Variance in Arabic Manuscripts : Arabic Didactic Poems From the Eleventh to the Seventeenth Centuries - Analysis of Textual Variance and Its Control in the Manuscripts

In Arabic and Islamic studies, the subject of variance in general and that of textual variation in particular has not been investigated exhaustively so far. In the present book the variation in texts of the “closed transmission” will be studied, focusing on a small corpus of didactic and model poems, with a view to establishing what degree of text stability and change was allowed by the medium manuscript. Categories of variance (relating to work-titles, text, number of verses and their sequence, page-layout, context) and the means of controlling them in the manuscripts of the poems are identified and detailed descriptions of the copies are given. The monograph also includes a presentation of some major traits of the cultural background to the study of Arabic didactic poetry and of its dissemination in which memorization has played a crucial role. The intended readers,editors and other users of manuscripts, are helped to acquaint themselves with the methods employed in the manuscripts to control variation and they are given an overview of the large spectrum of Arabic didactic poetry and of its place in the traditional culture of learning in Islamicate societies. Contents 7 1 Introduction 13 1.1 State of the art 13 1.2 Programme of work 17 1.3 Manuscript as a medium 19 1.4 Corpus of manuscripts studied 21 2 Main categories of variance 23 2.1 Work titles 23 2.2 Textual Variance 28 2.3 Variance relating to the number and sequence of verses 36 2.4 Variance in relation to page layout 45 2.5 Variance in relation to context 49 2.6 Variance in dependency of the medium 53 3 Means of stabilization 55 3.1 Deletion 55 3.2 Substitution 55 3.3 Addition 56 3.4 Correction of verse divisions 58 3.5 Vocalization 58 3.6 Glosses 58 3.6.1 Content-related explanations 59 3.6.2 Explanations by synonyms 59 3.7 Syntactical explanatory markers 60 3.8 Signs of reference 60 3.9 Collation 62 3.10 Abbreviations of authorities 62 3.11 Place of insertion of manuscript notes relating to control of text variance 63 3.12 Evaluation 64 4 Cultural background 65 4.1 Didactic Poems and the institutions of learning 65 4.1.1 Elementary education 65 4.1.2 The madrasa 74 4.1.2.1 The classroom situation 77 4.1.2.2 Curriculum 78 4.1.2.3 Didactic poems in some scholars’ fahrasa 79 4.1.2.4 Didactic poetry in the Core Curriculum of West Africa and the Southern Sahara 84 4.1.2.5 A case study: Didactic poetry in an Algerian Sufi convent 86 4.2 Orality, scripturality and memorization 90 4.2.1 The oral and the written 91 4.2.1.1 Ijazat 93 4.2.2 Memory and memorization 95 4.2.2.1 2.2.1. Development of memory 95 4.2.2.2 Aids to memorization 97 4.2.2.2.1 Translation of texts into Arabic 97 4.2.2.2.2 Versification 98 4.2.2.3 Ways of increasing strength of memory 101 4.2.2.3.1 Prayer 101 4.2.2.3.2 Religious magic as an aid to memorization 105 4.2.2.4 Motivations for memorizing didactic poems 106 4.2.2.4.1 Realization of perfection in belief 106 4.2.2.4.2 Realization of the ideal of perfection, regarding manners 107 4.2.2.4.3 Entering paradise: the case of the -Sha?ibiyya 108 4.3 Performative usages of didactic poems 110 4.3.1 Qa?idat al-Burda 111 4.3.1.1 Liturgical usage in Muslim Northwest China 113 4.3.1.2 Therapeutic and theurgical usages 114 4.3.2 al-Qa?ida al-Juljulutiyya of Pseudo-?Ali: magical usages 115 5 Corpus of Didactic Poems: Ibn Zurayq, al-Ūshī, Ibn al-Wardī, al-Laqānī 119 5.1 Ibn Zurayq, al-Qaṣīda al-Andalusiyya 119 5.1.1 Author 119 5.1.2 al-Qaṣīda al-Andalusiyya 119 5.1.2.1 Work title 120 5.1.2.2 Commentaries 120 5.1.2.3 Manuscripts 120 5.1.2.4 Number of verses 121 5.1.2.5 Variance relating to context: traditions concerning ẓarf and the circumstances of composition in the introduction 122 5.1.2.6 Edition of Text according to al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī l-wafayāt 125 5.1.2.7 Description of manuscripts 126 5.1.2.8 Synopsis of verse sequences 135 5.1.2.9 Evaluation 136 5.2 Al-Ūshī, Qaṣīdat Badʾ al-amālī 138 5.2.1 Author 138 5.2.2 Qaṣīdat Badʾ al-amālī 139 5.2.2.1 Commentaries on al-Ūshī 142 5.2.2.2 Manuscripts of the text 143 5.2.2.2.1 Dated manuscripts 145 5.2.2.2.2 Number of verses 146 5.2.2.3 Concordance of work titles 146 5.2.2.4 Edition of al-Ūshī 147 5.2.2.5 Description of manuscripts 151 5.2.2.5.1 Manuscripts in the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin (SBB) – Preussischer Kulturbesitz (PK) 151 5.2.2.5.2 Niedersächsische Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Göttingen 161 5.2.2.5.3 Bayerische Staatsbibliothek München 162 5.2.2.5.4 Princeton University Library 164 5.2.2.5.5 Süleymaniye Kütüphanesi 170 5.2.2.5.6 Commentaries in some manuscripts of Princeton University Library 181 5.2.2.6 Synopsis of verse sequences 189 5.2.2.7 Apocryphal verses 194 5.3 Ibn al-Wardī, al-Lāmiyya al-Wardiyya 196 5.3.1 Author 196 5.3.2 Al-Lāmiyya 196 5.3.2.1 Commentaries 197 5.3.2.2 Manuscripts 198 5.3.2.3 Concordance of work titles 200 5.3.2.4 Edition 201 5.3.2.5 Description of manuscripts 204 5.3.2.5.1 Manuscripts in the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preussischer Kulturbesitz 204 5.3.2.5.2 BSB München 215 5.3.2.5.3 Süleymaniye Kütüphanesi 218 5.3.2.6 Synopsis of verse sequences 221 5.3.2.7 Apocryphal verses 225 5.4 Al-Laqānī, Jawharat al-tawḥīd 227 5.4.1 Author 227 5.4.2 Jawharat al-tawḥīd 228 5.4.2.1 Commentaries on Jawharat al-tawḥīd 230 5.4.2.1.1 Commentary of Aḥmad al-Jawharī 231 5.4.2.2 Manuscripts 232 5.4.2.3 Concordance of work titles 232 5.4.2.4 Edition of text 233 5.4.2.5 Description of manuscripts 237 5.4.2.5.1 Mss. in the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preussischer Kulturbesitz 237 5.4.2.5.2 Süleymaniye Kütüphanesi 244 5.4.2.6 Synopsis of verse sequences 246 5.4.2.7 Apocryphal verses 247 5.5 Al-Sanūsī, al-ʿAqīda al-ṣughrā 248 5.5.1 Author 248 5.5.2 Al-ʿAqīda al-ṣughrā 248 5.5.2.1 Contents, edition and translations 248 5.5.2.2 Commentaries and other derivative works 250 5.5.2.3 The manuscripts 251 5.5.2.3.1 Condition of the manuscripts 251 5.5.2.3.2 Dated manuscripts 251 5.5.2.4 Variance in the manuscripts 251 5.5.2.4.1 Work titles 251 5.5.2.4.2 Page layout 252 5.5.2.5 Edition of the -Sanūsiyya 252 5.5.2.6 Description of manuscripts 258 5.5.2.6.1 Manuscripts in the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preussischer Kulturbesitz 258 5.5.2.6.2 Süleymaniye Kütüphanesi 266 5.5.2.7 Evaluation of textual variants 267 6 Appendix I: Survey of didactic poems 269 6.1 Recitation of the Koran 269 6.1.1 -Shāṭibī (Ḥirz al-amānī, Nāẓimat al-zahr, etc.) 269 6.1.2Ibn al-Jazarī 271 6.1.2.1 Commentaries 272 6.2 Orthography of the Koran: -Shāṭibī (ʿAqīlat atrāb alqaṣā ʾid) 273 6.3 Dogma of Sunnī Islam: -Zawāwī, -Ramlī 273 6.4 Mysticism: -Bakrī, -Dīrīnī 276 6.5 Prayer: -Sammān, -Aqfahsī 278 6.6 Jurisprudence: Ibn al-Wardī, -ʿImrīṭī, Ibn al-Mutaqqina, Ibn al-Hāʾim, -Zaqqāq, -Rifāʿī, Ibn ʿĀshir 280 6.7 Logic: -Akhḍarī 286 6.8 Disputation: -Kawākibī 288 6.9 Algebra: Ibn al-Hāʾim 289 6.10 Medicine: Ibn Sīnā 289 6.11 Grammar: -Ḥarīrī, Ibn Mālik, -ʿImrīṭī 291 6.12 Rhetoric: -Akhḍarī, -Munayyir 296 6.13 Historiography: -Bāʿūnī 297 7 Appendix II: Synopses of textual variants 299 7.1 Ibn Zurayq, al-Qaṣīda al-Andalusiyya 299 7.2 -Ūshī, Qaṣīdat Badʾ al-amālī 315 7.3 Ibn al-Wardī, al-Lāmiyya al-Wardiyya 334 7.4 -Laqānī, Jawharat al-tawḥīd 363 7.5 -Sanūsī, al-ʿAqīda al-ṣughrā 377 References 407 Indices 415 In Arabic and Islamic studies, the subject of variance in general and that of textual variation in particular has not been investigated exhaustively so far. In the present book the variation in texts of the "closed transmission" will be studied, focusing on a small corpus of didactic and model poems, with a view to establishing what degree of text stability and change was allowed by the medium manuscript. Categories of variance (relating to work-titles, text, number of verses and their sequence, page-layout, context) and the means of controlling them in the manuscripts of the poems are identified and detailed descriptions of the copies are given. The monograph also includes a presentation of some major traits of the cultural background to the study of Arabic didactic poetry and of its dissemination in which memorization has played a crucial role. The intended readers, editors and other users of manuscripts, are helped to acquaint themselves with the methods employed in the manuscripts to control variation and they are given an overview of the large spectrum of Arabic didactic poetry and of its place in the traditional culture of learning in Islamicate societies The present volume is a study of the phenomena of variance in the manuscripts of Arabic didactic poems composed between the eleventh and the seventeenth centuries in an area stretching from Andalusia to China's borders. The book also portrays the cultural background to the study of Arabic didactic poetry.