Abbasid Intellectual History

The mysterious description of the Basran philologist Abū ʿUbayda Maʿmar b. al-Muthannā (ca. 114/732—ca. 210/825) as a secret adherent of Khārijī doctrines has long been accepted as accurate. Although on rare occasion the plausibility of such an association has been questioned, most recent studies have pointed out the apparent reliability of the evidence, particularly a number of reports on the authority of sympathetic contemporaries. Thus far, however, no satisfactory answer has been given as to the nature of Abū ʿUbayda’s putative Khārijism or, if the label is not to be trusted as accurate, as to how the misconception originated. It is the purpose of this essay to adumbrate the process by which the Khārijite label came to be erroneously affixed to the philologist and thereafter preserved in the posthumous tradition.

Ce court ouvrage d’adab, écrit par Abū Hilāl al-ʿAskarī (m. vers 400/1010), marque une étape essentielle dans l’histoire des relations entre les pouvoirs politique et judiciaire. À travers une série de récits pseudo-historiques, l’auteur entend démontrer que le souverain, avant même d’agir en justicier, doit accepter de se soumettre au jugement des hommes. Ce bref miroir des princes d’époque būyide vient couronner une longue évolution doctrinale issue des tensions entre le sommet de l’État et la judicature : en plaçant les califes sous l’autorité judiciaire des cadis, Abū Hilāl contribue à la désacralisation de l’institution califale et à la promotion d’une magistrature indépendante.

Mathieu Tillier, chercheur à l’Institut français du Proche-Orient (Ifpo), propose ici l’édition du texte arabe, précédée d’une introduction et accompagnée d’une traduction française.

تلخيص: يمثّل كتاب أبي هلال العسكري (المتوفّى في حوالي عام 400 ه/1010 مـ) الذي بين أيدينا مرحلة هامّة في تاريخ العلاقات بين السلطات السياسية والقضائية. فإنّ المؤلّف يبيّن عبر تسلسل من الأخبار أنّ السلطان العادل لا يمكنه تجسّد السلطة القضائية إلّا بعد أن خضع لأحكام قضاته. فهذا الكتاب، المؤلَّف في العصر البويهي والمنتمي إلى جنس آداب الملوك، يتوّج تطوّراً نظريّاً هامّاً نجم عن توتّر العلاقات بين القضاة والدولة العبّاسية. فمن خلال وصفه للعديد من الخلفاء المستسلمين لأحكام القضاة، يسهم أبو هلال في إزالة هالة القدسيّة عن الخلافة والدفاع عن مؤسّسة قضائيّة مستقلّة.

قام ماتيو تيليه، وهو باحث في المعهد الفرنسي للشرق الأدنى، بتقديم الكتاب وتحقيقه قبل ترجمته إلى الفرنسية.

This short adab treatise by Abū Hilāl al-ʿAskarī (d. c. 400/1010) marks an important turning point in the relationship between political power and the judiciary in Islam. Written in the Būyid period as a concise mirror for princes, the work sanctions a doctrinal evolution that is the outcome of long-standing tension between the judiciary and the highest levels of the state. Using a series of pseudo-historical narratives, Abū Hilāl suggests that rulers should be prepared to submit to the adjudication of ordinary men. By presenting caliphs as being under the judicial authority of qāḍī-s, the author contributes to the de-sacralisation of the caliphate and to the promotion of an independent judiciary.

Mathieu Tillier, researcher at the Institut français du Proche-Orient (Ifpo), presents a critical edition of the text with an introduction and a translation into French.

Explores the epistemic conceptualization of frontiers as articulated in the emergence of administrative geography in Baghdad during the formative period of the ʿAbbāsid state, from the eighth to tenth centuries. Particular attention is placed on the intersections between imperial administration, translation, scriptural exegesis, and the marvels and monsters inhabiting medieval Arabic and Persian descriptions of the world.

يسلّط هذا الكتابُ الضوء على مرحلةٍ في التراث الشعري العربي، تُعتبر ثوريةً في إنجازاتها، ومتميّزةً بوعي شعرائها بأنفسهم وبكونهم أصحاب مشروع إبداعي جديد. وعلى الرغم من الاعتراف بأهمّية التجربة العباسية، إلا أن معظم النقاد الأدبيين لا يُشرِكونها في النقاشات التي تتناول الشعر الحديث في القرن العشرين. وفي المقاربة الزمنية الخطّية، نجدها تتعرض للإبعاد أو الدفع للوراء. ولذا  أجد أن من الأهمية بمكان أن نربط بين المحدثين العباسيين وبين مشروع الحداثة العربيّة وأن نُدخل الشعراء العباسيين -من أمثال أبي تمام وابن الرومي والبحتري، وبالتأكيد المتنبي الذي أتى في وقتٍ لاحق- في المناقشة التي تدور حول الشعر العربي واتجاهاته في عصرنا الحالي. توفّر لنا مقابلة مشروع المُحدثين وحركة الشعر الحر رؤىً مُتبصّرة بالغة الأهمّية حول ما نعنيه تحديدًا بقولنا "التغيير الشعري" و "الثورات الشعرية"، وحتى الصّفات التي نستخدمها لوصف القصائد أو الحركات الشعرية، مثل: "أصيل" أو "جديد".

