The July sales figures (through Amazon) for Eusebius’ book on differences between the gospels (and how to resolve them) have arrived and are encouraging. I still haven’t launched an online marketing campaign, yet we sold more in July than in June. Interestingly most of these seem to have been hardbacks. The purchasers certainly got a good deal — those hardbacks are impressive! — but I wouldn’t have expected that.
I’ve had another attempt at my project to translate Cyril of Alexandria’s Apologeticus ad imperatorem. A sample couple of pages have arrived from the translator, and I passed them to Andrew Eastbourne for comment. His verdict was decidely negative, unfortunately, which is a great pity. But I need to read his review in detail, which I won’t do this evening.
The postman brought me a large parcel containing two volumes which together make up Brockelmann’s Supplement 1 to his history of Arabic literature. I created these for personal use from a rather poor PDF, making sure they had wide margins, and the results are more than satisfactory.
While looking at the Greenhill papers on Galen — mentioned in yesterday’s post — I noticed that in several cases the books had been (re)bound, interleaved with blank pages, so that notes might be made on them. Perhaps I should try doing the same with some of these PDFs!
This practice of interleaving is something that you never see today; yet I remember talking to an academic who told me that the late L.D.Reynolds, editor of Texts and Transmissions, had a copy of his own book made for him with interleaved blank pages by Oxford University Press so that he could scribble notes in it. Clearly it is still possible.
The Royal College of Physicians library wrote back to me today about those Greenhill papers, containing stuff on Galen’s works in Arabic. They don’t allow photocopying of material more than a century old — and who can blame them? — but they do allow the use of digital cameras. Good for them! They’re closed until 15th August, but I must look at getting down there and browsing the material.
I’ve also been reading Walzer’s book Galen on Jews and Christians. It’s a curious performance, but I am learning some interesting things from it. A post will doubtless be forthcoming in due course. The most interesting thing that I have seen so far is that all the passages are extant in Arabic translation, but two of them are only extant in Arabic. Walzer seems to think that no question of authenticity arises, which seems surprising given the tendency of Arabic authors to elaborate, but doubtless he will explain why.
Last night I did some more work on my version of Brockelmann’s remarks on early Arabic writers about Mohammed (and, when it’s 25C in your bedroom and very humid, you’re not going to be sleeping, so why not use the time?). I also started searching for web versions, and found some. I will include links to these in the final version. I did discover that the Digital Library of India held copies of the journal Islamic Culture, which in 1927 and 1928 has some important articles on this subject. I just wish their site was quicker and easier to use! For Arabic culture, the publications in India in the 19th century are important, and I suspect few of us have ever visited the DLI site or downloaded its curious download tool.
Today I was able to discover that Guillaume’s English translation of ibn Ishak is online in page images. This evening I hope to download it. The book is a reconstruction of this lost early biography, based on quotations in Ibn Hisham and al-Tabari.
Finally, and on a lighter note, I have just checked my inbox, and received a job advert for a contract IT support engineer role in Afghanistan, paying about average UK rates. Length of contract is 20 months.
Evidently I need to be nicer to recruitment agents when they phone. Who knew that one of them was trying to get me shot!
Brockelmann’s History of Arabic literature does list English translations known in 1940. One of these was by Alfred von Kramer, from 1854, and was a translation of al-Wakidi’s biography of Mohammed. It was published in British India at Calcutta as the History of Muhammad’s Campaigns by Aboo Abd Ollah Mohammad bin Omar al Wakidy, by the Baptist Mission Press.
Copies are uncommon. I was wondering how on earth I would get hold of one, when I luckily stumbled across a copy on Google books here. Some of the introductory remarks seemed well worth bringing into the light. From p.2:
Three works on the biography of Mohammad, from which the whole stock of information regarding the establishment and development of the Islam may be derived, have come down to our days, and are existing in different libraries.
I. The first is Ibn Hishâm’s biography of Mohammad known commonly by the title of “Syrat-Ibn-Hishâm.” Its author died A. H. 213 (A. D. 828) or according to others A. H. 218 (A. D. 833) and his work is an extract from the chronicle of Ibn Ishâk who died about A. H. 151 (A. D. 768). Thus, through Ibn Hishâm’s médium, we get access to Ibn Ishâk’s work, though in some instances Ibn Hishâm seems to have made some pious alterations tending to cover up many of the prophet’s weaknesses and deficiencies *. A complete copy of Ibn Hishâm’s work is in the imperial library at Paris. An abridgment of Ibn Hishâm’s book was made at Damascus A. H. 707 (A. D. 1307,) by Ahmad Ibn Ibrahym, Ibn Abd-ar-Rahman-al-Wâsity, of which a copy is preserved in the Asiatic Society’s Library at Calcutta.
