A Literary History of the Arabs Part 60

[745] See _A Literary History of Persia_, vol. i, p. 428 sqq. But during the last twenty years a great deal of new light has been thrown upon the character and doctrines of ?allaj. See Appendix.

[746] The best-known biography of Ibnu 'l-'Arabi occurs in Maqqari's _Naf?u 'l-?ib_, ed. by Dozy and others, vol. i, pp. 567-583. Much additional information is contained in a lengthy article, which I have extracted from a valuable MS. in my collection, the _Shadharatu 'l-Dhahab_, and published in the _J.R.A.S._ for 1906, pp. 806-824. _Cf._ also Von Kremer's _Herrschende Ideen_, pp. 102-109.

[747] Mu?yi 'l-Din means 'Reviver of Religion.' In the West he was called Ibnu 'l-'Arabi, but the Moslems of the East left out the definite article (_al_) in order to distinguish him from the Cadi Abu Bakr Ibnu 'l-'Arabi of Seville ( 1151 A.D.).

[748] _Al-Kibrit al-a?mar_ (literally, 'the red sulphur').

[749] See Von Kremer, _op. cit._, p. 108 seq.

[750] The above particulars are derived from an abstract of the _Futu?at_ made by 'Abdu 'l-Wahhab al-Sha'rani ( 1565 A.D.), of which Fleischer has given a full description in the _Catalogue of Ma.n.u.scripts in the Leipzig Univ. Library_ (1838), pp. 490-495.

[751] Maqqari, i, 569, 11.

[752] A?mad b. ?anbal.

[753] Abu ?anifa.

[754] _Fu?u?u 'l-?ikam_ (Cairo, A.H. 1321), p. 78. The words within brackets belong to the commentary of 'Abdu 'l-Razzaq al-Kashani which accompanies the text.

[755] Ibnu 'l-'Arabi uses the term "Idea of ideas" (_?aqiqatu 'l-?aqa'iq_) as equivalent to ????? ??d???et??, while "the Idea of Mu?ammad" (_al-?aqiqatu 'l-Mu?ammadiyya_) corresponds to ????? p??f??????.

[756] The Arabic text of these verses will be found in the collection of Ibnu 'l-'Arabi's mystical odes, ent.i.tled _Tarjumanu 'l-Ashwaq_, which I have edited (Oriental Translation Fund, New Series, vol. xx, p. 19, vv.

13-15).

[757] Ibnu 'l-'Arabi has been studied by Asin Palacios, Professor of Arabic at Madrid, whose books are written in Spanish, and H. S. Nyberg (_Kleinere Schriften des Ibn al-'Arabi_, Leiden, 1919). A general view may be obtained from my _Studies in Islamic Mysticism_, pp. 77-142 and pp. 149-161.

[758] See Asin Palacios, _Islam and the Divine Comedy_, London, 1926.

[759] Abridged from Ibnu 'l-'Idhari, _al-Bayan al-Mughrib_, ed. by Dozy, vol. ii, p. 61 seq.

[760] Ibn Khallikan, ed. by Wustenfeld, No. 802; De Slane's translation, vol. iv, p. 29 sqq.

[761] Muqaddasi (ed. by De Goeje), p. 236, cited by Goldziher, _Die Zahiriten_, p. 114.

[762] Dozy, _Histoire des Musulmans d'Espagne_ (Leyden, 1861), vol. iii, p. 90 sqq.

[763] 'Abdu 'l-Ra?man III was the first of his line to a.s.sume this t.i.tle.

[764] Maqqari, vol. i, p. 259. As Maqqari's work is our princ.i.p.al authority for the literary history of Moslem Spain, I may conveniently give some account of it in this place. The author, A?mad b.

Mu?ammad al-Tilimsani al-Maqqari ( 1632 A.D.) wrote a biography of Ibnu 'l-Kha?ib, the famous Vizier of Granada, to which he prefixed a long and discursive introduction in eight chapters: (1) Description of Spain; (2) Conquest of Spain by the Arabs; (3) History of the Spanish dynasties; (4) Cordova; (5) Spanish-Arabian scholars who travelled in the East; (6) Orientals who visited Spain; (7) Miscellaneous extracts, anecdotes, poetical citations, &c., bearing on the literary history of Spain; (8) Reconquest of Spain by the Christians and expulsion of the Arabs. The whole work is ent.i.tled _Naf?u 'l-?ib min ghu?ni 'l-Andalusi 'l-ra?ib wa-dhikri waziriha Lisani 'l-Din Ibni 'l-Kha?ib_. The introduction, which contains a fund of curious and valuable information--"a library in little"--has been edited by Dozy and other European Arabists under the t.i.tle of _a.n.a.lectes sur l'Histoire et la Litterature des Arabes d'Espagne_ (Leyden, 1855-1861).