This paper surveys and analyzes the written, oral, and aural sources of two major anthologies, the Yatımat al-dahr fı mahāsin ahl al-ʿasṛ and its sequel the Tatimmat al-Yatıma of Abū Mansur al-Thaʿālibı, which deal exclusively with contemporary literature
based on geographical regions. The paper uncovers a network of littérateurs, active in the second half of the fourth/10th century, who constituted the major authorities for both works. The survey of the sources in the Yatıma and the Tatimma strongly evinces a
return to oral transmission, necessitated by the newness of the information that had yet to be recorded in books. The survey also reveals the use of complementary transmissions through dıwāns, books, and other written materials. This distribution of sources is not uniform throughout the aqsām of the Yatıma and the Tatimma.

This article investigates the intellectual production of the celebrated scholar Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī (d. 606/1210) during the decade or so he spent in the service of the Ghūrid sultans, from ca. 591/1195 to 602/1206. Operating exclusively within religious disciplines – theology, law and Qurʾān exegesis – and displaying pronounced rhetorical and dialectical features, this production contrasts significantly with his earlier and later production, which most notably exhibits much closer engagement with philosophy. It is argued that this “Ghūrid interlude” in al-Rāzī’s production reflects his role in spearheading the sultans’ project of divesting from the socially and culturally peripheral Karrāmiyya and fashioning themselves as champions of a sophisticated and cosmopolitan orthodoxy, and is furthermore aligned with his patrons’ transregional policies, including their pro-Abbasid stance. Al-Rāzī was in return invested by the Caliph al-Nāṣir with the title “he who summons people to the True One” (al-dāʿī li-l-khalq ilā l-ḥaqq), more commonly attested as “he who summons to God” (al-dāʿī ilā llāh). The article also offers a new examination of al-Rāzī’s Ghūrid-period intellectual biography and oeuvre.

This paper explores how the ninth-century Muslim Egyptian scholar Ibn 'Abd al-Hakam presents traditions about the origins of the 'Copts' and their historical actions in his 'Conquest of Egypt'. I argue that he exerts authorial agency in his collation in order to construct them as an inherently subservient community within Egypt, yet a community with particular divinely-ordained rights, and suggest reasons why this construction held significance for him within the context of political and social changes within ihs lifetime.

"""This book, the first volume of a planned three-volume project, is a pioneering survey of the Galenic doctrine of the critical days. It presents the first scholarly edition of Galen’s De diebus decretoriis (Critical Days; Arabic: Kitāb ayyām al-buḥrān) since 1825, and the first English translation and detailed study of the same in modern times. In establishing the Arabic text, I have paid careful attention to both Arabic and Greek textual traditions. Moreover, I have inferred readings of the (non-extant) Greek manuscript used by the Arabic translator, which are included in a Greco-Arabic apparatus for use in preparing the Greek edition of this treatise (see next paragraph). In addition to the customary commentary wherein philological and conceptual issues are discussed, I have included a detailed historical and cultural Introduction.

This volume presents the first edition of the Arabic translation, by Hunayn ibn Ishāq, of Galen’s Critical Days (De diebus decretoriis), together with the first translation of the text into a modern language. The substantial introduction contextualizes the treatise within the Greek and Arabic traditions. Galen’s Critical Days was a founding text of astrological medicine. In febrile illnesses, the critical days are the days on which an especially severe pattern of symptoms, a crisis, was likely to occur. The crisis was thought to expel the disease-producing substances from the body. If its precise timing were known, the physician could prepare the patient so that the crisis would be most beneficial. After identifying the critical days based on empirical data and showing how to use them in therapy, Galen explains the critical days via the moon’s influence. In the historical introduction Glen Cooper discusses the translation of the Critical Days in Arabic, and adumbrates its possible significance in the intellectual debates and political rivalries among the 9th-century Baghdad elite. It is argued that Galen originally composed the Critical Days both to confound the Skeptics of his own day and to refute a purely mathematical, rationalist approach to science. These features made the text useful in the rivalries between Baghdad scholars. Al-Kindī (d.c. 866) famously propounded a mathematical approach to science akin to the latter. The scholar-bureaucrat responsible for funding this translation, Muhammad ibn Mūsā (d. 873), al-Kindī’s nemesis, may have found the treatise useful in refuting that approach. The commentary and notes to the facing page translation address issues of translation, as well as important concepts."""

Published in James E. Walters (ed.), Eastern Christianity: A Reader (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2021), 123-128.

