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Art. VIII.—Emotional Religion in Islām as affected by Music and Singing. Being a Translation of a Book of the Iḥyā ‘Ulūm ad-Dīn of al-Ghazzālī with Analysis, Annotation, and Appendices.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

Duncan B. Macdonald
Duncan B. Macdonald
Affiliation:
Hartford, Conn.
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Extract

“ Whosoever is harmonically composed delights in harmony; which makes me much distrust the symmetry of those heads which declaim against all Church-Musick. For my own part, not only from my obedience but my particular Genius, I do embrace it: for even that vulgar and Tavern-Musick, which makes one man merry, another mad, strikes in me a deep fit of devotion and a profound contemplation of the First Composer.” This is the confession of Sir Thomas Browne, and in that confession races the farthest apart join. The influence of music on the soul, the emotions it stirs, the fears and hopes it excites, all peoples, all climates, all ages have known. The negro at his camp-meeting, the darwīsh at his dhikr, are here kin with the English scholar and physician. For him it may not have been such a cataleptic ecstasy as befalls the negro or the darwīsh, but the cause was one and the essential nature. All religions have drawn strength and exaltation from this which lies at the root of all religion; it has ever kindled and fed the flame of devotion. The one could picture it to himself as “ a sensible fit of that harmony which intellectually sounds in the ears of God” ; the other can but ignorantly feel it working on his heart and soul, and sweeping him far from all the bonds of mind and thought. The unknown opens before him and clothes itself with his fancy.

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Original Communications
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Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 33 , Issue 2 , April 1901 , pp. 195 - 252
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Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1901

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References

page 198 note 1 I translate from the edition of Cairo, 1302. I have also employed the commentary of the Sayyid Murtaḍà (referred to hereafter as SM.), Itḥāf as-Sāda, 10 vols., Cairo, 1311. The Book translated comes in vol. vi, pp. 454–end.

page 198 note 2 Strictly ‘the merciful Raḥmān,’ but though the word was a proper name for God, standing beside Allāh, even before Muḥammad, yet the use in Islām is rather as I have rendered it. It is not a proper name, but an epithet noun.

page 198 note 3 Lane, sub voce, p. 638c, translates praise be to God, but by be he seems to mean only an emphatic, ejaculatory assertion, not a prayer, du‘ā. See his letter to Fleischer in ZDMG., xx, p. 187, where he explains in that way his rendering tabāraka-llāh, ‘Blessed is,’ or ‘be, God.’ That it is to be taken as an assertion is plain from al-Bayḍāwī, i, p. 6, ll. 3 ff. The precise force of both the Basmala and the Ḥamdala has been much discussed by Muslim divines. See, for example, the elaborate examination in al-Bājūrī's Sharḥ on the Kifāya al-‘awāmm (Cairo, a.h. 1303).

page 198 note 4 The Two Abodes are this world and that which is to come, ad-dunyà wal-ākhira.

page 199 note 1 On the Muslim theory and practice of benediction on the Prophet and others, see Goldziher in ZDMG., l, pp. 97 ff. My translations here make no attempt to be final on a very difficult question. After a time I do not translate these benedictory formulae at all. The Sharḥ of al-Bājūrī cited above suggests that this also is an assertion to be translated, ‘ Benediction is upon …’; i.e., it is ikhbārī and not inshā'ī.

page 200 note 1 Abū-ṭ-Ṭayyib ; d. 450. See Wüstenfeld's Schâfi'iten, No. 393, pp. 263 ff.

page 200 note 2 Ash-Shāfi‘ī; d. 204. For his life see Wüstenfeld, pp. 29 ff., and for a remark on his attitude to music, p. 41. The SM. notes that the book here mentioned, Kitāb ādāb al-qaḍā, is part of the Kitāb al-amm, No. 9 on p. 45 of Wüst. On rejecting of testimony, see note below.

page 201 note 1 Zindīqs, a very general term. The SM. interprets it of those who hold by no law and assert the eternal pre-existence of the world. Very frequently it means those who externally profess Islām, but do not believe in their hearts. See Huart, Les Zindîqs en droit musulman, Eleventh Congress of Orientalists, part iii, pp. 69 ff.

page 201 note 2 Mālik b. Anas al-Ḥimyarī al-Madanī; d. 179. Wüstenfeld's an-Nawawi, pp. 530 ff. On his relation to music and singing, see also Goldziher, , Muh. Studien, ii, p. 79, note.Google Scholar

page 201 note 3 Ibrāhīm b. Sa‘d b. Ibrāhīm b. ‘Abd ar-Raḥmān b. ‘Awf al-Qurashï az-Zuhrī Abū Isḥāq al-Madanī Nazīl Baghdād; 108–185. He was one of the shaykhs of ash-Shāfi‘ī, and handed down traditions especially from Ibn Shihāb az-Zuhrī. The SM. has a lengthened notice of him under this occurrence, giving anecdotes of his love of music and singing and of his interviews with ar-Rashīd and others.

page 202 note 1 Abū Ḥanīfa an-Nu‘mān b. Thābit; 80–150. Ibn Khall., iii, 555 ff.; Ibn Ḥajar al-Haytamī al-Makkī (d. 973), Al-khayrāt al-ḥasanāt, Cairo, 1304.

