Futuh al-buldan

ISBN 978-88-548-5668-4
DOI 10.4399/9788854856684612
pp. 159-163 (novembre 2012)

A note on authorship in al-Suys works:

observations on the Arf al-ward f abr al-Mahd

Michele Petrone
(University of Naples lOrientale)

Introduction

The well-known scholar of the Mamluk era all al-Dn al-Suy (d. 911/1505) is the author of
hundreds of works, ranging from tafsr (exegesis) to tar( history), passing through fiqh (juris-
prudence). Among al-Suys contributions to eschatology is the Arf al-ward f abr al-
mahd.1 This work is a small collection of ads and abars regarding the figure of the mahd,
the leader that according to Muslim eschatology will guide the umma, the Muslim community, in
the last days of the world before the coming of the end of the world.2
This tote discussess how al-Suy wrote his al-Arf al-ward using materials transmitted by
previous scholars. Starting thus from the issue of authorship in Muslim traditional literature, the
note addresses the method employed by al-Suy to compose this work, which is more an autho-
rial effort than a simple collection of traditions.

1. Authorship of traditional Islamic literature and al-Suys approach to writing

The Arf al-ward is based on an earlier work on the mahd written by the Persian scholar Ab
Nuaym al-Ifahn (d. 430/1038), the Arban ad f al-mahd (Forty ads on the mahd).3 To
1
There are at least three editions of the Arf al-ward, all of them reporting the same text with minor changes. The first edition in
chronological order is included in the w lil-fataw, a well-known collection of al-Suys legal opinions including some
works such as the Maslik al-unfa f wlidayy al-Muaf about the post mortem conversion of the parents of the Prophet
Muammad. The Arf al-ward is included in the general section of fatw adiyya that deals with any issue connected with
prophetic traditions that are not relevant for legal issues. This edition of the text is presented as it is, without any critical apparatus
or footnotes (all al-Dn al-Suy, al-w lil-fataw, Dr al-kutub al-ilmiyya, Bayrt, 1975, vol. 2, pp. 57-86). In more recent
years two new editions appeared. The first one in Cairo is a private edition well documented and annotated. The editor used two
different manuscripts and the al-w as the basis for his edition. He presents a reliable set of sources, with the indication of the
edition, and clearly indicates his interventions on the text in footnotes (all al-Dn al-Suy, al-Arf al-ward f abr al-mahd,
Ms Ismal al-Bas [taqq], al-Qhira, 1980). This latter edition is the one used in the present paper. The third and most recent
edition is based on the text found in al-w, simply editing it, verifying the wording of every single tradition in other ad
collections (all al-Dn al-Suy, al-Urf [sic] al-ward f abr al-mahd, Ab Yal al-Bayaw [taqq], Dr al-Kutub al-
Ilmiyya, Bayrt 2006).
2
On the mahd see David Cook, Studies in Muslim Apocalyptic, Darwin Press, New Jersey, 2002.
3
The Arban ad has been edited three times. The first edition is Ab Nuaym al-Ifahn, al-Arbana ad f al-Mahd, Al
all Baqr (taqq), Turun, 77-78, 1423, pp. 353-453). The other two versions are found in the Kaf al-umma f maarifa al-
aimma by Ibn Ab al-Fat al-Irbil (d. 694/1295; Ab al-asan Ali b. s Ibn Ab al-Fat al-Irbil Kaf al-umma f maarifa al-
150 Michele Petrone