Timothy I was an influential Catholicos of the Church of the East for more than forty years (780–823).  Around sixty letters of his survive, and these provide fascinating insights into how the Catholicos led the Church of the East during a pivotal time at the beginning of the ˁAbbāsid Caliphate (750–1258). The present letter deals with two principal topics. The first is Timothy’s efforts to produce three copies of the Syriac translation of the Septuagint column of Origen’s Hexapla. This Syriac translation, known in modern scholarship as the Syro-Hexapla, was produced by the Syriac Orthodox translator Paul of Tella in 616–617. In addition to being the first mention of the (Syro-)Hexapla in East Syriac sources, this section of the letter provides a rare – and captivating – glimpse of scribal culture and manuscript copying. The second topic of the letter is the discovery of Hebrew manuscripts in the region of Jericho. This incredible story anticipates the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls by more than a millennium. In addition, it might explain the existence of the so-called Apocryphal Psalms in the Syriac tradition.  The Syriac Apocryphal Psalms are a group of five poetic compositions, numbered 151–155, that are first attested in a Syriac manuscript datable to the twelfth century. Two of these Psalms (154–155) are also found in the Qumran Psalms Scroll (11QPsa). This letter might be the proverbial silver bullet to explain how non-canonical Hebrew Psalms could be transmitted into Syriac after the original translation of the canonical Peshiṭta many centuries earlier. Together, both parts of this letter shed light on biblical studies in the Church of the East at the beginning of the ˁAbbāsid period and especially Timothy’s activities in this area.  Beyond these two main topics, the letter is filled with many other intriguing details. These range from referring to Caliph al-Rashīd (786–809) as the “victorious king,” as is common in Syriac sources of the time,  to Timothy’s mention of the appointment of bishops for the Church of the East, not only in the Middle East but spreading eastward into Central and East Asia, with Turkestan and Tibet expressly mentioned. Toward the end of the letter, Timothy returns to where he began, by discussing manuscripts, asking the recipient of the letter to send some manuscripts, search for others, and make copies of yet others.

This thesis is a study of the pre-Islamic passages of Abū Ḥanīfa Aḥmad ibn Dāwūd ibn Wanand Dīnawarī’s Kitāb al-Aḫbār al-Ṭiwāl. This is to say that it stops at the beginning of the Arab con- quest of Iran. It is intended for scholars of Late Antiquity. Special emphasis is placed on Dī- nawarī’s exposition of the rule of the Sasanian dynasty and questions relating to the mysterious Ḫudāynāma tradition which are intimately connected with it. Beginning with a discussion of Dī- nawarī and his work, the thesis moves into a discussion of indigenous Iranian historiography. Speculation on the sources of Kitāb al-Aḫbār al-Ṭiwāl follows, and the historiographical investiga- tion of the most substantial portion of Kitāb al-Aḫbār al-Ṭiwāl’s notices on the Sasanian dynasty comes next. The conclusion summarises the findings of the thesis. The final section (an appendix) is a translation of the relevant part of Kitāb al-Aḫbār al-Ṭiwāl running from the beginning of that text to the reign of Šīrūya.
This thesis was written with one main question in mind: what does Dīnawarī’s Kitāb al- Aḫbār al-Ṭiwāl have to say about pre-Islamic Iranian history? A host of other questions arose im- mediately: who was Dīnawarī; when did he live; what did he do; how was his work perceived by others; where did Dīnawarī get his information and how did he present it; is Dīnawarī’s informa- tion reliable? These questions are addressed one by one in my thesis.

This article examines how Muslim religious scholars find space within political and legal discourses to deal with thorny issues such as rebellion. It takes as its case study a treatise by Ibn al-Jawzī (d. 597/1201) regarding the permissibility to curse the second Umayyad caliph Yazīd b. Muʿāwiya. Although written to address the cursing of Yazīd, the treatise also speaks to questions regarding rulership and rebellion. Overall, the article argues that Ibn al-Jawzī adopted a juristically prudent approach to rebellion against an unjust and sinful ruler which synthesizes various elements of the Sunni caliphate discourse and the Islamic legal discourse on the treatment of rebels. This allowed him to shift the debate from one on the permissibility of rebellion to one on the question of legitimacy, thus enabling him to justify actions against Yazīd without overtly condoning the act of rebellion.

