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p. 216, l. 315: could it not be that 6adlan translates at once dikaios tis esophronso that there is not in the strict sense an omission.

p. 219, l. 13: for apodeiknumi, I wonder if, in order to do justice to the verb, itwould not have been better to use the complete expression: at: (bi-qiy:sin)

burh:niyyin, not just burh:niyyun in order to do justice to the verb;p. 222, l. 15: al-mub:r:tu seems to render more specifically the Greekmorphological indication of the adjective ikos of both hippikos and gumnikos,hence to refer to both the equestrian and physical exercise, not only the former ofthe two;

p. 232, l. 20: kwa-huwa in undoubtedly a printing error for wa-huwa;p. 237, l. 1216: I think that bussadun translates in the present context

lithotdendron rather than kouralion, which has in fact been transliterated in theArabic translation. Note, moreover, that it is not presented as simply the Arabicrendering of the transliterated kouralion, since it is not just introduced by

wa-huwa (id est), but by wa-huwa f;-m: za6ama ba6@u l-n:si (and it is accordingto what some of the people conjecture)wherein it appears that the verbs of theGreek original, i.e. ekalesan and dokei, have been inverted in the Arabictranslation;

p. 243, l. 237: the example given is clearly not an hendiadys and seems ratherto constitute a separate third instanceperhaps the indication (c) has beenforgotten (printing error?);

p. 252, l. 307: whether the Arabic translator did not have oion in hismanuscript is uncertain, hence the ut videtur is a wise decisionat least Ust:th,who uses amm: before f; l-lawni, seems to have read it so (see M. Bouyges [ed.],

Averroes. Tafs;r m: ba6d a3-3ab;6a [Beirut, 1948], iii. 1517, line k);p. 255, l. 1517: I wonder whether mabs


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This recent English translation of al-Qushayr;s Ris:la appears at a time whenSufi shrines in India and Pakistan are being targeted by suicide bombers, andwhen Sufism is seen by many as, in the words of Hamid Algar, an extraneousgrowth owing little to the authoritative sources of Islam or as a sectarian

development that occurred at a given point in Islamic history. Al-Qushayr;, whoaddressed his Ris:la, to all the Sufi community of the lands of Islam in the year437/1045, was a pillar of Islamic orthodoxy, known for his mastery of Aad;thnarration, Shafi6i fiqh, and speculative theology (6ilm al-kal:m), as well as Sufism.His Ris:lawritten by a scholar for the scholarlyis among the earliestand most authoritative manuals on Sufism. It clearly shows Sufisms role inintegrating the ideals and values of the Islamic revelation into the spiritual,intellectual, social and even political life of the community. This translation (withsome minor reservations, to which I will return) is complete and faithful to theoriginal; it reads very well and renders this seminal work accessible to a broader

audience than ever before. Its scholarly quality is enhanced by Knyshs extensiveuse throughout of Richard Gramlichs German translation and commentary(p. xxvii). Together with Knyshs introductions and detailed indices and notes,the Epistle on Sufism will remain an essential reference (Knyshs earlier work,Islamic Mysticism: A Short History (Leiden: Brill, 2000), is already established asa standard reference.)

The Ris:la represents the confluence of two seminal Islamic traditions: (1) thetradition of textual discourse related to preservation and transmission of theProphetic Sunna along with the Qur8:n; and (2) an oral tradition that was anintegral facet of the textual one. This oral tradition established itself as

the mainstay of the early works of Sufism, such as Q


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to show that the creed of the Sufis was identical to that of the Ahl al-Sunna (in itsAsh6ar; formulation). Al-Qushayr;s introduction concentrates on explaining thecategories of knowledge and the beliefs of the Sufis concerning the fundamentalsof religion (pp. 414); he then enumerates certain corrupt habits and presents a

detailed exposition of the Sufis creed, stressing their perception of divine unity(tawA;d) and the relation of the divine attributes to the divine Essence(pp. 1416). All his citations in the present translation are provided completewith chains of transmission (asn:d).