page 202 note 2 Sufyān ath-Thawrī; 95–161. Ibn Khall., i, p. 576; an-Naw., pp. 286 ff. For anecdotes of him, see Kosegarten's Chrestomathia Arabica, pp. 61 f., and Lawāqiḥ of ash-Sha‘rānī, vol. i, pp. 38 ff., of ed. of Cairo, 1316.

page 202 note 3 Abū Ismā‘īl Ḥammād b. Abī Sulaymān Muslim; d. 120. Ibn Khall., iii, p. 564, n. 5; an-Naw., p. 135.

page 202 note 4 Ibrāhīm b. Yazīd an-Nakha‘ī al-Kūfī; d. 96. An-Naw., pp. 135 ff.

page 202 note 5 Āmir b. Sharāḥīl ash-Sha‘bī; d. 104, 5. Ibn Qutayba, Kitāb al-ma‘ārif, pp. 229 ff.

page 202 note 6 The author of the Qūt al-qulūb; d. 386. See note 2 on p. 91 of Life of al-Ghazzālī (Journal of American Oriental Society, vol. xx).

page 202 note 7 ‘Abd Allāh b. Ja‘far b. Abī Ṭālib; d. 80. An-Naw., pp. 337 ff.; Ibn Qut., 104. The SM. gives some details as to his love of music and singing. See, too, a story about him and his singing-girl ‘Ammāra given by Derenbourg and Spiro in their Chrestomathie from the Aswāq al-ashwāq of al-Biqā‘ī.

page 202 note 8 ‘Abd Allāh b. az-Zubayr b. al-‘Awwām, killed by al-Ḥajjāj in Mecca in 73. An-Naw., pp. 341 ff.; Ibn Qut., pp. 112 ff.; Quatremère in JA., sér. ii, ix, 289, 385; x, 39, 137. The SM. again gives further details on his love of music.

page 202 note 9 Al-Mughīra b. Shu‘ba b. Abī ‘Āmir ath-Thaqafī; d. 50. An-Naw., pp. 572, misprinted 576, f.

page 202 note 10 Mu‘āwiya b. Abī Sufyān al-Umawī, the Khalīfa; d. 60.

page 202 note 11 The Companions are those contemporaries of Muḥammad who came into personal contact with him as believers, and who died as believers; the Followers (at- Tābi‘ūn) are those who received traditions directly from Companions. The SM. comments to the extent of six large quarto pages.

page 202 note 12 The reference is to Qur'ān, ii, 199: And remember God for a few days. On account of the context this phrase has become limited to certain days in the month Dhū-l-ḥijja, which are thence called ‘ The Few Days.’ Lane, in the Lexicon, sub √ ‘DD, p. 1, 971c, identifies these with the Ayyām at-tashrīq (p. 1, 539c) as the 11th, 12th, and 13th, the three days after the 10th, the day of sacrifice, when the flesh of the victims was cut into strips and dried in the sun; other explanations of the name are also given. But in this passage in al-Ghazzālī ‘ The Few Days ’ and the ‘ Days of Tashrīq ’ do not seem to cover one another, and al-Bayḍāwī (on Qur., ii, 199) seems to extend the term Ayyām at-tashrīq to cover the 10th of Dhū-l-ḥijja. See, too, al-Bērūnī's Āthār, p. 333 of translation.

page 203 note 1 Abū Marwān Muḥammad b. ‘Uthmān b. Khālid b. ‘Umar b. ‘Abd Allāh b. al-Walīd b. ‘Uthmān b. ‘Affān al-Madanī Nazīl bi-Makka; d. 241.

page 203 note 2 Abū Muḥammad ‘Atā b. Abī Rabāḥ Aslam al-Makkī al-Qurashī; d. 114, 15, 17? An-Naw., pp. 422 f.

page 203 note 3 Abū-l-Ḥasan ‘Alī b. Sālim al-Baṣrī, one of the shaykhs of Abū Ṭālib al-Makkī, the author of the Qūt al-qulūb. He is referred to elsewhere in this book and in Ibn Khall., iii, p. 20.

page 203 note 4 Abū-l-Qasim al-Junayd b. Muḥammad ; d. 297, 98. Ibn Khall., i, p. 338, and Life of al-Ghazzālī, p. 91; de Sacy from Jāmī in Notices et Extr., xii, pp. 426 ff.; Lawāqiḥ of ash-Sha‘rānī, pp. 67 ff.

page 203 note 5 Sarī b. al-Mughallis as-Saqaṭī (uncle and shaykh of the above); d. 256, 57. Ibn Khall., i, pp. 555 ff.

page 203 note 6 Abū-l-Fayḍ Thawbān b. Ibrāhīm Dhū-n-Nūn al-Miṣrī; d. 245, 46, 48? Al-Qushayrī, Risāla, p. 10 of ed. of Cairo, 1304; Ibn Khall., i, pp. 291 ff.; Kosegarten's Chrest. arab., pp. 58 ff.; Lawāqiḥ, pp. 56 f.