يشتمل الكتاب على النصوص التي تتناول الترجمة بالتحليل والمناقشة في مصادرها كافة في التاريخ العربي. ويمثّل عيّنة شاملة من فكر الترجمة في اللغة العربية، من أقدم عهودها إلى أوائل القرن العشرين، يتبدى من خلالها تأثير هذا الفكر في مختلف النواحي الفكرية والثقافية والسياسية للمجتمعات العربية في هذه الفترة. تناقش المقدمة العامة للكتاب المنطلقات النظرية للبحث ونتائجه وأهم اتجاهات الفكر الترجمي في الفترة التي تشملها الدراسة، إضافة إلى تعليقات مفصلة من المؤلفَين على كل النصوص المختارة تضعها في سياقها التاريخي والفكري وتربطها بنظريات الترجمة المعاصرة. ويتضمن الكتاب أيضًا مسحًا إحصائيًا شاملًا للمادة المجمعة التي اختيرت منها نصوص الأنثولوجيا؛ وهو متن يتجاوز 500 نص من مختلف الأحجام، تتناول الفكر الترجمي في مختلف المصادر في التاريخ العربي.
يهدف كتاب أنثولوجيا الترجمة العربية إلى رصد خطاب الترجمة في التاريخ العربي، بأكبر قدر ممكن من الشمولية. فهو يستند إلى مشروع بحث امتد سنوات عدة، وعمل على رصد النصوص التاريخية العربية التي تتضمن النظر في الترجمة أو التأمل فيها أو التعليق عليها بأي شكل، سواء تعلق ذلك بالترجمة عمومًا منهجًا وممارسةً أم بنصوص بعينها، وفي أي سياق جرى فيه هذا النقاش، بغض النظر عن المجال العلمي أو الفكري الذي يتناوله، أو انتماء الكاتب الإثني أو العرقي، أو حتى موقعه الجغرافي، ثم جمع هذه النصوص، بأحجامها المختلفة، في متن نصي Corpus واحد.

In the earliest concrete examples of magic squares from Chinese, Indian, and Arabic literature, the squares are valued not simply as mathematical curiosities but as objects of wondrous powers. Recent research on early Arabic awfāq (magic squares) literature has identified a large corpus with several known authors, but studies of this corpus tend to focus on mathematical analyses. This article sketches a cultural history of awfāq, which contextualizes them within wider Islamicate culture, situating awfāq literature within the oeuvres of the scholars who produced it, and locating those scholars within networks of patrons, colleagues, and institutions. Beginning with magic squares in pre-Islamic cultures and the continuation of those traditions, this article explores Islamicate legends of the origins and transmission of the awfāq and surveys the corpus of Arabic awfāq literature from the mid-third/ninth to the late sixth/twelfth centuries in an attempt to grasp the background, context, and significance of the great popularity of awfāq in talismanic practices associated with the Science of Letters (ʿilm al-ḥurūf).

Irak Türkmenleri denildiği zaman hafızamızda ilk olarak Kerkük ve Musul canlanır. Fakat Osmanlı İmparatorluğunun dağılmasından sonra maalesef Türkler için hüznün ve acının adeta merkezi haline gelmiştir. Bu acılar dokunaklı bir şekilde halk edebiyatına ve o bölgenin türkülerine de yansımıştır;

“Yıktılar kal’amızı
Sürdüler balamızı
Daha can boğazdayken
Çektiler sâlamızı
Ah Kerkük yüz ah Kerkük
Her zaman yüz ak Kerkük
Ölseydim düşmeseydim
Men senden uzak Kerkük...”
 
