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    Review: [untitled]Author(s): Muhsin MahdiReviewed work(s): Al-Frb: Ful al- Madan ("Aphorisms of the Statesman") by D. M. DunlopSource: Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Vol. 23, No. 2, (Apr., 1964), pp. 140-143Published by: The University of Chicago PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/543683Accessed: 14/06/2008 07:38

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    JOURNAL OF NEAR EASTERN STUDIESal-Fdrabi: Fusul al-Madani ("Aphorisms ofthe Statesman"). Edited with an Englishtranslation, introduction, and notes byD. M. DUNLOP. "University of CambridgeOriental Publications," No. 5. New York:Cambridge University Press, 1961. Pp. 208.$14.50.The present work should be welcomed asthe first major text by al-Farabi to be editedin the Anglo-Saxon world and translated intoEnglish. Dr. Dunlop (who is also the editorand translator of some of al-Farabi's shorterworks on logic, see Islamic Quarterly, III-V[1956-59]) published an English translationof the Aphorisms on the basis of the BodleianMS, Hunt. 307, fols. 91b-109a (=B), inIraq, XIV (1952), 93-117. Subsequently,Professor Arberry identified a further manu-script copy of the same work in the ChesterBeaty MS, No. 3714 (=A), which provedthat the Bodleian manuscript is defective andincomplete. Dr. Dunlop's edition is based onthe collation of these two manuscripts. Inaddition, it offers a list of "variants andreadings" from the Hebrew version containedin two Bodleian MSS, Mich. 370, fols. 102b-120a, and Poc. 280, fols. 69b-91a (seepp. 20-21). The Hebrew version appearsto have been collated throughout, but notwith the intention of utilizing it to reconstructthe corrupt portions of the Arabic original orto fill in the missing portions; Dr. Dunlopconfines himself to referring to the Hebrewvariants in certain crucial places where theArabic original remains defective or doubtful.In those passages where the Aphorisms con-tains the same text as the Attainment ofHappiness, Dr. Dunlop uses the only avail-able edition (Hyderabad, A.H. 1345) tocontrol the manuscripts of the Aphorisms,and in a number of cases he actually correctshis text on the basis of that edition, relegat-ing the readings of his manuscripts to thenotes. (The available manuscripts of theAttainment of Happiness confirm the readingsof the manuscripts of the Aphorisms againstthe Hyderabad edition.) On the whole, theeditor has worked diligently and produced aserviceable edition. If the text remainsdefective and incomplete, this is primarily

    due to the fact that the manuscripts availableto the editor were defective and incomplete.The editor has recognized this fact and indi-cated the possibility of missing portions insome of the sections. Apart from making afuller use of the Hebrew version, only theidentification of other and superior manu-scripts of the Arabic original could provide amore solid basis for "the attempt to recoverwhat al-Farabi wrote" (p. 21).Since the publication of this text, thereviewer had the opportunity to examine alarge group of manuscripts of al-Farabi'sworks in the public libraries of Turkey. Twofurther manuscripts of the Arabic originalof the Aphorisms were identified. The first isin Istanbul (Millet Kitiiphanesi, Feyzullah,No. 1279, fols. 114b-65b). It is written incareful Maghribi script and bears no date(probably seventh-eighth centuries A.H.). Thefolios are not numbered in the manuscript.Quite a few of them are misplaced (fol. 154 isto be inserted between fols. 129 and 130;fols. 133-52 belong to al-Ghazali's Mizanal-cAmal). It contains (following Dunlop'senumeration) sections 1-61 and supple-mentary sections 93-95 (omitting supple-mentary section 92 with the Hebrew version);and part of section 56 (Dunlop, pp. 139:5-140:12) is repeated at the end (fol. 155). Ingeneral, this manuscript presents the sametext as the two manuscripts utilized by Dr.Dunlop, although it offers better readings incertain places and fills in a few blanks inDr. Dunlop's text,The second manuscript is in Diyarbekir(Umumi, No. 1970, fols. 34b-68a). It iswritten by an exceedingly careful andexpert hand (Maghribi or Eastern Christ-ian?) before A.H. 681. It provides by far themost complete and perfect version of theAphorisms that is known, and it is mostunfortunate that Dr. Dunlop was not in aposition to utilize it in his edition. It does notsupport the division of the text into twoParts, and it excludes supplementary sections92-95. It contains ninety-six sections, num-bered consecutively by means of letter-numerals. Sections 3, 15, 23, and 40 in theDiyarbekir manuscript are totally missing in

