Nouvelles Chroniques du Manuscrit au Yémen ۲۰۲۰ ‫ يناير‬،)۲۹( ۱۰ ‫عدد‬ N° 10 (29) / Janvier 2020 ‫اجلـــديدة‬ Directrice de la Publication Anne REGOURD Contact Secrétariat Sami LAGATI secr.cmy@gmail.com Comité de rédaction Tamon BABA (Ritsumeikan University, Japon), Adday Hernandez-Lopez (Instituto de Lenguas y Culturas del Mediterráneo y Oriente Próximo, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Madrid), Anne REGOURD Revue de presse Sami LAGATI Conseil de rédaction Geoffrey KHAN (Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Cambridge University (GB)), Martha M. MUNDY (The London School of Economics and Political Science), Jan RETSÖ (Gothenburg University, Suède), Sabine SCHMIDTKE (Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton) Correspondants Tamon BABA (Ritsumeikan University, Japon), Deborah FREEMAN-FAHID (FRAS, Assistant Conservateur, Dir. de publication, The al-Sabah Collection, Dar al-Athar al-Islamiyyah, Koweït), Abdullah Yahya AL SURAYHI (Abu Dhabi University, National Library) Comité de lecture Hassan F. ANSARI (Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton), Anne K. BANG (University of Bergen, Norvège), Marco DI BELLA (Indépendant, Conservation/restauration manuscrits arabes), Deborah FREEMANFAHID (FRAS, Assistant Conservateur, Dir. de publication, The al-Sabah Collection, Dar al-Athar al-Islamiyyah, Koweït), David G. HIRSCH (Advisor for Library Services, Mohammed bin Rashid Library, Dubai), Michaela HOFFMANN-RUF (University of Tübingen), Clifford B. MESSICK (Columbia University), Samer TRABOULSI (University of Asheville, North Carolina) Mise en page Eugénie DE MARSAY eugenie.demarsay@gmail.com Webmaster Peter J. NIX webmaster@cdmy.org ISSN 2727-5221 Photo de couverture/Cover’s image : Grande mosquée/Great Mosque, Ibb, 08.06.2008 © Hélène David-Cuny Nouvelles Chroniques du manuscrit au Yémen 10 (Ancienne série 29) Janvier 2020 (prochain numéro juillet 2020) Éditorial Les Nouvelles Chroniques du manuscrit au Yémen ont la joie d’accueillir Adday Hernandez-Lopez en qualité de membre du Comité éditorial. Ce numéro 10, qui ouvre la première décimale des Nouvelles séries, est en effet le lieu de changements importants dans les comités. Jan Thiele a été appelé à la direction de la revue Intellectual History of the Islamicate World et Maxim Yosefi a dû prendre des dispositions du fait d’un congé parental. Qu’ils soient ici remerciés pour leur excellent travail ! Ils font désormais partie de l’histoire de la revue, à laquelle une page « Anciens/Alumni » est dédiée sur notre site. Sami Lagati, secrétaire des nCmY, a pris provisoirement en charge la revue de presse arabe. Le projet initial de la revue prend un tournant avec ce numéro 10. Auparavant traduite in extenso en arabe, de façon à la rendre accessible à un lectorat yéménite (Anciennes séries), sa couverture géographique a d’abord évolué pour s’étendre à l’ensemble de la péninsule Arabique. La difficulté à trouver des budgets pour un paiement décent des traducteurs a conduit les membres fondateurs de l’Association CmY, en leur réunion ordinaire annuelle de février 2020, à prendre la décision de publier, à partir de ce numéro 10, des contributions en trois langues, incluant l’arabe. Conjointement, la revue change d’apparence, avec une nouvelle couverture. Prévue initialement pour ce numéro 10, son accomplissement a dû être repoussé du fait de la situation inédite induite par le COVID-19. Elle a un nouveau numéro ISSN. Des index des dix premiers numéros ordinaires de la revue sont en préparation. Anne Regourd Nouvelles Chroniques du manuscrit au Yémen 10 Janvier 2020 Sommaire Éditorial .................................................................................................................................................. 4 Actualités ............................................................................................................................................... 8 CmY .................................................................................................................................................... 8 Yémen ................................................................................................................................................ 9 Mélanges ........................................................................................................................................... 9 Épigraphie ...................................................................................................................................... 23 Arabie Saoudite.............................................................................................................................24 Oman ............................................................................................................................................... 27 Qatar ................................................................................................................................................28 Péninsule Arabique, Golfe, mer Rouge, mer Arabique, Océan Indien .......................... 35 Nouvelles internationales ..........................................................................................................38 Revue de presse............................................................................................................................ 40 Articles .................................................................................................................................................. 45 Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent Author Victor Ivanovich Belyaev (the Leningrad [St. Petersburg] branch of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences; Leningrad [St. Petersburg] State University) Introduction, edition, annotation, indices & translation Maxim Yosefi (Fritz Thyssen post-doctoral research fellow, University of Göttingen) Foreword Anne Regourd .......................................................................................................45 Un manuscrit yéménite relatif à l’expulsion de Mawzaʿ en 1679 Jean-François Faü (Université Senghor, Alexandrie) .................................................. 134 “bi-ḥaddihi wa-ḥudūdihi”—remarks on three water sale contracts from Balad Sīt, a mountain oasis in Northern Oman Michaela Hoffmann-Ruf (University of Bonn) ............................................................... 151 The manuscripts of the train that never arrives: The Beneyton collection, BnF I. The Codices: the story of a Caprotti manuscript Anne Regourd (CNRS, UMR 7192) .................................................................................... 176 Actualités Actualités (période de juillet à décembre 2019) Nouvelles Chroniques du manuscrit au Yémen = nCmY Comment citer les Actualités ?/How to refer to the News? Avec date/With date CmY 1 (Janv. 2006), Actualités, <Décembre 2005> CmY 0/19 Nouvelles séries/New Series (Janv. 2015), Actualités, <Décembre 2014>, p. 25 nCmY 10/29 (Janv. 2020), Actualités, <14 décembre 2019>, p. 22 Sans date/Without date CmY 1 (Janv. 2006), Actualités, <Yémen. Markaz al-nûr li-al-dirâsât wa-al-abhâth, Tarim, Hadramaout> CmY 0/19 Nouvelles séries/New Series (Janv. 2015), Actualités, <Nouvelle série « Studies on Ibadism and Oman »>, p. 39 nCmY 10/29 (Janv. 2020), Actualités, <Fahāris Tāǧ al-ʿarūs>, p. 22 N.d.l.R. C MY CmY Nouvelles séries/New Series 9/28 (juillet 2019). Erratum  Une erreur s’est glissée dans l’article de Scott Lucas (University of Arizona), « Consensus in Yemeni-Zaydī Jurisprudence: Selections from unpublished writings by Imam Aḥmad b. Sulaymān and Qāḍī Ǧaʿfar », CmY Nouvelles séries 9/28, p. 56-99. Au lieu de : Al-ẓāhir fī uṣūl al-fiqh (‫)الظاهر يف أصول الفقه‬, il fallait lire : Al-zāhir fī uṣūl al-fiqh (‫)الزاهر يف أصول الفقه‬. Cette erreur s’est répétée autant de fois que le titre était cité. Le Comité éditorial s‘en voit désolé.  The Editorial Committee regrets that an error made its way into the article by Scott Lucas (University of Arizona), “Consensus in Yemeni-Zaydī Jurisprudence: Selections from unpublished writings by Imam Aḥmad b. Sulaymān and Qāḍī Ǧaʿfar”, CmY New Series 9/28, pp. 56-99. Throughout the article: Alẓāhir fī uṣūl al-fiqh (‫ )الظاهر يف أصول الفقه‬should have been: Al-zāhir fī uṣūl alfiqh (‫)الزاهر يف أصول الفقه‬. The Editorial Committee apologises for the embarrassment and inconvenience this has caused the author and our readers. 2020. Site des Nouvelles Chroniques du manuscrit au Yémen. Création d’une page « Anciens/Alumni » http://www.cdmy.org/?page_id=554 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 8 Actualités YÉMEN MÉLANGES Antonella Ghersetti (éd.), Francesca Bellino (éd. associé), Oriana Capezio (éd. associé), « L’arca di Noè. Studi in onore di Giovanni Canova », Quaderni di Studi Arabi, numéro spécial 14, 2019, 505 p. Le 10 janvier 2020, à l’« Istituto per l’Oriente Carlo Alfonso Nallino » de Rome, s’est tenue la cérémonie de présentation de L’Arca di Noè. Studi in onore di Giovanni Canova, numéro monographique des Quaderni di Studi Arabi 1 . Ce volume représente l’hommage que ses étudiants, collègues et amis ont souhaité rendre au dédicataire, qui a été Directeur de la revue durant plus de vingt ans. L’Arche de Noé évoque le thème des animaux dans la culture arabe, l’un des thèmes principaux qui ont caractérisé sa longue et fructueuse activité de recherche. Anima studies Le thème choisi pour ce numéro thématique de QSA n. s. reflète aussi un nouveau courant de recherche, les « animal studies », apparu au cours des dernières décennies dans les sciences humaines et sociales, dont une caractéristique essentielle est que les animaux sont appréhendés en fonction du regard humain et non comme de simples entités autonomes, indépendantes de celui-ci. Dans cette perspective, les échos suscités par le concept d’« animal » dans les domaines social, éthique, politique, juridique, ainsi que dans d’autres domaines posent aux chercheurs de nouvelles questions de nature transdisciplinaire et interdisciplinaire. Dans le cadre des études arabo-islamiques, différents chercheurs se sont aussi penchés sur la représentation des animaux dans des textes et dans l’iconographie ou bien dans le domaine des symboles et des croyances populaires, contribuant de manière significative à éclairer le sujet et à souligner son importance à toutes les époques de la civilisation arabo-islamique. Cet intérêt a donné lieu à des recherches de grande ampleur, tel le volume désormais classique d’Herbert Eisenstein2, ou à des revues couvrant l’ensemble du monde islamique, telle celle de Mohammed Hocine Benkheira, Catherine Mayeur-Jaouen & Jacqueline Sublet3 et celle de Richard C. Foltz4, ou encore à ces deux volumes axés sur des sujets plus 1 Table des matières à la page http://www.ipocan.it/images/qsa/qsa_ns14_indice.pdf Herbert Eisenstein, Einführung in die arabische Zoographie. Das tierkundliche Wissen in der arabischislamischen Literatur, Berlin, Dietrich Reimer, 1991. 3 Mohammed Hocine Benkheira, Catherine Mayeur-Jaouen & Jacqueline Sublet, L’Animal en islam, Paris, Les Indes Savantes, 2005. 4 Richard C. Foltz, Animals in Islamic Tradition and Muslim Cultures, Oxford, Oneworld Publications, 2006. 2 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 9 Actualités spécifiques par Sarra Tlili5 et par Housni Alkhateeb Shehada6, sans oublier la comparaison entre les traditions culturelles arabes et occidentales au Moyen Âge7. Des journées d’étude ont aussi été organisées, telles que « Animals, Adab, and Fictivity » par Matthew L. Keegan et Beatrice Gründler à la Freie Universität Berlin, en mai 2019. Il s’agit ici d’un nombre important de travaux qui témoigne d’un intérêt grandissant pour le sujet. Les différents essais contenus dans le volume dédié à G. Canova abordent le thème de la présence animale dans le contexte de la littérature des belles-lettres aussi bien que de la littérature scientifique, géographique, des journaux de voyage, sans oublier la pensée religieuse et philosophique, la lexicographie, la culture populaire et d’autres domaines encore où la représentation des animaux est significative. La perspective transdisciplinaire et interdisciplinaire, caractéristique d’une grande partie des « animal studies », est perceptible dans la variété et la diversité des approches embrassées par les essais de ce numéro thématique de QSA n. s. Les contributions publiées, dans la diversité des sujets traités, constituent un aperçu significatif de la vision et de la représentation du monde animal dans la culture arabo-islamique de l’ère prémoderne à l’ère contemporaine. Ils mettent en exergue des aspects liés au contexte philologique et littéraire tout en incluant ceux liés à l’expérience réelle et à l’observation directe. La gamme d’animaux qui peuplent cette arche de Noé virtuelle est aussi large et variée : des oiseaux, des caméléons, des ânes, des poules, mais aussi des hyènes, des porcs et des sangliers… Ce qui reste en revanche inchangé est la pertinence de la fonction symbolique et, plus généralement, de la fonction de trope que revêtent les animaux, qui deviennent ainsi un véhicule des attitudes et des instances humaines. Plusieurs études se focalisent sur la représentation animale dans le champ poétique, analysant par exemple la valeur documentaire de la poésie qui atteste de la présence et des comportements animaux dans des zones géographiques et des périodes spécifiques, ainsi que des multiples valeurs métaphoriques dont les animaux sont chargés dans les poèmes. Le large éventail d’interactions possibles entre les animaux et les humains est aussi un motif examiné à plusieurs reprises : interactions qui se déroulent dans des habitats familiaux, auxquels appartiennent les animaux domestiques qui partagent des espaces et des activités humaines (le chien), ou bien des habitats hostiles où l’homme interagit avec eux d’une manière différente, par exemple en les chassant ou en les tuant. Dans ce cadre, canidés et félins apparaissent souvent dans leur double qualité d’animaux sauvages à craindre (le loup et la panthère) et aussi d’animaux de compagnie (le chien et le chat). À côté des panthères, des loups et des chevaux, des animaux dotés d’une représentativité reconnue, figurent dans les études des êtres dont la pertinence littéraire semblerait moins marquée ou qui sont marginalisés dans Sarra Tlili, Animals in the Qurʾan, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2012. Housni Alkhateeb Shehada, Mamluks and Animals: Veterinary Medicine in Medieval Islam, Leiden, E. J. Brill, 2012. 7 Egle Lauzi, Il destino degli animali. Aspetti delle tradizioni culturali araba e occidentale nel Medio Evo, Tavarnuzze-Impruneta, SISMEL, Edizioni del Galluzzo, 2012. 5 6 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 10 Actualités la culture arabo-musulmane, mais qui cependant sont bien représentés dans les textes, tels les poux ou les mouches, mais aussi les cochons et sangliers. Les oiseaux en particulier ont une présence importante dans la littérature arabe : chargés de valeurs symboliques ou déléguées à l’expression de sentiments, ils sont souvent utilisés métaphoriquement pour représenter l’analogie oiseau-poète basée sur l’élément commun du chant, endossant également aussi une fonction politique. Le lien animal-politique est en fait un thème qui surgit à plusieurs reprises dans les contributions de ce volume, dans lequel la représentation des animaux, ou la parole prise à travers la parole des animaux, sert une cause politique orientée non plus vers l’art du bon gouvernement, comme il était dans la tradition médiévale, mais vers la critique du régime. À côté d’animaux réellement existants qui « habitent » les articles de ce volume, le lecteur rencontrera aussi les créatures hybrides ou fabuleuses qui peuplent les ouvrages géographiques, les mirabilia et les journaux de voyage de l’époque médiévale, dont la représentation condense l’aspiration au réalisme et le désir de l’étrange et du merveilleux. Au fil de la lecture, d’autres thèmes liés aux animaux se dégagent, y compris celui des droits des animaux, un thème d’actualité né dans le domaine de la philosophie européenne et américaine en réponse à l’instrumentalisation des animaux à l’ère industrielle et post-industrielle et sur lequel le monde musulman commence à s’interroger. La table des matières du volume (voir la note 1) donnera aux lecteurs une meilleure idée de la variété des sujets et de l’ampleur des approches que les études de « L’arca di Noè » représentent. Giovanni Canova Giovanni Canova est né en 1944 à Feltre, Belluno, Vénétie. Il obtient son diplôme universitaire8 auprès de l’Université Ca’ Foscari de Venise sous la direction du Professeur Maria Nallino (fille de Carlo Alfonso Nallino) avec une thèse sur la poésie de la résistance palestinienne à partir de matériaux collectés dans les muḫayyamāt libanaises de Sabra et Chatila et de la région d’Amman. Dès le début, ses recherches se caractérisent par une approche rigoureuse des sources, qu’il s’agisse de sources orales, comme les légendes et traditions épiques recueillies de vive voix auprès de poètes populaires ou qu’il s’agisse de sources manuscrites, utilisées dans ses études dédiées à la Reine de Saba. Ses nombreux voyages d’études et de recherche couvrent une vaste aire géographique, qui va de la Tunisie à l’Irak, au Yémen et à Oman, en passant par l’Égypte, le Liban, la Syrie et la Jordanie. Après avoir travaillé à la rédaction de la revue Oriente Moderno à l’Istituto per l’Oriente Carlo Alfonso Nallino de Rome, en 1971-1972 – une collaboration qu’il poursuivra au-delà, pour quelques années, il est appelé par Maria Nallino, en 1972, à Venise, où il devient Professeur de langue et littérature arabes, puis d’islamologie, à l’Université Ca’ Foscari. C’est ici qu’en 1983, avec Lidia Bettini et les autres collègues arabisants, il fonde la revue Quaderni di Studi Arabi, qui, en 1995, a 8 Le diplôme de doctorat apparaît plus tard. Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 11 Actualités publié un numéro monographique sur le Yémen édité par Anne Regourd9. Depuis 2004, et jusqu’à son départ à la retraite en 2014, il est Professeur titulaire de langue et littérature arabe à « L’Orientale » de Naples. La production scientifique de G. Canova, qui s’étend de la poésie arabe aux arts du livre islamique, est focalisée principalement sur les croyances relatives aux animaux, les contes de fées, les légendes sur le Prophète Muḥammad et les traditions épiques et populaires. Son activité académique se caractérise par des recherches originales sur le terrain, en particulier au Yémen (1982-1996) et sur Oman (1996-2001), ainsi qu’en Égypte (1975-), recherches qui lui permettent de collecter de précieux supports audio et vidéo pour des pratiques et traditions dont les traces se sont malheureusement estompées. Ses études sur les abeilles et le miel au Yémen sont particulièrement pertinentes au vu des centres d’intérêts des lecteurs des CmY : la tradition de la poésie ancienne y est mise en rapport avec les pratiques qui caractérisent encore aujourd’hui l’apiculture dans l’Arabie du Sud, dans une perspective qui allie la rigueur académique à la connaissance vivante de techniques traditionnelles. Au cours de ses nombreux voyages, Giovanni Canova a aussi rassemblé des documents précieux sur la poésie orale et l’épique hilalienne, tels des témoignages de première main sur les histoires (« narratives ») des Banū Hilāl au Yémen et en Oman, ainsi que plusieurs vidéos sur la vie quotidienne des villages (dont une partie est visible aujourd’hui sur Youtube10). Son intérêt pour la culture et les traditions yéménites est également à l’origine de ses études sur la légende de Bilqīs, Reine de Saba, qui s’appuient en partie sur la tradition manuscrite yéménite conservée dans la Bibliothèque Ambrosienne de Milan. Les traditions liées aux animaux en Égypte et au Yémen constituent un autre volet important de sa recherche, pratiqué avec continuité… : parmi eux, on relèvera, les serpents, les scorpions, les abeilles, d’autres animaux encore, dont le cheval, à propos duquel la mention d’un article sur un traité d’hippologie rassoulide est de rigueur. Parmi les publications spécialement pertinentes en rapport au Yémen, nous tenons à mentionner le livre Storia di Bilqis regina di Saba (2000), la riche collection de contes Fiabe e leggende Yemenite (2002), complémentaire de l’entrée « Jemen » dans Enzyklopädie des Märchens (1992), et Api e miele in terra d’Arabia nei versi dei poeti hudhayliti (VII secolo) (2018), un livret auquel les illustrations d’artistes contemporains donnent un charme tout particulier. Le champ couvert par les CmY s’étendant aux textes épigraphiés, on signalera aussi un article sur les coupes magico-thérapeutiques du Yémen « La ṭāsat al-ism: note su alcune coppe magiche yemenite » (1995). La passion pour la photographie de G. Canova est à la base de sa très riche archive d’images, des sources de première main sur la vie et les activités traditionnelles des villages yéménites et égyptiens. Ces images ont donné vie à deux expositions itinérantes 9 « Divination magie pouvoirs au Yémen », Quaderni di Studi Arabi 13 (1995) ; table des matières à la page https://www.jstor.org/stable/i25802762 10 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FBbMnzpj48 ; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1c-f9p7W9s Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 12 Actualités de photos dont les catalogues ont été publiés par le Centro Internazionale della Grafica de Venise : Yemen. Vita di villaggio (1982-1986) (2019) et Egitto. Vita di villaggio (19781982) (2018). Au cours de la préparation des expositions, une partie des archives a été numérisée, et une autre partie est en cours de numérisation ; les chercheurs intéressés par des images peuvent écrire à G. Canova, à l’adresse suivante : giovanni.canova@gmail.com Les QSA n. s. 14 sont distribuées par : Libreria ASEQ, 10 Via dei Sediari, I-00186 Roma (www.aseq.it) ; e-mail : info@aseq.it ; tel. & fax +39 066868400.  Publications sur l’Arabie du Sud de Giovanni Canova N. d. l’Éd. : Il s’agit d’une sélection des publications de Giovanni Canova opérée sur une base géographique et non strictement appuyées sur des sources manuscrites ou épigraphiées. Abréviations ACF Annali di Ca’ Foscari OM Oriente Moderno QSA Quaderni di Studi Arabi Articles et chapitres de livres « Testimonianze hilaliane nello Yemen orientale », Studi yemeniti 1, 1985, p. 161-185. « La leggenda della Regina di Saba. Con una nota sul ms. ar. 270 dell’Ambrosiana », QSA 5-6, 1987-1988, p. 105-119. Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 13 Actualités « La storia di ʿAzīz ben Khāleh del ciclo epico hilaliano: osservazioni e confronti », ACF serie or. 23, 1992, p. 5-24. « Una ricerca fra i Banū Hilāl di Wādī Markha (Yemen) », QSA 11, 1993, p. 193-214. « Remarques sur l’histoire de ʿAzīz ben Khāleh du cycle épique hilalien », dans : Alexandre Fodor (éd.), Proceedings of the 14th Congress of the Union Européenne des Arabisants et Islamisants [Budapest 1988], The Arabist 13-14, 1995, p. 173-191. « Un racconto yemenita sulla conquista hilaliana dell’Africa settentrionale », ACF serie or. 26, 1995, p. 131-140. « La ṭāsat al-ism: note su alcune coppe magiche yemenite », QSA 13, 1995, p. 67-84. « Les Banū Hilāl et la conquête de l’Afrique du Nord. Récit arabo-yéménite », in Studies in Near Eastern Languages and Literatures. Memorial Volume of Karel Petracek, Prague, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, 1996, p. 171-179. « Api e apicoltori nello Yemen orientale », QSA 14, 1996, p. 179-193. « Osservazioni sui racconti hilaliani in Arabia meridionale », Egitto e Vicino Oriente 19, 1996, p. 235-238. « I Banū Hilāl e l’Arabia meridionale. Percorsi di ricerca », QSA 15, 1997, p. 183-200. « Api e miele tra sapere empirico, tradizione e conoscenza scientifica nel mondo arabo-islamico », dans : Giovanni Canova (éd.), Scienza e Islam. Atti della giornata di studio (Venezia, 31 gennaio 1999), Venise, QSA, coll. « Studi e testi », 3, 1999, p. 69-92. « Traditional Beekeeping in Yemen », Yemen Update. Bulletin of the American Institute for Yemeni Studies 43, 2001, p. 17-20, ill. « Banū Hilāl Tales from Southern Arabia », Proceedings of an International Conference on Middle Eastern Popular Culture (Oxford 17–21 Sept. 2000), Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2002, p. 41-50. « Cacciatori di miele: dalla poesia hudhaylita alle pratiche tradizionali nel Dhofar (Oman) », QSA 20-21, 2002-2003, p. 185-206. « Hilālī Narratives from Southern Arabia », O. M. n. s. 23/2, 2003, p. 361-375. « Sull’origine del nome Ifrīqiya: analisi delle fonti arabe », dans : Anna Maria Di Tolla, Studi berberi e mediterranei. Miscellanea offerta in onore di Luigi Serra, Studi Magrebini n. s. 4, 2006, p. 181-195. « Il trattato di ippologia al-Aqwāl al-kāfiya wa-l-fuṣūl al-šāfiya del sovrano rasūlide alMalik al-Muǧāhid ʿAlī b. Dāwūd », dans Renato Traini (éd.), Storia e cultura dello Yemen in età islamica, con particolare riferimento al periodo rasūlide (Roma, 3031 ottobre 2003), Rome, Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, 2006, p. 101-131. « Sayf b. Dhī Yazan: History and Saga », dans : Sabine Dorpmueller (éd.), Fictionalizing the Past: Historical Characters in Arabic Popular Epic, Leuven, Peeters, 2012, p. 107-123. « Storia di Salomone e Bilqīs nella tradizione arabo-islamica », dans : R. Contini (éd.), La Regina di Saba, un mito fra Oriente e Occidente, Atti del Seminario diretto da Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 14 Actualités R. Contini (Napoli 19 nov. 2009–14 gen. 2010), Naples, Università degli Studi di Napoli « L’Orientale », 2016, p. 209-238. « Le avventure di Ḏiyāb e Abū Zayd. Racconto hilaliano del Dhofar (Oman) », QSA n. s. 13, 2018, p. 217-232. Articles d’encyclopédie « Jemen », Enzyklopädie des Märchens, vol. 7, fasc. 2/3, Göttingen, 1992, col. 518-523. « Sayf ibn Dhi Yazan », dans : Julie Scott Meisami & Paul Starkey (éd.), Encyclopedia of Arabic Literature, Londres/New York, Routledge, 1998, vol. 2, p. 695. Livres et DVD Al-Thaʿlabi, Storia di Bilqis regina di Saba, Venise, Marsilio, coll. « Letteratura Universale Marsilio, Le Sabbie », 2, 2000. Fiabe e leggende yemenite, Rome, Franco Muzzio éd., coll. « Parola di fiaba », 41, 2002. Yemen: vita di villaggio (1982-1986), Venise, Centro Internazionale della Grafica, 2019. Canti e danze yemenite. Al-Hadaʾ 1982, DVD, Venise, Centro Internazionale della Grafica, 2019. Catalogue d’exposition photographique Yemen: vita di villaggio (1982-1986), Venise, Centro Internazionale della Grafica, 2019. Antonella Ghersetti Université Ca’ Foscari, Venise Sans date. Muqbil al-Tām ʿĀmir al-Aḥmadī, Fahāris Tāǧ al-ʿarūs min ǧawāhir alqāmūs li-al-Sayyid Muḥammad Murtaḍā al-Zabīdī (1205 H) (al-maṭbūʿa al-qadīma – maṭbūʿat al-Kuwayt), al-Kuwayt, Maktabat al-Kuwayt al-waṭaniyya/al-Maǧlis alwaṭanī li-al-ṯaqāfa wa-al-funūn wa-al-ādāb, 3 vol. : vol. 1 : Fihris al-šuʿarāʾ maʿa qawāfīhim, 629 p. ; vol. 2 : Fihris al-šiʿr, 877 p. ; vol. 3 : Fihris al-qiṭʿ wa-al-ašṭar wa-almašāṭīr wa-šuʿarāʾihā, 659 p. Introduction de l’auteur au vol. 1, p. 7-10. Il y fait le point entre trois impressions du Koweït, les deux indiquées dans le titre, ainsi que le PDF de l’impression du Koweït, non-officielle, disponible sur le net, dont il souligne des erreurs et manquements (p. 9). Les erreurs de l’ancienne impression du Koweït sont également signalées (p. 10). L’impression officielle d’al-Maǧlis al-waṭanī li-al-ṯaqāfa wa-al-funūn wa-al-ādāb, Koweït, date de 2016. Les mètres des vers sont indiqués. L’introduction, de même que la préface rédigée par l’autorité suprême d’al-Maǧlis alwaṭanī li-al-ṯaqāfa wa-al-funūn wa-al-ādāb, laisse entendre qu’après ces volumes centrés sur la poésie, qui représentent un énorme travail, mais aussi un investissement de saisie des impressions de référence, d’autres sont à venir. Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 15 Actualités 2014. Florian Sobieroj, « Arabic Manuscripts on the Periphery: Northwest Africa, Yemen and China », Manuscript Cultures: Mapping the Field 70/1, p. 79-112. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110225631. Après une introduction présentant quelques caractéristiques matérielles et de copie propres aux manuscrits en écriture et langue arabes (chap. 1), Florian Sobieroj aborde dans son second chapitre les manuscrits arabes produits dans l’Islam des marges : « The paper aims at drawing attention to the existence of a large spectrum of codicological types which developed on the margins of the Islamic world, in some cases under the influence of a host culture » (p. 79). Il le fait à partir du cas des manuscrits maghrébins, yéménites et arabes produits en Chine dans une démarche comparative, incluant des considérations matérielles. Son analyse des caractéristiques des manuscrits yéménites s’appuie sur les 150 manuscrits de la collection Eduard Glaser (m. 1908) vendue en 1902 à la Bibliothèque royale de Munich (Königliche Hof- und Staatsbibliothek zu München), que l’auteur a catalogués11. Il s’agit donc d’une étude menée sur une majorité de textes zaydites, avec un fort pourcentage de fiqh et d’uṣūl al-fiqh. Parmi les caractéristiques de ces manuscrits yéménites (p. 92-96), F. Sobieroj relève l’absence d’ornement, le nombre de ligne par page, ainsi que les dimensions, variables, des marges, l’usage non-systématique des réclames, le numéro des cahiers indiqué dans la partie supérieure des feuillets en toutes lettres et en chiffre au-dessus, l’absence fréquente de diacritiques, l’usage de la rubrication et des mots redoublés à l’encre rouge (ou, inversement, noire), avec parfois un changement de calame, la présence régulière de colophons développés, la présence d’iǧāzas, l’usage du terme technique de qaṣṣāṣa ou collation par récitation, l’existence de textes magiques du type yā kabīkaǧ (« Ô, kabikaj! »), chargés de protéger le manuscrit contre les vers, ou, moins fréquemment, des vols, enfin, de la formule du tawḥīd sur l’un des premiers ou des derniers feuillets ou bien sur les plats, dont les supplications parfois ajoutées éclairent le sens. On déplorera le fait que, si les préoccupations géographiques de l’auteur sont certaines, la période couverte par les manuscrits de la collection Glaser à Münich ne soit pas directement donnée au lecteur et que les caractéristiques relevées, très intéressantes, ne soient pas diachroniques. Dans la section dédiée aux manuscrits arabes de Chine, on notera que les murīds de la confrérie de la Ǧahriyya croient que le fondateur de l’ordre Ma Mingxin, dont le nom honorifique (zunhao 号尊) est Wiqāyatallā, al-Šahīd (m. 1781), emporta avec lui du Yémen en Chine un livre en l’honneur de Muḥammad le Prophète, le Madāʾiḥ (Mandanyehe 赫夜但满, selon cette source ; ailleurs Maidayiḥa 哈伊达迈). Selon une source chinoise, Ma Mingxin aurait étudié le Madāʾiḥ rédigé par Xiehe Aihamode Yiben Guximu 赫满 德迈哈艾 达伊 姆希贾 (šayḫ Aḥmad b. Qāsim ?) au Yémen auprès de son Maître soufi Ibn Zayn, soit ʿAbd al-Ḫāliq Zayn al-Mizǧāǧī al-Zabīdī (m. 1181/1767). Il reçut une iǧāza d’un šayḫ yéménite appelé Muḥammad b. Zayn (? 11 Florian Sobieroj, Arabische Handschriften. Reihe B: Teil 8: Arabische Handschriften der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek zu München unter Einschluß einiger türkischer und persischer Handschriften, vol. 1, Verzeichnis der Orientalischen Handschriften in Deutschland, Stuttgart, Otto Steiner, 2007. Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 16 Actualités Zaini 尼载) avec la mission de répandre les enseignements de la Naqšbandiyya dans le Royaume du Milieu. Wiqāyatallā fut exécuté à Lanzhou par le gouvernement Qing (p. 105). Dans sa conclusion (chap. 3, p. 110-111), F. Sobieroj dégage similarités et différences de la production manuscrite marginale par rapport à celle du centre. 2015/1436. Aḥmad b. ʿĪsā al-Ridāʿī (min riǧāl al-qarn al-ṯāliṯ al-hiǧrī), Arǧūzat alḥaǧǧ, ʿan kitāb (Ṣifat Ǧazīrat al-ʿArab) li-Abū Muḥammad al-Ḥasan b. Aḥmad alHamdānī (naḥwa 334 H), taḥqīq al-ʿallāma Dāʾūd Hinrīk Mūllīr 1912 M, aʿaddahu lial-našr Muqbil al-Tām ʿĀmir al-Aḥmadī, Ṣanʿāʾ, Maṭbūʿāt Maǧmaʿ al-ʿArabiyya alSaʿīda, 86 p. [al-ṭabaʿa al-ūlā]. Il s’agit de la publication dans un livre séparé du long poème d’al-Ridāʿī (iii/ixe s.), consigné par al-Hamdānī (m. ca. 334/945) dans son Ṣifat Ǧazīrat al-ʿArab. Les 1.260 vers du poème suivent la courte biographie d’al-Ridāʿī accompagnée de quelques éléments sur le projet du livre par Muqbil al-Tām ʿĀmir al-Aḥmadī, alors Wakīl maḫṭūṭāt al-Yaman (p. 6-8). Selon al-Hamdānī, il aurait composé un autre poème. Mais c’est sa Arǧūzat alḥaǧǧ, qui l’a rendu fameux au point de susciter la jalousie : en conséquence, la lettre de son poème aurait subi de nombreuses altérations, d’où la nécessité d’en conserver un texte correct. Al-Ridāʿī narre son périple depuis sa ville, Ridāʿ, jusqu’à La Mecque en passant par Sanaa. L’édition du texte arabe reprend, avec quelques modifications, celle d’Al-Hamdânî’s Geographie der arabischen Halbinsel/nach den Handschriften von Berlin, Constantinopel, London, Paris und Strassburg zum ersten male herausgegaben von David Heinrich Müller (1846-1912), Leyde, E. J. Brill, 1891, 2 vols. Professeur de langues sémitiques à Vienne depuis 1881, Müller eut deux illustres étudiants, Eduard Glaser (1855-1908) et Nikolaus Rhodokanakis (1876-1945). Avril 2018. Rebecca Jefferson, « Popular renditions of Hebrew hymns in 19th century Yemen: How a crudely formed, vocalised manuscript codex can provide insights into the local pronunciation and practice of prayer », dans : Nadia Vidro, Ronny Vollandt, Esther-Miriam Wagner, Judith Olszowy-Schlanger, Studies in Semitic linguistics and manuscripts: A liber discipulorum in honour of Professor Geoffrey Khan, Uppsala, Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis, ser. « Studia Semitica Upsaliensia », 30, p. 421-441. This article, by Rebecca Jefferson from the University of Florida, appears in a Liber Discipulorum produced by the students, current and former, of the Regius Professor of Hebrew at the University of Cambridge, Geoffrey Khan. Jefferson wrote her PhD with Prof. Khan on the vocalisation of medieval Hebrew poetry—hence the topic of this article, which looks at the physical, textual and linguistic aspects of a nineteenthcentury Yemenite codex containing poetry for festive occasions in the Jewish liturgical year. The codex, which was produced c. 1830, was recently acquired by the Price Library of Judaica, at the University of Florida. The article looks closely at the codicology of this nineteenth-century book, examining the paper, quires and construction of the writing block, before going on to discuss the Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 17 Actualités contents. This mahzor (liturgy book for festivals), which was written by a number of different hands, has a selection of dirges (qinot) for the fast of the Ninth of Av, selihot (penitential poems/prayers), a qaddish, a formulary of a divorce deed, and further piyyutim (liturgical poetry). In character, the book is thoroughly Yemenite, and was probably copied from a Yemenite vorlage, or a number of different Yemenite source texts. While it might seem strange to find the formulary of a divorce deed in a prayer book, this is not that unusual, as liturgical handbooks often served as general scribal handbooks, containing formularies, calendars, and other notes that a community official might find useful. Jefferson looks closely at the text of one poem in the book, Šene Ḥayyay, by the Andalusian Hebrew poet Solomon ibn Gabirol. The poem is vocalised with the supralinear Babylonian vowel signs, a system that continued in use in the Yemen centuries after it had been supplanted elsewhere in the Jewish world by the dominant Tiberian signage. Overall, the article is an interesting examination of a quite typical Yemenite Jewish item, a well-thumbed mahzor, a manuscript still hand written (centuries after the invention of print) by a number of different scribes over an indeterminate period of time. There are many such items in libraries worldwide, and there remains useful work to be done on a larger scale to look at the hand-made book production of the late Yemenite Jewish community: this article provides an interesting insight into the potential for this area of research and the fascinating details that can emerge from a comparatively quotidian object. Benjamin Outhwaite Genizah Research Unit, Directeur Cambridge University Library Juin 2018. Maḥmūd ʿAlī Muḥsin Al-Sālimī, « Role of Place and Location in the History of Yemen », Riwāq 6, p. 126-139. [En arabe ; titre bilingue]. Selon l’auteur, qui enseigne l’histoire contemporaine à l’Université d’Aden et y dirige le Centre pour les études et recherches historiques et pour l’édition, la position géographique du Yémen a influé sur son histoire de manière autant positive que négative. Dans cet article traçant large, à portée politique, il veut en dégager l’importance, cette position ayant contribué au développement de sa civilisation, mais ayant fait aussi du pays une source de convoitise, de luttes et de misère. Il s’appuie principalement sur des études en arabe et sur les deux sources suivantes : Tāǧ al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Bāqī b. ʿAbd al-Maǧīd al-Yamānī, Bahǧat al-zaman fī tārīḫ al-Yaman ; Ḥusayn al-ʿArašī, Bulūġ almurām fī šarḥ misk al-ḫitām. 25-31 août 2019. États-Unis, Princeton, IAS. École d’été sur la théorie légale chiite La session d’été 2019 de l’Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, portait sur la théorie légale chiite (« Shiʿi Legal theory ») soit les uṣūl al-fiqh et les disciplines relatives dans les diverses traditions savantes chiites, duodécimaine, zaydite et ismaélienne. La ses- Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 18 Actualités sion d’été est le fruit d’une collaboration entre le Shii Studies Research Program, financé par la Carnegie Corporation of New York, l’Institute for Advanced Study, et le Law, Authority and Learning in Imami Shiite Islam (LAWALISI), un programme ERC accueilli par l’Université d’Exeter. 1er octobre-29 décembre 2019. France, Parc de Sceaux. Exposition « L’extraordinaire aventure de Zarafa : la girafe de Charles X » L’exposition s’adresse à tous les publics. Organisée en quatre parties, elle permet de suivre le parcours de la première girafe ayant foulé le sol français : elle fut offerte en cadeau au Roi de France Charles X par l’Égyptien Méhémet-Ali. Une partie introductive intitulée « À la recherche de la girafe » présente la collection de Gabriel Dardaud (m. 1993), journaliste en Égypte, celui qui a redécouvert l’histoire de Zarafa et en a tiré un ouvrage : Une girafe pour le Roi, Creil, Dumerchez-Naoum, 1992. La section suivante évoque les représentations de la girafe de l’Antiquité à la fin du xviiie s., illustrées par les ouvrages anciens de la bibliothèque André-Desguine, con- Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 19 Actualités servés aux Archives départementales des Hauts-de-Seine, où se trouve la ville de Sceaux, ainsi que l’histoire de Zarafa depuis sa capture au Soudan jusqu’à sa mort à Paris. Est abordé ensuite le thème de la « Girafomania », un phénomène généré par l’arrivée de Zarafa en France, au travers de toutes sortes d’applications réalisées dans la mode, la céramique, des objets usuels divers. En guise d’épilogue, d’autres girafes parvenues en France après Zarafa sont évoquées par des affiches, des ouvrages et des projections. Outre le premier travail de G. Dardaud, les cartels pouvaient s’inspirer de plus d’un ouvrage : Michael Allin, La girafe de Charles X : Son extraordinaire voyage de Kartoum à Paris, Paris, Jean-Claude Lattès, 2000 ; Olivier Lebleu, écrivain-historien, auteur du livre Les Avatars de Zarafa, première girafe de France. Première girafe de France – Chronique d’une girafomania : 18261845, Paris, Arléa, 2006 ; O. Lebleu & G. Dardaud, Une girafe pour le roi. La véritable histoire de Zarafa la première girafe de France, Bordeaux, Elytis, coll. « Grands voyageurs », 2007. Thierry Bucket (CNRS), conseiller de l’exposition, a contribué aux vitrines liées à l’Islam, incluant l’histoire du mot « girage ». Pour les nCmY, on signalera les timbres consacrés aux girafes par différents pays, collectés par Gabriel Dardaud : l’un vient du Royaume Mutawakkilite du Yémen [image ci-dessous]. Collection de timbres « à la girafe » de Gabriel Dardaud. Musée du Domaine départemental de Sceaux, Hauts-de-Seine. Photo Anne Regourd. Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 20 Actualités Timbre du Royaume Mutawakkilite du Yémen (1948-1970), extrait de la photo ci-dessus. Photo A. Regourd. Livret de l’exposition : Marie-Noëlle Mathieu (textes ; commissaire de l’exposition), L’extraordinaire aventure de Zarafa. La Girafe de Charles X, musée du Domaine départemental de Sceaux, octobre-décembre 2019, Hauts-de-Seine, le Département, septembre 2019, 17 pages. https://domaine-de-sceaux.hauts-de-seine.fr/actualites/detail/girafomania-lextraordinaireaventure-de-zarafa-1 Novembre 2019. Abdul Jaleel P. K. M., « Arab Immigrants under Hindu Kings in Malabar: Ethical Pluralities of ‘Naturalisation’ in Islam », Studies in Islamic Ethics 2, p. 196-214. L’auteur analyse la naturalisation des musulmans du Malabar durant les xve et xvie s. à partir de sources arabes et de fatwās, croisant le point de vue de lettrés indigènes avec celui de Mecquois, différents, sur la question de la naturalisation de musulmans en régime non-musulman. Les opinions émises du « centre » de l’islam, i. e. La Mecque et Le Caire, tendent à invalider les réalités historiques et à reléguer les non-musulmans dans la catégorie des ḥarbīs, à l’opposé de l’idée que s’en faisaient les lettrés de Malabar. Cependant, les musulmans du Royaume de Zamorin (1124-1806), à Malabar, acceptèrent les gouvernants hindous : un respect mutuel s’instaura qui les conduisit même à combattre ensemble les Portugais. Les définitions des catégories de guerre et de paix varient elles-mêmes et Malabar fut bien le théâtre de guerres. Al-fatāwa alfiqhiyya al-kubrā du Mecquois Ibn Ḥağar al-Haytamī (m. 1566) dépeignent les pays gouvernés par des non-musulmans sous la catégorie du Dār al-islām. Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 21 Actualités Pour les nCmY, on retiendra les développements sur les ḫaṭībs des neuf mosquées de Malabar, qui recevaient des émoluments des Rassoulides, s’appuyant sur le Nūr almaʿārif (xiiie s.)12. Mais aussi le fait que les musulmans de Calicut envoyèrent une lettre au Sultan rassoulide al-Ašraf II (r. 778/1377-803/1400) en 1393, requérant la permission de dire son nom dans la ḫuṭba du vendredi à Calicut, selon une autre source yéménite, Al-ʿuqūd al-luʾluʾiyya d’al-Ḫazraǧī (m. 812/1410), exprimant sans doute les intérêts commerciaux des marchands d’Aden et de Calicut. L’article est accessible ici : https://brill.com/view/title/55481 23 octobre 2019. Vienne, Université de Vienne. Soutenance de thèse de Magdalena Moorthy-Kloss Le 23 octobre 2019, Magdalena Moorthy-Kloss a soutenu avec succès sa thèse de doctorat intitulée « Slaves at the Najahid and Rasulid courts of Yemen (412–553 AH/1021– 1158 CE and 626–858 AH/1229–1454) », à l’Université de Vienne. L’un des aspects soulevés par sa thèse sera publié dans Der Islam en 2020 sous le titre de : « Eunuchs at the Service of Yemen’s Rasulid Dynasty (626–858 H/1229–1454 CE) ». 14 décembre 2019. Japon, Kyoto, Ritsumeikan University. Communication de Tamon Baba, « East Africa—Aden Trade in the 13th Century » Tamon Baba a donné une communication à la 41e édition du Ritsumeikan Shigakukai Taikai, la Conférence annuelle de la Société historique de l’Université Ritsumeikan. Elle portait sur les relations commerciales entre l’Afrique de l’Est et Aden au xiiie s. S’appuyant sur les documents administratifs rassoulides du Nūr al-maʿārif (xiiie s.)13, il a présenté les types de produits en provenance de l’Est et du Nord-Est de l’Afrique acheminés à Aden, en particulier ceux de l’Éthiopie expédiés via Zaylaʿ. 2-3 décembre 2019. Leipzig, Académie des Sciences de Saxe. Journées d’étude « Marginal Commentaries in Arabic Manuscripts » Organisées par The Bibliotheca Arabica Project, ces journées d’étude, balayant une large zone géographique et des genres de littératures variés, étaient introduites par Verena Klemm, Stefanie Brinkmann. Pour les nCmY, on retiendra : - Josef Ženka (Charles University, Prague), « Writing a Commentary During the Ḥajj and the Ziyāra by an Andalusi Pilgrim » « The paper aims to analyze how marginal commentaries reflect the knowledge transfer between two distant parts of the Islamicate world with different legal traditions. In Anon., Nūr al-maʿārif fī nuzum wa-qawānīn wa-aʿrāf al-Yaman fī al-ʿahd al-Muẓaffarī al-wārif, Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Raḥīm al-Ǧāzim (éd.), Sanaa, CEFAS, 2 vols, 2002-2005. 13 Anon., Nūr al-maʿārif fī nuzum wa-qawānīn wa-aʿrāf al-Yaman fī al-ʿahd al-Muẓaffarī al-wārif, Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Raḥīm al-Ǧāzim (éd.), Sanaa, CEFAS, 2 vols, 2002-2005. 12 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 22 Actualités my database of eighty-two 15th century Andalusi manuscripts only three codices contain large marginal explanatory notes. One of them is the legal work Manāsik al-Ḥajj by the well-known Egyptian Maliki jurist Khalīl b. Ishāq al-Jundī. This manuscript was copied in Mecca in the 1450s by the Andalusi pilgrim Muḥammad Ibn Khalaf from Guadix who carried it with him to Medina and then back home to al-Andalus. As a very first copy of this work introduced to the Iberian Peninsula, the marginal commentaries are an important source for understanding how a scholar of a different geographical region approached the study of a completely unknown work produced in another part of the world. Before he left Medina, he read and commented upon the whole manuscript during various sessions held in the Prophet’s mosque. Two additional manuscripts written by the same scholar during this pilgrimage could help to reveal his scribal practices and add more data to his social context ». - Asma Hilali (Université de Lille), « Annotating the Qurʾān in the seventh century- The ‘Ṣanʿāʾ Qurʾān palimpsest’ as Example » « The paper offers an overview of the marginal and interlinear annotations in Qurʾān fragments dating from the seventh to ninth centuries. It reflects on the methods the scribes deploy when annotating Qurʾān fragments. The information that the annotations convey about the context of transmission of the text are crucial for the research on the codification of the Qurʾān. Using the example of the so called ‘Ṣanʿāʾ Qurʾān palimpsest’ fragments, I explore the relationship between the annotations in the manuscript and the Qurʾān passages they refer to ». Voir la revue de son livre The Sanaa Palimpsest. The Transmission of the Qurʾan in the First Centuries AH, Oxford University Press, 2017, par Walid Ghali (The Aga Khan University, Londres), dans CmY Nouvelles séries 5/24, Actualités <Juillet 2017>, p. 29-32. ÉPIGRAPHIE Juin 2018. Pour le Yémen et l’épigraphie anciens : Yousef Abdullah & Sami Al Shehab, « Temple of Almaqah Baʿal Awām (Maḥram Bilqis in Maʾrib): a Study of New Archaeological Finds », Riwāq 6, p. 6-41. [En arabe ; titre bilingue]. Docteur Yousef Abdullah fut Directeur de l’Organisme général des antiquités et des manuscrits (OGAM), Sanaa14. Sami Al Shehab travaille à l’OGAM, il dirigea les fouilles conduites par la section des Antiquités à l’Université de Sanaa, en 2013, et fut actif auprès du Centre américain d’études yéménites, en 2004. 14 Biographie : Amida Sholan et al. (eds.), Sabaean Studies: Archaeological, Epigraphical and Historical Studies in Honour of Yusuf M. ʿAbdallah, Alessandro de Maigret, Christian J. Robin on the Occasion of their 60th Birthdays, Naples, Orientale/Sanaa, Université de Sanaa, 2005, p. ix–xviii. Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 23 Actualités ARABIE SAOUDITE Juin 2018. Pieter Sjoerd van Koningsveld, « The Tomb of the Prophet. Attitudes and Discussions Around A Major Religious Symbol in Islam », Riwāq 6, p. 6-17 (ill.). L’auteur, Professeur émérite, spécialiste d’études islamiques, Faculté d’études religieuses, Université de Leyde, traite de la tombe du Prophète comme symbole majeur en Islam selon deux perspectives : tout d’abord l’image de la tombe telle qu’elle a circulé en Occident au Moyen Âge, puis durant l’ère coloniale. Ensuite à la lumière des sources islamiques portant sur l’histoire de la tombe au début de l’islam, mais aussi des discussions sur la vénération dont elle fait l’objet dans les cercles salafites contemporains. Outre les sources éditées, P. S. van Koningsveld a eu recours à un manuscrit. 1er mai-23 septembre 2019, prolongation jusqu’au 30 novembre 2019. Doha, Qatar National Library. Exposition « The Holy Kaaba » Cette exposition qui a pris place à la Qatar National Library (QNL) du 1er mai au 30 novembre 2019, dans l’espace réservé à cet effet, était consacrée au bâtiment-même de la Kaʿaba. Différentes unités de la Bibliothèque ont puisé dans leurs richesses pour éclairer des aspects du monument. La scénographie faisait écho au sujet avec des objets disposés dans sept vitrines construites autour d’un cube central et des tissus brodés, suspendus aux murs latéraux en pierre, rappelant les maḥmals et les poésies suspendues (muʿallaqāt) : il s’agissait essentiellement de livres et de documents manuscrits et imprimés, de photographies noir et blanc et de textiles, le plus souvent épigraphiés. Dans une vitrine étaient exposés deux instruments, des indicateurs de la qibla du xviiexviiie s., dont l’un safavide. L’histoire de la Kaʿaba était retracée depuis une période antérieure au Prophète Muḥammad jusqu’à son destin final, scellé par des hadiths : est donné en exemple le hadith authentique disant qu’elle devrait être démolie par un Abyssin aux jambes courtes, « yuḫrab al-Kaʿba ḏū al-suayqatayn », dans une composition calligraphique turque-ottomane du xviiie-xixe s. L’exposition n’ignorait pas les croyances religieuses ou autres dont le monument a fait l’objet. Le Yémen apparaît au travers de deux épisodes se rapportant au Roi chrétien de Himyar, Abraha al-Ashram : la construction d’une église à Sanaa pour détourner les pèlerins de la Kaʿba, et, en ca. 571, l’attaque contre le monument à la tête d’une armée d’éléphants (Coran, sourate 105, « L’éléphant », v. 1, allusion aux hommes de l’Éléphant, « asḥāb al-fīl »). Les pèlerins étaient évoqués par leurs récits et les certificats de pèlerinage : la fonction de ces certificats a évolué nettement vers une représentation visuelle des sites saints de l’islam et de son histoire fondatrice, ainsi que l’illustraient les trois exemples imprimés au Caire en 1950. Parmi les collections exposées, on relèvera des photos ayant appartenu à l’orientaliste Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje (m. 1936), dont ce qui est considéré comme le plus an- Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 24 Actualités cien cliché de la Kaʿba pris par un photographe arabe, peut-être ʿAbd al-Ġaffār b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Baġdādī (m. 1320/1902), qui a logé Snouck Hurgronje et travaillé avec lui durant son passage en 1885. Parmi les pièces manuscrites remarquables, signalons d’abord des corans : un Coran daté de 952/1545 de la main d’Aḥmad al-Qara Ḥaṣārī (m. 962/1555) ; un Coran, enluminé, copié au Maroc en 967/1560, commandé pour la bibliothèque privée d’Abū Ḥassan ʿAlī b. al-Wazīr, un descendant du šayḫ ʿAbd al-Salām b. Mašīš ; enfin, un Coran enluminé de Chine en 30 volumes, estimé du début du xxe s. Puis, un autographe du grand compendium Anwār al-rabīʿ fī anwāʿ al-badīʿ de ʿAli b. Maʿsūm al-Madanī (m. 1119/1707), fait en Inde, en 1093/1682, rare aussi parce qu’il n’est pas sûr que d’autres manuscrits de cette œuvre aient survécu. Il s’agit d’un manuscrit luxueux, écrit sur un papier de qualité, décoré dans un second temps. Immédiatement visible dans l’exposition du fait de ses dimensions (malheureusement non indiquées dans le cartel), un rouleau manuscrit ottoman rédigé au mois de šawwāl 1258/novembre 1842 porte sur la ṣurra, qui contenait l’argent collecté sur les waqfs sultanaux, indique son montant et les dépenses des ulémas, en faveur des pauvres et des personnels s’occupant de la Kaʿba [image ci-dessous]. L’ensemble, ainsi que la kiswa, partit d’Égypte pour gagner La Mecque sous la garde du chef de la procession. Parmi les impressions anciennes, comptent deux livres imprimés au Caire en 1886, l’un sur les presses bien connues de Būlāq, la Risāla fī bināʾ al-Kaʿba de Muḥammad Ṣādiq Bek (m. 1320/1902), avec graphiques, l’autre Al-durra al-mukallala fī fatḥ Makka almušarrifa al-mubaǧǧala de Muḥammad b. Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Bakrī (m. 952/1546), imprimé sur les presses de ʿUṯmān ʿAbd al-Rāziq. Pour les nCmY, on notera une édition des voyages de Ludovico di Barthema (m. 1517) en direction de la péninsule Arabique, imprimée à Utrecht, en 1655, ainsi qu’une lithographie de Subul alsalām, un commentaire du Bulūġ al-marām min adillat al-aḥkām d’Abū Ǧaʿfar alʿAsqalānī (m. 852/1449), par Muḥammad b. Ismāʿīl al-Ṣanʿānī (m. 1182/1768), publié à Delhi, par Al-Faruqi Press, en 1311/1894. Il porte une waqfiyya du šayḫ Ǧāssim (Ǧāsim/Qāsim) b. Muḥammad Āl Ṯānī (Qatar, r. 1878-1913) et appartient à une collection privée. https://events.qnl.qa/event/xE1vM/EN Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 25 Actualités Rouleau manuscrit, Égypte ottomane, šawwāl 1258/novembre 1842. Photo Anne Regourd. Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 26 Actualités OMAN 27 mai 2019. Paris, EHESS. Journée d’étude « Bodies and Artefacts: Relics and other devotional supports in Shia societies in the Indic and Iranian worlds » La journée d’étude « Bodies and Artefacts: Relics and other devotional supports in Shia societies in the Indic and Iranian worlds » était organisée par Michel Boivin (CNRS, Centre d’études de l’Inde | Asie du Sud, CEIAS), Annabelle Collinet (musée du Louvre, Département des Arts de l’Islam) et Sepideh Parsapajouh (CNRS, Centre d’études en sciences sociales du religieux, CéSor) à l’École pratique des hautes études (EHESS), à Paris. Le programme pour la journée, très dense, donnait la parole à dix contributeurs, répartis en trois pannels : « Manuscript as devotional medium » ; « Body and ist imprint in devotional rituals » et « Circulation of Material Culture between Shiism and Sufism ». Dans sa communication intitulée « From Sehwân to Masqat. Manuscripts of Sindhi elegies (marsiyâ) among the Lawâtiya of Oman », Zahir Bhalloo (Freïe Universität, Berlin) présentait les élégies de Sābit ʿAlī Šāh (m. 1800) portant sur le martyr de Ḥusayn (m. 680), qui, à la fin du xixe s., furent progressivement laissées de côté par les Khoja d’Asie du Sud loyaux à l’Agha Khan. Or ces manuscrits dévotionnels sont toujours en usage chez les Lawātiya, des duodécimains installés à Mascate (Oman ; travaux de Z. Bhallo, voir CmY Nouvelles séries 4/23 (Janv. 2017), Actualités, <Février-mars 2015>, p. 17-21). Olly Akkerman (Freïe Universität, Berlin), « A Neo-Fatimid Library in the Making: The Social Lives of Arabic Manuscripts among the Alawi Bohras of South Asia », traitait de la matérialité des manuscrits arabes des archives royales (ḫizāna) d’une communauté de Bohras au Nord-Ouest de l’Inde alliée à leur rôle social (voir leur lien au Yémen, CmY Nouvelles séries 5/24 (Juil. 2017), Actualités, <1er juin 2017>, p. 28-29; CmY Nouvelles séries 6/25 (Janv. 2018), Actualités, <2014>, p. 6-9). Cette culture secrète est essentielle à l’identité de la communauté : au-delà des questions liées à la transmission des textes, les manuscrits sont partie prenante des cérémonies et rituels où leur est attribuée une dimension de relique, scellant et rescellant le lien de la communauté à son passé fatimide. C’est sur le certificat de pèlerinage du musée d’Art islamique de Doha MS.267.1998, daté du 21 muharram 837/6 septembre 1433, un rouleau de 666 cm, que Mounia Chekhab Abuday (Qatar Museum, Doha), appuyait son propos, dans : « Pilgrimage certificate as instrument of devotion: example of the Museum of Islamic Art, Doha ». Rédigé pour le pèlerin Sayyid Yūsuf b. Sayyid Šihāb al-Dīn al-Nahrī (ʿumra), il représente les sites musulmans majeurs, contient des textes en arabe et en persan et s’achève sur la mention de six témoins. Le propos était de tenter de montrer la dimension dévotionnelle du rouleau et sa baraka (voir ci-dessus l’exposition « The Holy Kaaba », Doha, Qatar National Library, Actualités, <1er mai-23 septembre 2019>, p. 2426). Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 27 ‫‪Actualités‬‬ ‫‪QATAR‬‬ ‫‪Depuis juin 2015. Revue scientifique bi-annuelle Riwāq. Al-tārīḫ wa-al-turāṯ/Rewaq.‬‬ ‫‪History & Heritage, Centre d’études historiques Hasan Bin Mohammed, Doha.‬‬ ‫‪ISBN : 978-9927-00-463-6.‬‬ ‫‪Pour les nCmY, Muḥammad Hammām Fikrī, Éditeur en Chef de Riwāq. Al-tārīḫ wa-al‬‬‫‪turāṯ/Rewaq. History & Heritage, présente la revue.‬‬ ‫جمةل رواق جمةل علمية حممكة (نصف س نوية)‪ .‬تصدر عن مركز حسن بن محمد لدلراسات التارخيية (ادلوحة‬ ‫– قطر)‪ ،‬هتدف اجملةل اىل اثراء احلياة الثقافية والفكرية مبا تقدمه من حبوث علمية رصينة لتكون انفذة‬ ‫للتواصل العلمي‪ ،‬وتتفاعل رواق التارخي والرتاث مع متغريات العرص يف جماالت البحث العلمي‪ ،‬حيث‬ ‫جتمع بني الفروع املتشاهبة من العلوم االنسانية‪ ،‬من هذا املنطلق برزت فكرة امجلع بني التارخي والرتاث يف‬ ‫رواق نظر ًا للتشابه بني طبيعهتام‪ ،‬دون خلط بني ادلالالت العلمية واملعرفية للك مهنام فالتارخي معين ابلفعل‬ ‫االنساين‪ ،‬والرتاث معين ابلرتكة اليت خلفها الفعل ‪.‬‬ ‫‪28‬‬ ‫)‪Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020‬‬ ‫‪Actualités‬‬ ‫وحترص اجملةل عىل دعوة تعطي الفرصة بشلك خاص للباحثني والعلامء الغربيني اذلين اجنزوا حبوهثم‬ ‫الااكدميية عىل موضوعات لها صةل بتارخي املنطقة‪ ،‬ومن املهم ااتحة الفرصة هلم ليك يس مترون عىل صةل مبهد‬ ‫جتارهبم ودراساهتم أمثال ‪:‬‬ ‫الربوفيسور بن سلوت‪ ،‬الربوفيسور بروس اجنهام‪ ،‬ادلكتورة أين مونتجين‪ ،‬ادلكتور ابنلويب توسن‬ ‫وادلكتورة انيتا بريددت وغريمه‬ ‫‪Dr. Anita Prof. Ben Slot, Prof. Bruce Ingham, Dr. Anni Montigny, Dr. Penelope Tuson,‬‬ ‫‪L.P. Burdett‬‬ ‫ابالضافة اىل كبار العلامء والباحثني املعنيني ابلتارخي والرتاث‪ ،‬ومن السامء اليت شاركت يف اجملةل ‪:‬‬ ‫الربوفيسور رشدي راشد (فرنسا)‪ ،‬الربوفيسور مصطفى موادلي (سوراي) الربوفيسور يوسف عبد هلل‬ ‫(المين) وادلكتور يوسف ذنون (العراق)‪ ،‬الربوفيسور زكراي قورشون (تركيا)‪ ،‬الربوفيسور لطف هلل‬ ‫قاري ( اململكة العربية السعودية)‪ ،‬الربفيسور أمحد فؤاد ابشا والربوفيسور جامل جحر والربوفيسور محمود‬ ‫اسامعيل (مرص)‪ ،‬والباحث مايلك مورجان‪ ،‬والربوفيسور حمسن املوسوي (أمرياك) وغريمه‪.‬‬ ‫كام تنرش اجملةل حبو ًاث ممتزية جليل الش باب من العلامء أمثال ‪ :‬ادلكتور أمحد جالل وادلكتور عبد الرحمي‬ ‫احلس ناوي‪( ،‬املغرب)‪ ،‬ادلكتور عبد امحليد الفراين (فلسطني) وادلكتورة رضوى زيك وادلكتورة مروة‬ ‫عادل ابراهمي عبد اجلواد (مرص)‪ ،‬ادلكتور محمود عيل حمسن الساملي‪( ،‬المين) وغريمه‪ .‬مبا حيقق تفاعل‬ ‫الجيال وتنوع حبوهثم واهامتماهتم‪.‬‬ ‫ولقد تناول الباحثون عرب اعدادها السابقة‪ ،‬موضوعات علمية متنوعة يف جمال ‪ :‬ادلراسات والواثئق وغريها‪.‬‬ ‫الااثرية والتارخيية واخملطوطات االسالمية واخلرائط‪.‬‬ ‫ولقد تضمن العدد السابع يناير ‪ 9102‬من جمةل رواق التارخي والرتاث مجموعة من الحباث العلمية الاكدميية‬ ‫مهنا ‪ :‬حبث ابللغة االجنلزيية ادلكتور عبد هلل عبد العاطي أس تاذ التارخي يف جامعة زجييد (اجملر)‪ ،‬حول‬ ‫رؤية العرب واملسلمني للكوميداي االلهية دلانيت‪ ،‬وقد تساءل فيه هل هناك مصادر عربية اسالمية جديدة‬ ‫من شأهنا أن تساعد يف تقدمي فكرة جديدة عهنا؟‬ ‫وكيف يرى العرب واملسلمون من نقاد وكتاب ومؤرخني ”الكوميداي االلهية“ واكتهبا دانيت أليجيريي؟‬ ‫وغريها‪.‬‬ ‫وتناول ادلكتور مصطفى موادلي معيد معهد الرتاث العلمي العريب‪ ،‬جامعة حلب (سوراي) يف حبثه كيفية‬ ‫”انتقال الرايضيات العربية اىل الغرب الالتيين“‪ ،‬واضافات العلامء العرب املمتزية واملهمة يف هذا العمل‪،‬‬ ‫واليت أدت اىل تطوره بشلك واحض‪ ،‬وتركت أاثر ًا واحضة ومبارشة عىل أعامل علامء عرص الهنضة الوروبية‪،‬‬ ‫فامي اس تعرض ادلكتور أمحد العدوي الس تاذ املساعد بقسم العلوم االسالمية‪ ،‬لكية االلهيات‪( ،‬تركيا)‪،‬‬ ‫”مالحظات عىل بعض املصنفات التارخيية املفقودة لصابئة حران يف القرنني الثالث والرابع الهجريني‪/‬‬ ‫التاسع والعارش امليالديني“‪ ،‬واليت دوهنا بعض املؤرخني من صابئة حران‪ ،‬فقد حظيت هذه العامل‬ ‫بتقدير املؤرخني والكتاب القداىم‪ ،‬اال أهنا فقدت اما جزئي ًا أو لكي ًا‪.‬‬ ‫‪29‬‬ ‫)‪Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020‬‬ Actualités ‫كام تتبع ادلكتور ايسني اليحياوي ابحث مبركز الالهوت االساليم جبامعة فيلهيمل وس تفاليا مونترس‬ ‫ اللحظات املؤسسة مليالد متثالت جديدة عن بزينطة يف أوىل الكتاابت العربية فرتة االسالم‬،)‫(أملانيا‬ .“‫املبكر حملال صورة ”الخر البزينطي يف االسالم املبكر من وعي اذلات اىل انتاج املتخيل‬ ‫ جامعة دمهنور‬،‫ لكية الداب‬،‫أما الباحث ادلكتور عيل الس يد أس تاذ اترخي العصور الوسطي املتفرغ‬ ‫(مرص) فقد تناول دور ”الوقاف االسالمية وبناء السالم بني الشعوب دور وقف متمي ادلاري وضيافته‬ .“)‫(العمراين والاجامتعي الثقايف‬ .‫ بعد أن يمت حتكميها‬،‫وهكذا تقدم رواق يف أعددها املتتالية حبو ًاث علمية أصيةل ترثي هبا معرفتنا‬ )‫رواق التارخي والرتاث (بطاقة تعريف‬ ‫محمد هامم فكري – مرشف عام التحرير‬ rtt@hbmhc.com : ‫و تس تقبل رواق البحوث عىل بريدها الالكرتوين التايل‬ Éditeur, Ali Afify Ali Ghazy : rtt@hbmhc.com Site, sommaire des numéros en ligne : http://www.hbmhc.net/Pages/EN/Rewaq.aspx Outre les articles intéressant les nCmY dans Rewaq 6, juin 2018, dont est faite la revue ici, on retiendra les contributions suivantes, telles qu’elles apparaissent dans le sommaire des numéros en ligne : - Rewaq 1, juin 2015 « Copies of the Holy Quran and their Calligraphies since the Time of the Message until the Present » « The Saudi Riyal during the Global Financial Crisis (1929-1932) » « Image of Qatar in the Ancient Cartographic Heritage ». - Rewaq 4, juin 2017 Anita Bordet analyzes the British Naval Archives under the title: “Assessment of the official Records of the Gulf, the Arabian Sea & the Red Sea 1798-1960”. The main purpose of this paper is to find out the differences between archival collections preserved in the British Navy Archives, in order to observe those occurrences happened in the region during the period under review. Zakaria Korshon provides some important evidences in his paper titled “Is the map of Tigris and Euphrates rivers illustrated and sketched by Olia Chalabi”, through a careful comparative study of the map and the contents of Olia Chalabi’s Travel Account. He tried to prove that the map was illustrated either by his hand or by someone else under his supervision. Voir CmY New Series 6/25 (janv. 2018), Actualités, <2012>, p. 35-36. Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 30 Actualités Dr. Hilmi reviews the most famous naval ships used in the Arabian Gulf and its naval activities during the 18th and 19th centuries. He also tried to define its types, nationalities and descriptions. - Rewaq 5, octobre 2018 Taha Hussein Hadeel discusses the role of Physicians of Yemen in developing the Medical Sciences from the seventh century to the tenth century of Hegira. He also touches on their studies and writings that contributed to developing this field of applied sciences and on the role of Yemeni Rulers in encouraging them. Penelope Tuson reviews historical sources about women of the Gulf and Arabia preserved in the British Archival Documents and Collections which is considered a main source for the history of the Gulf. Jan P. Hogendijk examines the history of Mathematics and Astronomy in the Islamic ages until the Seventeenth century AD, where he reviews three instruments that show the direction of the Kaʿbah in Mecca. 2016/1437. Ḫālid b. Muḥammad b. Ġānim b. ʿAlī Āl Ṯānī (dirāsat wa-taḥqīq), Mudawwanāt al-usra al-ḥākima fī Qaṭar mudawwanatā : al-šayḫ Qāsim b. Muḥammad wa-al-šayḫ ʿAlī b. ʿAbd Allāh namūḏaǧān, s. l., s. éd., 306 p. Introduction : ʿAbd al-Qādir ʿUṯmān Muḥammad Ǧād al-Rabb (ʿAmīd Kulliyyat al-ādāb bi-Ǧāmiʿat Umm Durmān al-islāmiyya, al-Ḫarṭūm). Il s’agit de l’édition de deux journaux personnels, intimement liés à l’histoire de l’État du Qatar, celui de son Fondateur, le šayḫ Qāsim (Ǧāsim/Ǧāssim) b. Muḥammad Āl Ṯānī, hanbalite (né ca. 1827 à Bahrein-m. 1913 ; r. 1876-1913), biographie p. 51-58, et celui de son petit-fils, Émir du Qatar, le šayḫ ʿAlī b. ʿAbd Allāh b. Qāsim (Ǧāsim/Ǧāssim) Āl Ṯānī (né à Doha en 1894-m. à Doha à 22h30, le 31 août 1974 ; r. 1949-1960), biographie p. 59-64. Ils sont tous les deux auteurs d’œuvres dans divers domaines, pas uniquement religieux15. Un autographe du šayḫ Qāsim est donné p. 76, ainsi que son sceau, p. 51 (repris ensuite). L’édition comprend deux niveaux de notes : le premier niveau donne des éclaircissements, documentés par des portraits, extraits de manuscrits, sceaux, monuments, parfois d’extraits de journaux ; le second est consacré aux références. La documentation du premier niveau de lecture comprend la reproduction de plusieurs lettres : 1. lettre du šayḫ Qāsim au Commandant (naqīb) de Bassora portant sur les circonstances de la bataille (du Fort) d’al-Waǧba (maʿrakat al-Waǧba, p. 192-193), Cela vaut une entrée à šayḫ Qāsim (Ǧāsim/Ǧāssim) b. Muḥammad Āl Ṯānī dans le célèbre dictionnaire bio-bibliographique de Ḫayr al-Dīn al-Zirkilī, Al-aʿlām, Beyrouth, Dār al-ʿilm li-al-malāyīn, 1423/2002, vol. 5, p. 184. 15 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 31 Actualités 2. lettre de l’Émir du Qatar, šayḫ ʿAbd Allāh (né à Doha 1880-m. à Doha 1957) à ses fils, le šayḫ ʿAlī et le šayḫ Ḥamad (1896-1948) durant le voyage de ces derniers dans le Laḥiǧ (p. 246), 3. lettre du šayḫ Qāsim à Bālyūz de Bahrein, dans laquelle il rapporte le voyage de son fils šayḫ ʿAbd Allāh en Inde (p. 254), 4. lettre du šayḫ ʿAbd Allāh en réponse à la lettre de condoléance du šayḫ Ḥamad Āl Ḫalīfa à l’occasion de la mort du šayḫ ʿAbd al-Raḥmān (p. 255), 5. lettre de šayḫa Maryam, mère du šayḫ ʿAlī, à Darwīš Faḫrū, datée du 20 ǧumād al-ūlā 1246/6 novembre 1830 (p. 265) ; le fils de Darwīš Faḫrū, Qāsim, né à Doha en 1901, est un personnage important pour la compréhension des documents présentés par l’ouvrage – il fait l’objet d’une biographie détaillée (p. 76-83), 6. enfin, lettre de Muḥammad Raḥīm ʿAbd al-Nabī à Bālyūz où il est question du šayḫ ʿAbd Allāh (p. 271). L’auteur appuie également son travail sur des interviews (liste des interviewés p. 285286). Le livre se clôt sur onze pages de bibliographie, essentiellement en arabe, et quatre index. Ḫālid b. Muḥammad b. Ġānim b. ʿAlī Āl Ṯānī est Directeur au ministère des Waqfs, Doha. Février 2019/Ǧumādā al-ūlā 1440. Ṣāḥib ʿĀlam al-Aʿẓamī al-Nadawī, « Riḥlat baḥṯiyya ilā Dalhī… Qaṭar fī al-aršīf al-hindī », Al-Dūḥa 136, p. 12-15. L’auteur de l’article, Ṣāḥib ʿĀlam al-Aʿẓamī al-Nadawī, chercheur associé au Centre d’études historiques Hasan Bin Mohammed, à Doha, rend compte de la situation des Archives nationales d’Inde (National Archives of India, NAI), qui furent fondées en 1891 et se trouvent réparties sur plusieurs branches situées dans différentes villes de l’Inde. Les NAI préservent nombre de documents administratifs, commerciaux et diplomatiques se rapportant à l’Inde, l’Iran, l’Iraq (al-Baṣra et Bagdad), au Golfe (Būšehr, Bandar ʿAbbās, le Koweït, Masqaṭ, le Bahrein et al-Šāriqa), à la péninsule Arabique et au Moyen-Orient (Aden et la mer Rouge), à l’Afrique (entre autre Zanzibar et la Somalie), ainsi qu’à l’Asie du Sud, la plus ancienne des collections de l’East India Company pour l’Inde britannique datant de 1748. En 2018, l’auteur a effectué une revue des documents concernant le Qatar, présents dans les collections indiennes. En dépit d’index insuffisants, il parvient à localiser quelques 260 documents en anglais sur les 345 concernant le Qaṭar, le Golfe et la péninsule Arabique, écrits entre 1840 et 1980. Ces documents sont désormais à la disposition de ceux qui voudraient poursuivre une étude de l’histoire de l’Ouest de l’océan Indien pour la période concernée au Centre d’études historiques Hasan Bin Mohammed au Qatar. En complément : National Archives of India : http://nationalarchives.nic.in/ Hassan Bin Mohammed Center for Historical Studies, Doha : Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 32 Actualités arabe : http://www.hbmhc.net anglais : http://www.hbmhc.net/Home.aspx Juin 2019/Ramaḍān 1440. Ṣāḥib ʿĀlam al-Aʿẓamī al-Nadawī, « Ǧīrūm Sāldāna waaʿmāluhu al-tārīḫiyya : Qaṭar wa-al-ḫalīğ fī al-aršīf al-Hindī », Al-Dūḥa 140, p. 150154. Les archives de la Compagnie Est indienne (East India Companie), principalement conservées dans l’East India House, à Londres, représentent des sources historiques importantes. Elles consistent en de multiples rapports et lettres traduisant les échanges entre l’Inde, Qaṭar et le Golfe. Après le Lieutenant A. T. Wilson, le Capitaine Philip Durham Henderson et Trevor Chichele Plowden, Jerome Antony Saldanha (1868-1947) en édita et en publia à son tour. Jerome Antony Saldanha est né à Mangalor dans le Karnataka, en Inde du Sud-Ouest. Après un diplôme du St. Joseph’s College, Tiruchirappalli, il étudie le droit à l’Université de Bombay, puis travaille pour le gouvernement indien. En 1921, il devient juge à Dharwad, puis exerce à Thane. Il est intéressé par l’histoire, les langues et la littérature, et est l’auteur de plusieurs articles et livres, dont Indian Castes16. Il est à l’origine de la publication de différentes gazettes sur une période rapprochée. On citera à titre d’exemple, Précise of Turkish Arabia Affairs, 1801-1905 (Simla, Government Central Press, 1906), qui comprend des lettres intéressant l’histoire de la péninsule Arabique sous l’Empire ottoman et les relations entre l’Empire ottoman et le gouvernement britannique, par exemple la situation domestique et tribale en péninsule Arabique, les connexions des Wahhabites avec le Fārs, Mascate, le pouvoir britannique et les marchands indiens dans le Golfe. En ce qui concerne l’auteur de l’article, Ṣāḥib ʿĀlam al-Aʿẓamī al-Nadawī, voir la brève précédente. Novembre 2019-février 2020. Doha, Qatar National Library. Exposition « Qatar, India & The Gulf. History, Culture & Society » Cette petite exposition, accompagnée d’un catalogue, montre les liens historiques, culturels et sociaux entre le Qatar, l’Inde et le Golfe sur le très long terme, remontant aux premiers documents, épigraphiés, attestant d’une présence indienne dans le Golfe, en 2334 avant Jésus-Christ. Le propos, recentré sur les civilisations de l’Indus, permet de dépasser les frontières de l’Inde actuelle pour mieux apprécier les échanges commerciaux et culturels constants et durables entre le Sous-Continent Indien et la région du Golfe, entre 518 avant J.-C., l’Empire achéménide, jusqu’au terme de l’Inde britannique, 1947. Ils sont illustrés de manière à la fois synthétique et diachronique par une série de 16 J. A. Saldahna, The Indian Caste, vol. 1, Konkani or Goan castes, Bombay, Anglo-Lusitano Press, 1904, https://books.google.co.jp/books/about/The_Indian_Caste.html?id=BKs0HAAACAAJ&redir_esc=y Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 33 Actualités cartes très éclairante, dans l’exposition et au catalogue (p. 152-155). L’exposition, ainsi que le catalogue, sont signés James Onley, Directeur des recherches historiques et des collaborations à Qatar National Library, avec la contribution de Rizwan Ahmad, Professeur associé de socio-linguistique à Qatar University, à laquelle s’ajoutent d’autres collaborations scientifiques externes. Du fait du sujet, l’ensemble des chapitres couverts intéresse les nCmY. S’adressant à un large public, le catalogue, abondamment illustré, présente cependant des textes courts. Parmi les documents reproduits ou exposés, on notera en particulier les différentes cartes, des sceaux, les bons d’échange manuscrits hundī contre des roupies (p. 102-103) et la section sur les livres d’auteurs du Golfe lithographiés en Inde à la fin du xixe et au début du xxe s. (p. 119-121). James Onley, avec la contribution de Rizwan Ahmad, Qatar, India & The Gulf. History, Culture & Society, Catalogue de l’exposition, Doha, Qatar National Library Catalogingin-Publication, 204 p. 15 décembre 2019. Doha, Qatar National Library. Conférence thématique : « Scripts from Qatar’s History » Deux conférences étaient organisées autour d’un moment dédié aux différentes écritures présentes et transmises dans des manuscrits du Qatar à la Qatar National Library (QNL). La brochure indique qu’il existe un large échantillon de ces écritures si l’on prend la peine de fouiller dans les sources diverses constituées par, outre les copies du Coran, les journaux personnels, la correspondance privée, politique et d’affaire, les marques de propriété de dirigeants, šayḫ-s et ulemas, les livres en waqf. Les marques de propriété montrent l’intérêt des dirigeants et des savants pour leurs textes comme sources de connaissance. ʿUbayda Muḥammed Ṣāliḥ al-Bankī, né à Dayr al-Zūr (Syrie), calligraphe et auteur de Muṣḥaf Qaṭar bi-riwāyat Ḥafṣ ʿan ʿĀṣim17, a présenté le manuscrit du Coran copié par le šayḫ Aḥmad b. Rašīd b. Ǧumʿa al-Murīḫī en 1806. Ce Coran en deux volumes, conservé au musée national du Qatar, est réputé être l’un des plus anciens exemples de calligraphie qatarie connus à ce jour dans le pays : le scribe a indiqué, achevant son œuvre, qu’il était né à Zubāra, un site historique du Qatar, et y avait été élevé18. Le šayḫ Ḫālid b. Muḥammad b. Ġānim b. ʿAlī Āl Ṯānī a présenté son livre, Mudawwanāt al-usra al-ḥākima fī Qaṭar mudawwanatā : al-šayḫ Qāsim b. Muḥammad waal-šayḫ ʿAlī b. ʿAbd Allāh namūḏaǧān, montrant la contribution des archives personnelles à la compréhension de l’histoire du Qatar (voir ci-dessus, Actualités, <2016/1437>, p. 31-32). 17 Titre de la première édition, parue en 2008 ; quatrième édition parue en 2019. Publications électroniques. Site dédié : www.mushafqatar.com. Accès au PDF, entre autres, ici : https://archive.org/d…/QuranAlKareem-15Lines-QatariPrint/pdf 18 Vidéo de folios enluminés et commentaires, https://twitter.com/i/status/1106556130392719366 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 34 Actualités Une projection des lettres et signatures de figures historiques fameuses du Qatar conservées dans les collections patrimoniales de la QNL tapissaient les murs durant les communications. https://www.gulf-times.com/story/650803/QNL-presents-Scripts-from-Qatar-s-History https://www.qnl.qa/en/about/news/letters-and-quranic-manuscripts-reveal-insights-qatarshistory PÉNINSULE ARABIQUE, GOLFE, MER ROUGE, MER ARABIQUE, OCÉAN INDIEN 2017. Al-istiḫbārāt fī al-Ḫalīǧ al-ʿarabī Muḫtārāt min waṯāʾiq ḥukūmāt Būmbāy silsilat ǧadīrat raqam (24) li-ʿām 1856 fīmā yataʿalliq bi- : al-ǧazīra al-ʿArabiyya, alBaḥrayn, al-Kuwayt, Masqaṭ wa-ʿUmān, Qaṭar, al-Imārāt al-ʿArabiyya al-Mutaḥḥida wa-ǧuzr al-Ḫalīǧ, tarǧamat ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ʿAbd al-Ġanī Ibrāhīm, qaddama lahā warāǧaʿahā wa-ʿallaqa ʿalayhā Ḥasan b. Muḥammad b. ʿAlī Āl Ṯānī, Doha, Markaz Ḥasan b. Muḥammad li-al-dirāsāt al-tārīḫiyya, 559 p. [1re imp.]. ISBN 978-9927-00548-0. Il s’agit de la traduction arabe de : Arabian Gulf Intelligence. Selections from the Records of the Bombay Government New Series, No. XXIV, 1856 concerning Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Muscat and Oman, Qatar, United Arab Emirates and the Islands of the Gulf, compiled and ed. by R. Hughes Thomas and newly introduced by Robin Bidwell, Cambridge, The Oleander Press, 1985, coll. « Arabia past and present », 17. Elle est introduite, après avoir été revue et commentée par Ḥasan b. Muḥammad b. ʿAlī Āl Ṯānī, Directeur du Markaz Ḥasan b. Muḥammad li-al-dirāsāt al-tārīḫiyya, Doha. 2017. Annabel Teh Gallop, « Indian Ocean Connections: Illuminated Islamic Manuscripts From Penang », dans : Peter Zabielskis, Yeoh Guan Seng & Kat Fatland (éd.), Penang and its networks of knowledge, Penang, Areca Books, p. 115-133. Annabel Teh Gallop fait un état des lieux de sa recherche sur l’existence de styles régionaux dans les enluminures de manuscrits produits par les royaumes malais de la Malaisie péninsulaire entamée au début des années 2000s sur un corpus principalement composé de corans. Deux manuscrits de Penang soulevaient, en particulier, la question d’un style propre à la ville : le Tāǧ al-salāṭīn de Buḫārī al-Johorī, i. e. de la ville de Johor, ms. British Library Or. 13295, composé à Aceh en 1603, d’une part, et, d’autre part, un Coran exposé au musée d’État de Penang (Penang State Museum). L’exemplaire du Tāǧ al-salāṭīn conservé à la BL a été copié à Penang par Muḥammad b. ʿUmar šayḫ Farīd, le 4 ḏū al-ḥiǧǧa 1239/samedi 31 juillet 1824. La date au colophon est rédigée en persan : le scribe maîtrisait donc cette langue, outre le malais et l’arabe. L’usage du persan étant inhabituel pour les manuscrits malais, en particulier du xixe s., l’hypothèse qu’il était de descendance indienne paraît plausible. Quant au Coran du Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 35 Actualités musée d’État de Penang, son premier propriétaire fut Muhammad Noordin Merican, un musulman de Nagapattinam dans l’Etat indien du Tamil Nadu, qui se rendit à Penang aux alentours de 1820 et, en 1834, succéda à son frère aîné comme leader de la communauté indienne Chulia à Penang. La famille Noordin possédait des navires qui mouillaient dans les ports de Malacca, Birmanie, Chine, Inde, du Moyen-Orient et d’Europe, faisant le commerce, entre autres marchandises, des épices, mais transportaient aussi immigrants et pèlerins. Muhammad Noordin Merican transmit son Coran en 1877. Si ces marques marginales contribuent à dater l’écriture du manuscrit, c’est une proximité stylistique avec le manuscrit précédent qui ramène sa localisation à Penang. C’est finalement en modifiant l’hypothèse de travail initiale que la question de la définition du style de ces deux manuscrits exceptionnels trouve une issue dans cet article d’Annabel Teh Gallop. Il a en effet des caractéristiques communes avec le livre manuscrit dans l’Ouest de l’océan Indien. Cette nouvelle piste tient au progrès consécutif de la recherche, d’un côté, sur les manuscrits malais et d’Extrême-Orient et, de l’autre, sur les manuscrits enluminés de l’Ouest de l’océan Indien, en particulier Zanzibar, l’Éthiopie, Oman et le Yémen. On ajoutera que Penang est la ville historique de transmission de l’islam en Malaisie péninsulaire depuis l’Aceh Baceh, au Nord-Ouest de Sumatra, où des marchands de l’océan Indien avaient touché terre au xve s. Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 36 Actualités 4 juin 2017. Anita L. P. Burde’tt, entitled « British Naval Archives: An appraisal of (official) maritime records relevant to the Gulf, Arabian Sea and Red Sea, 1798– 1960 », Riwāq 4, p. 7-18. Compte tenu de ce que les registres (« records ») navals officiels britanniques représentent un matériel volumineux, varié mais dispersé, provenant principalement du Navy Board & Admiralty, aux Archives Nationales (The National Archives, TNA) ; de rapports et de lettres, associés à des documents d’ordre politique, conservés à l’India Office Archives, British Library; enfin d’archives du Service hydrographique de l’Amirauté (Admiralty Hydrographic Service), dont une partie a été transférée au TNA, et une autre demeure in situ, conservée par l’UK Hydrographic Office (UKHO) à Taunton (Somerset, Angleterre), cet article veut donner aux chercheurs le moyen de mieux s’orienter dans les collections : « This article sets out the key features of main classes in the context of their relevance to the history of the Arabian Peninsula, noting some significant items » (p. 7a). 2019. Ṣāḥib ʿĀlam al-Aʿẓamī al-Nadawī, « Qiṣṣat inšāʾ al-lağna al-dāʾima li-tiğārat alḫuyūl fī mīnāʾ Karātšī fī ʿaṣr al-istiʿmār al-Brīṭānī », Risālat al-ğawād al-ʿarabī 41, p. 16-21. Les archives de la Compagnie Est indienne (East India Company, EIC), qui conservent la trace de la correspondance entre ses officiers, informent sur la manière dont ils procédèrent au commerce des chevaux arabes et persans, utiles à leur armée, dans l’Inde du xviie au début du xxe s., avec la claire volonté de s’en emparer. La question de l’importation de chevaux par l’Inde, par voie de terre ou de mer, en provenance de la péninsule Arabique, du Golfe, du Moyen-Orient et de l’Afghanistan fait partie de l’histoire longue. Cet article vient donc compléter les recherches sur le commerce des chevaux pour les périodes antérieures. Pour le Yémen médiéval, l’épisode rassoulide est bien documenté, grâce au Nūr al-maʿārif : les sultans rassoulides prirent contrôle de l’économie des chevaux pour leurs propres gains et, selon le Nūr al-maʿārif, les marchands d’Aden et les nawāḫīḏ indiens n’avaient pas le droit d’acheter les animaux en Tihāma, à Sanaa, Taez et, en général, en tout autre endroit situé hors d’Aden19. À partir du xvie s., l’Empire mughal eut besoin de plus en plus de chevaux pour achever ses objectifs militaires. Selon les données accessibles des archives de l’E. I. C., les chevaux étaient transportés en Inde via le Pendjab, le Rajasthan et Kathawar (aujourd’hui dans le Rajasthan), des régions sous contrôle britannique, où l’élevage des chevaux était pratiqué, mais ne donnait pas d’animaux suffisamment solides et forts. Des marchands afghans se mi- Anon., Nūr al-maʿārif fī nuzum wa-qawānīn wa-aʿrāf al-Yaman fī al-ʿahd al-Muẓaffarī al-wārif, Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Raḥīm al-Ǧāzim (éd.), Sanaa, CEFAS, 2 vols, 2002-2005, vol. 1, p. 504-506 ; Daniel Mahoney, « The Role of Horses in the Politics of Late Medieval South Arabia », « Le cheval dans la péninsule Arabique », Arabian Humanities 8, numéro thématique, 2017, par. [8, 9], 19 https://journals.openedition.org/cy/3287 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 37 Actualités rent à transporter des chevaux d’Asie Centrale en Inde. L’E. I. C., cependant, ne pouvait exploiter directement ces marchés locaux de chevaux et devait s’acquitter de prix élevés auprès des marchands. Des points d’élevage des chevaux (horse stations, murābiṭ al-ḫuyūl) furent donc créés dans des zones humides, appropriées, de l’Est de l’Inde. Puis l’E. I. C. décida d’importer des chevaux d’Angleterre, mais cette stratégie échoua à son tour. L’E. I. C. commença alors à établir des comités et des agences commerciales dans les ports et à promouvoir le commerce des chevaux non seulement par le biais d’officiels et de militaires, mais aussi avec l’aide des autorités locales et des résidents dans le Golfe. Ils supprimèrent les taxes d’importation et s’efforcèrent parallèlement d’abolir les taxes à l’exportation de chevaux dans les pays d’origine. Dans les archives, quantité de lettres échangées entre les officiels britanniques permettent de prendre la mesure de la complexité de la situation. En effet, tandis que les autorités persanes supprimaient les taxes, des taxes illégales sur les chevaux étaient imposées dans le Golfe. Sur la base d’autres documents encore, on peut reconstruire le développement du commerce à Karachi. Le Gouvernement de Bombay tenta d’y former un comité afin d’exporter vers l’Inde des chevaux venant du Golfe. Puis, compte tenu du fait que les compagnies britanniques ouvrirent leurs bureaux, entrepôts et comités à Karachi et stimulèrent le commerce des chevaux via cette ville – plutôt que par Bombay, celle-ci se développa rapidement. Le commerce des chevaux s’épanouit jusqu’à ce que la demande d’animaux flambe et que les prix atteignent des sommets durant la Première Guerre Mondiale. NOUVELLES INTERNATIONALES 9 avril-7 juillet 2019. Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France. Exposition « Manuscrits de l’extrême. Prison Passion Péril Possession » Cette exposition exceptionnelle par son sujet et ses « objets » a été inspirée par les manuscrits de Louis-Auguste Blanqui (1805-1881), dit « l’Enfermé », qui, socialiste et révolutionnaire incarcéré plus de la moitié de sa vie, n’en poursuivit pas moins la rédaction d’une œuvre par définition mal-venue. C’est le moyen qu’il trouva pour contourner la question, gravant ainsi dans ses manuscrits les conditions-même dans lesquelles ils furent produits, qui est au cœur de la problématique de l’exposition, au travers de ses quatre volets « Prison », « Passion », « Péril » et « Possession » : « Loin de l’image traditionnelle du manuscrit comme source première d’un savoir, les feuillets exposés gardent ainsi la trace d’une dernière protestation de notre humanité dans des moments où elle s’est trouvée menacée ». La charge émotionnelle de ces témoins, immédiate, crée un nouveau contact au manuscrit comme « objet », vivant, mais fait peu à peu ressentir combien l’acte d’écrire est vital, puisque l’écriture est le recours extrême, l’équivalent du dernier souffle de vie, le moment où le texte et la vie sont joints. Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 38 Actualités Exposition en partenariat avec Le Monde des Livres, Transfuge, France Culture. Catalogue : Laurence Le Bras (dir. ; commissaire de l’exposition), Manuscrits de l’extrême, Paris, Bibiothèque nationale de France éd., 200 p., 100 ill. https://www.bnf.fr/fr/agenda/manuscrits-de-lextreme#bnf-l-exposition-en-d-tails 2019. Zulfikar Hirji (éd.), Approaches to the Qurʾan in Sub-Saharan Africa, Oxford, Oxford University Press, coll. « Qurʾanic Studies Series », 304 p. ISBN : 9780198840770. « Covering a period from the eighteenth century to the early twenty-first century, this multidisciplinary volume examines Muslim engagements with the Qurʾan in a variety of geographical locations in sub-Saharan Africa including Burkina Faso, Kenya, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, and Tanzania. The volume’s twelve case studies use different frameworks and methodological approaches from the academic disciplines of philology, historiography, anthropology, and art history. These studies explore a variety of media and modalities that Muslims in sub-Saharan Africa, as elsewhere, use in their engagements with the Qurʾan. These include: manuscripts; commentaries; translations; recitations and invocations; music and poetry; magical squares and symbolic repertoire; medicinal and curative acts; textiles, ink, paper, and wooden boards; spaces of education, healing and prayer, as well as spaces of dreams and spirit worlds. As such, the case studies move well beyond the materiality of the Qurʾan as a physical book to explore the ways in which the Qurʾan is understood, felt and imagined, as well as the contestations and debates that arise from these diverse engagements ». Table des matières : Zulfikar Hirji, « Approaching the Qurʾan in sub-Saharan Africa » Dmitry Bondarev, « Tafsīr Sources in Four Annotated Qurʾanic Manuscripts from Ancient Borno » Tal Tamari, « Qurʾanic Exegesis in Manding: The Example of a Bamana Oral Commentary on Surat al-Rahman (Q. 55) » Farouk Topan, « Polemics and Language in Swahili Translations of the Qurʾan: Mubarak Ahmad (d. 2001), Abdullah Saleh al-Farsy (d. 1982) and Ali Muhsin al-Barwani (d. 2006) » Gerard C. van de Bruinhorst, « ’A confirmation of what went before it’: Historicising a Swahili Qurʾan Translation » Ryan Thomas Skinner, « A Pious Poetics of Place: Islam and the Interpellation of (im)moral Subjects in Malian Popular Culture » Ruba Kanaʾan, « ’And God will protect thee from mankind’ (Q. 5:67): A Talismanic Shirt from West Africa » Adeline Masquelier, « Prayer, Piety, and Pleasure: Contested Models of Islamic Worship in Niger » Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 39 Actualités Kjersti Larson, « By way of the Qurʾan: Appeasing Spirits, Easing Emotions and Everyday Matters in Zanzibar » Susan J. Rasmussen, « The Woman who Did Not Become Possessed: Tuareg Islam and the Problem of Gendered Knowledge and Power in a Visitational Dream » Joseph Hill, « Women Who are Men: Daughters of Shaykh Ibrahim Ñas and the Paradoxes of Women’s Religious Leadership in Senegal » Andrea Brigaglia, « From the Tablet to Paper Leaves: Islamic Metaphysics and the Symbolism of Traditional Qurʾanic Education in Hausaland (Nigeria) » Zulfikar Hirji, « The Siyu Qurʾans: Three Illuminated Qurʾan Manuscripts from Coastal East Africa ». https://global.oup.com/academic/product/approaches-to-the-quran-in-sub-saharan-africa9780198840770?cc=ca&lang=en& REVUE DE PRESSE Le dernier semestre de l’année 2019 est marqué par la persistance du conflit au Yémen et la menace que provoque celui-ci sur le patrimoine historique yéménite. Des initiatives ont été lancées par le gouvernement yéménite et les organisations internatio- Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 40 Actualités nales dans la lutte contre le trafic d’antiquités, la protection des sites historiques, la restauration du patrimoine et la numérisation de manuscrits impactés par les affrontements en cours. YEMEN Août 2019. Al-šarq al-awsat, Des manuscrits historiques dérobés et falsifiés par les « rebelles » Houthis. Un groupe de conservateurs et d’universitaires yéménites du milieu des antiquités ont condamné la destruction systématique de manuscrits anciens en contradiction avec l’idéologie des Houthis20. Ils ont également mis en garde contre la saisie et la falsification de nombreux manuscrits historiques par les Houthis lors de travaux de restaurations. D’après plusieurs sources locales, les Houthis ont entrepris une série de fouilles de mosquées et sites archéologiques dans les villes de Sanaa, Šibām, Ḏamār, Zabīd, Ǧibla et al-Ǧanad. Les archéologues qui dirigent les fouilles ont rapporté qu’une partie des découvertes n’a pas été divulgué au grand public, notamment une série de manuscrits qui rejoindront le marché de la contrebande d’antiquités et seront par la suite vendus. Une source basée à la bibliothèque de la Grande Mosquée de Sanaa indique qu’une délégation houthie a arbitrairement emporté une série de manuscrits conservée par la Grande mosquée de Sanaa, notamment une partie des 11.817 manuscrits, parchemins et artefacts issues des récentes fouilles archéologiques aux abords de la mosquée. Un chercheur de l’Université de Sanaa confirme que le groupe cherche précisément à détruire toutes sources émanant de groupes religieux et philosophiques historiques tels que les manuscrits muʿtazilites, muṭṭarrifites et soufis. Selon le témoignage de ce même chercheur, une politique de répression à l’encontre des propriétaires privés de manuscrits a été mise en place par les Houthis dans les villes de Sanaa, Ḏamār et Zabīd, qui concentreraient, selon cet article, les trois quarts des manuscrits présents au Yémen. Novembre 2019. Sabanew, Une réunion à Djibouti pour lutter contre le trafic d’antiquités au Yémen. Une réunion de travail sur la lutte contre le trafic illicite de biens culturels s’est tenue à Djibouti le 28 novembre en présence d’une délégation yéménite dirigée par le soussecrétaire du ministère de la Culture Badr al-Salāḥī, en compagnie de dix représentants de l’Autorité générale des Antiquités et de conservateurs de musées21. 20 https://aawsat.com/home/article/1844136/ ‫احلويث‬-‫العبش‬-‫وطأة‬-‫حتت‬-‫المينية‬-‫اخملطوطات‬-‫كنوز‬ 21 https://www.sabanew.net/viewstory_1.php?id=56290&fbclid=IwAR163d3HAuJGu683g_sRIKFOUDetyJWu T4m-L74ZfvjuqKqcziWvEzAWq80 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 41 Actualités Un atelier de trois jours sur la lutte contre le trafic d’antiquités a été organisé dans le cadre de cette réunion par l’organisation des Nations unies pour l’éducation, la science et la culture (UNESCO) avec la coopération de l’organisation internationale de la Police criminelle (INTERPOL) et de la firme américaine d’ingénierie AECOM. Les parties à la table de cette réunion ont réaffirmé la nécessité de récupérer les antiquités dérobées durant le conflit et d’instaurer un système d’identification et de suivi de ces biens en cas de vol. L’atelier a insisté également sur l’importance de former la police yéménite à la protection et à la préservation du patrimoine culturel yéménite en danger depuis l’éclatement du conflit et aux divers moyens de récupérer les antiquités volées. Décembre 2019. ISESCO, L’organisation islamique pour l’éducation, la science et la culture classe trois sites historiques au Yémen sur la liste des patrimoines culturels en danger. Le sommet extraordinaire de l’Organisation islamique pour l’éducation, la science et la culture (ISESCO) s’est tenu les 2 et 3 décembre à Rabat en présence de l’Ambassadeur de la République du Yémen auprès du Maroc, ʿAzīdīn Saʿīd al-Asbaḥī22. Les États membres participant à ce sommet ont adopté une série de résolutions et recommandations qui visent à inscrire, protéger et préserver le patrimoine islamique mondial. L’Ambassadeur yéménite a pu délivrer un discours dans lequel il appelle les États membres à prendre toutes les mesures nécessaires pour contribuer à la préservation du patrimoine yéménite. Les États membres ont réaffirmé également l’importance de la création d’une liste du patrimoine mondial islamique. Cent dix-sept sites historiques ont été inscrit sur cette liste tandis que 3 autres sites historiques se trouvant au Yémen ont été ajoutés à la liste du patrimoine islamique mondial en danger. Le comité de l’organisation recommande la création d’un groupe d’experts dans le but d’identifier et de réhabiliter le patrimoine culturel yéménite atteint par plus de cinq années de guerre. D’après l’agence nationale yéménite des statistiques, 237 sites archéologiques ont été endommagés par les attaques aériennes et les mines depuis le début du conflit. ARABIE SAOUDITE 22 https://www.icesco.org/en/2019/12/04/final-report-of-iwhc-meeting-released/ Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 42 Actualités Décembre 2019. Al-Rīyad, Le gouvernement yéménite et le royaume d’Arabie saoudite signent un mémorandum de coopération pour la préservation du patrimoine culturel yéménite. Un mémorandum portant sur l’assistance du Royaume d’Arabie saoudite dans la protection et la préservation du patrimoine culturel yéménite a été signé le 31 décembre à Riyad23. La signature de ce protocole de coopération s’est faite en présence du Ministre yéménite de la Culture Marwān Damāǧ, de l’Ambassadeur du Royaume d’Arabie Saoudite au Yémen Muḥammad b. Saʿīd Āl Ǧābir et du Secrétaire-Général de la Fondation ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz pour la recherche et l’archivage, Dr. Fahḍ Al-Samārī. L’Ambassadeur Āl Ǧābir a insisté dans un communiqué sur « le rôle pionner du Royaume dans la préservation de l’histoire et du patrimoine de la péninsule Arabique et des pays arabes et musulmans en général. La protection et la préservation des documents et manuscrits historiques au Yémen, par leur numérisation, font partie des priorités du Royaume ». Le premier projet portera sur la formation du personnel de la Bibliothèque al-Aḥqāf, Tarīm, Ḥaḍramawt, à la préservation et à la numérisation des manuscrits historiques. Ce mémorandum s’inscrit plus largement dans le programme saoudien pour le développement et la reconstruction du Yémen piloté par la fondation depuis le début du conflit. ÉGYPTE Août 2019. ULCA Library, Des anciens manuscrits du Monastère de Sainte-Catherine dans le Mont-Sinaï ont été numérisés et mis en ligne. Une équipe de photographes grecs s’est rendue au Monastère de Sainte-Catherine dans le Mont-Sinaï afin de numériser d’anciens manuscrits d’époque médiévale en état de fragilité extrême24. Les photographes ont procédé à la capture des manuscrits en projetant différents contrastes de couleurs telles que le bleu, le rouge et le vert sur les manuscrits. Par la suite, les photos ont été rassemblées grâce à un logiciel informatique permettant de créer une version haute-définition du manuscrit. L’objectif de cette mission est de créer la première bibliothèque numérique d’Égypte comprenant plus de 4.500 anciens manuscrits dont 1.100 rédigés en arabe et en syriaque. Ce processus peut durer plus d’une décennie compte tenu des équipements nécessaires pour photographier, restaurer et archiver la collection. L’archidiocèse du Sinaï, de Pharan et de Raïthou, dans un échange de mails avec Reuters25, a confirmé l’importance de la mise en œuvre de ce projet. Le contexte géopolitique dans la région du Sinaï justifie l’urgence d’une telle opération. Des affrontements ont eu lieu entre l’État Islamique et les autorités égyptiennes tandis que les monastères ont été particulièrement visés par une série d’attentats revendiqués par l’État Islamique. 23 http://www.alriyadh.com/1796360 http://newsroom.ucla.edu/stories/arcadia-funds-digitization-of-arabic-and-syriac-manuscripts-from-stcatherines-monastery 25 https://ara.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idARAKCN1RT20Y 24 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 43 Actualités La mission a été lancée en 2018 par l’Early Manuscripts Eletronic Library (EMEL) en collaboration avec le Monastère et la Bibliothèque de l’Université de Californie à Los Angeles et le fond d’investissement Arcadia. La conservatrice de la Bibliothèque de l’Université, Ginny Steel, a confirmé que les premiers manuscrits numérisés dans le cadre de ce projet seront mis en ligne à partir de l’automne 2019 sur une plateforme accessible aux étudiants et aux chercheurs ainsi qu’au grand public. OMAN Octobre 2019. Times of Oman, Le Sultanat d’Oman et la Syrie ont organisé une rencontre sur la coopération culturelle et la promotion du patrimoine. Le Ministre de la Culture syrien s’est rendu le 15 octobre à Mascate pour rencontrer le Ministre omanais de la Culture et du Patrimoine, le prince Sayyid Haiṯam b. Ṭarīq alSaʿīd afin de discuter de la coopération culturelle entre les deux pays26. La rencontre a porté sur les modalités d’échanges de publications et d’ouvrages entre les universités et les bibliothèques des deux pays et le développement de programmes communs dans le cadre de l’étude des manuscrits et des autres arts. Les représentants ont discuté également de la lutte contre le trafic d’antiquités et les moyens de renforcer les pratiques de protection et de conservation du patrimoine archéologique et culturel dans les deux pays. 26 https://timesofoman.com/article/2069874/Oman/Oman-and-Syria-hold-talks-on-cultural-and-heritage Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 44 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent Articles ARABIC MANUSCRIPTS FROM YEMEN IN THE COLLECTIONS OF TASHKENT1 Author Victor Ivanovich Belyaev (the Leningrad [St. Petersburg] branch of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences; Leningrad [St. Petersburg] State University) Introduction, edition, annotation, indices & translation Maxim Yosefi (Fritz Thyssen post-doctoral research fellow, University of Göttingen) Foreword Anne Regourd (CNRS, UMR 7192, Paris) Abstract The article provides a meticulous description of five handwritten Arabic books from the collection of the Department of Manuscripts of the Uzbek National Library in Tashkent. The work was performed in 1944 during the cataloguing of the collection by the author, Victor Ivanovich Belyaev (1902–1976). Nowadays, the collection belongs to the Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan. Among the manuscripts he studied, the author distinguished five handwritten books which he decided to describe in detail and to publish the result within a separate article. The manuscripts are diverse in terms of topics, countries in which the authors of the compositions lived, and lands in which the copies under study originated. What links between them is that all five, in a way or another, are related to Yemen. Résumé Cet article donne une description méticuleuse de cinq livres arabes manuscrits de la collection du Département des manuscrits de la Bibliothèque nationale ouzbek, à Tachkent. Il fut réalisé en 1944, durant le catalogage de la collection par l’auteur, Victor Ivanovich Belyaev (1902-1976). La collection appartient à présent à l’Académie des sciences d’Ouzbekistan. Parmi les manuscrits étudiés, l’auteur en a extrait Original reference: Victor I. Belyaev, “Arabskie rukopisi iz Yemena v sobraniah Tashkenta” [Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent], 1947. [In Russian. N. o. the Ed.]. See CmY New Series 7/26 (July 2018), Actualités, <Catalogues de manuscrits du Yémen en russe : mise à jour>, pp. 1415. 1 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 45 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent cinq qu’il a décidé de décrire en détail dans une publication séparée. Les manuscrits ont des sujets variés, les pays dans lesquels les auteurs ont vécu et desquels les copies étudiées sont originaires ne sont pas les mêmes. Cependant, ces cinq manuscrits sont, d’une manière ou d’une autre, reliés au Yémen. ‫خالصة‬ ‫حتتوي هذه املقاةل عىل دراسة دقيقة مخلس خمطوطات من مجموعة قسم اخملطوطات ابملكتبة الوطنية الوزبكية يف‬ ‫ تنمتي‬.‫ واستندت عىل فهرسة اجملموعة اليت أجنزها املؤلف يف طشقند‬۹۱٤٤ ‫ لقد أمكلت املقاةل يف سنـة‬.‫طشقند‬ ‫ ومن بني اخملطوطات اليت درسها املؤلف اختار مخس خمطوطات‬،‫اجملموعة يف وقتنا احلارض لاكدميية أوزبكس تان للعلوم‬ ‫ واخملطوطات امخلس ختتلف موضوعاهتا وعناويهنا‬.‫ ونرش نتاجئ دراس هتا يف حبث منفصل‬،‫قام بوصفها وحتليلها ابلتفصيل‬ ‫ وما يربط بني هذه اخملطوطات أهنا ذات صةل‬.‫وبدلان مؤلفهيا والرايض اليت نُسخت فهيا اخملطوطات قيد ادلراسة‬ .‫برتاث واترخي المين بطريقة أو بأخرى‬ Keywords Manuscripts, Yemen, South Arabia, Uzbekistan, Tashkent, Sufism, Victor Ivanovich Belyaev (1902–1976) Mots-clés Manuscrits, Yémen, Arabie du Sud, Ouzbékistan, Tachkent, soufisme, Victor Ivanovich Belyaev (19021976) ‫عبارات رئيسيـة‬ -۹۱۹۱( ‫ فيكتور ايفانوفيتش بيلياييف‬،‫ الصوفية‬،‫ طشقند‬،‫ أوزبكس تان‬،‫ جنوب اجلزيرة العربية‬،‫ المين‬،‫اخملطوطات‬ )۹۱۱٦ Foreword Victor Ivanovich Belyaev finalized his article on the five manuscript volumes of the Arabic collection of the Institute of the Uzbek Academy of Sciences in Tashkent on 19 September 1944. The precise and thorough description he gives of them is centred on the texts: identification of the works and the copying, transmission and circulation of the works, making use of central and marginal texts. It is accompanied by indications of the material components of the manuscripts (paper, size of the sheets, ink, cover block). The article is organized like a catalogue, the five volumes being marked A–E: the entries, which are extremely detailed, correspond to current cataloguing requirements. In the 10-volumes Catalogue of the Tashkent collection, which comprises 6.989 entries in total, and was carried out between 1952 and 1975 under the name of the first editor, Alexander Alexandrovich Semyonov (1873–1958), the format and structure are the same as in Belyaev work, descriptions only are shorter2. Belyaev is mentioned in 2 A. Semyonov et al. (eds), Sobranie vostochnyh rukopisey Akademii Nauk Uzbekskoy SSR [The Collection of Oriental Manuscripts of the Academy of Sciences of the Uzbek SSR], 1952–1975, 10 vols. [In Russian]. The number of entries, i. e. 6989, represents a bit more than a quarter of 23.687 manuscripts of Tashkent. Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 46 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent the introduction among the scholars who worked on the description of the manuscripts in Tashkent, and his article is referred to for those who want a more detailed description. Another strong point, in order to conduct his study, argue and draw his conclusions on the transmission and circulation of texts and manuscripts, Belyaev systematically relied on the collection of data internal to the manuscripts, whatever their nature, including palaeography, peculiarities of writing, paper, etc. The manuscripts were treated as an almost exclusive source of historical study, revealing, finally, their richness. The translation of Belyaev’s article from Russian into English allows a larger number of readers to access a work rich with a variety of data. The five “from Yemen” manuscripts he has assembled, two of which are collections (maǧmūʿ, pl. maǧāmiʿ), are not all Yemeni in their composition and the place of their copying: “Two first manuscripts are purely Yemeni in terms of both the original compositions and the origin of the copies under study. Two other manuscripts represent texts, which appeared, respectively, in Yemen and Egypt, but were copied in the North-West of India. The fifth text was composed in Mesopotamia by an Arab author of Andalusī origin, and its copy was made in India by a descendant of a South Arabian sailor”3. These five manuscripts highlight the role of sea routes in the transmission of texts and manuscript books over the long term, between the 16th and the first half of the 19th century. In B, text I was copied in 1813 at “the harbor of al-Muḫā” [29]; text V was copied on the 19th of July 1813 in the port-town of al-Ḥudayda [47]; and text VIII was copied on the 8th of August 1813 in al-Muḫā [57]. In C, Texts II and III were copied in “the Indian port of Surat”, the first on the 10th of September 1696, the second, on the 3d of February 1697 [82; 87]. Texts A and D show evidence of the passage through India, with, for D, India as the place of copy [14; 99; 108]. According to Belyaev, E was probably copied in India “from the autograph by a man from Yemen, whose name was Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. Aḥmad al-Zabīdī. His father, who was apparently born in Zabīd, a city which is close to the sea, was a captain of a ship (nāḫūḏa)” and “we may indeed assume him to be an immigrant from Yemen who settled in India.” [123]4. The transmission of the text of manuscript E from the autograph begins at Mawṣūl in the second half of the 12th c., then the text reappears in India, where it is copied, according to the colophon, from the autograph itself [123–124]. Finally, India appears as the hub of the circulation of texts and manuscripts towards Central Asia. For an assumption on the number of entries which potentially belongs to Belyaev, see his Introduction by Maxim Yosefi below, p. 51. 3 See below “An Introduction (by V. I. Belyaev)”, p. 55–56. 4 V. I. Belyaev’s assumption of a link between the socio-professional origin of Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. Aḥmad al-Zabīdī, and his abilities as a copyist, “the copyist originated from a family of craftsmen and was close to the illiterate environment” [122], seems questionable to us, as are several assumptions of this paragraph. Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 47 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent The passage of the five manuscripts from India to Tashkent is less documented. Items D and E testify that they were in Buḫāra, in the possession of Muḥammad ʿAbd al-ʿAẓīm al-Buḫārī al-Šarʿābādī, a Ṣūfī scholar who belonged to the Qādiriyya order, highlighting the Sufi network of manuscript circulation, whose members may also have been merchants and travellers. Al-Šarʿābādī used D for his historical work “The source of chronograms” in 1290/1873–1874. He read E in Buḫāra in 1290/1873–1874, at the same time, studying meticulously al-Buḫārī’s Ṣaḥīḥ [112, 125]. Belyaev mentions that “This person also owned a number of other manuscripts which are presently stored in the same Tashkent collection in which we found the manuscript described above” [112]. The way D and E arrived at Buḫāra is unclear. As for B, containing a collection of Zaydī works, they were “imported most likely in the middle of the 19th c. by a citizen of Kazan who performed a trip to Arabia and, perhaps, had visited Yemen in its course” [19]. The collection contains:  Text III, Kitāb al-arbaʿīn al-ḥadīṯ (sic!) al-saylaqiyya compiled by al-Sayyid alŠarīf Zayd b. ʿAbd Allāh b. Masʿūd al-Hāšimī (d. 497/1104; ff. 10a–20b);  Text IV, Al-tuḥfa al-sunniyya li-maʿānī al-aḥādīṯ al-saylaqiyya by Ǧamāl alDīn Aḥmad b. ʿAlī b. Birġam (n. d.), maybe the father of Yaḥyā b. Aḥmad b. Birġam (ca. 850/1446), the author of the Zaydī composition on law entitled Šarḥ al-baḥr al-zaḫḫār (ff. 21b–68b);  Text V, Tazyīn al-maǧālis bi-ḏikr al-tuḥaf al-nafāʾis wa-maknūn ḥisān al-ʿarāʾis by the famous Zaydī Imam and theorist of Zaydī teaching in Yemen al-Mahdī li-Dīn Allāh Aḥmad b. Yaḥyā b. al-Murtaḍā (died of pest in Ẓafār, 840/1437; ff. 69b–111b);  Text VIII, Minhāǧ al-muttaqīn wa-miʿrāǧ al-muḫliṣīn by Ṣārim al-Dīn Dāʾūd b. Kāmil al-Miḥlabī al-Ḥaǧǧī (ff. 119b–188b). The transmission of Muʿtazilī texts from the eastern Caspian (Ḫwarizm and Ḫurasān) to Zaydī Yemen has been discussed for the medieval period, the 12th and 13th c.5, whereas here, we are dealing with Zaydī texts, copied in 1813 at al-Ḥudayda and Muḫā in Yemen, which took a northerly path. It remains to be seen how this volume made its way back south to Tashkent. Noticeable, in the upper left corner of text IV, is an inscription added by someone called Abū al-Šaraf al-Ḥusayn al-Bulġārī in 1262/1845– 1846, as are markings in his hand in the margins of the most significant episodes of text VIII, written in a tiny nastaʿlīq [42, 58]. Introduction to the English translation In issue 7/26 of Chroniques du Manuscrit au Yémen (CmY) New Series, an edited and annotated English translation of a catalogue of Arabic manuscripts from Ḥaḍramawt by Anas Khalidov (1929–2001) was published.6 A mention of this work fits to begin an 5 6 H. Ansari, S. Schmidtke & J. Thiele, “Zaydī Theology in Yemen”, 2016, especially p. 484sq. Anas B. Khalidov, “Arabic manuscript collections in the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen”, 2019. Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 48 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent introduction to the present English translation of an article on Arabic manuscripts by Victor Belyaev (1902–1976) not merely because it establishes a connection between two publications in close issues of the journal. Indeed, the works are linked to each other thematically and logically, for both provide description and analysis of Yemeni manuscripts by prominent 20th-century scholars of the Saint-Petersburg school of Arabic and Islamic studies. At the same time, the reminder of Khalidov’s catalogue is important, because the introduction to Belyaev’s article will inevitably link two scholars via persons, places, publications and, of course, manuscripts. The work presented below was written in Tashkent in 1944. By that time, Victor Belyaev was already an established scholar. He had received a Candidate of Science degree (Soviet and contemporary Russian equivalent of a PhD) in Philology several years earlier (in January 1937) from the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Academy of Sciences. As a researcher at the Institute of Oriental Studies, he worked in Leningrad, cataloguing and describing the vast Arabic collections of the local Department of Manuscripts. Belyaev’s main research interest focused on Arabic manuscripts related to Turkmenistan, and the scholar actively translated them into Russian. In 1939, he was mobilised for the Winter War (the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939– 1940), in which he was seriously wounded. After rehabilitation, he returned to the Institute, where in 1941, during the first year of the Great Patriotic War, and especially after Leningrad had been besieged (8 September 1941), he worked to save the manuscript collections and scholarly archives from bombardments. In July 1942, the Institute was evacuated to the city of Yelabuga (the Tatar Republic), and then, in November 1942—to Tashkent, where Belyaev remained until May 1945. The significance of Belyaev’s work in the Uzbek capital was not only that he approached the manuscript collections of the Republic that was once part of mighty Islamic empires of the Middle East and Central Asia. Of high importance is the very fact that, regardless of hardships of the war, studies and research went on in the country. It means that, inasmuch as it was possible, the humanities did not let inhumanity crowing over the humans. In this respect, the significance of books and articles written by the scholars evacuated from Leningrad in the days of the siege goes beyond their scientific value. The time in which the work was written was cruel not only because of the war, but also because of the state terror that, among incalculable victims, killed many talented scholars. When Belyaev came to Tashkent in autumn 1942, he did not find his university teacher Alexander Schmidt (1871–1939),7 an outstanding Arabist who, at the very end of the 19th century, was distinguished by I. Goldziher (1850–1921), and in the 1920s acted as the 7 Alexander Eduardovich Schmidt (1871–1939) graduated from the Arabic-Persian-Turkish Department of the Faculty of Oriental Studies of the State University of Saint-Petersburg, where he was a student of the academician Baron Viktor von Rosen (1849–1908). In 1896, after earning his MA degree, Schmidt practiced research skills at European Universities, amongst others, under the guidance of Ignác Goldziher and Joseph von Karabacek in Vienna, and under the guidance of Michael Jan de Goeje in Leiden. Since 1920—Professor at the Faculty of Oriental Studies of the University of Tashkent and, in 1920–1921, the Rector of the University. In 1930, exiled to Alma-Ata among eleven professors of the University. In 1939, died in prison in Tashkent. Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 49 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent Rector of the Tashkent University. Three years earlier (1939), in Tashkent, falling a victim of the repressions, Alexander Schmidt was accused of “counter-revolutionary wrecking” and died in prison. Fig. 1. Victor Belyaev in the 1940s. A photo of the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Tashkent is the first place linking between Belyaev and Khalidov, although, most likely, they did not meet in the city during the war. It is, however, a fine coincidence that in 1944, when Belyaev worked on the article published below, Khalidov (fourteen-years old at that time) also lived in Tashkent as an evacuee. In the introduction to Khalidov’s catalogue of Arabic manuscripts from Ḥaḍramawt, it was noticed that, remaining in Tashkent without parents, a schoolboy from the Tatar Republic, Khalidov was adopted by the staff of the Pulkovo Astronomical Observatory evacuated from Leningrad8, and this predetermined his attachment to scholarship and Russia’s northern capital. Very soon, Leningrad became the second city that brought Khalidov and Belyaev together. In 1946, when Khalidov moved to Leningrad and entered the Faculty of Oriental Studies of the State University, he became Belyaev’s student. Another fine coincidence makes us return to the first years of Belyaev’s life. When he left Leningrad for Tashkent during the war, this was not only an evacuation, but, at the same time, a return to his “little homeland”. In 1902, 15 years before the collapse of the Russian Empire, Victor Belyaev was born in Tashkent, in the family of a Russian lawyer. The years of childhood and youth spent in Tashkent influenced the formation of his interest in Islamic culture, Arabic, Persian and Turkish languages, as well as in history of Central Asia. In 1921, he entered the Oriental Turkestan Institute in Tashkent, where he was a student of Alexander E. Schmidt, who belonged to the SaintPetersburg school. It is most likely owing to Schmidt that, in 1923, Belyaev exchanged 8 A. B. Khalidov, “Arabic manuscript collections”, 2019, p. 61. Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 50 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent into the University of Saint-Petersburg to continue his studies under the guidance of Schmidt’s younger colleague Ignatiy Julianovich Kratchkovsky (1883–1951). The Academician Kratchkovsky also links between Belyaev and Khalidov, for Khalidov became Kratchkovsky’s student in the 1940s,9 as was Belyaev in the 1920s. After graduating from the University in 1925, Belyaev continued working on manuscripts under Kratchkovsky’s guidance as a researcher at the Asian Museum. In 1933, he became a researcher at the Institute of Books, Documents and Writings of the Academy of Sciences, where he studied Arabic Numismatics, palaeographic and papyrological materials. After the Institute’s merger with the Institute of History in 1936, Belyaev exchanged for the Department of Manuscripts of the Institute of Oriental Studies, where he concentrated on cataloguing its Arabic, Persian, Tajik and Turkish collections. It is in this period that, within a project of the Academy of Sciences, he worked on translation of Arabic sources on the history of the Turkmen people. An article on the latter was published in the first volume of a collective work entitled Materials on the history of the Turkmens and Turkmenistan.10 The work on manuscripts published below, though very time- and labourconsuming, is only a modest part of what Victor Belyaev had done in less than three years of the evacuation period. Apart from continuing the projects of the Institute of Oriental Studies, he described Arabic and Persian collections of the Department of Manuscripts of the National Library of Uzbekistan. His descriptions of 129 manuscripts were later included into volumes 1–4 of the Catalogue of Oriental Manuscript Collections published by the Uzbek Academy of Sciences.11 Finally, in Tashkent, he taught Arabic language at the Central Asian State University and at the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of the Uzbek Academy of Sciences. After returning to Leningrad in May 1945, Belyaev was appointed at the head of the Department of Manuscripts of the Institute of Oriental Studies. In a short period, the collections of the Department were put in order. Belyaev, moreover, elaborated an effective plan and methodology of their further cataloguing and description. He was involved in this work until 1959, when he left the Institute of Oriental Studies for fully dedicating himself to the State University (a governmental decree of that year prohibited combining working places). Belyaev’s successor at the Leningrad Centre for the study of Arabic manuscripts (“the Arab cabinet”) was Khalidov, who directed the further work on cataloguing and describing the manuscript collections of the Institute.12 At the Leningrad [Saint-Petersburg] State University, where Belyaev taught from the 1930s to the 1970s, he stood at the head of the Chair of Arabic Language and Litera- A. B. Khalidov, “Arabic manuscript collections”, 2019, p. 60. V. I. Belyaev, “Arabskije istochniki po istorii turkmen i Turkmenii IX–XIII vekov” [Arabic Sources on the History of the Turkmen People and Turkmenistan, 9th–13th centuries], 1939. [In Russian]. 11 A. Semyonov et al. (eds), Sobranie vostochnyh rukopisey Akademii Nauk Uzbekskoy SSR [The Collection of Oriental Manuscripts of the Academy of Sciences of the Uzbek SSR], 1952–1975, 10 vols. [In Russian]. 12 A. B. Khalidov, “Arabic manuscript collections”, 2019, pp. 62–63. 9 10 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 51 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent ture since 1959 and acted as a full professor since 1963. He prepared several generations of scholars. Among the prominent figures of the Saint-Petersburg school, along with Anas B. Khalidov, we should name Professors Olga B. Frolova (1926–2015), Anna A. Dolinina (1923–2017), and Dr. Piotr A. Griaznevich (1929–1997). The latter, together with A. Khalidov, undertook an expedition to Ḥaḍramawt in 1974, and the materials collected by the scholars formed basis for the article published in English in issue 7/26 of CmY. As a result of that trip, Ḥaḍramawt had been in the focus of the Joint SovietYemeni Expedition (JSYE), initiated by Griaznevich and directed by him in 1983–1989. Considering the link between Kratchkovsky, Belyaev and Khalidov as a link between generations within the school, we should mention separately Belyaev’s commitment to his older and younger colleagues. Thus, in the late 1950s, Belyaev worked a lot on publishing the oeuvre of Kratchkovsky and contributed much to the edition of the several volumes of Kratchkovsky’s selected works13 and of his translation of the Qurʾan—the most exact of the existing translations into Russian, which had been accomplished but did not see the light during Kratchkovsky’s lifetime. During the same period, Belyaev worked on the edition of a catalogue of Arabic manuscripts of prose in the collections of the Institute of Oriental Studies14—one of Khalidov’s most important publications by that time. On the other hand, already at the end of the 1990s, shortly before he passed away, Khalidov finished and published one of Belyaev’s most important works—a critical edition of al-Ṣūlī’s Kitāb al-awrāq.15 Fig. 2. Victor Belyaev in the 1970s. A photo of the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences. 13 I. J. Kratchkovsky, Izbrannye sochinenia [Selected works], 1955–1960. [In Russian]. A. B. Khalidov, Katalog arabskih rukopisey Instituta nardov Azii Akademii Nauk SSSR. Vypusk 1. Hudozhestvennaya proza [The catalogue of Arabic manuscripts of the Institute of the study of Asian peoples of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Issue 1. Artistic prose], 1960. [In Russian]. 15 Abū Bakr al-Ṣūlī (d. 335/946), Kitāb al-awrāq, trans. ed. and comment V. I. Belyaev & A. B. Khalidov, 1998. [In Arabic and Russian]. 14 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 52 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent The present article by Belyaev also illustrates the link between generations within the Saint-Petersburg school of Arabic and Islamic studies, which, owing to the local collections, has a strong tradition of manuscript studies. In his methodology, Belyaev succeeded his teacher, academician Ignatiy Kratchkovsky, who was passionate about the manuscript studies.16 Kratchkovsky, in his turn, was the student of the academician Baron Victor Romanovich Rosen (1849–1908), who was involved in cataloguing the collections of the Asiatic Museum (the Institute for Oriental studies of the Academy of sciences was founded on its base in 1930), which he directed in 1881–1892. It was Belyaev, however, who, at the end of the 1940s, had worked out detailed guidelines for decades ahead. In the middle of the 1970s, the work on cataloguing the manuscripts of the Institute was still carried out according to Belyaev’s guidelines. Belyaev’s work accomplished in Tashkent in 1944 could have been brought to publication only after the war. It saw the light in 1947. The article is descriptive. Apparently, its idea was born during the scholar’s work on cataloguing and describing the manuscript collections of the National Library of Uzbekistan (later, its Department of Manuscripts had been part of the Uzbek Academy of Sciences). Among the 129 manuscripts he described, Belyaev distinguished five handwritten books (some of them— collected volumes of several works). These manuscripts deserved to have been discussed within one large scholarly paper regardless of diversity in terms of topics, countries in which the authors of the compositions lived, and lands in which the copies under study originated. The five handwritten books are, in a way or another, related to Yemen. Composition II of Item No. 2641, the whole Item No. 3411 (gained an especially detailed description) and Item No. 3036 are of especial relevance to the study of Yemeni Ṣūfīs. The article is of high value as a fine example of work on cataloguing and meticulous description of Arabic manuscripts. As in the case of the edited translation of Khalidov’s catalogue published in CmY 7/26, for the present English edited translation of Belyaev work, reader-friendly formatting and structuring, retrieval and translation of Arabic titles, fuller or corrected personal names and titles, as well as dates and notes have been provided where necessary. Kratchkovsky’s memories of his study of manuscripts, accomplished in the Russian language in 1943, were translated and published in English by Brill already in 1953, two years after the death of the scholar. See the recent edition: I. J. Kratchkovsky, Among Arabic Manuscripts, 2016. 16 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 53 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent Table of content An Introduction (by V. Belyaev) ................................................................................................... 55 A. Item No. 104. Muwaffaq al-Dīn Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. al-Ḥasan b. al-Wahhās alḪazraǧī al-Yamanī (d. 812/1409–1410), Al-ʿaqd al-fāḫir al-ḥasan fī ṭabaqāt akābir alYaman/Ṭirāz aʿlām al-zaman fī ṭabaqāt aʿyān al-Yaman ................................................ 56 B. Item No. 2641. A collection of nine works of Zaydī instructive literature .................. 60 I. Abū al-Ḥasan Aḥmad b. Fāris b. Zakariyyāʾ b. Ḥabīb al-Hamaḏānī al-Qazwīnī al-Rāzī (d. 395 or 396/1005–1006), Kitāb Sīrat al-nabī .......................................... 61 II. Abū Ḥamīd Muḥammad b. Muḥammad al-Ġazālī al-Ṭūsī (d. 505/1111), Nubḏa min bidāyat al-nihāya .................................................................................................... 65 III. Al-Sayyid al-Šarīf Zayd b. ʿAbd Allāh b. Masʿūd al-Hāšimī (d. 497/1104), Kitāb al-arbaʿīn al-ḥadīṯ (sic!) al-saylaqiyya .......................................................................66 IV. Ǧamāl al-Dīn Aḥmad b. ʿAlī b. Birġam (d. before 850/1446), Al-tuḥfa alsunniyya li-maʿānī al-aḥādīṯ al-saylaqiyya ............................................................... 67 V. Al-Mahdī li-Dīn Allāh Aḥmad b. Yaḥyā b. al-Murtaḍā (d. 840/1437), Tazyīn almaǧālis bi-ḏikr al-tuḥaf al-nafāʾis wa-maknūn ḥisān al-ʿarāʾis ...........................69 VI. Aḥādīṯ fī ṣifat al-ǧanna wa-al-nār ................................................................................ 72 VII. Bāb ḏikr al-mawāqif al-ḫamsīn .................................................................................... 72 VIII. Ṣārim al-Dīn Dāʾūd b. Kāmil al-Miḥlabī al-Ḥaǧǧī (d. after 793/1391), Minhāǧ al-muttaqīn wa-miʿrāǧ al-muḫliṣīn .............................................................................. 73 IX. Kaʿb al-Aḥbār (d. 35/656), Iṯnatā ʿašrata kalimatan .............................................. 77 C. Item No. 566. A collection of three works on genealogy of Arab tribes ...................... 77 I. II. III. Abū al-Faḍl ʿAbd al-Raḥīm b. al-Ḥusayn b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Zayn al-Dīn alʿIrāqī (d. 806/1404), Kitāb al-qarab bi-maḥabbat al-ʿarab ................................... 79 Al-Malik al-Afḍal ʿAbbās b. al-Malik al-Muǧāhid ʿAlī al-Ġassānī (d. 778/1376), Muḫtaṣar fī ʿilm al-ansāb ............................................................................................. 80 Al-Qalqašandī (d. 821/1418), Nihāyat al-arab fī maʿrifat qabāʾil al-ʿarab .......... 84 D. Item No. 3411. A collection of biographies of South Arabian ascetics and saints ...... 85 E. Item No. 3036. Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Raḥīm b. Sulaymān b. Rabīʿ al-Qaysī alAndalusī al-Ġarnāṭī (d. 565/1170), Tuḥfat al-albāb wa-nuḫbat al-iʿǧāb ...................... 103 ********** Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 54 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent An Introduction (by V. Belyaev) In 1942–1945, during my work on cataloguing the Arabic manuscripts of the Institute for the Study of Oriental Manuscripts of the Uzbek Academy of Sciences (Tashkent), among invaluable manuscript treasures, several manuscripts of non-Asian origin drew my attention. These manuscripts came to Central Asia from Arabia, Egypt, and India. Among these handwritten monuments, a small and modest group of manuscripts singled itself out for me. Either by origin, by content, or, at least, by the data of the appendices, these documents were linked to Yemen, which seems remote to us, but exposes one or another marvellous side to the Russian reader since childhood. It appears in the Biblical legend, repeated and reworked in the elevated, metrically disciplined speech of the Qurʾan. It emerges for a while in the schoolbook of Geography, where we find it furnished with an obscure epithet Arabia Felix. Later, we read of it either in a university course written by a Russian professor or in an article by a Scandinavian scholar. Finally, Yemen appears in relation to various scientific issues in Arab and Islamic studies: when one explores the monuments of ancient South Arabian culture that reached us one way of another; when one works on the problem of origin of certain architectural objects of the Peninsular; when one establishes cultural links which existed in the past between some peoples of our country17 and foreign Muslim populations. Attention becomes more and more concentrated, and an ambiguous, fabulous image of Yemen assumes concrete forms. A remote land suddenly seems close and tangible, as if having found place in the very centre of our culture and daily interests. It is in this sort of proximity with a far and fascinating land that I felt to have been brought into while looking through five manuscript codices of the Tashkent collection. The material they contain is so interesting and significant from various perspectives that I found it possible to combine them in this material within the context of South Arabian links. I considered that, apart from their being “Yemeni manuscripts”, these documents are important in three respects. Firstly, they raise a number of issues which are relevant to us in terms of cultural links between Muslim populations. Secondly, they are noteworthy in terms of ideological phenomena that some peoples of our country shared in the past with Arab populations (phenomena which lack attention). Finally, this material is relevant to scholarly problems addressed at various times by Russian and West European scholars, who employed different perspectives and expressed dissimilar viewpoints. The above considerations allow me providing a description of the mentioned manuscripts in relation to the outlined aspects. Two first manuscripts are purely Yemeni in terms of both the original compositions and the origin of the copies under study. Two other manuscripts represent texts which appeared, re- By “some peoples of our country”, here and below, V. Belyaev obviously implies the Muslim populations of the Central Asia that were once part of Muslim empires and remained part of the larger Muslim world. In the middle of the 1940s, he prefers not to stress the religious identification of the contemporary populations of the officially atheist Soviet state. It is also likely that the original author’s expression, whatever cautious, was replaced with “some peoples of our country” by the official censure. [N. o. the Ed.]. 17 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 55 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent spectively, in Yemen and Egypt, but were copied in the North-West of India. The fifth text was composed in Mesopotamia by an Arab author of Andalusī origin, and its copy was made in India by a descendant of a South Arabian sailor. A. Item No. 104. [1]18 [The composition] The manuscript represents a collection of biographies of prominent Yemeni persons. The full title of the composition that appears on the first sheet is: Al-ʿaqd al-fāḫir alḥasan fī ṭabaqāt akābir al-Yaman (“The magnificent, beautiful necklace of the categories of the greatest people of Yemen”).19 [2][The author] The author mentioned next to the title is Muwaffaq al-Dīn ʿAlī b. al-Ḥasan al-Ḫazraǧī al-Yamanī.20 His full name also appears with another (other than Muwaffaq al-Dīn) honorific title (laqab), with a paedonymic referring to his first-born son (kunya) and a fuller series of patronymics (nasab): Šams al-Dīn Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. al-Ḥasan b. al- 18 Formatting Belyaev’s work in its English version, the editor has made more passages than the original Russian text has. Moreover, to make working with the article easier, the editor has divided the text into logical paragraphs, providing them with numbers and titles in square brackets. These paragraphs also serve for indices. As we follow the progression of the author, there are entries on the same subject for various items and, sometimes, even separated entries on the same subject for the same item. [N. o. the Ed.]. 19 The title, as appears in the recent printed editions, contains one more word (ahl), as well as an alternative name of the composition. See, e. g. al-Ḫazraǧī (d. 812/1409–1410), Al-ʿaqd al-fāḫir al-ḥasan fī ṭabaqāt akābir ahl al-Yaman/Ṭirāz aʿlām al-zaman fī ṭabaqāt aʿyān al-Yaman, 2008–2009. Al-ʿiqd (lit. “The Necklace”) is a typical name for a collection of carefully selected and worked over reports of high value. The most well-known example is Al-ʿiqd al-farīd (“The Unique Necklace”) by a Moorish writer and poet Ibn ʿAbd Rabbih (d. 328/940). In the original Russian text, V. Belyaev provides the title merely in Arabic script, without vocalising it, thus, not indicating whether he reads the first word as Al-ʿiqd or as Al-ʿaqd. Since he understands it as “The magnificent, beautiful necklace…”, he might read “Al-ʿiqd”. The editors of the mentioned edition, however, put fatḥa over the letter ʿayn, thus, reading “Al-ʿaqd”. V. Belyaev’s employment of the word “categories” (Rus. “kategorii”) for ṭabaqāt is not exactly correct. In medieval Arabic literature, the term implies “classes” and reflects the aspiration of the ʿAbbāsid writers to classify poets, scholars, philosophers etc. by significance (especially in the case of poets) or by generations. The examples are Al-ṭabaqāt al-kubrā by Ibn Saʿd (d. 230/845), Ṭabaqāt fuḥūl al-šuʿarāʾ by Ibn Sallām al-Ǧumaḥī (d. 232/846), Ṭabaqāt al-šuʿarāʾ by Ibn al-Muʿtazz (d. 296/908), Nuzhat al-alibbāʾ fī ṭabaqāt al-udabāʾ by Ibn al-Anbārī (d. 577/1181–1182), etc. In Yemen, the form of ṭabaqāt implies, above all, that the book contains a list of outstanding persons with short biographies. The examples of Yemeni works in this genre are Ṭabaqāt fuqahāʾ al-Yaman by ʿUmar b. ʿAlī b. Samara al-Ǧaʿdī (d. 586/1190), Ṭabaqāt ṣulaḥāʾ al-Yaman by al-Burayhī (d. 904/1499) and some books which contain ṭabaqāt without using the term in the title, for instance, Qilādat al-naḥr fī wafayāt aʿyān al-dahr by Abū Muḥammad alṬayyib b. ʿAbd Allāh BāMaḫrama (d. 947/1541). [N. o. the Ed.]. 20 For some reason, here and below, V. Belyaev writes al-Ḫazreǧī, but, obviously, understands that rāʾ is vocalised with fatḥa, for he also writes al-Yemenī (instead of al-Yamanī), Šems al-Dīn (instead of Šams al-Dīn), Behāʾ al-Dīn (instead of Bahāʾ al-Dīn) etc. [N. o. the Ed.]. Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 56 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent Wahhās al-Ḫazraǧī.21 He was a disciple of the historian of Yemen Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad b. Yaʿqūb b. Yūsuf al-Ǧanadī Bahāʾ al-Dīn (d. 732/1332), the author of the history of Yemen till 724/1324.22 The author of “The Necklace” died in 812/1409. He compiled the history of Yemen in three variants: I—organised by years, II—organised by dynasties, and III—as a collection of biographies of prominent persons ordered alphabetically (the composition under study). [3][Variations] The collection of biographies had been performed by the author on a special suggestion by the seventh ruler of the Yemeni Rasūlids, al-Malik al-Ašraf Abū al-ʿAbbās Ismāʿīl b. al-ʿAbbās (born 761/1359, inherited the throne in 778/1376, died 803/1400). The data of Brockelmann23 is not clear enough. Along with the title of the bibliographical edition of the work, Ṭirāz aʿlām al-zaman fī ṭabaqāt aʿyān al-Yaman, referring to the Cambridge manuscript (=Campbr. Suppl., p. 808), Brockelmann provides the title Al-ʿaqd al-fāḫir al-ḥasan fī ṭabaqāt aʿyān al-Yaman, that is, a variation of our title. However, he does not correlate this variation with the major, more usual one. Our manuscript obviously gives the necessary explanation: on sheet 1a, the title is complemented with the following subtitle: Mulaḫḫaṣ mimmā ǧammaʿa al-faqīh al-aǧall alfāḍil Muwaffaq etc. and, on sheet 140a (or even 139a), after the title, we find the subtitle Muḫtaṣar mimmā allafahu al-faqīh al-aǧall etc. In both cases, thus, the work is entitled as an abbreviated version of the composition—most likely, of its edition entitled Ṭirāz aʿlām al-zaman fī ṭabaqāt aʿyān al-Yaman. Our manuscript contains the last two parts (II and III) of the third version of al-Ḫazraǧī’s work, i. e. of the version based on biographies (ṭabaqāt). Therefore, unfortunately, we do not have the data on the composition which could have been provided in its opening part by the author himself. [4][Structure] Parts II and III at our disposal are combined into one volume. Part II (sheets 1b–139b) contains the names from the letter ḫāʾ (from the biography of the Prophet’s companion Ḫālid b. Saʿīd b. al-ʿĀṣ al-Amawī (d. 13/634)) till the letter qāf (the last biography in the volume belongs to al-Qāsim b. Muḥammad b. ʿAbd Allāh al-Ǧumaḥī). Part III (sheets 140b–238b) includes names from the letter kāf (the biography of Kāfūr alTaqwā) till the end of the alphabet (the last biography in the volume belongs to a woman named al-Dār al-Faǧamī). Each part has its own title page with the title of the work, the number of the part and the author’s name. The whole composition is divid- (Al-)Wahhās is not the name of the author’s paternal grandfather, but of his great-great-greatgrandfather. According to Muʿǧam al-udabāʾ min al-ʿaṣr al-ǧāhilī ilā , his full nasab is: ʿAlī b. alḤasan b. Abī Bakr b. al-Ḥasan b. ʿAlī b. Wahhās. Along with the toponymic nisba al-Yamanī and the tribal nisba al-Ḫazraǧī (referring to the famous Medinan tribe Banū Ḫazraǧ—the tribe of anṣār, or Helpers), the nisba al-Zabīdī, referring to the city of Zabīd, is added. See K. al-Ǧabūrī, Muʿǧam al-udabāʾ , vol. 4, p. 253. [N. o. the Ed.]. min al-ʿaṣr al-ǧāhilī ilā 22 C. Brockelmann, GAL II, p. 184, No. 3; SB II, p. 236, No. 3 23 C. Brockelmann, GAL, SB II, p. 238, No. 6.3. 21 ٢٠٠٢ ٢٠٠٢ Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 57 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent ed into 30 chapters (bāb) marked with alphabet letters. Part II starts with Chapter VIII, part III—with Chapter XXII; The next-to-last chapter (Chapter XXIX, sheet 213b), which is typical for biographical compositions, is dedicated to kunyas (kunya, pl. kunan, pl. def. al-kunā). The last chapter (Chapter XXX, sheet 234a) is on women. The composition ends on sheet 238b with the following words of the author:24 ‫قال عىل بن احلسن اخلزرىج قابهل هلل ابلقبول هذا اخرما احاط به علمى ومجةل ما انهتىى اليه فهمى وال شك انه‬ .‫قليل من يش كثري وجز ٌء من جـ ٍم غف ٍري واكن الفراغ من مجعه الا ما شذ يف اول س نة مثان مائة‬ Thus, the completion of the composition is dated exactly to the beginning of the year 800 (apparently, September–October 1397). [5][Paper, ink and script] The copy is made with black ink on heavyweight, yellowish, burnished paper of Oriental production. The script is Yemeni, clear, rounded, nasḫ of medium size. Its diacritical punctuation is incomplete. Its vocalisation is rare and unsystematic. The headlines are performed in the ṯuluṯ-script, in the same ink and also in cinnabar. [6][Rubrication] The headwords, that is, the names of the persons to whom biographies belong, are also written in cinnabar. [7][Number of line a page; dim. margin] Each page contains 25 lines. The margins are not wide. [8][Catchwords] At the bottom of the back sides of the sheets one may find catchwords. [9][Date & place of the copy] The copy was accomplished on 25 Ǧumāda I 900/21 February 1495 in Yemen. [10][Pagination] The sheets of the manuscript are numerated thoroughly with indigenous pagination. In the present form the manuscript contains 237 sheets. There are also 23 additional sheets preceding the text of the work and two sheets following the text. 24 The Arabic text here and below preserves the orthography of the Arabic quotations given in V. Belyaev’s Russian article. The quotations mostly lack hamza, madda, diacritical dots (iʿǧām) above tāʾ marbūṭa and below final yāʾ. Belyaev keeps the orthography of the manuscripts he studied. Hamza, madda, and the mentioned elements of iʿǧām occur occasionally. After some words in Arabic quotations, the sign “!” is used by the scholar instead of Latin “sic!” to draw attention to an unusual form. Sometimes, Belyaev provides in brackets an alleged normative form next to unusual one. [N. o. the Ed.]. Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 58 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent [11][Paper of additional pages] The paper of the latter two sheets is different from the paper of the manuscript: one sheet of European paper with filigree (open crown) and one sheet of Kokand paper.25 [12][Marginalia] The additional sheets are covered with notes made by the owners of the manuscript in various years, including lines of verse. On sheets 02a–03a (before the text), for instance, there are poetic verses of the šayḫ Ibrāhīm al-Muhtadī and his brother Aḥmad, as well as the short story of correspondence in poetry between the historians alḎahabī (d. 749/1348) and al-Ṣafadī (d. 764/1363). On sheet 02b–03a we find a marṯiya (dirge) composed in the basīṭ-metre by the šayḫ Ṣārim al-Dīn Ibrāhīm (d. 914/1508)26 to lament for Ḥayy Sayyidī Ḍiyāʾ al-Islām Ismāʿīl b. Muḥammad b. al-Ḥasan b. al-Qāsim (the name is provided with the eulogy ʿalayhi al-salām). The opening line of the poem: ‫ما ذا به جات الركبان والنجب * وما اذلى احرزت يف طهيا الكتب‬ Further, lines of verse by al-Arraǧānī (d. 544/1149) follow.27 [13][Script and ink of the additional sheets] Sheets 04b–023a are occupied by the table of contents, written in a small half-nasḫ script, in black ink and in cinnabar. [14][Marginalia] On sheet 1, after the text—there are lines of verse by Aḥmad b. ʿAlī al-Rūnī/al-Radnī,28 by Yūsuf b. ʿAlī al-Tilimsānī (d. 690/1291),29 and by ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Ḫayyāṭ, written with impure ink of greyish-black colour. On sheet 238b, in the lower left corner, there is a carefully blurred over and scrubbed round seal of an Indian type, of the 10th/16th 25 The Kokand paper is a kind of paper common for the 18th–19th century Central Asian manuscripts— of greyish colour, with only laidlines visible, often very much glossy. Mills of such paper acting in about 1871 in Kokand were described by the Russian geographer Alexey P. Fedchenko in his work Travels in Turkestan, 1875 (pp. 49–52); it was obviously produced there in large quantity and exported to other places in the region. Communication from Olga Yastrebova, National Library, Saint-Petersbourg, on the 10th of March 2020. See also here [109], where the author mentions “one more sheet of Central Asian Kokand paper” [N. o. the Ed.]. 26 C. Brockelmann, GAL II, p. 188, No. 11. 27 C. Brockelmann, GAL I, pp. 253–254, No. 9. 28 V. Belyaev is not sure whether the second letter is dāl or wāw, but has no doubt that the first letter is rāʾ. A possible option, however, is that the lines of verse belong to Aḥmad b. ʿAlī al-Būnī (d. ca. 622/1225), a Ṣūfī writer and author of the very famous Šams al-maʿārif, born in Algeria, who lived in Egypt most of his life and died in Cairo. On Aḥmad b. ʿAlī al-Būnī’s time and oeuvre, see P. Lory, “La magie des lettres dans le Shams al-Maʿārif d’al-Būnī”, 1987–1988, pp. 97–111. [N. o. the Ed.]. 29 C. Brockelmann, GAL I, p. 367, No. 6 and p. 385, No. 10. Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 59 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent century; other seals elsewhere are also blurred over and scrubbed. There are additional notes made by the owners of the manuscript:  on sheet 1a, on the margin—an inscription containing the date 1108 (1696– 1697 AD);  on sheet 140a, an inscription containing the name ʿĀmir b. Abī ʿAlī b. Ṣāliḥ b. Muḥammad and the date 994 (1586 AD);  on the same sheet—another inscription, dated in 1041 (1631–1632 AD);  on sheet 01a—an inscription dated in 1256 (1840 AD). [15][Binding] The manuscript is bound in a half-leather cover of embossed red goatskin, with paper medallions. The size is 25 × 18 cm. [16][Pagination] After sheet 109—there is a lacuna of one sheet without text, which was overlooked during pagination, which led to an incorrect number of manuscript sheets (it is higher in one than the actual number). [17][Preservation] Both the paper and the binding are slightly worn-eaten. The paper suffered from dampness, and water stains are visible on the margins. [18][In other catalogues] A short description of the manuscript is provided in the Catalogue of Persian, Arabic and Turkish manuscripts of the Institute for the Study of Oriental Manuscripts of the Academy of Sciences of the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic.30 B. Item No. 2641. [19][The work] This collection of nine works is an interesting example of Zaydī instructive literature. To a large part, it consists of eschatological and ethical works, little-known or unknown to this day. In our collections, this manuscript volume is a rare example of Zaydī thought, imported, most likely, in the middle of the 13th/19th century by a citizen of Kazan (cf. sheet 21a) who performed a trip to Arabia and, perhaps, had visited Yemen in its course.31 The monuments of Zaydī literature have not been addressed in our scholarship yet. 30 A. Semionov (ed.), Sobranije vostochnyh rukopisej, 1952, p. 26, No. 57; C. Brockelmann, GAL II, pp. 184– 185, No. 6; SB II, p. 238, No. 6. 31 Most likely, this was a pious Tatar Muslim who came to Arabia for ḥaǧǧ or ʿumra. [N. o. the Ed.]. Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 60 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent [20][Ink, paper] The entire collection has been copied by one person, with black ink, on heavyweight, white, burnished, laid paper of European production, with laid lines and watermark: three crescents one above another and letters in the crease line of the sheets. [21][Script] The script is a medium nasḫ, with fully made diacritical punctuation. The first word of each paragraph, as well as certain titles of the collection which are sometimes margined, are written in cinnabar. [22][Lines per page; margins] The text is organised in 18 lines on the page. The margins are wide, with some sole notes and corrections. [23][Pagination] The sheets are numerated thoroughly with indigenous pagination. In the bottom of the sheets one may find catchwords. [24][Date & place of the copy] The time in which certain parts of the collection have been performed: Ǧumāda I– Šaʿbān 1228/May–August 1813. The text has been copied in the ports of al-Muḫā and alḤudayda. The copyist mentions himself as al-Sayyid ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿAbd al-Nabī. [25][Total number of sheets] The text occupies 189 sheets, and one more sheet is added before the beginning. [26][Marginalia] On sheet 1a, there is a small lancet-shaped seal. The size—22.5 × 16 cm. Only one cover of the original half-leather binding made of embossed red leather has been preserved. I. Sheets 1b–7a. Kitāb Sīrat al-nabī The book of “The Life of the Prophet” [27][The author] The author of the book is Abū al-Ḥasan Aḥmad b. Fāris b. Zakariyyāʾ b. Ḥabīb alHamaḏānī al-Qazwīnī al-Rāzī (d. 395/1004–1005 or 396/1005–1006), a famous Arab scholar of Persian origin.32 Born in the village of Karsaf near the city of Qazwīn, Ibn In Yāqūt’s Muʿǧam al-udabāʾ edited by Iḥsān ʿAbbās and published in Beirut in the 1990s, the author’s name is Abū al-Ḥusayn (not Abū al-Ḥasan!) Aḥmad b. Fāris b. Zakariyyā. See Yāqūt (d. 626/1229), Muʿǧam al-udabāʾ, 1993, vol. 1, p. 410. At the beginning of the entry, Yāqūt notes that, according to his older colleague Ibn al-Ǧawzī (d. 597/1200), Ibn Fāris’s nasab is: Aḥmad b. Zakariyyā b. Fāris. However, he does not mention “Abū al-Ḥasan” (V. Belyaev’s variant) as a possible version of Ibn Fāris’s kunya 32 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 61 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent Fāris was brought up in Hamaḏān, where he received schooling. After studying the science of tradition in Baghdad, he was invited to the court of the Ray Buyid ruler Faḫr al-Dawla ʿAlī (r. 365–369/976–980 and 373–387/984–997) as a teacher of his son and heir to the throne, the future ruler Maǧd al-Dawla Abū Ṭālib (r. 387–420/997–1029). Ibn Fāris’s scholarly authority was so high that the famous Buyid wazīr and writer Ismāʿīl b. ʿAbbād al-Ṣāḥib al-Ṭālqānī (d. 385/995), known as al-Ṣāḥib b. ʿAbbād,33 considered him his teacher and referred to him as “our šayḫ Abū al-Ḥusayn”.34 Ibn Fāris had been also teacher of a no less famous writer, the author of the Maqāmāt (The Assemblies) and the elegant Rasāʾil (The Epistles) Badīʿ al-Zamān al-Hamaḏānī (d. 398/1007).35 As for al-Ṣāḥib b. ʿAbbād, Ibn Fāris maintained friendship with him and dedicated to him two compositions. Judging by Ibn Fāris’s production, the circle of his intellectual interests was rather wide. At the same time, he does not display depth of thought. An example clearly illustrating this is his polemics against mathematical and natural sciences included into his philological composition written for the library of his friend-wazīr al-Ṣāḥib b. ʿAbbād. In Muʿǧam al-udabāʾ, Yāqūt (d. 626/1229) provides a list of 25 titles of Ibn Fāris’s works in the fields of philology, law and its methodology, Qurʾanic studies and other branches of Islamic knowledge.36 Among the latter, we find a commentary on the Qurʾan, in four volumes (Ǧāmiʿ al-taʾwīl), an anthology (Ḥamāsa) of “new” poets,37 and a concise dictionary of the Classical Arabic language, of which a manuscript copy is present in the collection of the Institute for the Study of Oriental Manuscripts (described in vol. 4 of the Catalogue, No. 3273). Ibn Fāris also composed poetry, the examples of which are quoted in al-Ṯaʿālibī’s (d. 429/1038) Yatīmat al-dahr and in Yāqūt’s along with Abū al-Ḥusayn. Likewise, Ibn Fāris is mentioned as Abū al-Ḥusayn by other prominent historians, such as al-Ṯaʿālibī (d. 429/1038), Yatīmat al-dahr, 1983, vol. 3, pp. 216–217), Ibn Ḫallikān (d. 681/1282), Wafayāt al-aʿyān, 1978, vol. 1, p. 118), etc. In the manuscript studied by V. Belyaev (as the further Arabic quotations demonstrate not once), the kunya of Ibn Fāris is indeed Abū al-Ḥasan. Though Belyaev himself relies on Yāqūt and al-Ṯaʿālibī as additional sources, he does not point to the inconsistency. [N. o. the Ed.]. 33 Ismāʿīl b. Abī al-Ḥasan ʿAbbād b. al-ʿAbbās b. ʿAbbād b. Aḥmad b. Idrīs al-Ṣāḥib Abū al-Qāsim alṬālqānī. On his activity as religious scholar, see W. Madelung & S. Schmidtke, Al-Ṣāḥib Ibn ʿAbbād, Promoter of Rational Theology: Two Muʿtazilī kalām Texts from the Cairo Geniza, 2016. [N. o. the Ed.]. 34 Because of the mistaken variant of the kunya in the manuscript copy of Ibn Fāris’s Sīrat al-nabī, V. Belyaev writes “Abū al-Ḥasan”, which should be corrected, however, as Yāqūt (Muʿǧam al-udabāʾ, 1993, vol. 1, p. 411) quotes al-Ṣāḥib b. ʿAbbād as saying “Our šayḫ Abū al-Ḥusayn”. [N. o. the Ed.]. 35 Aḥmad b. al-Ḥusayn b. Yaḥyā b. Saʿīd Abū al-Faḍl al-Hamaḏānī. [N. o. the Ed.]. 36 Yāqūt (d. 626/1229), Muʿǧam al-udabāʾ, 1993, vol. 1, pp. 410–418. [N. o. the Ed.]. 37 Ḥamāsa (lit. “enthusiasm”) is a traditional name for the anthologies of poets. Two most well-known anthologies bearing this name were compiled by the most distinguished court poets of the third/ninth century—Abū Tammām (d. 231/845) and his disciple al-Buḥturī (d. 284/897). The “new” (muḥdaṯūn) poets of urban origin, they were among the greatest experts of the poetry of the “ancients” (qudamāʾ), which term includes the pre-Islamic (Ǧāhiliyyūn), the straddling (muḫaḍramūn), and the Islamic (Islāmiyyūn) poets up to the end of the Umayyad dynasty (132/750). [N. o. the Ed.]. Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 62 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent Muʿǧam al-udabāʾ.38 In the beginning of his way, Ibn Fāris belonged to the Šāfiʿī maḏhab, but later became identifying himself with the school of Mālik b. Anas. [28][The work and its transmission] The work, a copy of which is present in the collection under discussion, represents a very concise biography of Muḥammad, containing notes on his origin, early years and the beginning of the prophecy, as well as the list of his wives, children, friends, family members, mounts, pennants, weapons etc. The biography is known under various titles, a list of which is provided by Brockelmann. The riwāya (preamble on narration/transmission) preceding the text states: ‫اخربان الرشيف الس يد احلافظ العالمة سلطان العلامء مكل احلفاظ جامل الرشف ذو النس بني وحبه‬ ‫واحلسني (!) جمد ادلين نسيب امري املؤمنني ابو اخلطاب معر بن الش يخ الفقيه الامام العامل ايب (!) عىل‬ ‫بن عىل احلسن اىب عىل رىض اللـه عنه وعن سلفه الكرام وقرن سعون ابلتخليد وادلوام قراة عليه يف‬ ‫مزنهل ابلقاهرة احملروسة وحنن نسمع يف الثامن من (!) عرش من شهر ذى احلجة الىت ىه من س نة احدا‬ ‫عرشة وس امتيه قيل هل قراة عىل الش يخ العامل النحوي للغوي احملدث املنجر (!) اىب القامس عبد الرمحن بن‬ ‫؟) احلسن احلثعمى مث السهىل (!) يف صفر س نة تسع وس بعني‬I. ‫اخلطيب اىب مـحمـد عبد اللـه اىب (ابن‬ ‫ومخساميه وقرات ايضا عىل الش يخ الفقيه العامل الاوحد امام النحويني قاىض القضاة فقيه اعالم مسخه‬ ‫) الاندلسني (!) اىب جعفر امحد بن عبد الرحامن ابن مـحـمد بن سعيد اللخمى رىض هلل‬I. ‫(مش يخة‬ ‫عنه حبرضة مراكش ىف مزنهل هنار االثنني السابع من صفر س نة تسعني ومخساميه قاال اخربان القاىض‬ ‫احلافظ العالمة احلاج العرافة ابو بكر مـحمد بن عبد اللـه بن امحد بن العريب املغافرى (!) رىض اللـه عنه‬ ‫وارضاه قال حدثنا الش يخ الفقيه ابو الفتح سلامين ابن ايوب الرازى قراه عليه س نة اربعني واربع مايه قال‬ .‫اخربان ابو احلسن امحد بن فارس بن زكراي قال هذا الـخ‬ This riwāya differs from that of the Berlin manuscript. It is not linked to the Šīʿī environment—a reasonable detail considering the surrounding of the manuscript that had been put under the cover together with the works of the Zaydī Imam al-Mahdī li-Dīn Allāh (d. 840/1437). All links of the riwāya can be easily identified: the names belong to well-known authoritative scholars who left their traces in Arabic literature. The dates and places of transmission do not contradict, but even adjust our data on these persons. Only one of them—the last link of the riwāya—remains unidentified. Due to chronological reasons, moreover, the direct connection between the second and the third links is dazzling. The riwāya goes as follows: Al-Ṯaʿālibī (d. 429/1038), Yatīmat al-dahr, 1983, vol. 3, pp. 216–218; Yāqūt (d. 626/1229), Muʿǧam aludabāʾ, 1993, vol. 1, pp. 411–418. [N. o. the Ed.]. 38 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 63 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent 1. Abū al-Ḥasan Aḥmad b. Fāris (d. 395/1004–1005 or 396/1005–1006); 2. Šāfiʿī expert of fiqh, Qurʾanic scholar and philologist, knower of the historical tradition, Abū al-Fatḥ Sulaymān b. Ayyūb al-Rāzī (usually mentioned as Sulaym b. Ayyūb b. Sulaym, drowned in the Red Sea in 447/1055–1056);39 3. Abū Bakr Muḥammad b. ʿAbd Allāh b. Aḥmad al-Maʿāfirī, nicknamed Ibn al-ʿArabī (born in 468/1076—died in Fes in 543/1148), the disciple of al-Ġazālī, belonged to the Mālikī school of fiqh. A prominent Maghrebian knower of the Qurʾan, tradition and law (ʿilm al-ḫilāf), he debated the opinions expressed by the great Andalusī Ibn Ḥazm (d. 456/1064). He heard the as-if-authentic work from Sulaymān b. Ayyūb al-Rāzī in 440/1048–1049 (sic!);40 4a. Qāḍī al-Quḍāt is a Maghrebian grammarian and expert of the Qurʾan. His name is Abū Ǧaʿfar Aḥmad b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Muḥammad b. Saʿīd al-Laḫmī al-Andalusī (d. 592/1195–1196 or 593/1196–1197). He transmitted the composition “in the majesty of Murrākuš” (bi-ḥaḍrat Murrākuš), in his house, on Monday 7 Ṣafar 590/1 February 1194; 4b. Abū al-Qāsim ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. al-Ḫaṭīb Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh Abū alḤasan (b. Aḥmad) al-Ḫaṯʿamī al-Andalusī al-Suhaylī, an expert in the fields of Qurʾanic studies and philology (d. 581/1185),41 transmitted the composition in Ṣafar 579/May– June 1183; 5. Abū al-Ḫaṭṭāb ʿUmar b. al-Ḥasan b. ʿAlī b. Ǧumayya al-Sabtī al-Kūfī al-Ẓāhirī Ibn Diḥya (d. 633/1235), 42 heard the work from both previously mentioned scholars (Nos. 4a and 4b) in the above-specified time and himself transmitted it at his house in Cairo on 18 Ḏū al-Ḥiǧǧa 611/20 April 1215. In the riwāya, he is referred to as al-Šarīf (…) al-Sayyid Maǧd al-Dīn, nasīb amīr al-muʾminīn ḏū nisbayn… 6. An unknown transmitter of the biography, who heard it from Ibn Diḥya in Cairo in 611/1215.C The beginning (sheet 1b): ‫ قال هذا‬...‫اخربان الرشيف الس يد احلافظ العالمة سلطان العلامء مكل احلفاظ جامل الرشف ذو النس بني‬ ‫) نسب رسول هلل‬sheet 2a( ‫ذكر ما حيق عىل املرء املسمل حفظه ويـجب عىل ذى ادلين معرفـته من‬ .‫صلعم ومودله ومنشائه ومبعثه وذكر احواهل يف مغازيه ومعرفة اسام ودله ومعومته وازواجه الـخ‬ On his life and oeuvre, see al-Subkī, Ṭabaqāt al-šāfiʿiyya al-kubrā, 1906, vol. 3, p. 168. C. Brockelmann, GAL, SB I, pp. 632–633; GAL I, p. 412, No. 10; SB I, pp. 732–733. 41 C. Brockelmann, GAL I, p. 413, No. 12; SB I, pp. 733–734. 42 C. Brockelmann, GAL I, pp. 310–311, No. 10; SB I, pp. 544–545. 39 40 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 64 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent The end (sheet 7a): ‫فهذا اخر ما امكن من حديث مودله ومبعثه واحواهل صلعم ورشف وكرم واحرشان ىف زمرته وصىل اللـه‬ ‫عليه واهل وسمل تسلامي كثريا وامحلد هلل سوابع الايه وصلواته عىل س يدان مـحمد واهل وحصبه امجعني امني‬ ‫اللهم امني وامحلد هلل عىل لك حال من الاحوال واكن الفراغ من نساخة هذا الكتاب بوقت الغدا بيوم‬ .٨٢٢١ ‫السبت اترخي شهر جامد (!) الاول ىف بندر اخملا س نه‬ [29][Date & place of the copy] The date on which the copy was accomplished is: Saturday, Ǧumāda I of 1228/May 1813. The place: “the harbour of al-Muḫā”. The copyist: al-Sayyid ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿAbd al-Nabī. On sheet 1a, written in cinnabar, there is a title shaped as a triangle directed downward: ‫كتاب سرية النبـى صىل اللـه عليه وسمل وذكر بنيه ومودل (!) ومنشائه ومبعثه واحواهل ومغازيه واسام ودله‬ ‫ومعومته وازواجه اتليف الش يخ الامام اىب احلسن امحد بن فارس بن زكراي رىض اللـه عنه وعن مجيع‬ .‫املسلمني امني وصىل الـخ‬ The date below: 1263 YH (1847 AD). In the upper left corner, there is a small lancet-shaped seal. [30][In other catalogues] The work appears in the catalogues of Ahlwardt, Kratchkovsky, Menzel, and Brockelmann.43 II. Sheets 7b–9b. Nubḏa min bidāyat al-nihāya A fragment from “The beginning of the guidance to the right path” [31][The author] The author of the book is Abū Ḥamīd Muḥammad b. Muḥammad al-Ġazālī al-Ṭūsī (d. 505/1111). 43 On the manuscript copies of the work, see W. Ahlwardt, Verzeichniss der arabischen Handschriften, 1887–1899, vol. 9, p. 138, No. 9570; I. J. Kratchkovsky, “Sobranie arabskih rukopisey v Kazani”, 1924, p. 171; Th. Menzel, “Das heutige Rusland und die Orientalistik”, 1928, p. 64. For the biography of Ibn Fāris, see Yāqūt (d. 626/1229), Iršād al-arīb, 1993, vol. 1, pp. 410–418. See also C. Brockelmann, GAL I, p. 130, No. 5; SB I, pp. 197–198. On the manuscripts and editions of the described work, see C. Brockelmann, GAL, SB I, p. 198, No. 5, 6. Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 65 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent [32][Text] This fragment of a Ṣūfī treatise contains a hadith received from the companion of the Prophet, Muʿāḏ, who explains the dictates of true piety as a way of knowing Allāh and obtaining eternal redemption. The text starts as follows (sheet 7b): ‫روى ابن مبارك ابس ناده عن رجل قال ملعاذ رمحه اللـه تعاىل اي معاذ حدثىن حديثا مسعت عن رسول اللـه‬ .‫صلعم قال فبىك معاذ حىت ظننت انه ال يسكت مث قال مسعت الـخ‬ The end (sheet 9b): ‫ويشري اليك الان عليك حيمل الاداب لتواخذ هبا نفسك ىف خمالطتك مع عباد اللـه وحصبتك معهم يف‬ .‫ادلنيا مت من بداية الهداية للعباىب (!) رمحه اللـه امني اللهم امني‬ [33][In other catalogues] The work appears in the catalogues of Ahlwardt and Brockelmann.44 III. Sheets 10a–20b. Kitāb al-arbaʿīn al-ḥadīṯ (sic!) al-saylaqiyya45 The book of “The forty ḥadīṯ of al-Saylaqī”/“The forty saylaqite ḥadīṯs” [34][The collection and its author] This collection of hadith-reports received its name after one of its transmitters—alḤasan b. Mahdī al-Ḥasanī al-Saylaqī (n. d.). The collection was compiled by al-Sayyid al-Šarīf Zayd b. ʿAbd Allāh b. Masʿūd al-Hāšimī (d. 497/1104). Cf. sheet 89b, p. 4, where the scholar is referred to as al-Sayyid al-Riḍā. The same collection is known in a different edition under the title Ḫuṭab al-arbaʿīn or Al-arbaʿīn al-wadʿāniyya—after the editor Muḥammad Ibn Wadʿān (d. 494/1101). The present edition is original. It is known, at least, that it had not been produced by Ibn Wadʿān. 44 W. Ahlwardt, Verzeichniss der arabischen Handschriften, 1887–1899, vol. 3, p. 179, No. 3263; C. Brockelmann, GAL I, p. 422, No. 5; GAL II, p. 26; SB I, p. 749. 45 The grammatically correct variants of the title are Kitāb al-arbaʿīn ḥadīṯan or Al-arbaʿūn ḥadīṯan. An electronic variant of the book is disseminated by the Sanaa-based Cultural Association of the Imam Zayd b. ʿAlī: ‫الربعون–حديثا–الس يلقية‬/‫الكتب–واخملطوطات‬/ . [N. o. the Ed.]. https://imamzayd.com/ Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 66 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent The beginning (sheet 10a): ‫بسمةل قال الس يد الرشيف زيد بن عبد اللـه بن مسعود الهاشـمي رىض اللـه عنه امحلد للـه كفا انـعـامه‬ .‫وافضاهل ونساهل الصلوة عىل مـحمد واهل الـخ‬ The end (sheet 20b): ‫ادلنـيـا لعبت ىب مجعت املال من حهل وغريكام حهل (!) مث خلفته لغريى ابملهنات (!) هل والتبعة عىل‬ .‫فاحذروا مثل ما حل ىب مت الكتاب الـخ‬ [35][Headlines and margins] The headlines of the hadith-reports are written in cinnabar, as well as the number on the margins. The latter contain the titles of the hadiths and rare notes. [36][Date of the copy] The date of completion of the copy is Raǧab 1228/July 1813. [37][In other catalogues] The work appears in the catalogues of Ahlwardt and Brockelmann.46 IV. Sheets 21b–68b. Al-tuḥfa al-sunniyya li-maʿānī al-aḥādīṯ al-saylaqiyya “The precious Sunnī gift (i. e. contribution) to the meanings of the saylaqite ḥadīṯs” [38][The author] The work provides a commentary on the previous composition. The author is Ǧamāl al-Dīn Aḥmad b. ʿAlī b. Birġam (n. d.). It would be difficult to define his lifetime. If Yaḥyā b. Aḥmad b. Birġam (ca. 850/1446),47 the author of the Zaydī composition on law entitled Šarḥ al-baḥr al-zaḫḫār, could be considered his son (as one may decide from his name), Aḥmad b. ʿAlī b. Birġam could live in the last quarter of the 8th/14th— the first half of the 9th/15th century.48 [39][The work and its source] In the introduction, the author of Al-tuḥfa specifies that his major source during the work on the commentary was the book Ḥadīqat al-ḥikma by al-Manṣūr bi-Allāh ʿAbd 46 W. Ahlwardt, Verzeichniss der arabischen Handschriften, 1887–1899, vol. 2, pp. 207–208, No. 1458; C. Brockelmann, GAL, SB I, p. 699, No. 1d. 47 E. Belyaev admits this possibility with a reservation about a certain discrepancy within the nasab. [N. o. the Ed.]. 48 W. Ahlwardt, Verzeichniss der arabischen Handschriften, 1887–1899, vol. 4, p. 313, No. 4915. Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 67 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent Allāh b. Ḥamza (d. 614/1217, Kawkabān),49 to which he added his own “useful details and proofs which he considered good and which he derived from material he received orally, including about 100 hadiths” (sheet 21b). The composition was accomplished in Ḥimyarite Šibām (sheet 68b). The beginning (sheet 21b): ‫بسمةل قال الس يد العامل الفاضل جامل ادلين معدة املـحدثني امحد بن عىل بن مرمغ اعاد اللـه من براكته‬ ‫ اما بعد فهذا خمترص‬...‫امني امحلد للـه اذلى [بنعمته] تمت الصاحلات ومن عنده تزنل الرباكت واشهد‬ .‫اخترصته لفوايد الس يلقيه واوحضت فيه رشح معانهيا الـخ‬ The end (sheet 68b): ‫من الاخوان وان يـجعهل لنا ثقال يف املزيان انه وىل ذكل والقادر عىل ما هناكل بـمنه وكرمه امني امني اي‬ ‫رب العـالـمني وصىل اللـه عىل خري خلقه من عربه وعـجـمه مت الكتاب بـحمد اللـه العزيز الوهاب وصىل‬ .‫اللـه عىل س يدان مـحـمد املـختار واهل الاطهار الاخيار امني امني اي رب العالـمني‬ [40][Ink] The words of the commented text are written in cinnabar, as well as the titles of the hadiths on the margins. [41][Date of the copy] The date of completion of the copy is 1228/1813. On sheet 21a, the following title is written in two lines: ‫كتاب التحفة السنية لـمعاىن الاحاديث الس يلقية اتليف الس يد العامل الفاضل مشس ادلين امحد بن عىل‬ .‫بن مرغـم نفع اللـه به وبعلومه امني امني امني‬ [42][Marginalia] In the upper left corner, there is an inscription added by Abū al-Šaraf al-Ḥusayn alBulġārī in 1262/1845–1846. The work is the major commentary on the “Forty saylaqite hadiths”. It was written by ʿAbd Allāh b. Ḥamza b. Sulaymān (d. 614/1217). The full title is Ḥadīqat al-ḥikma al-nabawiyya fī tafsīr al-arbaʿīn alsaylaqiyya (“The garden of prophetic wisdom. A commentary on the forty saylaqite hadiths”). Belyaev refers to SB I, p. 701, No. 9, 16. A copy owned by the Princeton University Library had been accomplished in June 1284. Its physical description is: 500 leaves; 250 × 165 (190 × 140 & 180 × 135) mm. bound to 250 × 185 mm. The link to the page in the Princeton University Digital Library: http://pudl.princeton.edu/objects/hm50tt02n. [N. o. the Ed.]. 49 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 68 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent [43][In other catalogues] A manuscript copy of the work is considered by Brockelmann.50 V. Sheets 69b–111b. Tazyīn al-maǧālis bi-ḏikr al-tuḥaf al-nafāʾis wa-maknūn ḥisān al-ʿarāʾis “The decoration of assemblies with the narrative about precious gifts and treasures of beautiful brides” [44][The author] The work belongs to the famous Zaydī Imam and theorist of Zaydī teaching in Yemen al-Mahdī li-Dīn Allāh Aḥmad b. Yaḥyā b. al-Murtaḍā (died of pest in Ẓafār, 840/1437). He had been the author of a number of dogmatic, edictal works of the Zaydī sect, the main of which is: Al-baḥr al-zaḫḫār al-ǧāmiʿ li-maḏāhib ʿulamāʾ al-amṣār (“An overflowing sea combining the schools of the scholars of large cities”)51—a monumental work representing an encyclopaedia of Zaydī beliefs, statutes, and state theories. [45][The work] What contains Part Four of the composition is actually the historical grounding of the political claims of the descendants of Zayd b. ʿAlī (d. 122/470, al-Kūfa) to imāma (political and spiritual leadership of the Umma). This part, as well as the others, bears a special name: Yawāqīt al-siyar fī šarḥ Kitāb al-ǧawāhir wa-al-durar min sīrat ḫayr (sayyid) al-bašar wa-aṣḥābihi al-ʿašara al-ġurar wa-ʿitratihi al-aʾimma al-muntaḫabīn al-zuhar (“The rubies of biographies in the commentary on the Book of gems and pearls from the Life of the best of (the leader of) mankind, his ten noble companions and his relatives, the chosen magnificent imams”). Part Four is divided into three sections, each of which has its own title. I: Irtiyāḍ al-fikar fī šarḥ sīrat ʿitratihi al-aʾimma al-muntaḫabīn al-zuhar (“Exercising the thoughts of the Commentary on the Biography of his relatives, the chosen magnificent imams”). II: Tuḥfat al-akyās fī šarḥ taʿyīn Āl Umayya wa-al-ʿAbbās (“A gift to the intelligent in the explanation of the identification of the clans of Umayya and al-ʿAbbās”). III: The third section bears the name which put in the beginning of the description. The section represents an extract of a parental composition of Ibn al-Ǧawzī (d. 597/1200) entitled Tuḥfat al-wuʿʿāẓ (“A gift to the admonishers”). The following title of the composition is written in cinnabar on sheet 1a: 50 C. Brockelmann, GAL, SB I, p. 699, No. 1d. Ibn al-Murtaḍā (d. 840/1437), Al-baḥr al-zaḫḫār al-ǧāmiʿ li-maḏāhib ʿulamāʾ al-amṣār, Sanaa, Dār alḥikma al-yamāniyya, 1988, 7 vols. [N. o. the Ed.]