page 203 note 7 This is the grandson of Abū Ṭālib referred to in note 7 on p. 202. Aṭ-Ṭayyār is a laqab of Ja‘far and not of ‘Abd Allāh. He was also called Dhū-l-Janāḥayn. For an account of how he gained these names, after his death, see the notice of him in an-Naw., pp. 193 f. Legend continued to grow up round him, for among the Indian Muslims he has become a Jinnī who appeared to al-Ḥusayn before he was killed and offered his assistance; he is also invoked for magical purposes, and is the reputed author of the book al-Jafr (Life, p. 113, note 2); see Herklots' Qanoon-e-Islām, pp. 166 and 380, and Burton, Arabian Nights, xii, p. 115. Aṭ-Ṭayyār occurs also in the Fihrist, p. 175, as a laqab of ‘Alī b. Ismā‘īl b. Mītham, but is considered by the editors to be an error for aṭ-Ṭammār. As this ‘Alī also was a Shī‘ite the name may be right. Dhū-l-Janāḥayn is the name of a Jinnī in the Thousand and One Nights, N. 583. See, too, Goldziher's article Ueber Dual-titel in the Wiener Zeitsch., xiii, p. 325 and note.

page 204 note 1 Abū Zakarīyā Yaḥyà b. Mu‘ādh ar-Rāzī, d. 258. Al-Qushayrī, Risāla, p. 20; Ibn Khall., iv, pp. 51 ff.

page 204 note 2 Abū ‘Abd Allāh al-Ḥārith b. Asad al-Muḥāsibī; d. 243. See note in Life, p. 91. Ibn Khall., i, p. 365, gives this saying as his.

page 204 note 3 The SM. is in doubt as to who is meant here. According to him it may be Abū ‘Abd Allāh b. Mujāhid, the shaykh of the Mutakallims and the shaykh of the Qāḍī Abū Bakr al-Bāqilānī (d. 403; see Schreiner, Zur Geschichte des Aś‘aritenthums, pp. 108 ff.); as-Subkī gives his biography in the Ṭabaqāt. This Abū ‘Abd Allāh appears to be the same as Abū-l-‘Abbās b. Mujāhid at-Tā'ī al-Baṣrī, an immediate pupil of al-Ash‘arī; see Schreiner, pp. 82 and 106. Schreiner refers to Ibn Khaldūn, Muq. ed. of Būlāq, p. 382, and the Milal of Ibn Ḥazm. Or it may be Abū Bakr Aḥmad b. Mūsà b. al-‘Abbās b. al-Mujāhid al-Muqri' al-Baghdādī, d. 324; ad-Dāraquṭnī (d. 385; Ibn.Khall., i, p. 455, note 1; ii, p. 239; and Wüstenfeld, Schâf., p. 194) narrated from him: see on him Wüstenfeld, Schâf., pp. 132 f.; Ibn. Khall, i, p. 27; iii, pp. 16, 18.

page 204 note 4 Abū-l-Qāsim ‘Abd Allāh b. Muḥammad b. ‘Abd al-‘Azīz sibṭ (son of the daughter) Aḥmad b. Manī‘ al-Baghawī; d. 317. Ibn Khall., i, p. 323, n. 6.

page 204 note 5 Abū Bakr ‘Abd Allāh b. Abī Dā'ūd Sulaymān (Wüsten., Schâf., p. 90) b. al-Ash‘ath as-Sijistānī; 230–316 (the SM. has 310). See Wüsten., Schâf., pp. 120 ff.

page 204 note 6 Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal; d. 241. See Patton, Ahmed ibn Hanbal and the Miḥna.

page 205 note 1 Abū Ja‘far Aḥmad b. Manī‘ b. ‘Abd ar-Raḥmān al-Baghawī, the deaf; was cousin (ibn ‘amm) of Isḥāq b. Ibrāhīm b. ‘Abd ar-Raḥmān al-Baghawī; settled at Baghdād and passed on traditions from al-Bukhārī (d. 256); 160–244.

page 205 note 2 Abū-l-Faḍl Ṣāliḥ b. Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal; 203–266. See Patton by index.

page 205 note 3 Abū Bakr Muḥammad b. ‘Abd Allāh b. Yaḥyà b. Zakarīyā al-Baghdādī, the poet. He was a contemporary of Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal, as is shown by the following stories told by the SM. One goes back to his son Ṣāliḥ, who said: “ I used to like to listen to singing, but my father disliked it. And I made an appointment one night with Ibn Khabbāza, and he waited with me till I knew that my father was asleep, and then he began to sing. But I heard a sound on the roof, and went up and saw my father there listening to the singing with his skirt tucked under his arm, stepping out on the roof as though he were dancing.” The second story goes back to his other son ‘Abd Allāh. He said: “ I used to invite Ibn Khabbāza, but my father forbad us to have singing; so I used, whenever he was with me, to hide him from my father that he might not hear. And he came one night to me and was chanting (kāna yaqūlū). And my father had need of something with us—we were in a by-street—and heard Ibn Khabbāza chanting, and something in his chanting struck him. And I went out to see, and there was my father striding to and fro, so I shut the door and went in again. In the morning he said, ‘ My little son, when it is like that, this speaking (kalām) is excellent.’” Was this Ibn Khabbāza the Abū Bakr Muḥammad b. ‘Abd Allāh al-‘Abdī who was a contemporary of Abū-l-Walīd Muslim? See the Dīwān of the latter ed. by de Goeje, pp. 244, 253. I can find no other possible reference.

page 205 note 4 If this is the Abū-l-Ḥasan al-‘Asqalānī of Ibn Khall., i, 410, he was a contemporary of the wazīr al-Muhallabī, who died 352. Some MSS. of the Qūt al-qulūb give his kunya as Abū-l-Khayr.