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    BOOKREVIEWSDr. Dunlop's text, and section 71 beginswith al-mawjiddt in section 66 (p. 148:5) inDr. Dunlop's text. In addition, missingportions of a number of other sections(including some that were suspected by theeditor) can now be retrieved. There is littleroom for doubt that any serious study andinterpretation of the Aphorisms will have toawait a new edition based on the Diyarbekirmanuscript, relegating the variants suppliedby the other known Arabic manuscripts andby the manuscripts of the Hebrew version tothe notes, except in those rare cases wherethey might provide a better reading.The English translation will have to berevised to conform to the text of the newedition. Dr. Dunlop's English version isreadable and useful to the student whotries to puzzle out a difficult Arabic textwithout expert help. It is true that the readerwho does not have access to the Arabic textmay not appreciate fully the meaning of apassage like the following:He whose customary deed are in agreement withwhat is good at first sight in the common opinionof all will not be prevented by his custom fromlearning the speculative sciences, nor from hisdeeds coming to be in agreement with what isgood in reality, since first sight necessitates thathe does what is good in reality and obligatorymore than that he does what is at first sightuncriticized opinion. What in reality is opinion isopinion which has been criticized and confirmedafter criticism, and first sight necessitates thatopinion which has been criticized is truer thanfirst sight. (P. 77.)But he ought to remember that the transla-tion of Arabic philosophic texts into Englishhas hardly begun, and that the lack of anestablished tradition in this field, combinedwith the difficulty of al-Farabi's style,conspire to make a first translation a hazar-dous task.

    The title of al-Farabi's Aphorisms indicatesthe work's literary character and subjectmatter. As Dr. Dunlop points out in hisintroduction, the writing of "aphorisms"(fusul) was an established tradition prior toal-Farabi's, especially in the field of medicine(this is not unrelated to the fact that al-

    Farabi's Aphorisms made "a wider applica-tion to the art of government of the metaphorof medicine..." [p. 9]); and perhaps themost interesting passage in Dr. Dunlop'sintroduction is the quotation from the intro-duction of Maimonides' Medical Aphorisms,where Maimonides explains the purpose ofaphoristic works, and refers to earliermedical works written in this form and toal-Farabi's Aphorisms (Paul Kahle, "MosisMaimonidis Aphorismorum Praefatio etExcerpta," in Galeni in Platonis TimaeumCommentarii Fragmenta ["Corpus MedicorumGraecorum Supplementum," I] [Berlin,1934], pp. 91-93 [German translation],93-96 [Arabic text]). According to Maimon-ides, the aphoristic form is designed especi-ally to meet the reader's need to "retain" ahost of "general as well as particular, almostindividual" ideas, aphoristic works being"undoubtedly easy to retain and helpful tothe reader in understanding their intentions."He stresses also what aphoristic works donot attempt to achieve: they are not meantto be "sufficient" or "comprehensive," andthey do not include "all the axioms" neededin a particular discipline. He suggests,further, that an aphoristic work, at least hisown Medical Aphorisms, is not an altogetheroriginal work, but that it is meant to serveas an aid to memory for the author himselfas well as for the reader: "I do not say that Ihave composed these aphorisms that I havewritten down, but rather that I selectedthem (ikhtartuhd). For I picked them(iltaqattuhd) from Galen's statements..."He then explains how he will identify thestatements of Galen and distinguish themfrom his own, and answers possible objectionsagainst including certain passages and notothers: "A man does not select such aphor-isms for others; he selects them for himself.I selected these aphorisms for myself, an aidto memory as it were. In the same way, allthose who know as much as I or less, willbenefit from them."