II. The second work is Mohammad Ibn Sa’d’s work, commonly called Tabakât or annals. Some volumes of “the Tabakât are in the ducal library of Gotha;” Mr. Wüstenfeld has given a notice of their contents in the fourth and seventh volumes of the Journal of the German Asiatic Society. Another volume of the Tabakât containing the biography of Mohammad is in Dr. Sprenger’s hands, whose indefatigable researches were recompensed by the discovery of this volume in a library belonging to Mozaffar Khân at Cawnpoor, and who has recently discovered some other volumes in Damascus.
* Consult on this question the excellent dissertation on “the original sources for the biography of Mohammad” inserted in the Calcutta Review No. XXXVII. for March, 1853.
Ibn Sa’d, who was Wâkidy’s secretary, acquired great knowledge of historical and traditional matters from his master, after whose death he condensed in his “Tabakât-al-Kabyr,” a work consisting of fifteen volumes, the results of Wâkidy’s historical researches, which were scattered through this author’s numerous works. Such at least is Ibn Khillikân’s opinion, and it seems that Ibn Sa’d, without much trouble of his own, gathered the fruits of his master’s untiring studies.
III. The third standard-work is Tabary’s history. Aboo Ja’far Ibn Jaryr-al-Tabary was born A, H. 224 (A. D. 838-9) at Amool in Tabaristân and died at Baghdad A. H. 310 (A. D, 923). He was considered by his contemporaries, as the greatest authority in historical and traditional matters. His great work on the history of the Islam, some volumes of which exist in several libraries, seems to justify the high consideration in which he is held by all subsequent Arabic historians. His work is written with great conscientiousness, he always indicates the names of the persons, on whose testimony a fact is narrated, and a cursory perusal of his book will convince every reader, that Tabary wrote with the sincere intention of composing a true and impartial history.
Though these three chief works reflect, however troubled this mirror’s surface may be, the great outlines of the early history of the Islam, yet they are far from enabling us to get a clear view and to form a just idea of those remote ages. Not one of these authors ever thought of submitting to a critical inquiry the authenticity of the traditions, which had been collected by his predecessors, not one of them dared to question the veracity of the most extravagant stories told about their prophet’s miracles, and Ibn Hishâm, as has been observed already, did not hesitate to commit some pious alterations in Ibn Ishâk’s text tending to cover some of Mohammad’s errors.* Ibn Sa’d, whose works are mere extracts from the writings of his master, must be considered as a second-hand writer, and probably would lose every authority, if his master’s works had not perished.
* Consult on Ibn Hishâm Dr. Sprenger’s Life of Mohammad, p. 70.
Tabary is doubtless a scholar superior in knowledge and trust, worthiness to both Ibn Hishâm and Ibn Sa’d, but unfortunately he lived at an epoch too remote from the foundation of the Islam. At his time the fertile imagination of the Arabs had veiled the origin of their religion and their prophet’s rising in such a cloud of poetical legends, that it was utterly impossible for any Mohammadan writer to discern the true from the false.
These remarks are sufficient to show how desirable it is for the historian to get access to the works of Wâkidy who being coeval with Ibn Ishâk, whose works have been lost, and anterior to Ibn Hishâm, and Ibn Sa’d, who were mere compilers, certainly deserves the title of “Father of Arabic history.”
