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Art. XIII.—The Risālatu’l-hufrān: by Abū'l-‘Alā al-Ma‘arrī. Part II, including Table of Contents with Text and Translation of the Section on Zandaḳa and of other passages

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

Extract

As for āliḥ b. ‘Abdu’l-Ḳuddūs, though his zandaḳa has become notorious, he did not avow it (and knowledge belongs to God alone) until he was convicted out of his own mouth. The following verses are ascribed to his father, ‘Abdu’l-Ḳuddūs: How many a visitor hath Mecca brought to perdition! May God raze Mecca and her houses!May the Merciful refuse sustenance to her living inhabitants, P 149. and may Mercy roast her dead [in hell-fire]!

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Original Communications
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1902

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References

page 337 note 1 A contemporary of Baār. They were put to death in the same year, 167 A.H. See Weil, Geschichte der Chalifen, ii, 106 seq.

page 337 note 2 Ibn allikān, Translation, ii, 465, attributes them first to Abū’l-‘Atāhiya, and then to āliḥ himself.

page 338 note 1 Ḳor. vi, 159.

page 338 note 2 Ḥamdūn Ḳaār (ob. 271 A.H.) may possibly be meant. He w as the chief of those ūfīs who call themselves Malāmatīs, and gave his name to the sect of Ḳaārīs (‘Attār, Ta . al-Auliyā, Brit. Mus. MS., f. 195 sqq.; Nafaḥātu’l-Uns, p. 67). But one would hardly expect to find him in this company or described in these terms, and I regard the proposed identification as doubtful.

page 338 note 3 .

page 338 note 4 , pl. of .

page 338 note 5 His name was , the carpenter. See below.

page 338 note 6 See Kay's Yaman, p. 191 sqq. and p. 323. Ibnu’l-Aīr, viii, 22, calls him Rustam b. al-Ḥusain b. Ḥauab b. Dāān al-Najjār.

page 338 note 7 In Kay's Yaman, p. 199, these verses are ascribed to Mausūr's colleague, ‘Alī b. Faḍl.

page 339 note 1 Kay renders, “and its use is now hallowed by the law.” But this is impossible for metrical and other reasons. , cf. Ḥarīrī (ed. De Sacy), p. 539, 1. 2.

page 339 note 2 and are distinctly written in the MS. In a passage below (p. 165) the forms and occur, and perhaps they should be restored here.

page 340 note 1 (Marginal note in MS.).

page 340 note 2 From whom Abū Bakr was descended (Wustenfeld, Genealogische Tabellen, R.).

page 340 note 3 is the (Wright, Grammar, ii, 265).

page 340 note 4 I.e. “he is welcome to it: much good may it do him !”

page 341 note 1 The camels driven at full speed would be likely to spill a portion of their cargo. Māḳiṭ is explained below (p. 166) as meaning ‘one who runs from town to town.’ But here it seems rather to be derived from the phrase .

page 341 note 2 The proverb is (Freytag, ii, 879).

page 341 note 3 In Baḥrain.

page 342 note 1 The manuscript reading is almost certainly corrupt. I have no example of as the plural of , but analogous forms occur.

page 342 note 2 I.e. his sins in this world deprived him of the joys of Paradise.

page 342 note 3 For izār=down (ἴουλος) see De Slane's Introduction to Ibn allikān, p. 36. If the text is sound, stands for .

page 342 note 4 The first two couplets are cited in A ānī, vi, 122.

page 342 note 5 A . vi, 139.

page 343 note 1 This is the reading of A . For the name Fartanī, preserved in the marginal correction, see Addenda et Emendanda to Tabarī, i, .

page 343 note 2 See Lane under , and Freytag, , Arabum Proverbia, ii, 249.Google Scholar

page 343 note 3 Literally, ‘returned.’

page 343 note 4 Son of Hārūn al-Raīd by a foreign mother. He died in the reign of Ma’mūn. Save the fact that he was an excellent singer, I cannot find any corroboration of Abū’l-‘Alā's remarks about him, but it will be remembered that similar charges were made against Ma’mūn himself.

page 343 note 5 This rendering is conjectural.

page 343 note 6 , ‘their erring chiefs.’ See Wright, Grammar, ii, 202.

page 344 note 1 Cf. Freytag, Arabum Proverbia, iii1, 43:

page 344 note 2 Brockelmann, i, 85.

page 344 note 3 Ibn allikān, Translation, i, 426.

page 344 note 4 Ḳor. vi, 164, etc.

page 345 note 1 The Ka‘ba is said to have been originally a temple of Saturn. The Black Stone was called by some the right hand of God on earth (Sale, Preliminary Discourse, p. 161).