Chapter One (pp. 1774), On the Masters of this path and their deeds andsayings that show how they uphold the Divine Law is a concise presentation ofthe biographies and sayings of 83 early mentors of the tradition untilal-Qushayr;s time. These narratives affirm the centrality of Sufism as a livingoral tradition resonating from the textual tradition of Islamic scholarship. Its aimis to establish a virtue based ethics where virtue as correct perception leads to

correct comportment and an intimate knowledge of God. As Kristin Sands (in herpaper presented at the 2008 AAR conference in Atlanta) stated so eloquently inher comments on al-Qushayr;s commentary of the Qur8:n, Al-Qushayr; doesnot just quote wise sayings rather he is mapping out a strategy for becomingwise. The lives and teachings of mentors such as Ab< Yaz;d Tayfur b. 6Is:al-Bis3:m; (d. 261/875), Ab< NaBr Bishr b. al-E:rith al-E:f; (ca. 152227/ca.769841), Ab< l-Fay@ Dh< l-N


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the hearts of [His] folk, [after He has] prepared their innermost selves for [thereception of] these realities. (p. 75/419)

The chapter comprises the definitions of 29 key terms in all, each preceded bycitations from Qur8:n and Aad;th and followed by extensive narrations from

early Sufis. M. Fitzgerald has written that, Nearly every lexical entry is a shorttreatise unto itself in which so many different definitions of a term are given thatit is often difficult to get a sense of what is most essential (M. Aresmouk andM. Fitzgerald, The Book of Ascension by AAmad ibn Aj;ba [Louisville, KY: FonsVitae, 2011]). Among the terms are: waqt (the present moment), maq:m (aspiritual station), A:l(a spiritual state), qab@(contraction) and bas3(expansion),hayba (awe) and uns (intimacy), jam6 (collectedness) and farq (separation), fan:8(annihilation), baq:8 (subsistence), 6ilm al-yaq;n (certain knowledge), 6ayn al-yaq;n (essential certainty), Aaqq al-yaq;n (the truth of certainty), qurb (proxim-ity) and bu6d (distance), maAw (erasure) and ithb:t (affirmation).

Chapter Three (pp. 111339), The Stations of the Path (maq:m:t), the longestin the Ris:la, presents detailed descriptions of the various stations of the Sufi pathbeginning with repentance. Among the stations treated are: muj:Aada (striving),khalwa (spiritual retreat) and 6uzla (seclusion), taqw: (God-wariness), zuhd(renunciation), Bamt (maintaining silence), khawf (fear), raj:8 (hope), Auzn(sorrow), khush


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hearts; tarw;A al-qul


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Algar contextualizes well the Ris:las place in Islamic scholarship and providesa concise biography of al-Qushayr; and his works. Rabia Harris (ed. LalehBakhtiar): Sufi Book of Spiritual Ascent (al-Risala al-Qushayriya), (ABCInternational Group, Inc., 1997) is likewise a translation of Chapter Three.

Harris continued her work and completed the translation in Rabia Harris (ed.Bakhtiar): The Risalah: Principles of Sufism (Great Books of the Islamic WorldInc., 2002). This translation includes a lengthy introduction by the translator anda Foreword by Seyyed Hossein Nasr. It cites the first and final narrators of eachnarration, and the missing references being presented in notes. Transliteration is,again, minimal. More important, as Knysh comments, it is but a free paraphraseof the Arabic text, which is frequently misconstrued and, consequently,mistranslated (p. xxvii).

Kenneth HonerkampUniversity of Georgia

E-mail: [email protected]:10.1093/jis/ets061

Published online 26 June 2012

Soufisme, religion et medecine en Islam indienBy Fabrizio Speziale (Paris: Karthala, 2010), 300 pp., glossary,

bibliography, index. Price PB E25.00. EAN 9782811104122.

In scholarly literature on the history of science in Islam, the connection betweenSufism and science has received only marginal attention. Fabrizio Speziales workis groundbreaking and makes a major contribution to the studies on traditionalmedicine and its relationship with religion and Sufism. The monograph, based onthe authors doctoral dissertation, illustrates the Sufis role as well as that of thereligious class in the transmission of medical knowledge in Muslim South Asia.It attempts to show how Sufis and other religious figures contributed to shapingsignificant features of medical studies, the transmission of knowledge and literaryworks on medicine. Focusing mainly on the areas of Delhi and the Deccan, hisstudy covers a long period from the establishment of the Delhi Sultanate (1206)

to the end of the twentieth century. Drawing on the methods of social andhistorical anthropology, Speziale combines ethnographic research with textualanalysis. He examines an impressive amount of original primary sources, mostlyin Persian and Urdu, which include saints biographies, Sufi writings, works onmedicine by Sufis, as well as non-Sufis and archival reports.

The book is divided into three lengthy chapters. In the introduction, the authorchallenges the established theory, put forward by Western historians andOrientalists, of the negative impact of Sufism on medicine. He shows that thistheory is based on essentialist oppositions such as science/religion, philosopher/Sufi, Galenic medicine/Prophetic medicine, which are strongly influenced by

positivist assumptions and find no correspondence in the Indian Muslim world.By pointing out the absence of a clash between religion and scientific thought in

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