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

460 Pages·2016·14.93 MB·English

by  Florian Sobieroj

Florian Sobieroj
Variance in Arabic Manuscripts
Studies in Manuscript Cultures
Edited by
Michael Friedrich
Harunaga Isaacson
Jörg B. Quenzer
Volume 5

ISBN 978-3-11-045869-5
e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-046058-2
e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-3-11046000-1
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0
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Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic
data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de.
© 2016 Florian Sobieroj, published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston.
The book is published with open access at degruyter.com.
www.degruyter.com
Acknowledgements
This publication first originated in Research Group 963, ‘Manuscript Cultures in
Asia and Africa’, based at the University of Hamburg, Germany. The DFG
(German Research Foundation) was a generous supporter of this endeavour. The
results of the discussions conducted by the young scholars participating in this
research group have been integrated into this work.
It is my pleasure to thank a number of people who have all uniquely
contributed to the completion of this piece of writing in different ways. First and
foremost, I would like to thank Tilman Seidensticker, the mastermind behind
this project. He wrote an outline defining the state of the art, objectives and
methodology, and he has proof-read large parts of the book. Any mistakes which
may be found in the execution of the project he initiated are solely my
responsibility, of course. My thanks also go to Jasmin Elshamy from the
University of Jena, who took the task upon herself of turning my lists of
deviations in the arrangement of verses for the four poems into graphic tables. I
also gratefully recall the intervention of Sara Nur Yildiz (Orient-Institut
Istanbul); her help allowed me to secure access to the manuscripts of the didactic
poems kept at the Süleymaniye Library in Istanbul, which I examined during a
stay in 2011. Thanks are due to the five libraries I worked with – Bayerische
Staatsbibliothek München (BSB), Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preussischer
Kulturbesitz (SBB), Niedersächsische Staats-und Universitätsbibliothek
Göttingen (SUB), Süleymaniye Library of Istanbul and Princeton University
Library – for providing microfilms, paper or digital copies of their manuscripts
as well as granting permission to publish pictures from them. I owe special
thanks to the editors for accepting this work for publication in the series of books
entitled Studies in Manuscript Cultures (SMC). I also gratefully acknowledge
the help of Joe McIntyre, the English-language proof-reader who corrected many
of my mistakes and improved my style of writing in English. Last but not least, I
would like to express my gratitude to CSMC’s editorial assistant, Cosima
Schwarke, who worked on the typescript in its final stages.
Florian Sobieroj, Jena, July 2015
Contents
1 Introduction
1.1 State of the art
1.2 Programme of work
1.3 Manuscript as a medium
1.4 Corpus of manuscripts studied
2 Main categories of variance
2.1 Work titles
2.2 Textual Variance
2.3 Variance relating to the number and sequence of verses
2.4 Variance in relation to page layout
2.5 Variance in relation to context
2.6 Variance in dependency of the medium
3 Means of stabilization
3.1 Deletion
3.2 Substitution
3.3 Addition
3.4 Correction of verse divisions
3.5 Vocalization
3.6 Glosses
3.6.1 Content-related explanations
3.6.2 Explanations by synonyms
3.7 Syntactical explanatory markers
3.8 Signs of reference
3.9 Collation
3.10 Abbreviations of authorities
3.11 Place of insertion of manuscript notes relating to control of tex
t variance
3.12 Evaluation
4 Cultural background
4.1 Didactic Poems and the institutions of learning