Türkünün dizelerinden de anlaşılacağı gibi Türkmenler maalesef kaderine terkedilmiş ve geçen yıllar boyunca adeta bir mum gibi yavaş yavaş bölgede asimile politikaları ile erimektedirler. Bu konuya değinmeden önce bölgedeki Türk varlığını incelemekte fayda vardır. Türklerin Irak’a ilk girişleri H. 54 / M. 674 tarihlerine kadar uzanmaktadır. Emevi Halifesi Muaviye tarafından Horasan’a gönderilen Ubeydullah bin Ziyad ile Buhara prensesi Hatun emrindeki Türk kuvvetleri arasında yapılan çarpışmadan sonra bir barış yapılmıştır. Bu barıştan sonra Ubeydullah yanına aldığı Türk askerlerini Irak’a götürüp, Basra’ya yerleştirmiştir. Türklerin Irak’a gelişleri Abbasi döneminde, Halife Memun ve Halife Mutasım’ın iktidarı sırasında meydana gelen siyasi gelişmelerden dolayı daha da sıklaşmıştır. Emevi ordularında olduğu gibi Abbasi ordularında da yer alan Türkler, üstün savaşçı yetenekleri ile maharetlerinden dolayı üst mevkilere getirilmişlerdir. Ayrıca H. 211 / M. 836 ’da Halife Mutasım’ın emriyle Türk kumandanı Türk hassa askeri için Somerna şehri kurulmuştu. 25 Aralık 1055’te Bağdat’a giren Selçuklu hükümdarı Tuğrul Bey Büveyhoğulları’nın Irak’taki hakimiyetine son verilmiştir. Tuğrul Bey Bağdat ve Oğuzların yayıldığı Irak’ı Selçuklu Ülkesine katmıştır. Bu tarihten sonra Oğuz boylarına mensup birçok Türk, bu bölgeye yerleştirilmiştir. Böylece bölgede Büyük Selçuklular ile Türk hakimiyeti başlamıştır. Türklere daha önce yalnızca Etrak (Türkler) diyen Araplar, “Etrak-u Bağdat” (Bağdat Türkleri) demeye başlamışlardır.  1258 Moğol istilası ile Abbasi hilafeti son bulmuş, bölge Moğolların eline geçmiştir. Ayrıca bu bölgede Moğollarla birlikte çok sayıda Türk askeri gelmiştir. 1258 – 1336 İlhanlılar, 1338 – 1360 Celayirliler, 1360 – 1469 Karakoyunlular ve 1470 tarihinden itibaren de Akkoyunlular hakimiyetinde kalan bölge 1508 yılında Safevilerin eline geçmiştir. Safeviler’in Çaldıran’da (1515) Yavuz Sultan Selim Han’a yenilmesi ve Kanuni Sultan Süleyman Han’ın da 1534’te Bağdat’ı almasıyla bugün Irak olarak anılan bölge Osmanlı hakimiyetine geçmiştir. Osmanlılar Irak’ı, Bağdat, Basra, Musul, Şehrizor ve el-Ahsa olmak üzere beş bölgeye ayırarak idare ettirmişlerdir. 1623’te bölge tekrar Safeviler’in eline geçmiş ve Safeviler binlerce kişiyi katletmişlerdir. Sultan IV. Murad Han’ın 1638’de Bağdat’ı tekrar geri almasıyla Kasr-ı Şirin Antlaşması yapılmış ve kesin sınır çizilmişti. Böylece Musul-Kerkük bölgesi de dahil olarak I. Dünya Savaşı sonuna kadar bölge Osmanlı hakimiyetinde kalmıştır. Sonuç olarak Kanuni Sultan Süleyman Han ve Sultan IV. Murad Han zamanında Anadolu’dan getirilen çok sayıda Türk de bölgeye yerleştirilmiştir. I. Dünya Savaşından itibaren Irak’ın işgal edilmesi ve 1926 Musul Meselesi görüşmeleri sonucu Musul ve Kerkük’ün Irak’a bırakılmasıyla Musul ve Kerkük Irak’la birlikte İngiliz sömürgesi haline gelmiştir. 1920 – 1932 yılları arasında Irak’ın İngiliz Mandası altında bulunduğu dönemde Türkler baskı ve zulüm dolu bir devre yaşamışlardır. Irak’ın 1932 ’de Milletler Cemiyeti’ne kabul edilip bağımsızlığına kavuşmasından sonra da Irak Türkleri rahat yüzü görmemiş, baskı ve şiddet daha da artmıştır. Bütün bu baskı ve sindirme politikalarının Irak’ta bulunan Türk varlığını yok edemediği 1937 Sadâbâd Paktı’yla ortaya çıkmıştır. 27 Haziran 1937’de imzalanan Sadâbâd Paktı için bölgedeki Türkler büyük bir sevinç yaşasalar da pakttan sonra polis tarafından yapılan işkence ve zulme maruz kalmışlardır. II. Dünya Savaşı’nın sıkıntıları sebebiyle savaşı sakin geçiren Türkler savaştan sonra yeni bir katliamla karşılaştılar. 1946 yılında Gavurbağı’nda Kerküklü işçiler polis kuvvetleri tarafından yaylım ateşine tutulmuşlardır. Yine Bağdat Paktı’nın imzalanacağını duyan Türkler, bölgelerinde büyük bir sevinç yaşamışlardır. Fakat yine paktın imzalanmasından sonra Türklere yapılan baskılar artmıştır. Irak’ta 14 Temmuz 1959 Cumhuriyet’in birinci yılı kutlamalarında sokağa dökülen Kerkük Türkleri komünistler tarafından katliama uğramışlardır. 3 gün süren bu katliamda soydaşlarımız inanılmaz derecede zulüm ve işkenceye maruz kalmışlardır. Yaklaşık 1500 yıl kadar bu topraklarda varlığını gösteren Türkler I. Dünya Savaşı’ndan sonra batılı devletlerin bölgedeki çıkarlarından dolayı sistematik olarak çeşitli haksızlık, baskı ve katliama uğramışlardır. Emperyalist güçlerin özellikle yer altı bakımından zengin olan kuzey Irak’taki emellerinden dolayı bölgede yaşayan Türkler birçok zorlukla karşılaştıysa da bunlar karşısında Türk hükümeti ise maalesef hiç bir etkinlik göstermemiştir.

Abbasid society in ninth-century Iraq faced the challenge of reconciling the role of its many non-Muslim citizens with Islamic norms and governance, as seen in “The Refutation of Christians” by al-Jāḥiẓ (d. 868/869 [255 A.H.]). Al-Jāḥiẓ moved in circles only one step removed from those of the Christian and Jewish intellectuals he came to criticize in the work, and he likely composed it just prior to Caliph al-Mutawakkil’s watershed reforms in non-Muslim policy. Thus, the “Refutation” is a primary source for understanding shifting Muslim sensibilities toward Christians’ societal role in a religiously diverse realm, but its polemic approach makes it problematic to analyze historically. This dissertation seeks to make “The Refutation of Christians” more accessible as a historical source by performing a contextual analysis of its argumentation.

