( Pre-Islamic Literature) by H usain Review by: D. S. M. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, No.

o. 4 (Oct., 1927), pp. 902904 Published by: Cambridge University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25221283 . Accessed: 05/05/2012 05:41
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NOTICES OF BOOKS

a European has long been engaged Dr. Wensinck language. on a concordance to the authoritative and his collections, a by-product is apparently for of the preparations handbook that work. It does does for the tradition what Dr. W. Stanton's more for the Kur'an, and is proportionally subject-index in these collections the same traditions for, though bulky; are constantly the number of volumes which the repeated, There can be no doubt compiler had to peruse is considerable. a task of very great utility, for which that he has accomplished And he appears to will be duly grateful. his fellow-students have had no predecessors either in the East or the West. When to it is sometimes cite tradition authors Arabic possible in Ibn al-Athir's dictionary of tradition, verify the citations called Nihayah ; but this valuable work does not refer to the collection in which the tradition is recorded. This is, however,
a matter of some importance, since?among other reasons?

of equal authority, and the order them is on the whole range right that of antiquity. if for the notion of credibility we substitute on having produced an Dr. Wensinck is to be congratulated the collections wherein Moslem critics indispensable work. \
D. S. M.

are not

c^VI ^UU-I Husain, University Publication, This work

(Pre-Islamic Professor of Cairo. of

Literature). Arabic Cairo : Committee 1927.

By Dr. Literature

Ta Ha in the

for Authorship,

and Translation.

Ta Ha Husain's is an enlarged edition of Professor last year and on Pre-Islamic which appeared Poetry, the subject of many articles and letters in the Cairene formed Press. Indeed, it is asserted that the earlier work was with drawn from circulation

owing to certain passages wherein the Its of the Qur'an was thought to be impugned. authority main thesis is very nearly identical with that of the reviewer's " On the Origins of Arabic Poetry ", which appeared paper

PRE-ISLAMIC LITERATURE 903 about the same time in this Journal, the writers having arrived at similar results. That thesis is that the quite independently of the collections of verse supposed to be the work authenticity

of pre-Islamic poets is so doubtful that it is unsafe to use any or historically. of it as evidence either linguistically The Cairene Professor with justice that the uniformity of argues dialect which these poems display implies that the language of the Qur'an was spread over Arabia at a time when we know on of numerous the evidence that other dialects inscriptions even say languages) were in use. He has with con (we might siderable skill enucleated the motives which led to fabrication of poems in Islamic times and their attribution to pre-Islamic bards. Indeed, he regards these bards as very largely mythical. He is not prepared to say whether heads ImruVl-Qais (w^io the list) had or had not any existence. v latter part of his book is constructive, and endeavours to show that there were near the commencement of Islam " " of poetry, e.g. one started by Aus b. Hajar, and schools continued Ka'b b. Zuhair, Jamil, by Zuhair, al-Hutay'ah, and Kuthayyir. The value of this theory is somewhat dis counted by its author's admission that many of tho verses The ascribed that to these persons are spurious ; by the observation the only anecdote about Aus that is recorded is a silly fable ; and the fact that the authorities from whom we learn between

these persons are antiquaries separated from the latter by long distances of space and time. Hence the destructive portion of Professor Ta Ha Husain's work is by far the stronger, and it marks a stage in the pursuit the connexion of these studies that intensely the Himyari script?Glaser
their monuments show

in Arabic-speaking countries. as were the communities literary

no trace of verse, even

It is the fact which used Volk?

we

calls them a schreibseliges

where

; and it, as in funereal inscriptions naturally expect that the tradition assigns to Arabian communities whom the illiterate whole masses of verse involving an Qur'an declares should alphabetical artifice. Serious difficulties are involved in the

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NOTICES OF BOOKS

that these collections (or parts of them) were in writing and in the supposition that they were preserved even more serious difficulties confront preserved orally ; yet verse is itself a post-Islamic the theory that Arabic invention. in the dark. Before, however, any Hence we are very much supposition of value can be attained, it is necessary positive conclusions that erroneous opinions should be cleared away ; and in this direction the Professor has accomplished much that is of
value.

D.
von

S. M.
mit

Es-Saqa'iq

en-No'manijje

TaskoprOzade

zusaetzen uebersetzt. BuchDr.

und

anmerkungen

aus

dem arabischen :

Von 0. Rescher. Konstantinopel-Galata und Steindruckerei 1927. Phoenix, is a most industrious translator of Arabic

Rescher but most

texts, a few copies,

of his works have been privately printed in and so have been accessible to few students.

his latest work appears without the statement Fortunately als Manuskript and probably can be purchased by gedruckt, those who wish to possess it. The original, which is a collection of biographies of learned and saintly personages, who flourished to the time of in the Ottoman from its foundation Empire Sulaiman the Great, was printed on the margin of the Cairene edition of Ibn Khallikan (a.h. 1299, etc.), with a list of Dr. Rescher's follows this text, translation biographies; which he has occasionally corrected from MSS. He has added a few notes, and a useful Index. The work is of great value for the history of the development of the later Orders of and sheds some light on literary and even political Dervishes, The German besides. appears rather history orthography to the want of suitable types, but on the whole quaint owing the printing does credit to the Constantinopolitan say Kamalieh ?) firm. (or shall we
D. S. M.