eBook - ePub
The Oral and the Written in Early Islam
Gregor Schoeler, Uwe Vagelpohl, James E. Montgomery
This is a test
Partager le livre
- 304 pages
- English
- ePUB (adapté aux mobiles)
- Disponible sur iOS et Android
eBook - ePub
The Oral and the Written in Early Islam
Gregor Schoeler, Uwe Vagelpohl, James E. Montgomery
DĂ©tails du livre
Aperçu du livre
Table des matiĂšres
Citations
Ă propos de ce livre
Made up of a number of seminal articles that are translated for the first time in English, this prestigious book from Gregor Schoeler gives a reasoned, informed and comprehensive overflow of how the written and the spoken interacted, diverged and received cultural articulation among the Muslim societies of the first two centuries of the Hijra.
Foire aux questions
Comment puis-je résilier mon abonnement ?
Il vous suffit de vous rendre dans la section compte dans paramĂštres et de cliquer sur « RĂ©silier lâabonnement ». Câest aussi simple que cela ! Une fois que vous aurez rĂ©siliĂ© votre abonnement, il restera actif pour le reste de la pĂ©riode pour laquelle vous avez payĂ©. DĂ©couvrez-en plus ici.
Puis-je / comment puis-je télécharger des livres ?
Pour le moment, tous nos livres en format ePub adaptĂ©s aux mobiles peuvent ĂȘtre tĂ©lĂ©chargĂ©s via lâapplication. La plupart de nos PDF sont Ă©galement disponibles en tĂ©lĂ©chargement et les autres seront tĂ©lĂ©chargeables trĂšs prochainement. DĂ©couvrez-en plus ici.
Quelle est la différence entre les formules tarifaires ?
Les deux abonnements vous donnent un accĂšs complet Ă la bibliothĂšque et Ă toutes les fonctionnalitĂ©s de Perlego. Les seules diffĂ©rences sont les tarifs ainsi que la pĂ©riode dâabonnement : avec lâabonnement annuel, vous Ă©conomiserez environ 30 % par rapport Ă 12 mois dâabonnement mensuel.
Quâest-ce que Perlego ?
Nous sommes un service dâabonnement Ă des ouvrages universitaires en ligne, oĂč vous pouvez accĂ©der Ă toute une bibliothĂšque pour un prix infĂ©rieur Ă celui dâun seul livre par mois. Avec plus dâun million de livres sur plus de 1 000 sujets, nous avons ce quâil vous faut ! DĂ©couvrez-en plus ici.
Prenez-vous en charge la synthÚse vocale ?
Recherchez le symbole Ăcouter sur votre prochain livre pour voir si vous pouvez lâĂ©couter. Lâoutil Ăcouter lit le texte Ă haute voix pour vous, en surlignant le passage qui est en cours de lecture. Vous pouvez le mettre sur pause, lâaccĂ©lĂ©rer ou le ralentir. DĂ©couvrez-en plus ici.
Est-ce que The Oral and the Written in Early Islam est un PDF/ePUB en ligne ?
Oui, vous pouvez accĂ©der Ă The Oral and the Written in Early Islam par Gregor Schoeler, Uwe Vagelpohl, James E. Montgomery en format PDF et/ou ePUB ainsi quâĂ dâautres livres populaires dans Literature et Middle Eastern Literary. Nous disposons de plus dâun million dâouvrages Ă dĂ©couvrir dans notre catalogue.
Informations
1
THE TRANSMISSION OF THE SCIENCES IN EARLY ISLAM
Oral or written?
Hitherto, controversy has surrounded the issue of whether the major compila-tory works of the Arabo-Islamic sciences composed between the second/eighth and fourth/tenth centuries, marked by their use of ŚisnÄd (chain of transmitters), depended on mainly written or oral sources. Examples of such compilations are the KitÄb Äl-muwaáčáčaŚ (The Book of the Well-Trodden [Path]) by MÄlik Ibn Anas (d. 179/796), the KitÄb al-maÄĄÄzÄ« (The Book of the Campaigns) by Ibn Isáž„Äq (d. 150/767), the áčąaáž„Ä«áž„ ( The Sound [ Compilation ]) of al-Buáž«ÄrÄ« (d. 256/870) and Muslim (d. 261/875), aáč-áčŹabarÄ«âs (d. 310/923) TaŚrÄ«áž« (History) and TafsÄ«r (QurâÄn Commentary), and AbĆ« âl-Faraǧ al-IáčŁfahÄnÄ«âs (d. 356/967) KitÄb al-ŚaÄĄ ÄnÄ« (The Book of Songs).58
In her Studies in Arabic Literary Papyri,59 Nabia Abbott advocated an early and incremental written tradition, based on a plethora of evidence such as Umayyad papyri fragments. Fuat Sezgin proposed in his Geschichte des arabischen Schrift-tums60 a method for the reconstruction of the (as he maintains, exclusively written) sources of these compilations.61 He further maintained that he had discovered a number of early source texts on which the late compilations were based.62 With the work of these two scholars, earlier claims about a largely oral transmission of the Arabo-Islamic sciences up to the time of the major compilations63 seemed to have been laid to rest.