Al-Jāḥiẓ’ rhetorical strategy is to explain away factors behind popular Muslim preferences for Christians over Jews, and then to advance positive reasons for considering Christians more harmful than Jews. Argumentation analysis using the pragma-dialectical approach highlights salient social points at issue between Christians and Muslims of the time. First, al-Jāḥiẓ’ dispute is not directly with Christians, but with Muslims who show them too much respect and liberality. Second, he must reframe certain facts about Christians that are too generally accepted to contradict, including memories of Arabs’ pre-Islamic and early Islamic contacts with Christians, and Christian intellectuals’ crucial role in perpetuating Greek scientific works. He turns these favorable perceptions into liabilities, arguing that Christians’ intellectualism diverts weak Muslims from the faith and their social position violates Christian-Muslim agreements. Finally, in contrast to the jurists’ approach, he argues for enforcing the original intention of these agreements rather than trying to demonstrate specific historical stipulations.

Al-Jāḥiẓ’ ideology aligns with al-Mutawakkil’s Qurʾanically charged edicts, in that Christians, far from being “closest in friendship” (5:82), are those with whom believers must not make any alliance (5:51). As such, the “Refutation” reveals the battle lines between more lenient, popular Muslim attitudes and a stricter position promoted by al-Jāḥiẓ and enforced by al-Mutawakkil.

Prolog Thank God all praise only belongs to Allah almighty who gave infinite delights to us that until now we are still given the longevity and health so that we can conduct our activities as usual. Blessings and greetings may remain expressed over the power of the

One of the earliest Muslim authors to make use of biblical material in Arabic translation was ʿAmr b. Baḥr al-Jāḥiẓ (d. 868/9). In his " Refutation of Christians " (Al-Radd ʿalā al-Naṣārā), he attempts to discredit Jewish translations of the Old Testament as a source for Christian arguments that Jesus was the Son of God. His position assumes two distinctive points regarding scriptural texts: (1) that the text of the extant Hebrew Bible was trustworthy but that the Christian Gospels were not, and (2) that the anthropomorphizing content of existing Jewish versions resulted from poor translation. Research into al-Jāḥiẓ's text so far has explored its discussion of anthropomorphism and its potential impact on Saʿadya Gaon's Bible translation, but has left open the translation source of the longest passage al-Jāḥiẓ quotes, Isaiah 42:10–16. Although it has earlier been suggested that the translation of this passage ultimately stems from the Peshitta Syriac version, this study compares al-Jāḥiẓ's text to the Hebrew, Syriac, and other versions, and demonstrates that the cited translation must have been made from the Hebrew. It also examines the translation techniques observable in the passage, showing a more Arabo-centric approach than typically attested in early non-Saʿadyanic versions. The study concludes (1) that as a Muslim polemicist, al-Jāḥiẓ had real contact with the Jewish community and its texts, and (2) that his quotation evidences a pre-Saʿadyanic attempt to translate the Bible from Hebrew into Arabic using a less literal approach than is previously attested.

This paper studies how medieval Sunnite Muslim exegetes from al-Ṭabarī (d. 310/923) to Ibn Kaṯīr (d. 774/1373) understood the Qurʾānic term ḫalīfa and other Ḫ.L.F-derived terms. While previous scholarship has examined how exegetes generally understood the term, this paper scrutinizes the exegetical commentaries (tafsīr) chronologically in order to discern the semantic and terminological shifts accompanying different commentaries over time. It demonstrates the importance of an intertextual approach in placing tafsīr literature in dialogue with writings on the caliphate in works of theology (kalām) and law (fiqh). Overall, the paper argues that the legal and theological development of the Sunnite theory of the caliphate provided exegetes with new clusters of terminology associated with the caliphate to enrich their commentaries on the Ḫ.L.F verses. This process was in turn catalyzed by the systematization of the caliphate discourse and the canonization of the four-caliphs thesis during the Sunnite Revival.

The argument is that the reception of Indian astronomical methods in Baghdad in the eighth century was conditioned by contact with the Tang court, where astronomers using the same Indian methods were already employed. The explanation sheds light on the connection between the exportation of Indian astrology and interest in esoteric Buddhism in China, on the one hand, and on the early background to the movement to translate Greek works into Arabic on the other.

This article argues that the Chronicle of Seert preserves an ʿAbbāsidera re-imagination of the correspondence between the Prophet Muh  ammad and the Christians of the Arabian Peninsula. These narratives were responses to Muslim efforts to produce consistent rules for non-Muslims in the caliphate with regard to tax levels and political rights. They draw on knowledge of the Qurʾān and the Sīra to assert better rights for Christians that were rooted in alleged historical precedents.