4.1.1 Elementary education
4.1.2 The madrasa
4.1.2.1 The classroom situation
4.1.2.2 Curriculum
4.1.2.3 Didactic poems in some scholars’ fahrasa
4.1.2.4 Didactic poetry in the Core Curriculum of West Africa an
d the Southern Sahara
4.1.2.5 A case study: Didactic poetry in an Algerian Sufi conven
t
4.2 Orality, scripturality and memorization
4.2.1 The oral and the written
4.2.1.1 Ijāzāt
4.2.2 Memory and memorization
4.2.2.1 2.2.1. Development of memory
4.2.2.2 Aids to memorization
4.2.2.2.1 Translation of texts into Arabic
4.2.2.2.2 Versification
4.2.2.3 Ways of increasing strength of memory
4.2.2.3.1 Prayer
4.2.2.3.2 Religious magic as an aid to memorization
4.2.2.4 Motivations for memorizing didactic poems
4.2.2.4.1 Realization of perfection in belief
4.2.2.4.2 Realization of the ideal of perfection, regarding manners
4.2.2.4.3 Entering paradise: the case of the -Shāṭibiyya
4.3 Performative usages of didactic poems
4.3.1 Qaṣīdat al-Burda
4.3.1.1 Liturgical usage in Muslim Northwest China
4.3.1.2 Therapeutic and theurgical usages
4.3.2 al-Qaṣīda al-Juljulūtiyya of Pseudo-ʿAlī: magical usages
5 Corpus of Didactic Poems: Ibn Zurayq, al-Ūshī, Ibn al-Wardī, a
lLaqānī
5.1 Ibn Zurayq, al-Qaṣīda al-Andalusiyya
5.1.1 Author
5.1.2 al-Qaṣīda al-Andalusiyya
5.1.2.1 Work title
5.1.2.2 Commentaries
5.1.2.3 Manuscripts
5.1.2.4 Number of verses
5.1.2.5 Variance relating to context: traditions concerning ẓarf and the
circumstances of composition in the introduction
5.1.2.6 Edition of Text according to al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī l-wafayāt
5.1.2.7 Description of manuscripts
5.1.2.8 Synopsis of verse sequences
5.1.2.9 Evaluation
5.2 Al-Ūshī, Qaṣīdat Badʾ al-amālī
5.2.1 Author
5.2.2 Qaṣīdat Badʾ al-amālī
5.2.2.1 Commentaries on al-Ūshī
5.2.2.2 Manuscripts of the text
5.2.2.2.1 Dated manuscripts
5.2.2.2.2 Number of verses
5.2.2.3 Concordance of work titles
5.2.2.4 Edition of al-Ūshī
5.2.2.5 Description of manuscripts
5.2.2.5.1 Manuscripts in the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin (SBB) – Preussi
scher Kulturbesitz (PK)
5.2.2.5.2 Niedersächsische Staats-und Universitätsbibliothe
k Göttingen
5.2.2.5.3 Bayerische Staatsbibliothek München
5.2.2.5.4 Princeton University Library
5.2.2.5.5 Süleymaniye Kütüphanesi
5.2.2.5.6 Commentaries in some manuscripts of Princeton Unive
rsity Library
5.2.2.6 Synopsis of verse sequences
5.2.2.7 Apocryphal verses
5.3 Ibn al-Wardī, al-Lāmiyya al-Wardiyya
5.3.1 Author
5.3.2 Al-Lāmiyya
5.3.2.1 Commentaries
5.3.2.2 Manuscripts
5.3.2.3 Concordance of work titles
5.3.2.4 Edition
5.3.2.5 Description of manuscripts
5.3.2.5.1 Manuscripts in the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preussis
cher Kulturbesitz
5.3.2.5.2 BSB München
5.3.2.5.3 Süleymaniye Kütüphanesi
5.3.2.6 Synopsis of verse sequences
5.3.2.7 Apocryphal verses
5.4 Al-Laqānī, Jawharat al-tawḥīd
5.4.1 Author
5.4.2 Jawharat al-tawḥīd
5.4.2.1 Commentaries on Jawharat al-tawḥīd
5.4.2.1.1 Commentary of Aḥmad al-Jawharī
5.4.2.2 Manuscripts
5.4.2.3 Concordance of work titles
5.4.2.4 Edition of text
5.4.2.5 Description of manuscripts
5.4.2.5.1 Mss. in the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preussisch
er Kulturbesitz
5.4.2.5.2 Süleymaniye Kütüphanesi
5.4.2.6 Synopsis of verse sequences
5.4.2.7 Apocryphal verses
5.5 Al-Sanūsī, al-ʿAqīda al-ṣughrā
5.5.1 Author
5.5.2 Al-ʿAqīda al-ṣughrā
5.5.2.1 Contents, edition and translations
5.5.2.2 Commentaries and other derivative works
5.5.2.3 The manuscripts
5.5.2.3.1 Condition of the manuscripts
5.5.2.3.2 Dated manuscripts
5.5.2.4 Variance in the manuscripts
5.5.2.4.1 Work titles
5.5.2.4.2 Page layout
5.5.2.5 Edition of the -Sanūsiyya
5.5.2.6 Description of manuscripts
5.5.2.6.1 Manuscripts in the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preussis
cher Kulturbesitz
5.5.2.6.2 Süleymaniye Kütüphanesi
5.5.2.7 Evaluation of textual variants