Aboo Abd Allah Mohammad Ibn O’mar Ibn Wâkid-al-Wâkidy was born at Madynah A. H. 130 (777) ; he was a manumitted of the Banoo Hâshim and professed the Shy’ah doctrines, From Madynah he migrated to Baghdad, where at first he obtained the post of Kadhy in the eastern suburb, afterwards the Kalyfe Mamoon conferred upon him the same dignity in O’skaral-Mahdy another suburb of Baghdad, which at Ibn Khillikân’s time was commonly called Rossâfah. Mamoon held him in the greatest esteem. At his death he left a library of six hundred chests full of books, which were sold for two thousand dynârs. Wâkidy always kept two slaves, who were continually busy in copying manuscripts for his library. He is author of thirty-two works ; it suffices to indicate here only those, which appear to be the most important.* (1) The campaigns of Mohammad (Kitâb al-Maghazy). (2) The history of the apostates, having for its subject the history of those, who after the death of Mohammad, apostatized from the Islam and relapsed into idolatry. (3) History of the wars of Mohammad’s companions against Tobayhat Ibn Khowaylid-al-Azdy, Aswad-al-A’nsy and Mosaylamat-al Kaddâb. (4) History of Makkah. (5) History of the Conquest of Syria. (6) History of the Conquest of I’râk. (7) On the battle of the Camel. (8) On the battle of Siffyn. (9) On the battles of the Banoo Aws and Khazraj. (10) On the death of Mohammad. (11) Biography of Aboo-Bakr.* This séries of works is quite sufficient to prove the high literary character of our author. Wâkidy died at the age of seventy-seven years in Baghdad.
* See Hammer-Purgstall’s Literaturgeschichte III. p. 403.
It is the first named work of this eminent scholar which is contained in this volume: viz. the Kitab-al-Maghâzy, or History of the military campaigns of the prophet.
The original manuscript was discovered by the editor at Damascus in 1851, and as no other copy of this work is known to exist in any library, it is presumed to be the only one of Wâkidy’s works, which has escaped the all-destroying tooth of time.
That is quite a nice English-language summary. After struggling with Brockelmann, it is pleasant to see something outlined so clearly! Brockelmann states, however, that this translation is only partial.
It’s always worth doing a Google trawl. You never know what you may find.
This evening I was idly looking to see what I could find in English by Galen. I kept hitting “next page”. Much of it was dross. But then… I struck gold.
I found myself looking at a page at the British National Archives. It turned out to be a catalogue of papers held at the Royal College of Physicians in London, once belonging to a certain Dr Greenhill. Greenhill, whoever he was, was interested in Galen and in the Arabic material about him.
There are translations of extracts from the great biographical dictionary of medical writers by Ibn Abi Usaibia. These are probably good themselves, tho brief.
But then I stumbled across this:
Translation of Account of Egypt by Abd Al Latíf Ibn Yúsuf MS-GREEW/264/153n.d
In two Folders; 1st Folder 120pp; 2nd Folder pp. 131 – 140; Unbound
Now as far as I know there is no published English translation of this work, although of course I am no Arabist and I might be quite mistaken. But here is 140 pages of translation in manuscript! This, surely, needs to be copied and placed online?
I’ve enquired about the possibilities here.
But I also see various standard works in German on the subject, bound interleaved with blank paper on which the good doctor has written notes. These too might be very interesting!
Mind you, a thought has struck me. Given the notorious badness of the handwriting of members of the medical profession, will we be able to read any of what he wrote?
Long-time readers will be aware that I’ve been engaged, as publisher, in producing the first English translation of Eusebius of Caesarea’s Gospel Problems and Solutions — Quaestiones ad Stephanum et Marinum — and getting it available in printed form. The long term intention is to make the translation at least freely available online. But I’ve produced a hardback and paperback, with facing Greek (and Latin, Syriac, Coptic and Arabic) and English pages.
The book is available from Amazon (hardback, $80; paperback, $45), and if anyone who has bought a copy feels like adding a review, then that would be great!
This evening I’ve set things up so that copies can be ordered through the company website for Chieftain Publishing. The page is here, and there are Paypal links set up for both paperback and hardback. There is a slight discount on these, since I don’t have to pay a percentage to Amazon.
There’s also a PDF of some sample pages available for download, so you can see what you’re getting. You can also “Look Inside” at Amazon.
The book got some more hardback sales in July via Amazon in the US. But I haven’t promoted it yet. The big marketing effort comes next week, when all the 850 participants at the Oxford Patristics Conference will get a leaflet in the conference welcome pack. In addition the book will be on display at the conference, so you can come and browse. And I’m also taking 20 copies of the paperback, in case people want to give me money there and then! I wonder if people will?
For the last two evenings I’ve spent an hour or two working on the section in Brockelmann’s History of Arabic Literature on the biographers of Mohammed. This will appear here once I’ve finished editing and translating it.