ABSTRACT
The application of a Hegelian rise-and-fall narrative to the history of Arabic literature has been erroneously attributed to Ibn Khaldūn and his successors, though it can more probably be traced back to Hammer-Purgstall's Literaturgeschichte der Araber (1850).  Although this paradigm has long been out of favor, its disappearance leaves us without a ready answer to the question of what (if anything) was distinctive about what is still sometimes called the early Abbasid golden age.  The prominence of this era in later memory is here traced to the adoption of paper, which supported, on the one hand, the simplification and vulgarization of Arab language, lore, and religion; and on the other, the appearance of the first reliably contemporary eyewitness accounts in Arabic literature.  These productions made the period the first Islamic space to be imaginable in almost granular detail, as well as the source of much of what we know about antecedent "Arab" and "Islamic" history.  These features gave the period an outsized place even in the pre-modern Arabic tradition.  They also made it available for popularization by Jurjī Zaydān, whose Taʾrīkh al-tamaddun al-islāmī (1902-1906) proved formative of later attitudes in Arabic-language scholarship.

مقامة مفقودة لبديع الزمان الهمذانيّ؟

بلال الأرفه لي (الجامعة الأميركيّة في بيروت)
موريس بوميرانتز (جامعة نيويورك-أبو ظبي)

مستخلص
يقدِّم هذا المقال مقامةً غير معروفة منسوبة لبديع الزمان الهمذانيّ (ت ٣٩٨/١٠٠٨). ويبدأ بعرض الدراسات المتعلِّقة بمخطوطات مقامات الهمذانيّ ثمّ يناقش أدلّة حِفْظ نصّ هذه المقامة في مخطوط وحيد في جامعة يال، مكتبة باينكي، مجموعة سالسبري، رقم ٦٣، (Yale University, Beinecke Library, Salisbury, Collection no. 63). وإنّ هذا المخطوط المنسوخ بتاريخ ٦٠٣/١٢٠٦، كان معروفًا من قِبَل الباحثين الأوروبيِّين، فقد كان بحوزة إفيرارد شايدياس (Everard Scheidius) (١٧٤٢-١٧٩٤) وسيلفستر دي ساسي (Silvestre de Sacy) (١٧٧٥-١٨٣٨) وإدوارد آلدريج سالسبري (Edward Eldridge Salsbury) (١٨١٤-١٩٠١). وإنّ المقامة التي حفظها هذا المخطوط تصف حيلةَ طبيب محتال يبيع عقاقيرَ مزيَّفة مُدَّعيًا إعدادها من موادّ  طبّيّة (material medica) نادرة. ويقدّم المقال صورة طبق الأصل عن نصّ هذه المقامة مُرفَقًا بترجمة إلى الإنكليزية مزوّدة بهوامش، ثمّ يقدِّم تحليلًا مُفصَّلًا للمقامة من حيث الشكل والموضوع واللغة والأسلوب، وذلك بالمقارنة بينها وبين مقامات الهمذانيّ الأخرى. ويُختتم بفرضيات عدَّة حول موثوقيّة هذا النصّ المفقود.

كلمات مفتاحيّة: مقامات، بديع الزمان الهمذانيّ، مخطوطات، أدب عربيّ، طبّ.

This article presents an edition, translation, and analysis of a prefatory letter addressed by the Galen translator Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq (d. 873) to one of his East-Syrian Christian patrons, the physician Salmawayh ibn Bunān (d. 840). Ḥunayn composed this Letter to Salmawayh ibn Bunān in Syriac, but it survives only in his nephew's Arabic translation. Since its discovery over eighty years ago, the text has received little attention and has never before been published in its entirety. The Letter provides new insight into Ḥunayn's early career and the Christian milieu in which he moved, demonstrating his indebtedness to the Syriac literary past exemplified by the prefaces of the earlier Galen translator Sergius of Rēšʿaynā (d. 536). At the same time, the Letter indicates part of what made ʿAbbāsid-era translators like Ḥunayn different from their late ancient predecessors. This study argues that increased demand from patrons and Ḥunayn's close reading of Galen's Hippocratic commentaries yielded the Letter's novel claim that readers of all abilities can and should have access to ancient Greek scientific texts. In this way, the Letter hints tantalizingly at Ḥunayn's understanding of his own literary and scientific project and its relationship with the ancient Greek tradition.

