O Ye Gentlemen: Arabic Studies on Science and Literary Culture, in Honor of Remke Kruk (Islamic Philosophy, Theology, and Science) (Multilingual Edition)

O ye Gentlemen explores two vital strands in Arabic culture: the Greek tradition in science and philosophy and the literary tradition. They are permanent and, though drawing on Islam as a dominant religion, they are by no means dependent on it. That the strands freely interweave within the broader scope of Schrifttum is shown by more than thirty essays on subjects as varied as the social organisation of bees, spontaneous generation in the Shiʿite tradition, astronomy in the Arabian nights, the benefits of sex, precious stones in a literary text, the virtue of women in Judaeo-Arabic stories, animals in Middle Eastern music and the transmission of Arabic science and philosophy to the medieval West. CONTENTS......Page 6 Foreword......Page 12 Publications of Remke Kruk, 1976–2006......Page 14 List of Plates......Page 20 Plates......Page 24 SCIENCE & PHILOSOPHY......Page 42 Ludovico de Varthema and the Unicorns in Mecca (1504) (Willem Pieter Gerritsen)......Page 44 Al-Maqrïzï's Treatise on Bees (Giovanni Canova)......Page 56 The Arabic Transmission of the Historia Animalium of Aristotle (Lou Filius)......Page 66 Some Recent Findings in Michael Scot's Arabic-Latin Translation of Aristotle's History of Animals (Aafke M.I. van Oppenraay)......Page 76 Scarabées, Scorpions, Cloportes et Corps Camphrés. Métamorphose, Réincarnation et Génération Spontanée dans l'Hétérodoxie Chiite (Daniel De Smet)......Page 80 The Reception of Avicenna's Physics in the Latin Middle Ages (Jules Janssens)......Page 96 A New Look at the Barber's Astrolabe in the Arabian Nights (Jan P. Hogendijk)......Page 106 Congruent Numbers in the Tenth and in the Twentieth Century (Frans Oort)......Page 118 Al-Färäbïs Aristoteles. Grundlagen seiner Erkenntnislehre (Hans Daiber)......Page 140 Al-Räzï (d. 925) on the Benefits of Sex. A Clinician Caught between Philosophy and Medicine (Peter E. Pormann)......Page 156 MEDICINE AND MAGIC......Page 154 'Pride and Prejudice, Praise and Blame' 'Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi's Views on Bad and Good Medical Practitioners (N. Peter Jo osse)......Page 170 Axir ittibb innär. Texte zur Volksmedizin aus ilnas andi in der Oase Dakhla (Manfred Woidich)......Page 184 The Argan Tree of South Morocco. An Ethnographic Note (Harry Stroomer)......Page 212 Gazing at the Sun. Remarks on the Egyptian Magician al-Buni and his Work (Jan Just Witkam)......Page 224 A Curious Arabic Talisman (Petra M. Sijpesteijn)......Page 242 HISTORY ......Page 252 The Vicissitudes of Time. A Contest between Black and White (Pieter Smoor)......Page 254 Ibn Battuta on Public Violence in the Delhi Sultanate (David Waines)......Page 272 Ibn Khaldu n, a Critical Historian at Work. The Muqaddima on Secretaries and Secretarial Writing (Maaike van Berkel)......Page 288 Die Literarisierung der Mamlukischen Historiografie. Versuch einer Selbstkritik (Bernd Radtke)......Page 304 LITERATURE ......Page 316 Some Remarks on the Women's Stories in the Judeo-Arabic al-Faraj ba'd al-Shidda by Nissim Ibn Shahi n (990–1062) (Arie Schippers)......Page 318 The Dawadar's Hunting Party. A Mamluk muzdawija tardiyya, probably by Shihab al-Din I bn Fadl Allah (Thomas Bauer)......Page 332 Precious Stones, Precious Words. Al-Suyuti's al-Maqama al-yaqutiyya (Geert Jan van G elder)......Page 354 'Welche Garten uns umfangen . . .' Three Poems by Friedrich Rückert, Translated from a Gotha Manuscript of the Sïrat al-Mujäh......Page 374 ' Antar Overseas. Arabic Manuscripts in Europe in the Late 18th and Early 19th Century (Maurits H. van den Boogert)......Page 380 The Function(s) of Poetry in the Arabian Nights. Some Observations (Wolfhart Heinrichs)......Page 394 Narrative and Performance. Shahrazäd's Storytelling as a Ritual Act (Richard van Leeuwen)......Page 404 Orientalism à la Parisienne. Dr Mardrus, Kees van Dongen and the Thousand and One Nights (Arnoud Vrolijk)......Page 418 LANGUAGE ......Page 432 Gutta Cavat Lapidem (Manfred Ullmann)......Page 434 The Gender of Standard Arabic (Jan Jaap de Ruiter)......Page 448 ART AND MUSIC ......Page 462 Islamic Art and Architecture through the Eyes of Testas. Documentary Drawings and Genre Scenes (Luitgard Mols)......Page 464 Affe, Laute, Nachtigall. Tiere und Musik im Islam (Eckhard Neubauer)......Page 478 Revival of the Arabic Suite by Female Voices. The Art Interpreted by Aïcha Redouane and Beihdja Rahal (Anne van Oostrum)......Page 494 LAW AND RELIGION ......Page 508 A Medieval Islamic Law? Some Thoughts on the Periodization of the History of Islamic Law (Léon Buskens)......Page 510 On Women and Camels. Some Comments on a hadïth (Manuela Marín)......Page 526 Naïveté, Verses of Holy Writ, and Polemics. Phonemes and Sounds as Criteria: Biblical Verses Submitted to Muslim Scholars by a Converted Jew in the Reign of Sultan Bäyazïd (Beyazıt) II (1481–1512) (Joseph Sadan)......Page 536 Women Re-Shaping Coptic Visual Culture (Nelly van Doorn-Harder)......Page 552 Index......Page 568