    These remarks by Maimonides show that,while "in theory" an aphoristic work on asubject "is a convenient way of treatingthe salient points of an existing body of

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    JOURNAL OF NEAR EASTERN STUDIESknowledge" (Dunlop, p. 10), in practice itsliterary character demands as much attentionas a work written in epistle (risala) or book(kitdb) form. al-Farabi is less explicit abouthis Aphorisms: the title merely says thatthey consist of "extracts" (fuisl nuntazaca)that include [not "all," cf. Maimonides, but]numerous axioms from the statements of theAncients...." (p. 103). Therefore one isjustified in paying attention to what hechooses to extract and what he leavesunextracted. Also, since all of al-Farabi'saphorisms are "extracts" from the statementsof the Ancients, one is justified in wonderingwhy he takes the trouble in some of theseextracts to remind us again that theyrepresent the opinions or judgments of the"Ancients" or of "a certain group," especiallywhen the extracts in question deal with suchcrucial matters as the distinction between a"divine" and a "bestial" human being(Dunlop, section 11) or the precise meaningof the "afterlife in which man sees his Lord"(Dunlop, section 76).The Aphorisms announces itself as apolitical work. It thus invites comparisonwith al-Farabi's other major political works,expecially the Virtuous City, the PoliticalRegime, and the Attainment of Happiness.This task presupposes an adequate study ofthese works, based on adequate editions,which we do not have. Of the three, Dieter-ici's edition of the Virtuous City is the onlyedition properly so called; yet it was res-ponsible for side-tracking Dr. Dunlop into afutile excursus regarding the possible identityof the Aphorisms and the "Six Sections"written by al-Farabi in Egypt in A.H. 337 toshow the divisions of the subject mattertreated in the Virtuous City:The natural assumption is that the fusufl ofwhich Ibn abi Usaibicah is here speaking arethose of the Fusuil al-Madani [Aphorisms]which, since it deals with the same subject as theMadinah Fddilah [Virtuous City] in schematicform, may reasonably be supposed to have beenwritten later, and on other grounds appears tohave been a late work of al-Farabi (p. 11).Dr. Dunlop is impressed by the "natural"

    character of his assumption to such an extentthat he is willing to assume that, not "six,"but "ninety-six" was the number intendedby Ibn Abi Usaibi'ah. He abandons thisassumption on the ground that "There is noevidence that the original number [of theAphorisms] was ninety-six" (ibid.). Since theDiyarbekir manuscript supplies this evidence,one may think it worthwhile to pursue thisassumption further. An examination of themanuscripts of the Virtuous City, however,shows that such an investigation cannotlead anywhere. For they preserve the com-plete text of the "Six Sections," inserted atthe beginning of the Virtuous City. If onereads these "Six Sections," he will see thatthey have nothing whatever to do eitherwith the Aphorisms or with the PoliticalRegime, which Dr. Dunlop presents as thenext likely candidate (pp. 11-13). (SeeSiileymania Kiitiphanesi [Istanbul], Kili9Ali Papa, MS, No. 674, fols. lb-6a.)We must then examine the "other grounds"upon which Dr. Dunlop attempts to date theAphorisms. He assumes that the Aphorismswas written after the Attainment of Happinesson the ground that the Aphorisms contain"quotations" from the Attainment of Happi-ness. The sole basis for this statement is thefact that there are certain passages, sentences,and phrases, that are found in both theAttainment of Happiness and the Aphorisms,which is no more proof that the Aphorisms"quotes" the Attainment of Happinessthan that the Attainment of Happiness"quotes" the Aphorisms. Finally, "theFusul al-Madani [Aphorisms] introduces twoimportant terms, which apparently occurnowhere else in his [al-Farabi's] politicalwritings and seem to be new (p. 13). Thefirst of these two terms is jih&d (Dr. Dunlopinsists that it must mean "'holy' war") andthe second is malik al-sunna ("king [rulingon the basis] of the law"). As for jih&d, itoccurs in various forms in the Attainment ofHappiness (Hyderabad, A.H. 1345), pp. 22:8,24:5, 25:3-6. (Dr. Dunlop must have beenmisled by Dieterici's text of the VirtuousCity, p. 59:7-8, regarding the militaryfunction of the First Chief. Kilig Ali Paga

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    BOOK REVIEWSOOK REVIEWSMS, No. 674, fol. 46b:10-11, reads: wa-antakuna lahu maCa dhdlika judatu ta'attinbi-badanihi li-mubdsharati :l-harbi.) And theterm malik al-sunna occurs in the PoliticalRegime, as attested by the best and mostcomplete manuscript of that work (Feysullah,MS, No. 1279, fol. 101a:5 = (Hyderabad,A.H. 1346) p. 51:6, which gives the corruptreading: tilka al-sunna), as well as in theVirtuous Religion MS, Leiden, Cod. Or.,No. 1002, fols. 56b: 1-2, 58a:20; note also theterm hijra in fol. 65a:12, cf. Dunlop, p. 15).As far as the reviewer is able to judge, thisconstitutes the sum of the evidence uponwhich Dr. Dunlop bases his assumption ofthe "late" date of the Aphorisms, which inturn serves as a basis for the assumptionsthat the work represents "a substantiallydifferent point of view" than the "earlier"works; that it has "a contemporary reference"to events in Sayf al-Dawlah's career which"form a framework into which various mat-ters mentioned in the Fusuil al-Madani[Aphorisms] may easily be fitted"; and soforth (pp. 13 ff.).