page 205 note 6 On al-Khaḍir see Ibn Qut., p. 21; an-Naw., pp. 228 ff.; ath-Tha‘labī, Qiṣaṣ al-anbiyā, pp. 189 ff. of ed. of Cairo, 1298. Also Goldziher, , Arab. Philol., ii, pp. lxiv, 1, and Lisān, v, 332.Google Scholar

page 206 note 1 Abū ‘Alī Muḥammad b. al-Ḥusayn, known as Mimshād (?) ad-Dīnawarī, was a pupil of al-Junayd, and d. 299. Al-Qush., p. 31; Ibn Khall., iiii, p. 385; Abū-l-Maḥāsin, ii, p. 187; Lawāqiḥ, p. 81.

page 206 note 2 The SM. reads b. Hilāl, and remarks that in some MSS it is Ṭāhir b. Bilāl b. Balbal, and that it is so in the Qūt. I know nothing more about him.

page 206 note 3 Kuntu mu‘tafikan; on I‘tikāf see Lane, Lexicon, p. 2, 122a, and Lisān, xi, p. 161; also ash-Shīrāzī, Tanbīh, ed. Juynboll, pp. 68 f.

page 206 note 4 Ḥaqq bi-ḥaqq, or ḥaqq min ḥaqq. It appears to mean, This is absolutely true, but whether it is said of the verses or to confirm the dream is not clear.

page 207 note 1 Abū-l-Walīd ‘Abd al-Mālik b. ‘Abd al-‘Azīz b. Jurayj al-Qurashī al-Umawī al-Makkī; d. 150. An-Naw., p. 787: Ibn Khall., ii, p. 116.

page 207 note 2 Naṣṣ thus includes Qur’ān and Sunna; in Sunna are three divisions, qawl, fi‘l, and taqrīr, approving by silence. The Sunna indicated by speech is ḥadīth. The bases of Muslim law are four, Qur’ān, Sunna, Qiyāṣ, and Ijmā‘, or the agreement of the Muslim Church on any point. Here al-Ghazzālī omits Ijmā‘, but it is it which in the long run has brought about the triumph of his views. Qur'ān + Sunna = the Bible; Ijmā‘ = the Church; Reason is represented very feebly by Qiyāṣ. A good statement of the four bases is given by Snouck Hurgronje in his article, Le droit Musulman in the Revue de l'histoire des religions, tome xxxvii, pp. 1 ff. and 174 ff. On al-Ghazzālī's attitude towards Qiyāṣ, see Goldziher, Die Zahiriten, pp. 182 ff.

page 209 note 1 Qur'ān, xxxv, 1. This is the exegesis of az-Zuhrī and Ibu ‘Abbās; Bayḍ., ii, p. 148, 1. 12.

page 209 note 2 On David in Muslim tradition, see ath-Tha‘labī's Qiṣaṣ al-anbiyā, pp. 235–255.

page 209 note 3 D. 44? See Spitta, Zur Geschichte al-As'‘arî's, pp. 18 ff. and 115.

page 210 note 1 An often quoted saying of the Prophet.

page 210 note 2 The qaḍīb seems here and elsewhere to be a musical instrument, but I cannot find anything satisfactory in the lexica. According to the Lisān, qaḍīb seems to be capable of meaning anything on earth except a musical instrument. Dozy has the word, but only with a reference to Casiri, i, 528a, and there is no light there. Kiesewetter, Musik der Araber, p. 92, Leip., 1842, puts it under Schalmeyen, but that appears to be a guess based again on Casiri. The SM. explains it or aḍ-ḍarb bil-qaḍīb with ; the passage is ambiguous. The only connection I can find for this is the meaning of √ ‘BR, to meditate over a book, or read it mentally, without raising the voice, Lane, 1, 936c, Lisān, vi, 204, line 3 from foot. Does this, then, allude to the bad repute of Zindīqs and Magians for murmuring to themselves ? Ash-Shāfi‘ī said that the Zindīqs invented ta‘bīr to distract them from the Qur'ān; see p. 201, above. Possibly also qaḍīb may be a reference to the old custom of Arab singers to beat time for themselves while singing. See the story of Ibn Surayj in Aghānī, i, 117, and of Sā'ib Khāthir in Aghānī, vi, 188. The latter is said not to have used a lute, but to have beat time with a qaḍīb instead. I am indebted for these references to Goldziher, Muh. Studien, i, 169.

page 210 note 3 The ṭabl is a drum of any kind.

page 211 note 1 The duff is a tambourine, with or without bells. See Lane, Lexicon, p. 888b, and the reference there to Modern Egyptians, chap. xviii.

page 212 note 1 So the Massoreth is a fence to the Law; Rabbi ‘Aqîbhâ in the Pirqê Âbhōth, iii, 17.

page 212 note 2 Nabīdh is a drink made of dates, raisins, etc., macerated in water and left to ferment; if it be left long it becomes intoxicating, and is then unlawful, but if it stand only over night it may be drunk; the term is often applied to khamr, true wine.

page 212 note 3 Muzaffat is anything smeared with zift, pitch or tar; then a wine skin or jar so smeared.

page 212 note 4 The ḥantam is a green or red glazed or varnished jar, the use of which in making nabīdh is forbidden in tradition. It is said that the fermentation of the nabīdh was more rapid on account of the varnish or glaze.

page 212 note 5 Naqīr is a block of wood or the stump of a palm-tree hollowed out and used to make nabīdh in it; the nabīdh so made was supposed to be peculiarly strong.