page 345 note 2 A mountain near Mecca.

page 345 note 3 The chief of the Zanj, ‘Alī b. Muḥammad b. ‘Abdu’l-Raḥmān (Weil, Geschichte der Chalifen, ii, 452 sqq.).

page 345 note 4 See Wüstenfeld, Genealogische Tabellen, A. 9, 14.

page 345 note 5 Cf. below (p. 161): .

page 346 note 1 Ibn allikān, Translation, ii, 481.

page 346 note 2 I.e. he is not a person of strong intellect. Cf. a similar phrase on p. 140:

page 346 note 3 For the exact meaning of see Glossary to Tabarī.

page 347 note 1 Is the Syriac = jugglery ?

page 347 note 2 Cf. Ibnu’l-Aīr, viii, 94, second line from foot, and sqq. I do not know who is meant by al-Mādarānī. The name of Ibrāhīm b. Aḥmad al-Mādarānī occurs in the reign of Muḳtadir (Weil, Geschichte der Chalifen, ii, 550, n. 2).

page 347 note 3 Freytag, Arabum Proverbia, i, 652, and iii1, 199.

page 347 note 4 Ibn allikān (Wüstenfeld), 830.

page 347 note 5 For more about this ape, which was called Abū Ḳais, cf. Mas‘ūdī, Murūju l-ahab, v, 157 seq. may be an error for = starting-post. See Lane and Glossary to Tabarī under .

page 348 note 1 This is perhaps an adequate rendering of . Cf. Dīvāni amsi Tabrīz, xxxii, 7:

page 348 note 2 Bāyazīd of Bistām said and (‘Attār, Ta . al-Auliyā, Brit. Mus. MS., ff. 80a and 82a).

page 349 note 1 Literally, “a rain-cloud that most amply fulfils its promise in respect of perdition.”

page 349 note 2 Ḳor. xxv, 46.

page 349 note 3 In the ammāsīya quarter of Baghdād. See Guy Le Strange, Baghdad, pp. 199–201.

page 349 note 4 See René Dussaud's Histoire et Religion des No airis. It should be remembered that Ma‘arra lay just outside the Nuairī country, which is enclosed on the north and east by the Orontes. Abū’l-‘Alā must have had many opportunities of conversing with members of this sect and of informing himself at first-hand about their curious beliefs and superstitions. Unfortunately he does not mention the Nuairīs again, though he may allude to them in two anecdotes which contain a further reductio ad absurdum of the theory of metempsychosis (pp. 164–5).

page 350 note 1 I omit here the tale of an Indian prince who burnt himself alive on losing his beauty through an attack of smallpox, as well as another Indian story, very prettily told, illustrating the same custom.

page 350 note 2 Brockelmann, i, 91.

page 350 note 3 The Fāimite Caliph (341–365 A.H.).

page 350 note 4 In the province of Africa, not far from Ḳairawān.

page 350 note 5 Regent on the accession of Hiām al-Mu’ayyad-billāhi (366 A.H.). See Gayangos, , History of the Mohammedan Dynasties in Spain, ii, 178 sqq.Google Scholar

page 350 note 6 Ḳor. xii, 39, etc.

page 351 note 1 appears to mean ‘consideration,’ ‘repute.’ I do not find it in the dictionaries.

page 351 note 2 Ibrāhīm b. Aḥmad b. Abī ‘Aun was put to death in 322 A.H. See Ibn allikān's article on Ibnu’l-Muḳaffa‘.

page 351 note 3 Ibnu’l-almaānī, generally known as Ibn Abī’l-‘Azāḳir.

page 351 note 4 I take , but we may perhaps keep and translate ‘bringing sound intelligence to naught.’ In this case (see Glossary to T̤abarī under ).

page 352 note 1 Ḳor. xxiii, 55; xxx, 31.

page 352 note 2 Abū’l-‘Alā is probably referring to the ūfīs.

page 352 note 3 I.e. Muḥammad.

page 352 note 4 Literally, ‘an abode consisting of ignorance.’

page 353 note 1 .

page 353 note 2 (Kāmil, 221, 1. 12).

page 353 note 3 I.e. he cannot defend his statement except by showing that the divine and human natures are analogons. The passage is corrupt, and my restoration only suggests a possible way of taking it.

page 353 note 4 The text has is not in the lexica, but cf. (p. 159), unless this is a vulgar use of in its theological sense. If we point , we must read for and render, ‘If he marks (a beast for sacrifice)’ or ‘If he puts a (to a knife)’, but it is difficult to see what either of these metaphors could mean.