It’s proving quite hard work. It’s not that Brockelmann’s prose is difficult, as that the work is very abbreviated. The reason that I have to edit it, as well as translate it, is that a large proportion of the text is to be found in the first supplementary volume, which is itself a thousand pages long, and is only one of three volumes. So I have to compile my text in German, from the main volume and the supplement (which preceded it), in order to work on it.
But I’m most of the way through this short section now. Interestingly it lists English translations of some of the sources, often from British India, in places like Calcutta. There must be a story to tell there, I would think, and I shall see if I can hunt some of these down.
Translator Andrea Gehrz, who produced an English version of the Tetrabiblos of Ptolemy, has started her own blog here. She’s posted some material from the ancient astrologer Vettius Valens. I hope that she will turn more of these kinds of works into English.
A group of bloggers and people who make stuff available online will be gathering for a drink one evening at the Oxford Patristics Conference. If this is you, please drop me a note and I’ll pass on the details.
I want to buy a download of Sister Hazel’s track Change your mind. It’s a trivial amount. It’s available for download on Amazon.com. But … it’s not available, as far as I can see, in the UK. And US sites won’t sell downloads to people in the UK.
For the last week or so, I’ve been reading sections of vol. 1 of the 2nd edition of Carl Brockelmann’s History of Arabic Literature. I’m starting to get some idea of what exists, which is the object. I thought that it might be useful to give some extracts in English here. Let’s look at some material from the introduction, starting on p.2. I’ve added links to the books where I could find them online, but if you can find more of them, do let me know!
II. Sources and earlier manuals on the history of Arabic literature.
The most important sources for biography and bibliography for the whole subject, leaving to one side monographs on particular subjects that will be given in their place, are the following:
1. Biographical works.
b. Ḫall. = Ibn Ḫallikān (S. 326), Wafayāt al-A`yān, Būlāq 1299 1) Vitae illustrium virorum, ed. F. Wüstenfeld, Gottingae 1835-40. [vol.1, vol. 15 – there are other vols online] Ibn Khallikans biographical Dictionary translated from the Arabic, by Mac Guckin de Slane, 4 vols. Paris-London 1843—71. [vol.1, vol.2, vol.3, vol.4 I could not find]
Fawāt = M. b. Šākir al-Kutubī (II, 48), Fawāt al-wafayāt, 2 vols. Būlāq 1299.
2. Bibliographical works.
Fihr. = Kitāb al-Fihrist, ed. by G. Flügel, after his death continued by J. Rödiger and A. Müller, 2 vols. Leipzig 1871/2. [I couldn’t find this online]
HḪ = Lexicon bibliographicum et encyclopaedicum a Mustapha ben Abdallah Katib Jelebi dicto et nomine Haji Khalfa celebrato compositum, ed. latine vertit et commentario indicibusque instruxit G. Flügel, Leipzig-London 1835-58, 7 vols. [I could not find vols 1 or 2, vols.3-4, vol. 4, vols.5-6, vol. 6] Kesf el-Zunun, Birinci Cilt, Katib Celebi elde mevcut yazma ve basma nüshalari ve zeyilleri gözden gecirilerek, müellifin elyazisiyle olan nüshaya göre fazlalari cikarilmak, eksikleri tamamlanmak suretiyle Maarif Vekilligin karari üzerine Istanbul Üniversitesinde Ord. Prof. Serefettin Yaltkaya ile Lektor Kilisli Rifat Bilge tarafindan hazirlanmistir, Maarif Matbaasi 1941.
This is followed by others, of no obvious special use, and then a list of catalogues of manuscripts. There is a footnote on Ibn Khallikan:
1. As this volume will be cited mainly using the numerals of the Lives, here is a short concordance with that of Wüstenfeld: W. 1-75 = K. 1-75. Missing in K. are: W. 76, 78, 133, 147, 149, 150, 154, 186-199, 201, 202 (= Fawat I, 145), 213, 214 (= Fawat I, 149), 217, 277, 278 (= Fawat I, 171), 288, 291, 292, 293, 294, 303, 317, 318, 337-347, 364, 380, 381, 528, generally only a single line, occasionally with date of death. On the other hand 297 K. is missing in W.; 357 was skipped by W. in the count of numbers; 405 W. gives as an appendix to 404 = 367 K. and not separately ennumerated. In the following Lives K. is more detailed than W.: 220 K. = 233 W.; 223 K. = 236 W.; 230 K = 243 233 K. = 246 W.; 248 K. = 261 W.; in the other direction only 242 W. is more detailed than 229 K. On the other hand 181 K. = 186 W. Because W. reverses the sequence Ha’-Wäw in K., note the following: W. 778-90 = K. 745-57 and W. 791-96 = K. 739-44.