page 212 note 6 “ ¡ O Tobasescas tinajas, que me habeis traido á la memoria la dulce prenda de mi mayor amargura!”—Don Quijote, parte ii, cap. xviii.

page 213 note 1 The SM. describes the kūba as a long-shaped drum, slender in the middle and broad at the ends. For a similar view of it see Goldziher, Arabische Philologie, p. 21, n. 4. Burton, , Arabian Nights, vol. viii, p. 149Google Scholar, describes it as “a tiny tom-tom shaped like an hour-glass,” used in present-day Morocco by the reciter of romances. The use of the kūba is forbidden in tradition, but some hold that what is there meant by the term is not an instrument of music, but either backgammon or chess; others say it is the barbaṭ, or Persian lute.

page 213 note 2 Mukhannath =‘ effeminate.’ On the class see Kosegarten, Kitāb al-aghānī, p. 11, and references there. See, further, von Kremer, , Culturgeschichte, i, pp. 45 ff.Google Scholar, and Hurgronje, Snouck, Mekka, ii, pp. 11, 54 f.Google Scholar

page 213 note 3 Sakanjabayn is a drink made of vinegar and honey.

page 213 note 4 The SM. defines the qabā' as a farajīya split up in front; the farajīya is a long robe of cloth with long sleeves coming down over the hands. Lane, Lexicon, p. 2, 984c, says that the qabā' is “ a kind of tunic resembling the qaftān, generally reaching to the middle of the shank, divided down the front, and made to overlap over the chest.” The Lisān, xx, p. 28, derives it from qabā, “ to gather together with the fingers,” because the edges (aṭrāf) that overlap are so held together. See, too, Dozy, Noms des Vêtements, pp. 352–362, who distinguishes a Persian and an Arab qabā', the later called Islāmī. I can find no trace of its being forbidden. The tufts of hair (qazā‘) may be a form of the shūsha, which, strictly considered, is illegal; see Burton's note in his Arabian Nights, i, p. 284. The Lisān, x, pp. 143 f., explains that it was a practice to shave the heads of boys, partially leaving the hair in tufts, and that this is forbidden in tradition. Qaza‘ is said also of broken clouds, arrows with very small feathers, camels and sheep when the wool drops off in patches, etc.

page 214 note 1 For the ‘ūd and rabāb, lute and viol, see Lane's Modern Egyptians, chap, xviii; Lane, in the Lexicon, s.v., conjectures that the sanj is the Persian chang, the modern Arabic junk, and refers to his Arabian Nights, chap, iii, n. 26; barbaṭ is noticed in note 1 above. Shāhīn is more difficult, and the Arabic lexicons give no aid. It is used by the shepherd and the drummer, excites longing and sadness, reduces courage and reminds of home. Dozy again refers only to Casiri, i, p. 528a, and Kiesewetter (loc. cit.) from the same source again guesses Schnabel-pfeife. Von Kremer in his Beiträge refers to these passages in the Iḥyā, and guesses “ ein Musikinstrument das geschlagen wird. Vermuthlich eine Art Handtrommel.” According to the SM. it is the Persian . This is given by Zenker as and , formed from and = ‘hautbois, clarinette.’ Vullers has “ genus fistulae quo canunt diebus festis ”; i.e. from = ‘ festival’ and = ‘ flute.’ There is a description of it by al-Fārābī in Land's Recherches sur l'histoire de la gamme arabe, p. 128. See, too, Herklots' Qanoon-e- Islam, p. xlviii of Appendix.

page 215 note 1 Quite of al-Ghazzāli's opinion was the old woman who was much impressed by a certain sermon. “ But,” it was objected, “ the minister read it.” “ Head it! ” said she, “ I wadna hae minded gin he had whustled it!”

page 215 note 2 The verse is by Labīd b. Rabī’a.

page 216 note 1 The Saḥīḥ of al-Bukhārī and that of Muslim. The narratives that follow are in al-Bukhārī, iv, 8 and 246, vii, 159, of vocalized ed. of Cairo, 1293. See, too, Ibn Hishām, pp. 337 and 414. It should be noticed that al-Ghazzālī appears to regard the two Ṣaḥīḥs as of canonical authority. But see in Goldziher, , Studien, ii, pp. 256 ff.Google Scholar, that a tradition found in them was not therefore received without question. On the verses spoken by Muḥammad, see Lisān, xiii, 188. Apparently there is a play on the word ḥimāl as a possible plural of ḥiml, ‘fruit,’ and ḥaml, ‘ burden.’ This is not the fruit of Khaybar which passes away, but a burden-bearing that is more excellent and abides like fruit of Paradise.

page 216 note 2 The wells of Majanna are at Mecca; Shāma and Ṭafīl are also wells there.

page 217 note 1 Ḥassān b. Thābit; d. 54. An-Naw., pp. 203 f.; Kāmil of al-Mubarrad, p. 314 of ed. of Cairo, 1308.

page 217 note 2 An-Nābigha al-Ja‘dī. An-Naw., pp. 586 f.; Ibn Khall., i, 456.

page 217 note 3 An-Naw., pp. 476 and 314; Cheikho, Kitāb shu‘arā an-Naṣranīya, pp. 219–237; Aghānī, iii, 186–192.

page 217 note 4 Anas b. Mālik; d. 93 ? An-Naw., p. 165.