Ortaçağ iktisadi hayatında toprak, devlet maliyesinin, toplumun yiyecek tüketimin ve genel olarak ekonominin temelidir. Toprak ve vergiye ilişkin alınan politikalar, devlet maliyesini derinden etkilediği kadar, toplumsal hayat üzerinde de sarsıcı tesirler bırakmaktadır. Abbasilerin gerileme sürecine girdiği IX. Asrın ikinci yarısında Ahmed ibn Müdebbir et-Türki” adlı bir maliye katibinin, başta Irak merkez olmak üzere Şam, Ürdün, Cezire ve Mısır’da bir dizi toprak ve vergi reformu yaptığı dikkat çekmektedir. Bu reformlar aynı zamanda geniş çaplı tepkilere yol açar. Tıpkı Osmanlılardaki tahrir çalışmaları gibi, bu reform (ta’dil) çalışması sırasında bölgedeki üretim şekilleri ve çeşitleri, gelir düzeyi, nüfus yapısı, hazineye irad edilen toplam gelir miktarı ve bu vergi icmallerindeki dalgalanmalar, yeni konulan vergi çeşitleri vs. gibi ekonomik ve mali hayatın pek çok yönüne ışık tutan bilgiler ortaya çıkmaktadır. Ayrıca İbn Müdebbir Tolunoğlu Ahmed Mısır’a atandığı zaman Mısır’da bu reform çalışmalarını yapıyordu. Mali gücü elinde tutan İbn Müdebbir Mısır’dan çıkarılmadan Tolunoğlu devleti müstakilleşememiştir. Bütün bu gelişmeleri İbn Müdebbir’in biyoğrafisini temel alarak bir devrin iktisadi sürecini inceleyeceğiz.

This investigation intends to demonstrate that ʿAlī Ibn Rabban al-Ṭabarī's (fl. c. 850 CE) Firdaws al-ḥikma (Paradise of Wisdom) is not just a broad-ranging medico-philosophical compendium as has often been claimed. Instead, the encyclopaedic structure of the Firdaws conceals very definite theological objectives: namely, to make its readers cognizant of God's design (tadbīr) in the world; to explain to them the deterministic influences operating in the sublunar realm through God's foreordainment (taqdīr); and to offer a means for overcoming these deterministic influences, so that they can freely embrace their relationship with God and come closer to Him. As such, the Firdaws is primarily a salvific work; its medical and philosophical discourses are not ends in themselves, but are intended instead to brings their readers success in both this world and the Hereafter.

In order to bring to light the salvific nature of the Firdaws, it has been necessary to focus on both key themes in the text and on wider questions concerning Ibn Rabban's overall methodology and cosmology. Thus, I begin by studying the evidence for Ibn Rabban's "agency" in the Firdaws, in order to change the predominating view of him as a somewhat disinterested compiler of sources, to an active and critical presence in the text. After this, I investigate three major aspects of God's design discussed in the Firdaws: namely, man's status as a microcosm of the universe; the division of the world into tetrads and hebdomads; and God's role in harmonising the antagonistic elements. Finally, I assess the deterministic influences on humankind in Ibn Rabban's worldview, and suggest that the Firdaws' key concern is to bring humoral balance to the body. This balance allows an individual's rational soul to escape the clutches of celestial, environmental and hereditary determinism, and, ultimately, brings them closer to God.

Ibn Tufayl's Hayy Ibn Yaqzan is a remarkably creative piece of writing that came down to us from the middle ages. It has been considered a classic of medieval Islamic philosophy, and a classic of Arabic novels that had a great influence on the medieval and renaissance west.
The theme of East and West is given prominence in this paper. The first part of my argument concerns the ideological and cultural coloring of the context in which this novel was written. The second part deals with the point of intersection of contesting ideologies in the novel. It also deals with the astonishing variety of conclusions the novel has yielded.
In estimating the novel as both philosophical literature and literary philosophy, which as I argue, cannot be studied in isolation from the famous translation movement (from Greek into Arabic in the middle ages), I would not exclude another possibility that Ibn Tufayl benefited from stoicism. This presupposes Ibn Tufayl's acquaintance with the stoics.
There are also similarities between Hayy Ibn Yaqzan and the cosmogony of the first book of Ovid's Metamorphoses, in relation to his account of the creation and early history of man, which was influenced by the Epicurean Roman poet Lucretius.
I would suggest that there might have been a common Greek source, read by Lucretius, Ovid and Ibn Tufayl (in translation in the last case).
Although, in a way, Hayy Ibn Yaqzan was a direct consequence of Greek thought translated into Arabic, Ibn Tufayl, however, pursued his own Islamic way of reconciling philosophy with religion.

The oldest Arabic translation of any Greek text is an eighth-century paraphrase of the first half of Aristotle's Organon, known as the Manteq. This text has been ascribed to Ebn al-Moqaffaʿ, the Persian administrator, author, and translator. Although the source text of the Manteq has not survived, the ascription to Ebn al-Moqaffaʿ—who knew neither Greek nor Syriac—implies that it was written in Middle Persian. Modern scholars have often called the ascription to Ebn al-Moqaffaʿ into question. This article reassesses that debate and demonstrates that it has been motivated by scholarly skepticism towards the late antique Persian intellectual tradition as a conduit of Aristotelianism. Furthermore, this article argues that none of the available circumstantial evidence contradicts an Aristotelian tradition in Persian, but rather supports it.

Khidma (Ar., literally “service”) denotes the binding subordination of a slave or freeborn
noble to a lord, master, or patron—often the ruling sultan, but sometimes lesser
figures—involving mutual obligations and mutual loyalty. This article studies this relationship
and the ceremonies by which it was concluded in eastern Iran in the twelfth
century, on the level of political thinking and, as far as possible, of political practice.