[765] The name of Slaves (_?aqaliba_) was originally applied to prisoners of war, belonging to various northern races, who were sold to the Arabs of Spain, but the term was soon widened so as to include all foreign slaves serving in the harem or the army, without regard to their nationality. Like the Mamelukes and Janissaries, they formed a privileged corps under the patronage of the palace, and since the reign of 'Abdu 'l-Ra?man III their number and influence had steadily increased. _Cf._ Dozy, _Hist. des Mus. d'Espagne_, vol. iii, p. 58 sqq.

[766] Dozy, _op. cit._, vol. ii, p. 103 seq.

[767] Qazwini, _atharu 'l-Bilad_, ed. by Wustenfeld, p. 364, l. 5 sqq.

[768] See Schack, _op. cit._, vol. ii, p. 46 sqq.

[769] The Arabic original occurs in the 11th chapter of the _?albatu 'l-k.u.mayt_, a collection of poems on wine and drinking by Mu?ammad b.

?asan al-Nawaji ( 1455 A.D.), and is also printed in the _Anthologie Arabe_ of Grangeret de Lagrange, p. 202.

[770] _Al-?ullat al-Siyara_ of Ibnu 'l-Abbar, ed. by Dozy, p. 34. In the last line instead of "foes" the original has "the sons of 'Abbas."

Other verses addressed by 'Abdu 'l-Ra?man to this palm-tree are cited by Maqqari, vol. ii, p. 37.

[771] Full details concerning Ziryab will be found in Maqqari, vol. ii, p. 83 sqq. _Cf._ Dozy, _Hist. des Mus. d'Espagne_, vol. ii, p. 89 sqq.

[772] Maqqari, _loc. cit._, p. 87, l. 10 sqq.

[773] Dozy, _Histoire des Musulmans d'Espagne_, vol. iii, p. 107 sqq.

[774] See the verses cited by Ibnu 'l-Athir, vol. viii, p. 457.

[775] Ibn Khallikan, No. 697, De Slane's translation, vol. iii, p. 186.

[776] Ibn Khallikan, _loc. cit._

[777] _Loc. cit._, p. 189. For the sake of clearness I have slightly abridged and otherwise remodelled De Slane's translation of this pa.s.sage.

[778] A somewhat different version of these events is given by Dozy, _Histoire des Musulmans d'Espagne_, vol. iv, p. 189 sqq.

[779] The term _Mulaththamun_, which means literally 'wearers of the _litham_' (a veil covering the lower part of the face), is applied to the Berber tribes of the Sahara, the so-called Almoravides (_al-Murabi?un_), who at this time ruled over Northern Africa.

[780] Ibnu 'l-Abbar (Dozy, _Loci de Abbadidis_, vol. ii, p. 63).

[781] _Histoire des Musulmans d'Espagne_, vol. iv, p. 287.

[782] _I.e._, 'holder of the two vizierships'--that of the sword and that of the pen. See De Slane's translation of Ibn Khallikan, vol. iii, p. 130, n. 1.

[783] The Arabic text of this poem, which occurs in the _Qala'idu 'l-'Iqyan_ of Ibn Khaqan, will be found on pp. 24-25 of Weyers's _Specimen critic.u.m exhibens locos Ibn Khacanis de Ibn Zeidouno_ (Leyden, 31).

[784] Cited by Ibn Khallikan in his article on Ibn ?azm (De Slane's translation, vol. ii, p. 268).

[785] Maqqari, vol. i, p. 511, l. 21.

[786] Maqqari, _loc. cit._ p. 515, l. 5 seq.

[787] See p. 341, note 1[640].

[788] The contents of the _Kitabu 'l-Milal wa-'l-Ni?al_ are fully summarised by Dozy in the Leyden Catalogue, vol. iv, pp. 230-237. _Cf._ also _Zur Komposition von Ibn ?azm's Milal wa'n-Ni?al_, by Israel Friedlaender in the _Noldeke-Festschrift_ (Giessen, 1906), vol. i, p.

267 sqq.

[789] So far as I am aware, the report that copies are preserved in the great mosque at Tunis has not been confirmed.

[790] His Arabic name is Isma'il b. Naghdala. See the Introduction to Dozy's ed. of Ibnu 'l-'Idhari, p. 84, n. 1.

[791] An interesting notice of Samuel Ha-Levi is given by Dozy in his _Hist. des Mus. d'Espagne_, vol. iv, p. 27 sqq.

[792] _Kamil_ of Ibnu 'l-Athir, ed. by Tornberg, vol. ix, p. 425 sqq.