Not that “Wüstenfeld” has been mentioned yet — sloppy editing, this — but fortunately for me I started at the histories, and this was defined at the top of the section, in the middle of p.140, which gave these general sources:
E. Sachau, Studien zur ältesten Geschichtsüberlieferung der Araber, MSOS VII Westas. St. 154/96. [I could not find this online by title, although it dates to 1905][PS. it’s here]
A curiosity appears on p.6, after a long list of catalogues of Arabic manuscripts:
2. The first attempt to present a complete history of Arabic literature was made by J. Hammer-Purgstall.1) The shortcomings of this book are so familiar that we may simply ignore it in what follows. The same is true of Arbuthnot’s work.2) The short sketch by A. von Kremer 3), however, is masterful and we acknowledge our debt to it.
That’s enough of this highly condensed information for now, I think. All these reference works were very, very rare. How delighted and excited Dr Brockelmann would have been, to see links to them accessible at the touch of a key!
The silence earlier this week was caused by an unannounced outbreak of holidays. I didn’t feel that it was a good idea to announce online that my house would be vacant, and I took a very welcome break from using a computer at all.
I finished work on Friday, and then had Saturday free. This was a good idea, because the number of things that have to be done in the last week before a holiday tends to leave the unwary exhausted! So I wandered around like a ghost under grey skies. I hadn’t actually even decided for certain that I would go away. But the conviction grew during Saturday, and I packed my bags, filled up the car, and located my lists of “things to take” and “things in the house to check are closed/unplugged/etc”.
On Sunday morning I was up at a sensible time — no dawn starts for me! — and I hit the road about 8:30. Destination … St Austell in Cornwall!
I drove down the A12 to London, and then around the top of the M25 London Orbital motorway. The traffic was light, and I reached the junction with the M4 motorway, near Heathrow, after a couple of hours. Then westward, westward, as the sprawl of London fell away and the chalk hills of the downs began to rise on either side.
I stopped at Membury service station, just east of Swindon, where I once had a summer job in 1980. It was a hole then, and it is still a hole now! Then on again, past Swindon. Soon there were signs for Bath, and the Roman baths, which I have never seen. It’s a long old trip from Ipswich, but one day I must do that.
Then the great descent towards Bristol, through a cutting in the hill, and I gained my first sight of the Severn. Soon I turned off, onto the M5, and headed south. I stopped at Sedgemoor services and refueled again. Then on, through Somerset, along roads that were not entirely uncluttered with holiday-makers, over the bridge over the River Axe, to Exeter.
At Exeter I turned off onto the A30, which runs the length of Devon and Cornwall, up hill and down dale. These days it is mostly a dual carriageway, which makes it easier. Soon the road rose, up onto the moors, which looked as desolate as ever. A sign appeared for Jamaica Inn, the old smugglers’ hideout on Bodmin Moor. This is in the centre of the county, but in truth is only a dozen miles from the coast, by the bridleways that were known to local folk. Those paths saw much use during the Napoleonic wars, when the government duties on wine and spirits were last at the foolish heights they are today.
Finally I reached the St Austell turn off. A narrow road threaded up through the village of Bugle, all granite stone houses and walls and narrow streets, up to the top of the hills where the china clay used to be mined and a great spoil heap still stands. Threading through the lanes, I came over the ridge and St Austell bay opened up before me, with an immense view of sea and headlands. My hotel was the St Austell Premier Inn, which stands at Carclaze, just at the head of the road. It was 2pm, so I had made very good time over the 350 miles.
A curious Greek-like boat on the grass at Charlestown
The rest of the day I spent pottering about. I went down to Charlestown, the tiny old port of St Austell, where the china clay used to be loaded and tourism is now the main thing. It was grey, but very warm and muggy, even up on the heights at Carclaze. Indeed I had to change room at 10:30 at night, because my room was at 24C! Another room looked over the car park, and had a breeze, and was 19C, and there I stayed.