page 217 note 5 So according to the SM., but an-Naw., p. 164, prescribes Anjasha. On the uḥdūwa, or camel-drivers' chant, see Goldz., Arabische Philologie, p. 95 and note. On al-Barā, the brother of Anas, and the qawārīr, see Ibn Khall., i, 603, n. 2.

page 218 note 1 Died at Damascus after 350 after a life of more than 100 years, mostly spent in Syria; al-Qush., p. 36. In the Cairo ed. his name is printed ad-Daqqī.

page 219 note 1 Literally, ‘through the excellency of his sweetness of tone,’ naghma. This word means also a musical sound, a note or tone in the strict sense. The naghmas are related to the laḥn, or melody, as the letters to a word. See Mafātiḥ al-‘ulūm, pp. 240 ff.

page 220 note 1 Wakhtilāfi ṭuruqi-n-naghmāt; so, at least, I read in the Arabic text. The word occurs six times, here and pp. 221, 222 and others, pp. 486, 487, 488, 557(2) of the Arabic text. I leave it untranslated, as the meaning is obscure to me. The form I take to be the plural of ṭarīq or ṭarīqa, which Lane, Lexicon, 1, 849c, and Dozy, Suppl., s.v., give with meaning ‘ air.’ But a ṭarīqa, as used here, seems rather to be a musical phrase, a part or section of an air (laḥn), except in the last case, where it appears to indicate a particular kind of air distinguished by its rhythms from other kinds. Kosegarten, in the introduction to his Kitāb al-aghānī, pp. 184 and 188, quotes a Persian writer on music who seems to use it of different kinds of rhythms. Al-Fārābī in Land (op. cit., pp. 136 and 103) uses aṭ-ṭarā‘iq, and Land translates ‘échelles.’ Further consideration of the word I must leave to the musical.

page 220 note 2 Abū Sulaymān ‘Abd ar-Raḥmān b. Aḥmad al-Ansī ad-Dārānī; d. 205 or 215. Ibn Khall., ii, p. 88.

page 220 note 3 The Maqām is apparently the Maqām Ibrāhīm, the Station of the Shāfi‘ites; the Ḥaṭīm is the wall surrounding the ḥijr Ismā‘īl, and Zamzam is the well.

page 221 note 1 On the allowableness of quoting verses in preaching, see Goldziher in ZDMG., xxviii, pp. 321 f., and the passages referred to there.

page 221 note 2 See the conditions of this in ash-Shīrūzī's Tanbīh, pp. 69 f. of ed. of Juynholl.

page 223 note 1 It is hardly necessary to notice how startlingly this is in contrast with our ideal of pulpit excellence.

page 224 note 1 Ḥajalū; the lexicons will not permit me to translate otherwise.

page 224 note 2 Abū Khālid ‘Uqayl b. Khālid b. ‘Aqīl al-Aylī al-Umawī, a mawlà, of ‘Uthmām b. ‘Affān; d. in Egypt 141.

page 224 note 3 Abū Bakr Muḥammad b. Muslim, known as Ibn Shihāb, al-Qurashī az-Zuhrī al-Madanī; d. 124. An-Naw., pp. 116 ff.

page 224 note 4 ‘Urwa b. az-Zubayr b. al-‘Awwām al-Qurashī; d. 94 or 99. An-Naw., pp. 420 f.

page 224 note 5 A holiday time of the pilgrimage season; see Ibn Hishām, p. 83, line 7 from foot.

page 225 note 1 The lexicons throw no light on this kunya. It was evidently known to them only in the tradition which we have here. See Lane, s.v., p. 1, 119c.

page 225 note 2 Abū Umayya ‘Amr b. al-Ḥārith b. Ya‘qūb al-Anṣārī al-Miṣrī, al-Madanī by origin, a mawlà of Qays b. Sa‘d. He was an important link in tradition, had the reputation of being a thiqa, stands in the third ṭabaqa of the tābi‘īs of Misr, and d. 148, aged 58. So the SM.; see, too, Ibn Khali., ii, p. 19, n. 8.

page 225 note 3 Ibn Shihāb az-Zuhrī.

page 225 note 4 Abū Ṭāhir Aḥmad b. ‘Amr al-Qurashī al-Umawī al-Miṣrī, a mawlà of Nahīk (?), mawlà of ‘Utba b. Abī Sutyān; a thiqa, d. 250.

page 225 note 5 Abū Muhammad ‘Abd Allāh b. Wahb al-Qurashī al-Fihrī as a mawlà, al-Misrī; d. 197. Ibn Khall., ii, pp. 15 ff.

page 225 note 6 The apartment of ‘Ā’isha opened immediately into the mosque on the left of the congregation; compare the story of how the Prophet, on the last day of his life, came in to the congregation at prayers and smiled on them.

page 226 note 1 For Muslim traditions on Solomon see an-Naw., pp. 300 ff., and, especially, ath-Tha‘labī’s Qiṣāṣ, pp. 253 ff. of ed. of Cairo, 1298.

page 226 note 2 Apparently this to guard against the idea that ‘Ā’isha made, and the Prophet allowed her to make, imitations of any living thing. At the last day the makers of such will be required by their creations to give them life also.