this core of traditions from Ab Nuaym al-Ifahn, al-Suy added other traditions coming
from different sources, such as, for example, the Kitb al-fitan4 of Nuaym b. ammd (d.
228/843).5
The Arf al-ward represents a typical example of traditional Islamic literature which relies on
pre-existing materials.6 Traditional is used here to refer to all those works that are composed
with materials quoted from earlier works or by oral information that are traced back to people
other than the actual author. The main feature of this kind of literature is the presence of the
isnd, the personal or textual chain of transmission of every single tradition that guarantees for its
authenticity. Furthermore, these works often do not offer an explicit narrative structure and are
presented as accountable reports of other peoples words.
In such kind of literature the dimension of transmission seems to be predominant on the au-
thorship. However, in an innovative study on the ads as textual entities published in 1998, Se-
bastian Gnther argues that traditional materials can be treated as texts whose form, structure and
meaning are affected by referring and transmission.7 As a consequence, it is necessary to treat the
ulam engaged in an effort of transmission of traditional materials as authors instead of mere
transmitters.
This topic is the object of a stimulating paper by Stefan Leder who highlights the role of
transmitters of traditions as authors.8 More recently, Ella Landau-Tasseron shows how compilers
of traditions, using materials found in previous works, betray their personal attitudes.9 What
emerges from these studies is that the reutilisation of materials preserved in previous works im-
plies their reshaping, a point that Landau-Tasseron refers to as the metamorphosis of tradi-
tions.10 With these observations in min and taking into account al-Suys his fierce tempera-
ment,11 regarding him as a mere organiser of other peoples words is extremely reductive. There-
fore, what makes al-Suy the author of the Arf al-ward?
To understand al-Suys approach to writing, I refer to a small collection of traditions called

aimma, afar al-Subn al-Tabrz [taqq], Dr al-Aw, Bayrt, 1405/1975, 2 vols., pp. 267-75) and in the Kitb al-arif
f marifa mahib al-awif by Ibn Taws (d. 664/1266; R al-Din Abl-Qsim Al b. Ms Ibn aws al-ill, Kitb al-
arif f marifa mahib al-awif, al-iym - Qum, 1399, pp. 181-83).
4
Nuaym b. ammd, Kitb al-fitan, Dr al-Fikr, Bayrt 1993.
5
Other dates for Nuaym b. ammds death are also reported. See Charles Pellat, s.v. Nuaym b. ammd, in Clifford E.
Bosworth et al. (eds.), The Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd edition, Brill, Leiden, 1960-2005 (hereafter EI2).
6
With the exception of four comments (tanbh) at the end of the text; see al-Suy,Arf al-ward, , pp. 153-55.
7
Sebastian Gnther, Fictional Narration and Imagination within an Authoritative Framework. Towards a New Understanding of
ad, in Stefan Leder (ed.), Story-telling in the framework of non-fictional classical Arabic literature. 2. Johann-Wilhelm Fck
Kolloquium Halle 1997,Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden, 1998, p. 433-471.
8
Stefan Leder, Authorship and Transmission in Unauthored Literature: The Akhbr Attributed to al-Haytham ibn Ad, in
Oriens, 31, 1988, pp. 67-81.
9
Ella Landau-Tasseron, On the Reconstruction of Lost Sources, al-Qantara, 25, 1, 2004, pp. 45-91.
10
Ibidem, pp. 54-57.
11
Al-Suy is well-known in Islamic history for the numerous polemics he had with his contemporaries (see al-Suys
autobiography, Elizabeth M. Sartain, Jall al-Dn al-Suyt, 2 vols., Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1975, pp. 104-111).
See also his maqma against Qub al-Dn al-Qasalln (d. 923/1517) in Samr al-Durb (taqq) ar maqmt al-Suy, 2
vols., Muassasa al-risla, Bayrt, 1989, v. 2, pp. 823-855. Furthermore, al-Suyu considered himself the most prominent scholar
of his time and openly affirmed his superiority to the others, to the point that he declared himself the muaddid of his century,
unleashing the anger of his colleagues and causing numerous public polemics (see Sartain, Jall al-Dn al-Suyt, pp.65-72). On
the muaddid, see Ella Landau-Tasseron, The Cyclical Reform: a Study of the Mujaddid Tradition, Studia Islamica, 70, 1989,
pp. 80-84.
 A note on authorship in al-Suys works 151