page 353 note 5 Fihrist, 186–187 and notes ad loc.

page 353 note 6 Concerning the low esteem in which this tribe was held cf. Ibn alhk ān, Translation, ii, 518.

page 354 note 1 ahrastānī, 124 seq.

page 354 note 2 An ironical reference to Ja‘far's title, ‘al-ādiḳ.’

page 354 note 3 Ḥusain.

page 355 note 1 Houtsma, Zum Kitabu’l-Fihrist, Vienna Oriental Journal, 224, where it is described as It was written to prove by its superiority of style that the Ḳor'an is no such miracle as Muhammadans generally consider it to be.

page 355 note 2 I e harebrained, crazy. The form of the sentence seems to imply that a particular individual is referred to, but the author can hardly mean this If, however, the statement refers to a typical individual one would expect .

page 355 note 3 It is doubtful whether the MS reads . For this use of see Wright's Grammar, ii, 155 C.

page 355 note 4 and are both used in this sense, but not , which is used of a chicken.

page 355 note 5 I e he hurt no one but himself. See Freytag, Arabum Proverbia, i, 556.

page 356 note 1 Or perhaps rather, “Who can kindle a fire in Dabāvand ?” i e. attain to so great a height. Cf. Arabum Proverbia, ii, 518.

page 356 note 2 The well-known mountain near Teherān.

page 356 note 3 The above passage forms a strange comment on the fact “that Abū’l-‘Alā took up the challenge of the Ḳor’ān, and wrote a rival work, which he thought only required ‘to be polished by the tongues of four centuries of readers’ to be equal to the sacred volume” (Margoliouth, Introduction, p. 36). It is almost impossible to believe that this censure of Ibnu’l-Rāwandī was penned by one who had already committed the same impiety; unless it is to be regarded as a singularly inept and ungraceful palinode: for why should ‘Abū’l-‘Alā, sit in the chair of Satan rebuking sin ? If the work in question was later than the Ghufrān (which seems unlikely), he must have known that he already stood condemned by his own words. But such a violent revolution of opinion in a man of three-score, though far less damaging to his character, is also less credible than the alternative hypothesis that he used Ibnu’l-Rāwandī as a scapegoat to divert popular indignation from himself. Either view is beset with difficulties, and one would like to end the matter by declaring that Abū’l-‘Alā must be the victim of a calumny. The evidence, however, is strongly against this solution.

page 356 note 4 .

page 357 note 1 Similar verses of his are cited by Houtsma, Zum Kitāb al-Fihrist, p. 233.

page 357 note 2 . The following may account for the omission of the negative. Cf. Glossary to Ṭabarī under .

page 357 note 3 (Marā ulu’l-I ilā‘).

page 358 note 1 I.e. the Greek general.

page 358 note 2 ? = dux. Cf. = comes.

page 358 note 3 Cf. the Persian .

page 358 note 4 Abū Tammām, author of the Ḥamāsa.

page 359 note 1 He persuaded the Banū Zuhra to desert from the Ḳurai on the march to Badr and return home. (Ibn Hiām, 438.)

page 359 note 2 Or perhaps = , ‘ while he had the opportunity. ’ Cf. the usage of copia in Latin.

page 359 note 3 Cf. the verses on p. 141.

page 359 note 4 I.e. by connecting it with .

page 359 note 5 See Lane under . It is not necessary to read .

page 360 note 1 The following passage, with which I conclude the present article, is of great interest. Ya‘ḳūbī (ed. Houtsma), i, 296 seq., gives a number of talbiyas, but none of these, with two partial and trifling exceptions, will be found here.

page 360 note 2 The first kind of rajaz contains six feet: when four are dropped, the verse is called manhūk; when three are dropped, ma ūr.

page 360 note 3 This talbiya, except the last line, occurs in ahrastānī, 434; Wright's Reading-book, 151. Ya‘ḳūbī, i, 296, cites as the talbiya of Ḳurai.

page 360 note 4 I.e. lord of the female children buried alive as a sacrifice to the idols. Fadak is a place in the Ḥijāz. seems to refer not to the father of the victims, but to the god, who may equally well be called their father according to Arabic idiom.

page 361 note 1 Ya‘ḳūbī, i, 227, cites:

page 361 note 2 app. = , though it may be translated ‘ make Thee a partner with other gods.’ Examples of with the accusative occur in prose.

page 362 note 1 I.e. .

page 362 note 2 I.e., whether the metre is rajaz, munsariḥ, or sarī‘ no verse must be without a rhyme, whereas in regular poetry only the second verse of each couplet is rhymed.