    MUHSIN MAHDI

    A Muslim Manual of War, Being Tafrij al-Kurub fi TadbZr al-Hurib by CUmar IbnIbrdhim al-Awsi al-Ansdri. Edited and

    MS, No. 674, fol. 46b:10-11, reads: wa-antakuna lahu maCa dhdlika judatu ta'attinbi-badanihi li-mubdsharati :l-harbi.) And theterm malik al-sunna occurs in the PoliticalRegime, as attested by the best and mostcomplete manuscript of that work (Feysullah,MS, No. 1279, fol. 101a:5 = (Hyderabad,A.H. 1346) p. 51:6, which gives the corruptreading: tilka al-sunna), as well as in theVirtuous Religion MS, Leiden, Cod. Or.,No. 1002, fols. 56b: 1-2, 58a:20; note also theterm hijra in fol. 65a:12, cf. Dunlop, p. 15).As far as the reviewer is able to judge, thisconstitutes the sum of the evidence uponwhich Dr. Dunlop bases his assumption ofthe "late" date of the Aphorisms, which inturn serves as a basis for the assumptionsthat the work represents "a substantiallydifferent point of view" than the "earlier"works; that it has "a contemporary reference"to events in Sayf al-Dawlah's career which"form a framework into which various mat-ters mentioned in the Fusuil al-Madani[Aphorisms] may easily be fitted"; and soforth (pp. 13 ff.).

    MUHSIN MAHDI

    A Muslim Manual of War, Being Tafrij al-Kurub fi TadbZr al-Hurib by CUmar IbnIbrdhim al-Awsi al-Ansdri. Edited and

    translated by GEORGET. SCANLON.Cairo:The American University of Cairo Press,1961. Pp. viii 130 [Arabic text] 1-97. $4.50.Dr. Scanlon begins his edition and what hecalls "its somewhat problematic translation"(p. 21) with an account of the literature onMuslim warfare, noting its "puzzling aspects"and especially the many "technological andterminological problems" it presents. Thechoice of this particular work seems to haveresulted from the presence of a copy of it inthe Yahudah Collection (No. ELS 3954) atPrinceton University. The edition collatesthis MS with that of Fatih, No. 3483, now inthe Siileymania in Istanbul. The work"proposes to do no more than bring to theattention of the scholarly community onemore original source-book on the subject ofMuslim warfare" (ibid.), and it is hard todeny it this merit. The translation, andespecially the "Preliminary Glossary ofMuslim Military Terms" (pp. 123-30), pointto the amount and difficulty of the researchthat has to be done before we could claim topossess an adequate philological foundationfor, let alone an adequate treatment of, thisaspect of Islamic civilization.

    MUHSIN MAHDI

    translated by GEORGET. SCANLON.Cairo:The American University of Cairo Press,1961. Pp. viii 130 [Arabic text] 1-97. $4.50.Dr. Scanlon begins his edition and what hecalls "its somewhat problematic translation"(p. 21) with an account of the literature onMuslim warfare, noting its "puzzling aspects"and especially the many "technological andterminological problems" it presents. Thechoice of this particular work seems to haveresulted from the presence of a copy of it inthe Yahudah Collection (No. ELS 3954) atPrinceton University. The edition collatesthis MS with that of Fatih, No. 3483, now inthe Siileymania in Istanbul. The work"proposes to do no more than bring to theattention of the scholarly community onemore original source-book on the subject ofMuslim warfare" (ibid.), and it is hard todeny it this merit. The translation, andespecially the "Preliminary Glossary ofMuslim Military Terms" (pp. 123-30), pointto the amount and difficulty of the researchthat has to be done before we could claim topossess an adequate philological foundationfor, let alone an adequate treatment of, thisaspect of Islamic civilization.

    MUHSIN MAHDIUniversity of Chicagoniversity of Chicago

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