al-Tarf bi-adb al-talf (The definition of the proper way of writing).12 In this work, al-
Suy expresses his own thoughts on how a writer (muallif) should work in accordance to the
custom of the ulam. Great importance is given to reliance on previous works. He emphasises
the importance of correctly quoting the sources, along with their isnds and the titles. Quoting al-
Nawaw (d. 676/1278) al-Suy asserts: It is necessary that one decides to compose a new work
about what has not yet been studied.13
In the same work, al-Suy reports that his masters (ba uyin) urged him to abandon the
qalam al-nas( lit. the pen of copy, meaning the habit of simple reproducing materials con-
tained in other works) for the tar (exegesis intended in its broader meaning).14 Furthermore, a
writer should finding new meanings in the traditions collected. Everything else is only page soil-
ing (taswd al-waraq).15 This does not mean, however, that the writer has to appear in the text
with his comments and ideas clearly expressed. On this regard, al-Suy quotes al-fi: I
would be glad if people will read my books without attributing to me anything found in them.16
The writer has to find new meanings in traditional texts and let them emerge in his works, hiding
himself in a mimetic attitude. This mimesis creates a grey area in which authorship surfaces in
the pre-existing traditional materials. It is in this area that al-Suy excels, revealing his skills in
the handling of the traditional literature and, at the same time, his own political and religious atti-
tude.

2. The tal and al-Suys authorship of the Arf al-ward

In the light of this approach to writing, it is possible to analyse a crucial passage in al-Suys in-
troduction to the Arf al-ward: Laatu fihi al-arban allat amaah al-fi Ab Nuaym
wa-zidtu alayh m ftahu.17
The first element that emerges from the analysis of this sentence is that both the verbs
latu and zidtu are used in the first person, clearly showing that al-Suy does not hide him-
self in a pure process of transmission. Furthermore, al-Suy openly marks the original texts of
Ab Nuaym al-Ifahn with a kf, in this way putting his personal intervention in an easily iden-
tifiable form.
Secondly, while al-Suy clearly acknowledges his main sources in Arban ad, he also
states that he has added m ftahu, meaning what is lacking in Ab Nuaym al-Ifahns ac-
count on the mahd. These additions are inserted in the original text in a process that al-Suy de-
fines as tal( using the expression laastu instead of arratu or itaartu), a crucial concept
in his writing practice. The common translation of tal is resum and compendium.18 How-
ever, according to Lisn al-arab, the main meaning of this word is to explicate, to comment

12
all al-Dn al-Suy, al-Tarf bi-adb al-talf, Marzq Al Ibrahm (taqq), Dr al-tur al-islm, Cairo, 1998.
13
Ibidem, p. 21.
14
Ibidem, p. 22
15
Ibidem, p. 28.
16
Ibidem, p. 24.
17
al-Suy, al-Arf al-ward, p. 35.
18
See, for example, Hans Wehr, A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic, Spoken Language Service, Ithaca (New York), 1976. For
a broader analysis of the practice of writing compendia in Islamic world see Muhammad Fadel, The Social Logic of Taqld and
the Rise of the Mukhataar, Islamic Law and Society, 3, 2, 1996, pp. 193-233.
152 Michele Petrone

(ar wa-tabyn).19 In the T al-Ars, the expression lai l amrak is translated as to explain
something step by step (ay bada ay). The latter meaning is well suited to the case of al-
Suys writing practice, implying that the act of properly quoting something is necessary to ex-
plain it. I thus suggest this sentence from the Arf al-wards introduction to be read as reported
the forty traditions collected by Ab Nuaym al-Ifahn one by one and commented them via the
addition of some other materials that were missing.
Furthermore, the tal is not a random process of accumulation of new information, executed
without any plan or without following any criterion. On the contrary, it is a process that involves
not only a simple transmission, but the production of a new work. It is the re-organisation of pre-
vious materials under a new textual shape, the juxtaposing of traditions, the addition or removal
of some elements, and the commenting of some passages. This process characterizes al-Suys
authorship of the Arf al-ward, as well as of hundreds of other similar texts. They are construct-
edbeginning with an older text and re-elaborating its form and its content by re-organising and
adding some other traditions.20 The organisation of a collection such as the Arf al-ward should
be viewed as a new coherent discourse, that mimetically makes al-Suy s religious and political
bias resurfacing.