page 226 note 3 The Day of Bu‘āth or Bughāth was one of the celebrated battle-days of the tribes of al-Aws and al-Khazraj. According to the SM. the fight fell between the mission of the Prophet and the Hijra, and the victory remained with al-Aws. Bu‘āth is a place in al-Madīna, a ḥisn or fortress of al-Aws. See, too, Lisān, s.v., ii, p. 422, lines 10 ff., and p. 424, lines 1 ff.; Wellhausen, , Skizzen, iv, pp. 30 ff.Google Scholar

page 228 note 1 This is almost a commonplace in Arabic literature; see the story of Abū-1-Ḥasan of Khurāsān in the Thousand and One Nights (better in Kosegarten's Chrestomathia arabica), and the story of Ibn al-Aḥnāf, edited from the Maṭāli‘al-budūr of al-Ghuzūlī by Torrey, in the Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. xvi.

page 229 note 1 On States (aḥwāl) and Revelations (mukāshafāt) see notes on p. 94 of Life. On wajd, etc., see note on p. 101.

page 230 note 1 “Sir, I can give you reasons, but I cannot give you an understanding.”—Dr. Johnson.

page 231 note 1 A tradition from the Prophet. He said, “No one shall enter the Garden in whose heart there is the weight of a grain of pride.” Someone said, “ A man loves that his robe and sandals should be beautiful ”: and the Prophet replied in this saying.

page 232 note 1 Min dhirwati-th-thurayyā ilà muntahaà-th-tharà; a proverb.

page 232 note 2 A tradition of the Prophet.

page 233 note 1 One of the Books of the Iḥyā, the sixth of the fourth Rub‘.

page 234 note 1 ‘Abd ar-Raḥmān b. Ṣakhr ad-Dawsī, known as Abū Hurayra; d. 57. An-Naw., pp. 760 f.; Ibn Khali., i, 570, n. 2.

page 234 note 2 The different revealed Scriptures; e.g., the Law, the Gospel, the Psalms.

page 234 note 3 Matt., xi, 17; Luke, vii, 32; a long way after. It is characteristic of Islām that the SM. makes no attempt to verify the reference.

page 236 note 1 Hearing = as-samā‘. I have translated this word hitherto as ‘ listening to music and singing.’ Literally it means ‘ hearing ’ or ‘ listening,’ but it became a Ṣūfī technical term for the devotional exercises of darwīshes. In the sequel I shall frequently translate it as here, regarding it as such a technical term.

page 237 note 1 It was early fixed as a principle that the handing down of traditions derogatory to the Prophet or to the Companions was unlawful. Thus an-Nasafī lays down in his creed: “We abstain from the mention of the Companions of the Prophet except with good.” The name Rāfidīs came to be applied to all schismatics who spoke against any of the Companions, but historically it has a narrower application. They were a sect of the Shī‘a of al-Kūfa who abandoned Zayd b. ‘Alī, a descendant of ‘Alī the fourth Khalīfa—after having belonged to his party the Zaydites—because he commanded them not to speak against the two first Khalīfas, Abū Bakr and ‘Umar. See Lane, Lexicon, p. 1, 121a; Thousand and One Nights, ii, pp. 233 and 265, and notes 33 and 90 (Story of ‘Alā ad-Dīn Abū-sh-Shāmāt, Nights 255 and 265), Haarbrücker's translation of ash-Shāhrastānī, i, pp. 176 and 180.

page 238 note 1 Literally, arrive first at understanding what is heard in spite of the expression.

page 238 note 2 The weight of a grain of barley; apparently a fraction of a dirham.

page 239 note 1 On the Ṭayf al-Khayāl, the form of the beloved seen in dreams, see an article by de Slane in the Journ. As., sér. in, v, 376 ff.

page 240 note 1 By ‘awāmm al-khalq he means all mankind but those who have intercourse with and knowledge of God in ecstasy, whether they be ignorant or philosophers or theologians.

page 242 note 1 Abū Mūsà Yūnus b. ‘Abd al-A‘là as-Ṣafadī al-Miṣrī; d. 264. An-Naw.,. pp. 641 f.; Ibn Khall., iv, pp. 591 f.

page 242 note 2 Referring to the descriptions with which innumerable qasīdas open.

page 244 note 1 The SM. gives, as examples, cupping and the clearing away of ash-heapa. On the Oriental attitude towards cupping, see Spitta's Al-Aś‘arî, pp. 29 f. In the Tanbīh of Abū Isḥāq ash-Shīrāzī, a Shāfi‘ite manual of law, pp. 336 f. of ed. of Juynboll, there is a statement of those whose testimony must be rejected. These included slaves, youths, deranged persons, heedless persons or simpletons (mughaffal), those who have no manly virtue (murū‘a), such as scavengers, raggatherers, sweepers, bathmen, those who play in the bath and singers, dancers, jugglers, those who eat in the streets and make water in public and play at chess on the highway. As to pursuers of base occupations (makāsib danīya), such as watchmen, weavers, cuppers, there are two views, one that their testimony is to be rejected, the other and better that it may be received if their religious walk is right. See, too, the Minhāj aṭ-ṭālibīn, ed. van den Berg, iii, pp. 400 ff. On improper use of the public streets, compare Goldziher, Arabische Philologie, p. III, who explains that these are the places of prayer of the Jinn.

page 244 note 2 Qur‘ān, xxxi, 5. I have added the necessary context in square brackets.

page 244 note 3 Abū ‘Abd ar-Raḥmān ‘Abd Allāh b. Mas‘ūd b. Ghāfil al-Hudhalī al-Kūfī; d. 32. Ibn Qut., p. 128; an-Naw., pp. 369 ff.