. 51 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 69 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent ‫) السري ىف‬I. ‫كتاب تزيني بذكر التحف النفائس ومكنون حسان العرائس وىه خاتـمة توليت (يواقيت‬ ‫رشح كتاب اجلواهر وادلرر ومن سرية س يد البرش واصـحابه العرشة الغرر وعرتته املنتخبني الزهر صلوات‬ ‫اللـه عليه وعىل اهل وعلهيم امجعني اتليف موالان امري املومنني املهدى دلين اللـه امحد ابن حيىي ابن املرتىض‬ .‫قدس روحه ونور رضيـحه‬ Brockelmann52 inadvertently allowed a typographical gap between sections II and III, which makes a wrong impression that a new composition starts. The beginning (sheet 69b): ‫بسم اللـه الرحـمن الرحمي رب يرس واعن اي كرمي هذه تـكـمـلـة مباركة الحقة بكتاب يواقيت السري‬ )!( ‫وزدانها عقيب رشح سرية الـخـلـفاء الاموية والعباس ية احلاقا ذلكر ابنأ الخرة اببنأ ادلنىي فتيقظ‬ ٍ ‫القلوب من ِسنَـ ِة الغفةل ويدحض عهنا الاغـتـرار بطول الـمـهـلـة وذكل ابيراد تـ‬ ‫حف اوردها الش يخ‬ ‫الواعظ الـحافظ زين البـلـغـأ ابو الفرج عبد الرمحن بن عيل بن مـحـمـد اجلوزي ا‬ ‫تواله هلل ماكفاته وجـمـلها‬ .‫ التحفة الاويل الـخ‬٦٠ ‫س تون‬ “In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful! Lord! Relieve [us] from suffering and help [us], o Generous! This is a blessed supplement attached to the Book of the rubies of biographies, which we have added after the commentary on the vitae of the Umayyad and ʿAbbāsid caliphs, adding the tale of the sons of the Hereafter to [the tale of] the sons of This Life, so that the hearts would wake from the deep sleep of carelessness, and delusion would be deferred from them with long delay, and this [will be attained] by means of bringing “Gifts”, which have been brought by the šayḫ, the master, the Guardian (i. e. Memoriser of the Qurʾan), the Excellence of the eloquent, Abū al-Faraǧ ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. ʿAlī b. Muḥammad Ibn al-Ǧawzī—may Allāh keep him closer in reward!—and their total number is sixty 60”. [46][The work’s distribution] Apparently, owing to its accessibility, this section of the composition gained a wider distribution and circulated within a wider readership as an independent work—as an admonitory composition written in an artistic form. It consists of 60 chapters-“Gifts”. By its character, this is a collection of homiletic stories on the vanity and temporality of mundane life, on death and retribution in the Hereafter. The major line of homilies based on examples of temporality is an urge to seek eternal, imperishable life. The stories are attributed to well-known transmitters and storytellers, while the personae are either famous ancient sages and kings (Alexander the Great and “one of the great 52 C. Brockelmann, GAL, SB II, pp. 245–246. Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 70 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent kings of Israel”, perhaps Solomon), or prophets (Abraham, Jesus, Muḥammad), warriors for faith and ascetics (Ḏū al-Nūn (d. 245/859), Ibrāhīm b. Adham (d. 165/782) and less known persons), unknown and unnamed hermits, among them several godly women. Among the chapters—there are stories about the Last Judgement and miracles performed by Muslim ascetics. The author has not passed over the legends of the dialog between Jesus and the skull, of the resurrection by Jesus of a woman’s dead son, and of the dog of the seven sleepers of Ephesus. The story about Alexander the Great tells of his coming to the city of seven kings, his meeting with their descendent at the cemetery and their dialogue. In some stories, the author adds his own notes or admonitions, usually at the end, marking the beginning of his own speech with the word qultu (“I have said”). Some stories are variegated with verse of the same content as theirs. In story 34, in which a righteous man is asked about the reasons of death, the author adds: wa-qad awrada al-Sayyid al-Riḍā hāḏā al-ḥadīṯ fī al-arbaʿīn al-saylaqiyya (alSayyid al-Riḍā has given this hadith-story within the forty saylaqite ones), and it is indeed present at the end of the collection (see sheet 20b of this collection). At the end, the author provides a conclusion by Ibn al-Murtaḍā (sheet 111b): ‫قال موالان رىض اللـه عنه مت الكتاب بعون املـكل الوهاب واكن الفراغ من اتليفه يوم االثنني قامي الظهرية‬ ‫اثلث وعرشين من شهر ذى احلجة أخر شهور ثالث وثـامين مائة س نة (!) ىف حـميـمة بىن املنثاب من‬ ‫سور واكن ِانتداء اتليفه س بعة اايم ال غري فلهل الـحمد عىل الاعانة عىل رسعة تنجزي ونسأل‬ َ ‫نواىح جبل َم‬ .‫الـهل ان يـنـتـفـع الايـمـان الـخ‬ The colophon of the copyist—on the margin of the same sheet, placed upside down: ‫واكن الفراغ عن نساخة هذه التحف ظهرية يوم االثنني ىف بندر احلديده من بنادر المين يف شهر رجب‬ .٨٢٢١ ‫ س نة‬٢٠ ‫اترخي‬ Thus, the work had been composed in seven days and accomplished on Monday, in the noon of 23 Ḏū al-Ḥiǧǧa 803/4 August 1401 in Ḥumayma Banū al-Minṯāb, in the area of Ǧabal Maswar. [47][Date & place of the copy] The copy had been accomplished on Monday 20 Raǧab 1228/19 July 1813 in the porttown al-Ḥudayda. On the margins, the numbers of chapters-“Gifts” are written in cinnabar at the level of the names of the chapters in the text—which are also written in cinnabar. Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 71 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent [48][In other catalogues] A manuscript copy of the work is considered by Brockelmann.53 VI. Sheets 112a–115b. Aḥādīṯ fī ṣifat al-ǧanna wa-al-nār “Ḥadīṯ-reports on the description of Paradise and Hell” [49][The work] These are 29 hadith-reports narrated by the closest companions of Muḥammad. The chains of transmission (isnād) are omitted, and only the last transmitter is named in each case. The source from which the reports were adopted is also not mentioned. The collection is divided into two parts: 1. Sheet 112b: Ṣifat al-ǧanna wa-naʿīmihā wa-malikihā al-ʿaẓīm (“The description of Paradise, its bliss, and its great Lord”). 2. Sheet 114b: Fī ṣifat al-nār wa-šiddat ʿaḏābihā naʿūḏu bi-Allāh minhā (“On the description of Hell and the severity of its suffering, let us seek refuge with Allāh from it”). [50][Ink] The headlines are written in cinnabar. VII. Sheets 116a–118b. Bāb ḏikr al-mawāqif al-ḫamsīn “The chapter mentioning the fifty stops” [51][The work] This is a relatively short eschatological treatise on the wanderings of the soul in the Other World. Each man’s soul has to go through fifty stops and to be interrogated at each of them about its good and bad deeds performed in the mundane life. It is only after traversing all these aerial toll houses that the soul “rests in joy in the shelter of the throne of the All-Merciful” or in waiting for Allāh’s final decision. The beginning (sheet 116b): ‫بسمةل وبه ثـقـتـى وهو حسبـى ابب ذكر املواقف الـخمسني وشدة حسابـها وما يـتـصل بذكل ابس ناده اىل‬ ‫عىل رىض اللـه عنه عن النبـى صىل اللـه عليه وسمل انه قال ان ىف القـيـمـة مخلسني موقـفـا ىف لك موقف‬ .‫مهنا يوقف ابن ادم الف س نة الـخ‬ 53 C. Brockelmann, GAL, SB II, p. 246, No. 6. Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 72 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent The end (sheet 118b): ‫قال رجل من اصـحاب رسول اللـه صلعم اي رسول اللـه الس نا نراك يوم القـيـمة ىف هذه املواطن فال‬ ‫تغيب عنا وال نغيب عنك حىت يصري الناس اىل جنة او اىل انر فقال رسول اللـه صلعم الشان يومئذ‬ ‫اعظم والـحوايـج اىل اللـه اكرث من ذكل احلديث فنسال اللـه التوفيق مت ذكل وصىل اللـه عىل س يدان‬ .‫مـحـمد واهل وصـحبه وسمل والـحمد [لـلـه] رب العالـمني امني امني‬ [52][Ink; marginalia] The headline is written in cinnabar. The opening words of each episode about a “stop” are lined above. VIII. Sheets 119b–188b. Minhāǧ al-muttaqīn wa-miʿrāǧ al-muḫliṣīn “The path of the God-fearing and the ascent of the candid” [53][The author] The author is mentioned in the title on the sheet 119a as Ṣārim al-Dīn Dāʾūd b. Kāmil al-Miḥlabī al-Ḥaǧǧī. The latter nisba refers to the town of Ḥaǧǧa, located in the mountain part of Yemen, to the north-west of Šibām and Kawkabān. Neither the name of the author nor the title was previously known to me. [54][The work] The work represents a concise Zaydī encyclopaedia, which provides, just in three chapters, a brief overview of some theoretical and practical sciences, as well as of some practices that, together with knowledge, lead one to the major goal, namely, pure and absolute commitment to Allāh through faith and deeds. The composition is concluded with an overview of conditions, virtues and vices of the soul. The virtues help one in reaching commitment to Allāh, while the vices pervert from reaching it. The work is written with clear, excellent language and serves a fine example of Zaydī ethical literature. On sheet 119a, the title written in cinnabar states: ‫كتاب مهناج املـتـقني ومعراج اخمللصني مما مجعه الفقيه الفاضل الورع الاكمل عنوان صـحيفـه اوانه‬ ‫واسرت (!) اهل زمانه صارم ادلين داود بن اكمل احمللىب نس ًبا واحلـجـى بـلـدً ا اعاد اللـه علينا من براكته‬ .‫وجعل اجلنة مصريه ومثواه بـحق مـحـمد واهل وسمل‬ [55][Marginalia] Above the title, a list of contents is provided, under which, on the left margin, three lines written in tiny script and directed bottom-up: Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 73 ‫‪Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent‬‬ ‫‪V. I. Belyaev‬‬ ‫قد ترشف وتـيـمن مبطالعته ‪ ٨٢٦٢‬البلغارى‪.‬‬ ‫]‪[56][Structure‬‬ ‫‪The beginning (sheet 119b):‬‬ ‫بسمةل رب يرس واعن اي كرمي الـلهـم اىن امحدك عىل ما ُاتيته من هدايتك وجـئـﯩـ ُتـ ُه (جـئــ ُتـ ُه ‪ (?I.‬من‬ ‫(وو ِقـيـ ُتـه ‪ )I.‬من مداحض الاهواء واشكرك‬ ‫طاعتك و َادَيـ ُتـ ُه ( ُا ِريـ ُتـ ُه ‪ )I.‬من مناهـج التـقـوي ووقـ ْيـتَـ ُه ُ‬ ‫عىل من فضكل و ابـرك ووفـقـتـنـى هل من محدك وشكرك و ا‬ ‫اصىل عىل نـبـيـك الامـني وعىل‬ ‫عىل ما افَض َت ُه ى‬ ‫الـه الطاهـريـن وصـحـابـتـه الـهـاديـن والـتـابـعـيـن لـهـم بـاحـسـان اىل يوم ادلين اما بعد فان من نظر اىل‬ ‫قول النـبـي صىل اللـه عليه وسمل الناس كـلـهـم هـلـكـأ الا الـعـاملون • والعـاملون لكهم هـلـكـأء الا‬ ‫الـمخلصون • والـمـخلصون عىل خ ََطر عظمي • َعـ ِل َـم ان من مل يـجـتـمع فيه الثالثة العمل والعمل‬ ‫والاخالص فهو هاكل فـيـجب عىل املكـلـف تـحـصيلُـهـا واحرازها عىس ان يـنـجـو من الهالك ان شأ‬ ‫اللـه تعاىل اذا تقرر هذا فيـنـبـغـى ان نـتـكـلـم عىل لك واحد من هذه الامور الثالثة ونذكر ما يتعلق بلك‬ ‫واحد مهنا ونـبـياـن ما املراد من العمل والعمل الذلين ال حتصل النجاة من دونـهـمـا ونـبـياـن حقيقة الاخالص‬ ‫الىشء مل يـمكنه القصد اليه فضال‬ ‫وماهـيـتـه لـيـمـكن تـحـصـيـل هذه الامور واحرازها الن من مل يعرف‬ ‫َ‬ ‫عن تـحصيهل ونـفـرد للك واحد من ذكل بـابـا يـشتـمل عىل ما يـتـعلق به من الالكم مث نـخـتـم ذكل‬ ‫بفصل نذكر فيه السبب الصارف عن االتيان بـهذه الامور الثالثة والسبب ادلاعي اىل االتيان بـها ومن‬ ‫اللـه استـمد الـتوفـيـق والـتـسديد واساهل العصمة والـتـائـيـد (!)‪.‬‬ ‫‪ .0‬الباب الاول ىف العمل وما يـتـعـلـق‬ ‫به ‪sheet 119b‬‬ ‫‪Chapter 1 is divided into sections organised by scientific disciplines. To mark the sec‬‬‫‪tions, the first words of each of them are written in cinnabar as follows:‬‬ ‫* اما اصول ادلين ‪sheet 120b‬‬ ‫* واما عمل القران ‪sheet 121a‬‬ ‫* واما نـحـو ‪sheet 121b‬‬ ‫* واما اصول الفقه والنـحو والـتـرصيف واللغة فاعمل الـخ ‪sheet 122a‬‬ ‫* واما عمل املـعاىن والبيان واملنطق ‪sheet 122b‬‬ ‫* واما عمل املعامةل فهو ‪sheet 122b‬‬ ‫* مفن تكل العلوم عمل السيـميـا وهو معرفة خواص الاسـمـاء واحلروف والاوفاق ‪sheet 125a‬‬ ‫* ومهنا عمل الكيـميا ‪sheet 125a‬‬ ‫الطب واعمل ‪sheet 125a‬‬ ‫* ومهنا عمل ا‬ ‫* ومهنا عمل الرمل ‪sheet 125b‬‬ ‫* ومهنا عمل الكهانة ‪sheet 125b‬‬ ‫‪74‬‬ ‫)‪Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020‬‬ V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent sheet 127a ‫* فاما عمل الـتـعـبـيـر والتاويل الرويـا‬ sheet 127b ‫* واما عمل الفال‬ sheet 128b ‫* ومهنا عمل السحر والاخالف‬ sheet 130a ‫* ومهنا عمل التـواريـخ‬ sheet 130b ‫* ومهنا عمل الس ياسة وتدبـيـر احلروب‬ This section is followed by a conclusion which consists of admonitions of various sorts, related to scientific studies and to acquiring knowledge. Then, a chapter on methodology of scientific studies follows. sheet 133b ‫* ومـمـا يـنـبـغـى ان نـلحـقـه بـهـذا الباب‬ sheet 139a ‫ الباب الثاىن فـيـمـا يـتـعـلـق ابلعمل‬.9 This chapter is also divided into sections marked with cinnabar in which the first words of each section are written as follows: sheet 141b ‫* واما املباحثات‬ sheet 149b ‫* ومن ذكل الـمخالطة ابلناس والـمجالسة والـمصاحبة وكرثة مـالقـاتـهـم‬ sheet 151b ‫* واما الاوامر فهىى ثالثه‬ sheet 154a ‫* واما احضار القلب يف الصلوة فاعمل ان ذكل من املـهـمـات‬ sheet 162b ‫ الباب الثالث ىف الاخالص وما يـتـعـلـق به‬.3 The chapter starts with its assessment: in terms of its practical results it is more difficult than the first two (those on knowledge and activity). It is also divided into sections with names in cinnabar: sheet 164a ‫* واما اخالص التوحيد‬ sheet 170b ‫* واما القسم الثاىن وهو الاخالص يف الاعامل‬ After the confession of this sort, “the confession through actions” or, more exactly, “pure commitment to Allāh through actions”, follow “the degrees of vices and miseries tainting pure commitment”. ِ sheet 172b ‫درجات الشوايب والافات املك ِدرة لالخالص‬ ‫* واان اذكر‬ These degrees are four. sheet 176b ‫* ومـمـا يـنـبـغـى ان نلحقه هبذا الباب‬ sheet 177b ‫* واعمل انه ال يمت الاخالص ىف التوحيد وىف العمل الا ابالنقطاع اىل اللـه تعاىل عن لك ما سواه‬ Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 75 ‫‪V. I. Belyaev‬‬ ‫‪Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent‬‬ ‫* فصل فـيـمـا يرصف العبد عن العمل والعمل والاخالص وما يدعوه اىل ذكل ‪sheet 178b‬‬ ‫* واما التسويف ‪sheet 179b‬‬ ‫* واما الامل ‪sheet 180b‬‬ ‫* واما ذكر املوت وعدم الغفةل ‪sheet 182a‬‬ ‫‪On sheet 185a, there is a reference to the Zaydī work Kitāb al-wasāʾil al-ʿuẓmā (“The‬‬ ‫‪book of the greatest merits”) by Yaḥyā b. al-Mahdī:‬‬ ‫كتاب الوسايل العظمى للس يد يـحـيــى ابن املهدي صاحب الكينعى قال فيه كنت يوما عند الامام‬ ‫املهدي عىل بن مـحـمد بـمدينة ذمار بعد سـمـاعي عـلـيـه كـتـبـا فـقـهـيـة فناولنـى يـوما اجز ًأ (اجز ًاء ‪)I.‬‬ ‫من كتاب احيا علوم ادلين الـخ‪.‬‬ ‫‪The mentioned work, unknown to us, belongs to the Zaydī Imam ʿImād al-Dīn Yaḥyā‬‬ ‫‪b. al-Mahdī al-Ḥusaynī, friend of the Zaydī ascetic Ibrāhīm b. Yaʿmur al-Kaynaʿī‬‬ ‫‪(d. 793/1391), whose biography he composed.54 Thus, the work under discussion was‬‬ ‫‪composed either after 793/1391 or shortly before this date.‬‬ ‫* واما الانـهـمـام ىف الذلات والشهوات والتوسع فيـها ‪sheet 186b‬‬ ‫* واما حب العلو ىف ادلنيا الـخ ‪sheet 187a‬‬ ‫* واما مـخالطة الناس ‪sheet 188a‬‬ ‫‪The end (sheet 188b):‬‬ ‫وهذا اخر ما نذكره يف هذا الكتاب وللـه املسؤل ان يغفر يل ما اخطات وان يعظم يل ا َال ْج َر فـيـمـا‬ ‫ُ‬ ‫اصبت وهل الـحمد عىل ما وفق وسدد من الـخري والصواب واس تغفره مـمـا هفوت واساهل ان يلهمىن‬ ‫معرفة ما جـهـلت وامحلد للـه رب العالـمـني وصلواته عىل رسوهل الامني وعىل أهل الطيـبـيـن وال حول وال‬ ‫قوة الا ابللـه العيل العظمي واكن الفراغ عن نساخة هذا الكتاب صبح يوم السبت يف شهر شعبان اتريـخ‬ ‫‪ ٨٠‬ىف بندر املـخـا عىل يد الفقري احلقري اىل اللـه الس يد عبد اللـه بن عبد النبـي س نة ‪.٨٢٢١‬‬ ‫]‪[57][Date & place of the copy‬‬ ‫‪The copy was accomplished on 10 Šaʿbān 1228/8 August 1813, in al-Muḫā. The titles in‬‬ ‫‪the text are written in cinnabar.‬‬ ‫]‪[58][Marginalia‬‬ ‫‪On the margins, al-Bulġārī, using tiny nastaʿlīq, marked in his hand the most signifi‬‬‫‪cant episodes.‬‬ ‫‪C. Brockelmann, GAL, SB II, p. 237, No. 5a.‬‬ ‫‪76‬‬ ‫‪54‬‬ ‫)‪Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020‬‬ V. I. Belyaev IX. Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent Sheets 188b–189a. Iṯnatā ʿašrata kalimatan “Twelve words” [59][The work] These are twelve sayings purportedly taken from the Torah. Their transmission is attributed to the famous Kaʿb al-Aḥbār, whose name is linked to a number of religiousadmonitory sayings of this kind, forming a special genre of literature. These are the same sayings as those distinguished by Zetterstéen in the Uppsala manuscript, but the present edition is different from the latter. The major difference is that the present variant is complemented with an introduction, which is absent in the Uppsala manuscript.55 The beginning (sheet 188b): ُ ‫فوجدت فيـها اثىن عرش (!) لكمة‬ ‫التورات‬ ‫روى عن كعب الاحبار رىض اللـه عنه انه قال قر ُات‬ َ ‫نظر الـيـها ىف ِ ا‬ ‫لك يوم س بعني مرة واعترب بـها اللكمة‬ ُ ‫فكتـبـتـها ابذلهب مث عـلاـقـتـها ىف عُنقي فكنت َا‬ .‫ابق ال يزول ابدً ا الـخ‬ ٍ ‫الاوىل ايبن أدم ال تـخـافَ ىـن ِمن ذي سلطان ما دام سلطاين ابقـي (!) وسلطاين‬ The end (sheet 189a): ‫اللكمة الثانية عرشة ايبن أدم ان رضيت بـمـا قسمت كل سلطت عليك ادلنيا تـركـض فيـها ركض‬ ‫الوحش يف الربية ال تنال منـها الا ما قسمت وانت عندي مذموم فارض بقضايئ اقبل عليك بـجودي‬ .‫وعطائـي تـمـت الـكـلـمـات بعون اللـه وفضهل وحسن تـوفـيـقـه‬ [60][Ink] The titles of the sayings are written in cinnabar. C. Item No. 566. [61][The works] This manuscript includes three works of different authors of the 8th/14th—the beginning of 9th/15th centuries. Two of them deal with genealogies of Arab tribes. The third composition, which is placed first, seems to have been added in order to ground ideologically the focus of the other two works on the people of the Prophet. The second work originates in South Arabia and dates from the period of its greatest prosperity as an independent political being in the Islamic era. Obviously, it is predominantly con- 55 K. V. Zetterstéen, Die arabischen, persischen and türkischen Handschriften der Universitätsbibliothek zu Uppsala, 1930, pp. 138–139, No. 237, 1). Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 77 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent cerned with the local Arab tribes. The work that is placed third was composed in Mamlūk Egypt, that is, also in the land which prospered in the outlined period. The scope of this work is wider, which is reasonable, because the territory of the Mamlūk state and the orbit of its politics were wider than those of the South Arabian state in the same period. Consequently, it includes genealogies of the tribes of Arabia, Iraq, Mesopotamia and Egypt, as well as of the Berber tribes, which resided in close vicinity to, and partly even within, the borders of the Mamlūk state. [62][Cover and binding] The manuscript is bound in a half-leather cover of dark-red goatskin. [63][Script] All three works are copied by the same hand, in a running, medium-size, insecure nasḫ. The diacritical punctuation is full. However, the copyist could have been lacking knowledge of the Arabic language, for the text is numerously distorted. For this reason, it is not reliable, especially in relation to personal names, toponyms and tribal names. [64][Paper, ink] The titles are written in cinnabar. The paper is white and burnished, of Indian production. The ink is black and flat. [65][Number of line a page; dim. margin; catchwords] The text is organised in 17 lines on the page. The margins are wide and empty. In the lower part of the sheets, catchwords are provided. [66][Date & place of the copy] The manuscript had been copied in Ṣafar–Raǧab 1108/September 1696–February 1697, in the Indian port of Surat. [67][Pagination] It contains 258 sheets. Four sheets are added before the beginning of the text. On sheet 04b, the contents of the whole collection are provided, preceded by basmala and ḫuṭba. [68][Paper of additional pages] After the text, three sheets of empty Kokand paper are added. [69][Marginalia] In the lower part of sheet 1a, one may find seals of the owners. The size of the sheets— 23.5 × 13 cm. Paper and binding are damaged with wormholes. Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 78 V. I. Belyaev I. Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent Sheets 1b–14b. Kitāb al-qarab bi-maḥabbat al-ʿarab “The book of approaching [Allāh] by means of love toward the Arabs” [70][The author] The author is Abū al-Faḍl ʿAbd al-Raḥīm b. al-Ḥusayn b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Zayn al-Dīn al-ʿIrāqī (d. 806/1404), a famous Egyptian scholar, expert in the Qurʾan and hadith studies, and the teacher of Ibn Ḥaǧar al-ʿAsqalānī (d. 852/1449). He had been the author of a number of other works, including a work on ritual issues, polemics against Sufism, a poetic biography of the Prophet and a continuation of al-Ḏahabī’s (d. 749/1348) “History of Islam” which did not survive. He taught hadith studies (ʿilm al-ḥadīṯ) in various madrasas of Cairo. The present work is a collection of hadith on obligation of love toward the Arabs, which implies, above all, love toward the Prophet and his family. The material is organised in 20 chapters (bāb). As follows from the colophon, the composition had been accomplished by the author on Tuesday, 25 Raǧab 791/20 July 1389, in Medina. [71][Ink] The copy is made with black, flat ink. The headlines are written in cinnabar. [72][Date & place of the copy] The manuscript under study can be dated according to the two other works, of which the copies had been accomplished in 1108/1696–1697. The place in which the copies had been accomplished is Surat. On sheet 1a, the title is written in cinnabar as follows: .‫كتاب القرب بـمـحـبة العرب لالمام الـحافظ زين ادلين العرايق الشافعي رمحـه اللـه‬ [73][Marginalia] Below, in the bottom of the sheet, there is a brief description of the manuscript, written in the nastaʿlīq-script. Further below—two round half-blurred seals of the owners are found. On the seal from the right, it is possible to read the legend: .‫مـحـمد (؟) خان خانه زاد شاه عامل پادشاه غازى‬ “Muḥammad (?) Ḫān, the servant of the Padishah Šāh ʿĀlim the warrior (r. 1119– 1124/1712–1707). Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 79 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent [74][In other catalogues] Information on the manuscript appears in the catalogues by Ahlwardt, Houtsma, Ch. Rieu, and Brockelmann. The latter, among the sources on the biography of the author, did not mention the work of his disciple Ibn Ḥaǧar al-ʿAsqalānī, Al-durar alkāmina.56 II. Sheets 15b–30a. Muḫtaṣar fī ʿilm al-ansāb “A compendium in the study of genealogies” [75][The author] The author is the sixth sultan of the Rasūlid dynasty (r. in Yemen in 628–856/1229– 1454), al-Malik al-Afḍal ʿAbbās b. al-Malik al-Muǧāhid ʿAlī al-Ġassānī (d. 778/1376). The rulers of this dynasty, in sympathy with the Ayyūbids, adopted an honorific title (laqab) consisting of the title al-Malik (the King) and an honorific addition, such as “the Victor”, “the Splendorous”, “the Most Chivalrous”, etc. Some of them left traces in the history of Arabic literature. Thus, the great uncle of the author under discussion— the third sultan of the Rasūlid dynasty whose full name is al-Malik al-Ašraf ʿUmar b. Yūsuf b. ʿUmar b. ʿAlī b. Rasūl al-Ġassānī (r. 694–696/1295–1296)—left several works in the field of medicine, veterinary science, astronomy, astrology, and genealogy.57 The son of the author and his heir to the throne, the seventh sultan of the dynasty, al-Malik al-Ašraf Ismāʿīl the First (d. 803/1400) is the author of a composition on the history of Yemen, which, however, is not his independent work.58 Al-Malik al-Afḍal himself left behind him four compositions: two books on the history of Yemen, a composition on adab (a “mirror” for rulers), and a book on genealogy (the work under discussion). [76][The work] The work we are currently describing is dedicated to the genealogy of Arab tribes and some non-Arab groups. Apparently, this is the same work as the one which Ḥāǧǧī 56 W. Ahlwardt, Verzeichniss der arabischen Handschriften, 1887–1899, vol. 2, pp. 185–186, No. 1391–1392; M. T. Houtsma, Ein türkisch-arabisches Glossar, 1894, p. 171; C. Brockelmann, GAL II, p. 66, No. 7, 6; SB II, p. 70; Ch. Rieu, Supplement to the catalogue, vol. 1, p. 155, No. 239. 57 C. Brockelmann, GAL I, p. 494, No. 39 & p. 526; Nachträge II, p. 184, No. 2; SB I, p. 901, No. 39. 58 Belyaev could imply one of two works: 1) Al-ʿasǧad al-masbūk wa-al-ǧawhar al-maḥbūk fī aḫbār alḫulafāʾ wa-al-mulūk (“Cast gold and solid jem in the history of caliphs and kings”). Another variant of the title is: Al-ʿasǧad al-masbūk fī ḏikr man waliya al-Yaman min al-mulūk (“Cast gold in the mentioning of those of the kings who ruled Yemen”); 2) Al-ʿuqūd al-luʾluʾiyya fī aḫbār al-dawla al-rasūliyya (“The garlands of pearls in the chronicle of the Rasūlid state”). A variant of the title is: Al-ʿuqūd al-luʾluʾiyya fī tārīḫ al-dawla al-rasūliyya (“The garlands of pearls in the history of the Rasūlid state”). Under the first titles, both works are ascribed by al-Saḫāwī (d. 902/1497) to the sultan al-Malik al-Ašraf Ismāʿīl. See al-Saḫāwī, Al-ḍawʾ al-lāmiʿ, vol. 2, 299. The co-author, or maybe the author, of both works (if the second titles are considered) is al-Ḫazraǧī (d. 812/1410). See T. Baba, “Notes on migration between Yemen and Northeast Africa during the 13–15 centuries”, 2017–2018, pp. 74–75. See also the printed editions of the works: alḪazraǧī, Al-ʿuqūd al-luʾluʾiyya, 1983 (1911–1914); al-Ḫazraǧī, Al-ʿasǧad al-masbūk, 1981 [N. o. the Ed.]. Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 80 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent Ḫalīfa (d. 1067/1657)59 mentions under the title Buġyat ḏawī al-himam fī maʿrifat ansāb al-ʿarab wa-al-ʿaǧam (“The wish of the intelligent regarding the knowledge of the genealogies of Arabs and non-Arabs”).60 The opinion that the compositions are the same has been expressed by Ahlwardt and accepted, though with some reservation, by Brockelmann. A thorough study of the content of the work under discussion, indeed, allows accepting Ahlwardt’s opinion. The author of the composition takes an especially lively interest in South Arabian tribes, and their genealogies are exposed more in detail than the others. On sheets 27b–28a, we find that the author presents the genealogy of the Rasūlids as ascending to the South Arabian tribe of the Ġassānids, which, at the dawn of Arabian statehood, had established a flourishing dynasty in Northern Syria.61 Such a construction of a false genealogy was a common means of political ideology, employed by the rulers of newly established non-Arab dynasties in order to justify its control over Arab territories and tribes. The beginning (sheet 15b): ‫بسمةل الـحمد للـه خالق الـبـرية وابرئـها ورازق الـبـرية واكلئـها واشهد ان ال اهل الا اللـه وحده ال رشيك هل‬ ‫واشهد ان مـحـمدا عبده ورسوهل الـمـكرم صىل اللـه عليه وسمل اما بعد فان هذا مـخترص ىف عمل‬ ‫الانساب يسهل حفظه عىل اوىل الالباب اساال للـه ان يـجـمهل خالصا لوجـهـه الكـرمي انـه عىل لك ى‬ ‫قدير وابالجابة جدير اعمل وفقك اللـه تعاىل ان ادم اكن خليفة اللـه ىف ارضه فلـمـا حرضته الوفات اوىص‬ .‫اىل ودله شيث واوىص شيث اىل ودله انوش واوىص انوش اىل ودله قينان الـخ‬ [77][The sources of the work] The author’s sources for the compendium were Ibn al-Aṯīr (d. 630/1233), Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi (d. 328/940), to whom he refers as “the author of the Book of the Necklace” (implying Al-ʿiqd al-farīd—“The Unique Necklace”), al-Rāfiʿī (d. 623/1226),62 and alNawādī (perhaps, al-Nawawī, d. 676/1278), 63 Abū Dulāma Zand Ibn al-Ǧawn (d. 160/776–777), and Aḥmad al-Hamaḏānī (or al-Hamḏānī, d. 334/945; in the edition by De Goeje,64 quotation on sheet 28a of our manuscript is not found). His major The Ottoman scholar Kātip Çelebi, Muṣṭafā b. ʿAbd Allāh, better known in the Arabic tradition, after his post in the bureaucracy, as Ḥāǧǧī Ḫalīfa—historian, bibliographer and geographer. [N. o. the Ed.]. 60 E. Belyaev implies Ḥāǧǧī Ḫalīfa’s famous catalogue Kašf al-ẓunūn. Ḥāǧǧī Ḫalīfa (Kašf al-ẓunūn, 2007, vol. 1, p. 248), writing on the work Buġyat ḏawī al-himam fī maʿrifat ansāb al-ʿarab wa-al-ʿaǧam, mentions its author as al-Malik al-Afḍal ʿAbbās b. al-Malik al-Muǧāhid ʿAlī Ṣāḥib al-Yaman (d. 778/1376– 1377) and refers to the book as a “useful compendium” (kitāb muḫtaṣar mufīd). [N. o. the Ed.]. 61 The capital of the Ġassānid Kingdom was in Ǧābiya, 80 km south of Damascus. Being a client state to the Eastern Roman Empire, the Kingdom fought against the Kingdom of the Laḫmids (whose capital was in al-Ḥīra, near contemporary Naǧaf), the vassals of the Persian Sassanians. [N. o. the Ed.]. 62 C. Brockelmann, GAL I, p. 393, No. 25; SB I, p. 678. 63 C. Brockelmann, GAL I, p. 394, No. 30; SB I, p. 680. 