3. Eschatology and politics at the end of the Mamluk era

Eschatological expectations permeated the end of the 10th/16th century. This context encouraged
al-Suy in writing works on eschatology. In al-w lil-fatw, al-Suy puts the Arf al-wardi
before the Kaf an muwaza haihi al-ummat al-alf, a work on the length of the Umma.21 In
this text, al-Suys aim is to persuade people that the world is not ending at the turning of the
10th/16th century.
However, I suggest that the Arf al-ward should be also read among the works al-Suy
wrote in support of the Abbasid dynasty and of the Caliphate as a form of government. Among
these works the most renowned is the History of the Caliphs (Tri al-ulaf), a comprehen-
sive account of caliphates development until al-Suys days.22 To the institution of the cali-
phate, al-Suy dedicated other works, for example, the Infa f rutbat al-ilfa.23 In the latter,
motivated by a dispute with an unidentified stranger, the author stresses the primordial im-
portance of the institution of the ilfa as a pillar of the islamic community.
At the end of the Mamluk Era, the caliph was relegated to the citadel of Cairo, with a mere
symbolic function. In fact, after the fall of Baghdad by the hand of Tatars in 656/1258, the Mam-
luk sultan Baybars (d. 676/1277) formally re-established the Abbasid caliphate in Cairo. How-
ever, the calpihs role was mainly symbolic: he lived in the citadel, isolated from the political life

19
Muammad ibn Mukarram Ibn Manr, Lisn al-arab, Dr dir, Bayrt, 1956.
20
Probably most of al-Suys works are constructed in this way, as noted by al-Saw (d. 892/1487); see ams al-Dn
Muammad ibn Abd al-Ramn al-Saw, al-aw al-lmi li-ahl alqarn al-tsi, Dr al-l Bayrt, 1992, vol. 4, pp. 66-67.
The latter, in his al-Suys biography, accuses him of plagiarizing old and unknown works taken from the Mamdiyya library
(see n al-Saw, al-aw al-lmi, vol. 4, pp. 66-67).
21
al-Suy, al-w lil-Fatw, II, pp. 86-93.
22
al-Suy, Tr al-ulaf, Dr Ibn azm, Bayrt 2003; an outdated english translation had been published by Henry S. Jarrett,
History of the Calphs, Baptist Mission Press, Calcutta, 1881.
23
al-Suy, al-Infa f rutbat al-ilfa, Albert Arazi (taqq), Israel Oriental Studies, 8, 1978, pp. 231- 243.
 A note on authorship in al-Suys works 153

of Cairo, and he had no voice in any of the sultans decisions, legitimazing by his presence the
Mamluk power.24
Very critical of the Mamluk sultans, as testified by his short epistle called al-Risla-al-
sulniyya,25 al-Suys argument in the Arf al-ward is that the the mahd is still to come and
the end of the world is not near. As a consequence, the Muslim community is alive and in need of
the institution of caliphate under the control of the Abbasids. However, al-Suy makes his po-
litical attitude emerge only via a mimetic participation, the above-described process of tals,
without openly expressing it. A further study on the Arf al-ward will focus in detail on al-
Suys implementation of the original Arbana ad of Ab Nuaym al-Ifahn.

24
See P. M. Holt, Some Observations on the Abbsid Caliphate of Cairo, in Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African
Studies, 47, 3, 1984, pp. 501-507.
25
al-Suy, al-Risla al-sulniyya, Mutr al-abl (taqq), Dr Wa al-Qalam, Bayrt, 2004.