On Monday morning I telephoned various relatives to announce my arrival. It can be slightly dicey making your presence known. Sometimes the relatives see a visiting stranger as a useful source of labour, to get jobs done! But not so this time.
In the morning I drove into St Austell, and parked in the new multi-storey car park. This replaced an appalling specimen of 60’s brutalist concrete architecture, which is now gone to its inevitable, rotted concrete, reward. St Austell town centre itself is only a shadow of the thriving town that I remember from my childhood. I could, indeed, find nothing that I wished to buy.
The afternoon was spent with relatives, just talking. They were interested to see the Eusebius book. The weather was improving, and the sun breaking through. I then went down to Charlestown again, where I had dinner and wandered around. I also drove down to Carlyon Bay, which is the posh end of St Austell. Everywhere I saw the blue hydrangeas — indeed I was told that they grow like weeds there! My main purpose was to identify the dismal hotel in which I stayed once, in October, for a funeral, so that I would know never to stay there again. It was the Cliff Head Hotel, and it looked even more run-down to me than I remembered. But as I drove back, to my astonishment I saw that mist was gathering on the high ground, up around the spoil heaps and Carclaze. So it proved; warm air below, and sunshine, and mist and fog a mile away up on the heights. Apparently this happens regularly.
Crowds on the beach at Looe
In the morning there was bright, hot, sunshine. Back in Ipswich it was cold and grey, I learned, so this news delighted me! I had arranged to meet with an elderly aunt, and take her out for the day. She chose to go to Mevagissey. We drove down there, detouring to look at some fields that my grandfather once rented, and a lane in which stood a cottage where my aunt was born, well before WW2.
Mevagissey was a delight. It was also flat, which was important for the frail old lady whom I was with. We parked in the large car-park, and walked into the town and soon found ourselves on the harbour. The sun beat down, and the smell of the sea was in our faces. We sat there on a bench for some time — long enough for my arms to prickle and warn of impending sun-burn! A man drove up on a little blue motorcycle with boxes on the back and, as people do in those parts, got talking to my aunt. He was off to go fishing in a little boat that was tied up in the harbour.
After more walking around, my aunt stopped at an ice-cream shop where she knew one of the ladies, and asked her where we should eat. She recommended “number 5, market square” as the best place to eat, and there we went. And it was! My aunt had a jacket potato, and I had a ploughman’s lunch. The furniture was good solid wood, we were served quickly but not rushed, and everything was nice but not pricey. After that, we drove back. Again in the evening I went down to Charlestown, and what a difference the sun made!
On the second day, I went to see another relative, to talk about an aunt who had made a will which was giving concern to those who might end up as executors. A local financial advisor has been appointed co-executor, and nobody knew who he was, or on what terms. There is, of course, very little that can be done with my more mulish relatives, but after much discussion I formed the opinion that what had been done was sensible in principle, and that the family should be able to involve the financial services regulator if anything amiss transpired. The main problem, really, was that in making her will, my aunt had been secretive about the details of the executorship which had worried the others who would have to do it all.
A tall ship heads towards Charlestown, Cornwall, on a flat-calm sea
After all that business — and some third degree from the lady responsible! — I again took the same aunt out for the day. We drove down the road from St Austell to Lostwithiel, and down to Looe. The road meandered down the country lanes, and past a sign for “Herodsfoot”. Some of the place names in Cornwall are a delight, all by themselves!
Looe is more down-market, as evidenced by the number of people sat on benches smoking and indeed tatooed individuals sitting on the (packed) beach smoking. But we enjoyed ourselves. Lunch was at a converted pub called the Golden Guinea, where the girls were extremely kind and thoughtful to my old aunt. Food there was just as good as at Mevagissey, and in some respects better.
Again in the evening I went down to Charlestown. The sea was as flat as a millpond. One of the tall ships had gone out, and was loitering about, offloading people onto a launch and taking on supplies of various sorts.
In the morning, the weather had gone grey, which reconciled me to going home, although I learned that later on it got hot again. The same trip back, in reverse, took a little longer, and I got home about 3pm.
And now I’m back home, and it’s cold and grey out there! But I shall be going back to St Austell again, when I get the chance!
View from Charlestown across St Austell bay to Gribben Head lighthouse
