewish Traders. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University
Press, 1973.
Ibn Battuta.
The Travels of Ibn Battuˆta A.D. 1325–1354, eds. and transl. H.A.R. Gibb and
C.F. Beckingham, vol. IV, 874–87. London: Hakluyt Society, 1994.
Jacq-Hergoualc’h,
Michel. The Malay Peninsula: Crossroads of the Maritime Silk Road. Leiden:
Brill, 2002.
Jones,
Russell. ‘‘Ten Conversion Myths from Indonesia.’’ InConversion to Islam, ed.
Nehemia Levtzion, 129–58.
London,
Methuen. Prapan˜ca, Mpu. DeSawarnana (Naˆgarakrtaˆgama), ed. Stuart Robson.
Leiden: KITLV Press, 1995.
Reid,
Anthony.Southeast Asia in the Age of Commerce, 2 vols. New Haven, CT: Yale
University Press, 1988– 1993.
Riddell,
Peter G.Islam and the Malay-Indonesian World: Transmission and Responses.
Honolulu: University of Hawaii, 2001.
Tibbetts,
G.R.A Study of the Arabic Texts Containing Material on South-East Asia. Leiden
and London: Brill, 1979.
Wolters,
Oliver.Early Indonesian Commerce: A Study of the Origins of Srıˆvijaya. Ithaca,
NY: Cornell University Press, 1962.
Yule, Henry,
and Henri Cordier.The Book of Ser Marco Polo, 2 vols. Philo Press, Amsterdam,
1975.
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