[202] (The numbers in brackets refer to the pagination of the original articles on which the translation is based.) In the meantime, however, several studies testing Sezginâs method and claims have cast doubt on the exclusively written character of these sources. At best, the newly discovered, purported source texts proved to be later arrangements or different, but by no means earlier recensions of those source texts, that is, recensions which were not drawn on in the well-known later compilations (e.g. aáč-áčŹabarÄ«âs TaŚrÄ«áž« [History]). One example is the so-called QurâÄn commentary of MuǧÄhid (d. 104/722), actually the TafsÄ«r WarqÄŚ Ńan IbnÄbÄ« NaǧīងŚan MuǧÄhid (The QurâÄn Commentary of WarqÄâ on the Authority of Ibn AbÄ« Naǧīង on the Authority of MuǧÄhid).64 At worst, they turned out to be extracts from later compilations, for example, AbuÄ« MiážȘnafâs (d. 157/774) presumed KitÄb al-ÄĄÄrÄt (The Book of Raids), which is in fact a part of Muáž„ammad ibn A âáčŻam al-KĆ«fÄ«âs (d. after 204/819) KitÄb al-futĆ«áž„ (The Book of Conquests) in which Ibn A âáčŻam exclusively quotes traditions from AbĆ« Miáž«naf.65
Moreover, studies of works extant solely in divergent later versions have uncovered a high degree of discrepancy between those different versions. For this reason, literal, and sometimes even complete, quotations of (more or less codified) books, which, according to Sezgin, had already taken place at an early date in the transmission of scientific knowledge,66 seem highly unlikely. As a result, Sezginâs optimism in claiming to be able âto reconstruct many old source texts in their entirety from later compilationsâ67 was unjustified. Al-Samukâs study dealing with the different extant recensions of Ibn Isáž„Äqâs biography of the Prophet (Ibn HiĆĄÄmâs [d. 218/834] SÄ«ra [Biography], aáč-áčŹabarÄ«âs Ibn Isáž„Äq- âquotationsâ [203] etc.) has shown that, due to the innumerable variants found in the different textual traditions, a reconstruction of Ibn Isáž„Äqâs material would evince confusing inconsistencies.68
Werkmeisterâs study on the sources of the KitÄb al-Śiqd al-farÄ«d (Book of the Unique Necklace) established that sources demonstrably available to the author in manuscript form had little impact on the work. Alleged borrowings by Ibn âAbd RabbihÄ« (d. 328/940) from actual books which previously had been considered his models and sources (al-ÄÄáž„iáșâs [d. 255/868â869] KitÄb al-bayÄn [The Book of Eloquence (and Exposition)], Ibn Qutaybahâs [d. 276/889] KitÄb ŚuyÄ«un al-Śaáž«bÄr [The Book of the Wellsprings of Reports]) for the most part exhibit substantial differences from their supposed counterparts in the aforementioned texts. Only an indirect connection can plausibly be posited.69 All this seems to point towards oral transmission. Advocates of written transmission can, however, argue against these two studies as follows: in the case of Ibn Isáž„Äq, credible authority has it that he put his history down in writing,70 while for Ibn âAbd RabbihÄ«, some of his supposed oral sources are texts which had been put into a fixed written form by their authors.