page 244 note 4 Abū Sa‘īd al-Hasan b. Abī-l-Ḥasan Yasār al-Baṣrî, d. 110. An-Naw., pp. 209 ff.; Ibn Khali., i, 370 ff.

page 244 note 5 Ibrāhīm b. Yazīd an-Nakha‘I; see note 4 on p. 202.

page 245 note 1 Sūra lxxx of the Qur‘ān. It begius ‘Abasa wa-tawallà, “ he frowned and turned away,” said of the Prophet repelling a blind man. For that he is rebuked by God in the Sūra, and this Hypocrite—the Hypocrites (munāfiqūn, Ibn Qut., p. 174) played much the same part in Medina as the Libertines in the Geneva of Calvin—chose thus to keep alive the memory of the rebuke.

page 245 note 2 Qur‘an, liii, 59; see Bayd., ii, 296, 1. 14; and Lane, p. 1, 424b.

page 245 note 3 Abū-l-‘Abbās ‘Abd Allāh b. al-‘Abbās b. ‘Abdi-1-Muṭṭalib b. Hāshim; d. 68. An-Naw., pp. 351 ff.; Ibn Qut., pp. 58 f.

page 246 note 1 Abū ‘Abd Allāh (or Abū ‘Abd ar-Raḥmān or Abū Muḥammad) Jābir b. ‘Abd Allāh b. ‘Ami al-Anṣārī as-Salamī al-Madanī; d. 68 or 73 or 78. An-Naw., pp. 184 ff.; Ibn Qut., pp. 156 i.; Ibn Khali., ii, 204, n. 1.

page 246 note 2 Abū Umāma Ṣudday b. ‘Ajlān al-Bāhilī; d. 81 or 86. Ibn Qut., p. 157; an-Naw., pp. 651 f.

page 247 note 1 ‘Uqba b. ‘Āmir al-Juhaī; d. 58. An-Naw., pp. 425 f.

page 247 note 2 The three are adultery, murder, and relapse after embracing Islām; see the tradition in al-Bukhārī, vol. viii, p. 36 of ed. of Cairo, 1296, and in the Sunan of Ibn Mājah, p. 185 of lithog. of Dehli, 1889. I do not know what is referred to under the fourth and fifth.

page 248 note 1 For this saying of ‘Uthmān see Lisān, s.v., xx, p. 164, 11. 7 ff. from foot. On the attitude of Muslims towards lying, allowed and unallowed, see Iḥyā, vol. vii, pp. 522 ff. The statement there begins, “ Lying is not forbidden (ḥarām) on account of itself (linafsihi), but on account of detriment in it to the person addressed or any other.” Compare, too, the doctrine of Intention, nīya, in Iḥyā, vol. x, pp. 72 ff. Similarly, to use the right hand for certain purposes would be bad manners, but could not be called ḥarām.

page 248 note 2 ‘Umar b. al-Khaṭṭāb had two sons who are referred to in tradition, ‘Abd Allāh and ‘Ubayd Allāh. This, according to the SM., is ‘Abd Allāh, who d. in 73. An-Naw., pp. 357 ff.; Ibn Qut., p. 92; Ibn Khall., i, p. 567, note.

page 248 note 3 Iḥrān is the prescribed dress worn by a pilgrim and also his state while wearing it. It is put on at the last stage before reaching Mecca, and laid aside after the tenth day, the day of sacrifice.

page 248 note 4 Abū ‘Abd Allāh Nāfi‘ was a mawlà of Ibn ‘Umar, and d. 117. Ibn Qut., pp. 95 and 234; Ibn Khall., iii, pp. 521 f.; an-Naw., pp. 589 f. The tradition here related is an important and much debated one in several legal respects.

page 248 note 5 Abū ‘Alī al-Fuḍayl b. ‘Iyad at-Tanīmī al-Yarbū‘ī; d. 187. An-Naw., pp. 503 f.; Ibn Khall., ii, 478 ff.; the extract from al-Biqă‘ī's Aswāq al-ashwāq in Derenbourg et Spiro, Chrestomathie élémentaire, pp. 33 ff.; al-Qush., p. 11.

page 248 note 6 Yazīd b. al-Walīd b. ‘Abd al-Mālik b. Marwān, the 12th Umayyad Khalīfa; d. 126. Ibn Qut., p. 186.

page 250 note 1 Abū Jahm ‘Āmir (or ‘Ubayd) b. Ḥudhayfa al-Qurashī al-‘Adawī; d. in the days of az-Zubayr or of Mu‘āwiya. An-Naw., pp. 686 f., and al-Bukhārī, Kitāb al-libās, part vii, p. 39.

page 250 note 2 Abū-l-Ḥasan ‘All b. Ibrāhīm al-Ḥuṣrī al-Ḥaḍramī al-Baṣrī; d. 371. Al-Qush., p. 38; Ibn al-Athīr, sub anno 371.

page 250 note 3 See note in Life, p. 94.

page 251 note 1 A Book of the Iḥyā; the fourth of the third Rub‘.

page 252 note 1 The SM. ascribes this saying to Abū Muḥammad Sahl b. ‘Abd Allāh at-Tustarī, who d. 293 or 283 or 273. Al-Qush., p. 18; Ibn Khall., I, pp. 602, 590.