Todayâs uncertainty about the question of oral versus written transmission is fittingly illustrated by M. Fleischhammerâs statements on the sources of the KitÄb al-ŚaÄĄÄnÄ« (The Book of Songs), a subject which he studied intensively. He maintains on the one hand that âNowadays, . . . there is widespread agreement that, in most cases, these ŚisnÄds conceal written sourcesâ while on the other, he states: âOften enough, we cannot disprove beyond doubt the existence of a genuinely oral tradition.â71
[204] In what follows, we will attempt to solve this problem by proposing a theory which can, we believe, reconcile what seems to be diametrically opposed points of view. It should be added that this theory emerged as a result of a careful consideration of the results of previous, established research rather than renewed source studies and that, in the course of our examination, we felt compelled to return to the view of A. Sprenger on a number of essential points. He was the first Orientalist to deal with this question.72
The theory will be formulated in six points. For a better understanding of our argument, it will be helpful to illustrate some of the characteristics of the Islamic practice in the teaching of the sciences. Modern academic lecture courses, the âVorlesung,â shall serve us as a model. The institution of academic lecture courses, practised in antiquity (some of Aristotleâs works were only transmitted through lectures), was familiar to Muslims, too, under the label samÄŃ, namely, âaudition.â73 This form of teaching, which involved the students listening to a teacherâs (ĆĄayáž«) or his representativeâs recitation given on the basis of written notes or from memory, is generally regarded as the superior mode of transmission. Only qirÄŚah, ârecitationâ, later also known as Ńard. , âpresentationâ, was considered equal. Like samÄŃ, it took the form of a lecture, in which the student, in the presence of his teacher, either recited material on a subject from memory or read it out from his written notes. The teacher listened and made corrections. These âlecturesâ were held in maǧÄlis or muǧÄlasÄt (sessions) and áž„alaqÄt (circles), which in earlier times often took place in mosques, sometimes also in other places, for example, a scholarâs home.74 Apart from these two methods of transmitting information, simple copying of notebooks (wiǧÄdah, [205] kitÄbah, etc.)75 emerged early on. Inasmuch as the text in question was not âheardâ from an authority, its transmission was regarded as inferior.76
I
On the basis of extensive evidence collected by Abbott and Sezgin, it has become clear that, in the very beginning, writing was used sporadically, and that, over time, its use to record áž„adÄ«áčŻ, legal rulings, historical information, poetry, and so on became more and more widespread.
We should note in particular that this also applies to áž„adÄ«áčŻ . Interestingly, academic discussion about written tradition in the earliest period is less heated than that concerning the phase immediately prior to the composition of the major compilations. On the one hand, Goldziher explicitly asserts that initially, áž„adÄ«áčŻ was not exclusively intended to be orally transmitted and provides evidence that it had also been put into writing sporadically at a very early stage.77 On the other, Abbott78 and Sezgin79 admit that after this earliest period, there were occasionally religious misgivings against putting áž„adÄ«áčŻ into writing. This very early stage, however, will not be dealt with in the following discussion.80
The existence of áž„adÄ«áčŻ collections is a much more controversial issue: should we, with Goldziher,81 date the beginning of the muáčŁannafÄt (works systematically arranged into thematic chapters) to the time of al-Buáž«ÄrÄ« (d. 256/870) and Muslim (d. 261/875) or place it with Sezgin82 a century earlier? Similarly, we could for example inquire after the existence of fiqh literature before MÄlik Ibn Anas (d. 179/796) or historical books before Ibn Isáž„Äq (d. 150/767) or even, substantially later, aáč-áčabarÄ« (d. 310/923), as well as after the existence of codified works of literary history preceding AbĆ« âl-Faraǧ (d. 356/967) and so on.83
[206] Against the existence of written áž„adÄ«áčŻ collections prior to al-Buh1ÄrÄ« (and of other contemporary works in different fields of learning), scholars have since Goldziher quoted certain topoi frequently found in the sources such as mÄ raŚaytu/afÄ« yadi-hÄ« kitÄban qaáčáču ( âI [one] never saw a book in his handâ) or lam yakun la-hĆ« kitÄbŚinna-mÄ kÄna yaáž„faáșu ( âhe did not have a book, but used to memorise it/keep it in his memoryâ).84 These topoi, obviously highly laudatory, have been reported in relation to exponents of several areas of learning, for example, áž„adÄ«t (Sa âÄ«d ibn AbÄ« âArÄ«ubah, d. 156/77385; WakÄ« â ibn al-ÇŠarrÄáž„, d. 197/812),86 fiqh (SufyÄn aáčŻ-áčźawrÄ«, d. 161/778)87 and philology (ážȘalaf al-Aáž„mar, d. c.180/76988; កammÄd ar-RÄwiyah, d. c.156/77389; and Ibn al-A ârÄbÄ«, d. 231/846).90 áž„
These expressions should not, however, be viewed in isolation from their context: reports about the teaching and learning methods of the respective scholars. Mostly, they indicate that an authority lectured without ...