64 M. J. de Goeje (ed.), Compendium Libri Kitāb al-Boldān, 1885. 59 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 81 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent source, however, had been his great uncle—the third sultan of the Rasūlids al-Malik al-Ašraf ʿUmar b. Yūsuf (d. 696/1296), referred to by the author as “my grandfather alAšraf” (ǧaddī al-Ašraf). Throughout the composition, the author mentions him several times. Once (sheet 28b), the author provides his full name and, on another occasion, mentions the full title of his composition on genealogy—Ṭurfat al-aṣḥāb fī maʿrifat alansāb (“A curious gift to companions in the knowledge of genealogies”),65 referring to it in another episode in a more general form—“in his composition on genealogy”. It is from this composition of al-Malik al-Ašraf ʿUmar b. Yūsuf that al-Malik al-Afḍal ʿAbbās b. ʿAlī draws the genealogy of the Rasūlids. The relationship between al-Malik alAfḍal’s work and the composition of his great uncle is not absolutely clear. As the title of the composition and an episode on sheet 28b (cf. p. 7) allow assuming, to a certain degree, the former is the abbreviated version of the latter. [78][The author’s contribution] However, al-Malik al-Afḍal does not confine his composition to adoptions from alMalik al-Ašraf’s work. His contribution is that, exposing in detail the genealogy of South Arabian tribes, he denotes the regions and places of their settlement. Apparently, he does this, basing on his own data. His additions, introduced with the formula “I say” (qultu), are always an accomplishment or adjustment of reports provided by the others, and they always contain concrete topographic details. Thus, speaking of the tribe Banū Saʿīf (sheet 23b1–2), he tells that it resides in the mountains of Yemen and fights wars against a tribe residing between Taʿizz and Zabīd. He mentions also several tribes inhabiting the areas of Zabīd, Taʿizz (sheets 24a, 24b, 26a), Aden (sheets 26a, 27a) and other places. Speaking of the tribe Banū Sinān, he adds from himself that “in Ḥaḍramawt they live in large numbers”. [79][Jews] Al-Malik al-Afḍal pays special attention to the genealogy of Jews (the end of the treatise—sheets 28b–30a). As follows from the section, the author himself and his great uncle were acquainted with Jews and their traditions (“My grandfather al-Ašraf tells, relying on the words of a Jewish scholar of his time…”, sheet 29b). Such an interest in genealogies of Jews testifies that the Jewish community in Yemen was large and the rulers had to consider it. Apparently, Yemeni Jews, akin to Arabs, were not indifferent to their genealogies. Hence reports on genealogies received from the Jewish environment. Al-Malik al-Afḍal claims that reports on genealogies of Jews had been al-Malik al-Ašraf’s innovation: “None of historians, the authors of works on history and genealogy, ever mentioned this—except for my grandfather al-Ašraf” (sheet 28). See the printed edition: al-Malik al-Ašraf ʿUmar b. Yūsuf b. Rasūl, Ṭurfat al-aṣḥāb fī maʿrifat al-ansāb, 1949. [N. o. the Ed.]. 65 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 82 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent [80][Clans and tribes] Al-Malik al-Afḍal considers separately coinciding names of clans in various tribes (sheets 22a–23a), complementing the section of his great uncle on five different tribes referred to as ʿAbs. He adds (sheet 23a): ُ ‫ مـمـا كـنـت قصدت هل الا اىن ر‬...)an unclear gap( ‫ومل‬ ‫ايت جدي الارشف ذكر ىف كتابه اذلى هل ىف‬ ‫الانساب نبذ ًة من املوافقة فاثبت ما عندي ومل ُا ِحط عـلـمـا بـجـمـيع الانساب وموافـقـتـهـا وفوق لك ذي‬ .‫عمل علمي بل لك يـنـفـق من سعته‬ “[This excursus] would not have come within my intentions if I had not seen that my grandfather al-Ašraf included into his book, namely the one on genealogies, a short excursus on coincidences [of the names of clans]. That is why I demonstrate what I have collected [on this], but I do not possess knowledge of all genealogies and their coinciding [names of clans]. For there is a greater knower above each knower, however each one expends [only] of what is affordable to him”. The end (sheet 30a): ‫) ومن اليـهود بين ارسائيل القردة ومه اذلين اكنوا يـسكـنـون عىل شط البـحـر‬I. ‫قال ابن الانري (االثري‬ ‫بـقـريـة يـقـال لـهـا ايةل حرم علهيم صيد السمك ىف البـحـر فصادوه بـتـاويـل وحاكية ساقـها املورخون ىف‬ ‫كـتـبـهـم ال حاجة اىل ذكرها الن قصدان النسب ال السبب واىل هنا انـتـهـى الـتـصـنـيـف بـحـمد للـه‬ ‫اللطيف فهل الـحـمد والـمنة قال مولفه موالنـا السلطان الـمكل الافضل ابتدات بـتـالـيـفـه ىف الثلث‬ ‫ جامدي الاخرى واتـمـمـتـه عرص الهنار املذكور اوال تـاريـخ‬٨٦ ‫الاخري من الليةل املصبحة عن هنار الاربعا‬ ‫سنـة ثلثة وس بعني وس بعـمـايـة والـحـمد للـه اوال واخرا وابابطنا (!) وظاهرا وصىل اللـه تعاىل بـخدل عىل‬ ‫ شهر صفر الـمظفر س نة‬٢٨ ‫نـبـيـه مـحمد واهل وصـحـبه وسمل ورشف وكرم ومـجـد وعظم مت شد بتاريـخ‬ .‫ مطابق هـجـرى‬٨٨٠١ [81][Ink] The manuscript copy is made in black lustrous ink. The formulas ammā baʿdu (“To proceed”) and iʿlam (“Know [that]”) at the beginning of passages, as well as the formulas qāla (“He has said”), introducing a quotation, and qultu (“I have said”), introducing the words of the author, are written in cinnabar. [82][Date & place of the copy] The date of completion of the copy is 12 Ṣafar 1108/10 September 1696. The place— Surat (see sheet 255b). On sheet 15a the title written in cinnabar goes as follows: .‫رساةل مـخـتـصـر ىف عمل الانساب تصنيف موالان سلطان املكل الافضل‬ Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 83 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent [83][Other copies] The only other copy of the manuscript is stored in Berlin.66 On the history of Rasūlids, see works by Arthus S. Tritton, Stanley Lane-Poole and Edouard de Zambaur.67 III. Sheets 31b–258b. Nihāyat al-arab fī maʿrifat qabāʾil al-ʿarab “The ultimate ambition in the knowledge of Arab tribes” [84][The author] The author is Šihāb al-Dīn Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad b. ʿAlī al-Qalqašandī (d. 821/1418), who lived in Egypt under the Mamlūks and compiled a huge encyclopaedia which included numerous and diverse data necessary to state secretaries in their administrative activities. [85][The work and its structure] The work under discussion presents a concise guide on genealogies of Arab tribes. The author had compiled it in 812/1409. It consists of an introduction (muqaddima), the presentation of the subject (maqṣad) and conclusion (ḫātima). In the introduction, the author sets out to explain the purposes and method of the study of genealogies (ʿilm al-ansāb), its value and significance. He denotes who are Arabs and non-Arabs, as well as the difference between the genuine Arabs (al-ʿāriba) and non-genuine Arabs (al-mustaʿriba); introduces genealogical terminology and a short geographical overview of the Arabian Peninsula and the Syrian Desert. Finally, he provides methodological guidelines necessary to everyone addressing himself to the study of genealogies. The introduction falls into five parts (faṣl). The presentation of the subject, expositio, includes two parts (faṣl). The first part tells of the Prophet’s genealogy and the genealogies of the world’s peoples known to the author. The second part presents a catalogue of Arab tribes and their sections with detailed genealogies. The names of the tribes are ordered alphabetically. Their list starts with Banū Abān, a clan from the Umayya section of the tribe Qurayš—apparently, because the patron of the author, to whom the book is dedicated, belongs to this clan. This “coincidence” provides the author with a cause for writing a panegyric excursus written in a very flowery style (sheets 47a–48a). Throughout the book, the author often criticises his sources, paying attention to inconsistencies and sometimes expressing his own opinion, introduced with the formula qultu (“I have said”). These sources are genealogical and historical works of wellknown authors of various epochs. Sometimes, al-Qalqašandī does not mention the name of the author, but provides the title, though not always the exact formulation. The areas of settlement are mentioned only for the tribes of Egypt, Syria and Palestine, 66 W. Ahlwardt, Verzeichniss der arabischen Handschriften, 1887–1899, vol. 9, p. 15, No. 9381; C. Brockelmann, GAL II, p. 184, No. 4. See also Ḥāǧǧī Ḫalīfa (d. 1067/1657), Kašf al-ẓunūn, 2007, vol. 2, p. 58, No. 868. 67 A. S. Tritton, “Rasūlides”, EI1, vol. 3, 1934, pp. 1218–1219; S. Lane-Poole, Musulmanskiye dinastii, 1899, pp. 79–80; E. de Zambaur, Manuel de Généalogie et de Chronologie, 1927, p. 120. Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 84 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent for example Banū ʿUḏra, Banū Lawāta, Banū Laḫm, Banū Zubayd, Banū Zubayda etc. In the entry on the tribe Banū Kilāb, the mention of the novel about Sayyid al-Baṭṭāl (Sīrat Abī Muḥammad al-Baṭṭāl, sheet 230b) and of the Turkish-speaking Arabs residing along the Syria-Byzantine border is of interest. It is also important that the work mentions Berber tribes with constructed Arab genealogies (see entries on Banū Zināta, Banū Zināra, Banū Mazāta, Banū Marin, Banū Lawāta, Banū Ṣanhāǧa) and refutes the traditions of Berber experts of genealogies (sheet 238a, Banū Mazāta). On sheet 238b, mentioning Kaʿb b. Zuhayr (d. 26/646),68 al-Qalqašandī claims to have written a commentary on his ode Bānat Suʿād, entitling this work Kunh al-murād fī šarḥ Bānat Suʾād (“The essence of the deserved in the commentary on [the ode] Bānat Suʿād”). This commentary did not survive. It is not listed among the known commentaries on the ode Bānat Suʿād.69 [86][Ink] The manuscript copy is made with black ink. The titles are written in cinnabar. [87][Date & place of the copy] The date of completion of the copy is 11 Raǧab 1108/3 February 1697. The place—“the blessed harbour of Surat”.70 D. Item No. 3411. [88][The work and its author] The manuscript presents a collection of biographies of South Arabian, mostly Yemenite, ascetics and saints. The defects of the manuscript do not allow defining the author and the title of the work. Apparently, the author originates from Zabīd, for he knows very well the history and topography of the city, which in different periods served as Yemeni capital under various dynasties. Owing to a correlation between some dates and a number of references to the author’s personal events, his lifetime can be defined with sufficient exactness. [89][The time of the work] Chronologically, the latest dates are 870/1465–1466 (sheet 58a), 873/1468–1469 and 874/1469–1470 (sheets 9b and 10a), 875/1470–1471 (sheet 13a) and 888/1483 (sheet 45a). The son of the poet Zuhayr b. Abī Sulmā (d. 609 AD), the author of one of the Seven Golden Odes of pre-Islamic Arabia. Kaʿb is mostly famous for Bānat Suʿād, a panegyric for the Prophet, known also as Qaṣīdat al-Burdā (“the Mantle Ode”). According to the well-known legend, Kaʿb was sentenced to death for satirising Muḥammad, but, for the mentioned panegyric, was not only pardoned but even awarded Muḥammad’s mantle. The story of the mantle cannot be proven by any tradition with a strong isnād. [N. o. the Ed.]. 69 Ḥāǧǧī Ḫalīfa, Kašf al-ẓunūn, 2007, vol. 1, pp. 1329–1330; C. Brockelmann, GAL I, p. 39; SB I, pp. 68–69. 70 W. Ahlwardt, Verzeichniss der arabischen Handschriften, 1887–1899, vol. 9, pp. 15–16, Nos. 9382–9383; C. Brockelmann, GAL II, p. 134, No. 2,2; SB II, p. 165. 68 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 85 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent Undoubtedly, these dates are close, if not to the end of the author’s life, then, at least, to the time of the completion of his work. In terms of both contents and time of creation, the work under discussion is in the most vicinity of the composition Ṭabaqāt alḫawāṣṣ ahl al-ṣidq wa-al-iḫlāṣ (“The categories of the excellent, the people of righteousness and sincere faith”) by Zayn al-Dīn Aḥmad b. Aḥmad b. ʿAbd al-Laṭīf al-Šarǧī al-Ḥanafī al-Zabīdī (812/1410–893/1488, Zabīd). However, for reasons explained below, we do not find it possible to identify the work under discussion with the mentioned composition and, therefore, by now, our manuscript remains unidentified. [90][Composition] The collection contains 271 biographies. On the margins of sheets 79a and 91b, one may find a note on the previously made count of biographies, from which follows that the initial number was 286 and, thus, 15 biographies are missing. All biographies of persons named Ibrāhīm and part of the biographies of persons named Aḥmad lack at the beginning. At the end, there is only one defective biography, most likely, the concluding one, which means that only 1–2 last pages lack. The actual number of biographies is much higher than the mentioned one. The biographies of major persons, whose names are used as titles, contain no less detailed biographical data on children, parents, relatives and prominent disciples distinguished for erudition or holiness. Likewise, the biographies of women-ascetics are placed by the names of their fathers and husbands. The biographies are listed in alphabetical order of personal names. The alphabetical order of patronymics is not kept strictly. The section of names occupies the major part of the work (sheets 1a–79a of the manuscript). Then, as typical for biographical encyclopaedias of the Late Islamic period, the section of kunyas follows (sheets 79a–92b). Usually, a biography contains the name of an ascetic or a saint, often with detailed genealogy, place of his birth and main places of his activity. It provides the names of his masters and disciples as well as of his distinguished relatives. Biographies often tell us life stories of prominent persons, mostly of their spiritual deeds of valour and miracles. Date of death is usually provided at the end of one’s biography, sometimes next to the date of birth. The dates are confined to years. Month and day are mentioned only in seldom cases, mostly when the date is close to the author’s lifetime and, not being dependant on his written sources, he transmits reports he acquired himself. When the lifetime of a person is unknown, the standard expression follows: lam ataḥaqqaq [tārīḫ] wafātihi (“I do not know for sure [the date of] his death”). Alternately, the lack of the date is not justified. Not once, we find the formula kānat wafātuhu sanat (his death was in the year…) without the number of the year to follow. Sometimes, the lack of the date is compensated with a notice that a person was a contemporary of suchand-such person whose exact lifetime is known and provided in its place in the collection, in the biography of this figure. Owing to this, the number of undated biographies is diminished. Such internal references to the biographies of the collection are rather frequent and correct; only once, apparently, as a result of an inadvertence, a reference is made to an inexistent biography of Ismāʿīl b. Aḥmad al-Ḫallī (sheet 38a). Alternately, it may be that the biography of Ismāʿīl b. Aḥmad al-Ḫallī was included into the enNouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 86 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent try on his father Aḥmad, which could be initially present in the opening part of the book, a lacuna in the manuscript under discussion. To render the pronunciation of toponyms and some tribal names, the author employs the system that had come into common use since al-Samʿānī and Yāqūt and implies the mention of letters with diacritical punctuation and vocalisation. Owing to this fact, the exact pronunciation of all toponyms and a number of nisbas is undoubtedly defined. [91][Scientific value] As often the case of works in the genre of biography, the collection under study, apart from important data on the persons whose biographies are included into the book, provides a lot of information on the history of local culture, geography and topography of the local cities. When well-known cities are described, the author mentions characteristics relevant to the understanding of their significance in his time. Numerous names of presently known and unknown settlements is provided, complemented with rather detailed information on location, which allows considering the work as a reliable source on historical geography of Yemen. The biographies mention city gates, cemeteries, mosques, madrasas, ribāṭs (centres for Ṣūfī fraternities) and zāwiyas (religious schools) of ascetics, often explaining the origin of their names. This provides basis for curious, more or less explicit, stories, full of realities and details of everyday life, almost always containing vivid local features. We observe clear specifics of mountain, flatland and coastal parts of the country. In certain episodes colourful urban and rural life scenes are presented. The life of saints themselves is described rather clearly and explicitly: we get to know their everyday ascetic activity, work and deeds, their miracles (at times simple and naïve), their earthly weaknesses (the overcoming of which convert them into heroic deeds), their love for fellowmen and advocacy for them in front of mighty persons. At every step the story is embroidered with typical scenes and traits of local life. Sometimes, the image of a saint or an ascetic is described through stereotyped expressions reflecting the literary canon, but sometimes is pictured brightly and in relief. Then, we find vivid traits of an attractive, absolutely individual psychological portrait. The reader discovers labour life of saints, their high endurance in front of temptations and difficulties of earthly life, and their uncompromising attitude toward human falsehood. We should add descriptions of inevitable trips to proximate and faraway places “in search of knowledge”, of pilgrimage to holy places— Mecca, Medina, Jerusalem, Hebron—and on their encounters with famous scholars and honourable persons. This way the classical image of a saint or an ascetic appears. A moral ideal described by simple-hearted Muslims believing with just and plain faith becomes clear. This image was suggested to the author of the collection, or to the authors of his written sources, not by scholars and theologians, but by the demotic environment, which makes the portraits of the bearers of “worldly” Islam more vivid, warm and human. [92][Ṣūfī saints] Not once, a saint appears to be a scholar that used to “disseminate knowledge” by way of teaching in madrasas in various cities. He may also be an author of scholarly works, Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 87 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent poetry or correspondence with brethren which was kept, studied and copied by his disciples. As we get to know which sort of books gained the widest distribution in the environment under discussion, we sometimes find widely known works, but mostly encounter unknown titles by familiar authors. Alternately, both the name of the author and the title of the work are unfamiliar to us. In this environment, Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm aldīn (“The revival of the religious sciences”) and other works of al-Ġazālī (d. 505/1111) were very popular and highly favoured.71 Ṣūfī ideology in Yemen was nurtured primarily by his production, and the name of al-Ġazālī had been the symbol of holiness and learning. The local Ṣūfī called their children after him or added his name as a directing guidance in life or a good omen (sheets 60b, 23a, 9a). What also deserves a mention is that, in the environment under discussion, the Ṣūfī “Epistle” by Abū al-Qāsim alQušayrī (d. 465/1072–1073; Al-risāla al-qušayriyya) was popular (sheet 8b). Apparently, together with religious sciences, Islamic law sciences were in favour. We also find works on Qurʾanic recitation (qirāʾāt) and treatises fixing its traditions, books on Qurʾanic interpretation (tafsīr/tafāsīr), the foundational collections of authentic hadīṯ (Ṣaḥīḥ) by al-Buḫārī (d. 256/870) and Muslim b. al-Ḥaǧǧāǧ (d. 261/875) and the Sunan by Abū Dāwūd al-Siǧistānī (d. 275/888). Along with these works, educated people in the local environment studied Al-minhāǧ (“The way”) of al-Bayḍāwī (d. 685/1286) and Al-ʿaqāʾid (“The dogmas”) of al-Nasafī (d. 537/1142). In the field of law, we find equally famous and well-studied classical Ḥanafī works: Muḫtaṣar (“The compendium”) of alQudūrī (d. 428/1036) and Al-hidāya (“The guidance”) of the Fergana scholar ʿAlī alMarġīnānī (d. 593/1197), as well as distinguished Šāfiʿī works such as Al-ḥāwī al-kabīr fī al-furūʿ (“The large comprehensive book on the branches of law”) by al-Māwardī (d. 450/1058), Al-tanbīh (“The admonition”) and Al-muhaḏḏab (“The polished book”) of al-Šīrāzī (d. 476/1083) and Al-lumaʿ (“The glitters”) by “the Imam of the two Holy Cities” al-Ǧuwaynī (d. 478/1085). Al-Ġazālī’s legal treatises Al-basīṭ (“The major”), Al-wasīṭ (“The middle”), and Al-waǧīz (“The short”) were studied intensively. The latter composition is present in al-Nawawī’s (d. 676/1278) adaptation under the title Al-rawḍa (“The garden”). The work of the Yemeni legal scholar al-ʿImrānī (d. 558/1163), Al-bayān (“The elucidation”) also received acclaim. In the latter’s biography, a treatise on the principles of law by Ibn ʿAbdawayh (d. 525/1132; cf. sheet 51a), entitled Al-iršād (“The guidance”), is mentioned. A Šāfiʿī code of fatwas Al-ḥāwī al-ṣaġīr (“The short comprehensive book”) by al-Qazwīnī (d. 665/1266) was used as a tool for teaching. The fact that it was taught by the šayḫ Muḥammad al-Ṭayyib al-Nāširī (d. 874/1469–1470) is fixed in his biography (sheet 9b) and can be proven by the existence of his own commentary on this work.72 A versified adoption of the mentioned collection of fatwas also existed as a means of guidance. It was written by Ibn al-Wardī (d. 749/1348) under the title Albahǧa (“The grace”). The works of al-Būnī (d. 622/1225), dedicated to various occult The importance of Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīn in Yemen is also stressed by Anas B. Khalidov (“Arabic manuscript collections”, 2019, p. 73) in his work on the manuscripts of Ḥaḍramawt. [N. o. the Ed.]. 72 C. Brockelmann, GAL, SB I, p. 679, No. 29I 9. 71 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 88 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent sciences and the issues of Ṣūfism, were also familiar to the educated people of Yemen (sheet 76b, in the biography of Yūsuf b. Abū Bakr al-Qalīṣī). [93][Literary works] Rather often, along with the facts of life, the biographies under study contain descriptions of one’s literary works. For instance, in the biography of Abū Bakr b. Daʿsayn (d. 752/1351) his four-volume commentary on the Sunan of Abū Dāwūd al-Siǧistānī is mentioned (sheet 83b). The biography of Ṭalḥa b. ʿĪsā al-Hattār (d. 780/1378–1379) mentions his composition Kitāb al-laṭāʾif fī iǧtilāʾ ʿarūs al-maʿārif (“The book of the subtle graces on the revealing of the bride of knowledge to the groom”). To ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. ʿUmar al-Ḥubayšī (d. 780/1378–1379), Kitāb al-naẓm (“The book of verse”) containing 14 thousand lines of verse is attributed. His son is referred to as the author of Kitāb al-baraka (“The book of blessing”) and others.73 It is told on Ismāʿīl b. Muḥammad al-Ḥaḍramī (d. 676/1277) that he had been the author of numerous works, of which, however, only two are mentioned: a commentary on al-Šīrāzī’s Al-muhaḏḏab and a compendium of Muslim’s Ṣaḥīḥ (sheet 11a). Brockelmann mentions his adjustments to al-Wāḥidī’s Tafsīr.74 In the biography of Muḥammad b. Saʿīd al-Qurayẓī (lived in the beginning of the 8th/14th century), his collection of traditions entitled Kitāb al-mustaṣfā (“The book of the selected”) is mentioned. These are selected traditions from various “books of sunna” (sheet 62b). Mūsā b. Aḥmad al-Tibāʿī al-Ūṣābī (d. 621/1224) commented on the above mentioned treatise of al-Ǧuwaynī Al-lumaʿ (“The glitters”) three times, as usual, abbreviating every new version. Al-wasīṭ (“The middle”) had been the most well-known and gained the widest distribution (sheet 72b). The book Tuḥfat al-ṭālib li-al-maṭlūb fī labs al-ḫirqa (“The gift for the seeker of the demanded dressed in tatters”) by the šayḫ ʿĪsā al-Subaytī (d. ca. 805/1402–1403; sheets 47b–48a) is only passingly mentioned. The dicta, or maxims, of saints and Ṣūfī šayḫs were written down by their students and were combined into collections. Thus, it is told on the šayḫ Aḥmad b. ʿAlawān (d. 665/1266)75 that his maxims had formed a collection of several volumes. He also had been the author of a dīwān of fine verse, which is “in people’s hands” (sheet 4a). The maxims on Ṣūfism by Aḥmad b. al-Ǧaʿd al-Abyanī (d. after 690/1291) have also been combined into a book which could be found in his native area of Abyan (sheet 4b). 73 C. Brockelmann, GAL II, p. 189, §6, No. 1; SB II, p. 251, §6, No. 1,1. C. Brockelmann, GAL I, p. 412, No. 4,4. 75 C. Brockelmann, GAL I, p. 449, No. 31; SB I, p. 806. 74 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 89 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent The šayḫ Abū Bakr b. Muḥammad al-Sarrāǧ al-Salāmī (d. at the beginning of the 800s/1400s), as the above mentioned šayḫs was renowned for his “sayings” and perfect Ṣūfī poems collected into one volume (sheet 81b). Aḥmad b. ʿUmar al-Zaylaʿī was distinguished for deep knowledge in sciences, especially in that of true being, to which he dedicated a work entitled Lubāb ṯamarat al-ḥaqīqa (“The kernel of the fruit of reality”; sheet 5a). In the biography of Šihāb al-Dīn Aḥmad b. Abū Bakr Ibn al-Raddād al-Taymī (d. 821/1418)76 his following works are mentioned: 1) Kitāb mūǧibāt al-raḥma fī ʿamal al-yawm wa-al-layla (“The book of the obligations of mercy in daily and nightly performance”); a treatise of Ṣūfī tatters: 2) Uddat al-muršidīn wa-ʿumdat al-mustaršidīn fī aḥkām al-ḫirqa wa-al-nisba li-alnās wa-al-ṣuḥba (“The complete equipment of the guides [to the right path] and the support of those who ask for guidance in the rules of tatters, affinity to people and companionship”); a compendium on the same topic: 3) Al-qawāʿid al-wafiyya fī aṣl al-ḫirqa al-ṣūfiyya (“The complete fundamental principles of the basics of the Ṣūfī tatters”); a “lay” of the mystical path: 4) Kitāb Ḏī al-Fiqār al-mārr bi-yad al-faqr al-manṣūr (“The book of [the sword] Ḏū al-Fiqār passing through the hands of the aided deprived ones”); and a book of elegant verse: 5) Šiʿr (Aḥmad b. Abū Bakr al-Raddād) (sheet 8b). [94][Correspondence between the šayḫs] Collections of correspondence between the šayḫs deserve a special mention. These collections gained wide distribution among the šayḫs’ admirers and were copied as if they were authorised books. Thus, the correspondence of “the greatest of the šayḫs of Ḥaḍramawt”, ʿAbd Allāh b. Muḥammad Bā (ʿAbbād) ʿAlawī (d. 687/1288), with his friends was very famous in Yemen, as well as his treatise on the Ṣūfī rules of living, known as Fī ṭarīq al-qawm (“On the community’s way of life”). Apparently, the correspondence between the šayḫ ʿUmar b. Saʿīd al-Hamdānī (d. 663/1265) and the faqīh Aḥmad b. Mūsā b. ʿUǧayl (d. after 663/1265), collected and copied by a faqīh which was well familiar with one of them, gained distribution in the form of a book (sheet 42a). Mostly referred to as Aḥmad b. Abū Bakr al-Raddād (748–821/1347–1418). The full name is Abū alʿAbbās Šihāb al-Dīn Aḥmad b. Abū Bakr b. ʿAlam al-Dīn Muḥammad b. Šihāb b. al-Raddād, al-Qurašī alTaymī al-Bakrī al-Makkī (later al-Zabīdī). [N. o. the Ed.]. 76 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 90 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent Separate letters of šayḫs to each other were also studied by the public. Thus, the story of the refusal of Abū Bakr b. Aḥmad b. Daʿsayn from the position of the supreme qāḍī, offered to him by the Rasūlid ruler al-Malik al-Muǧāhid (ʿAlī b. Dāwūd, r. in 721– 764/1321–1363) in 752/1351, is taken from the letter of the šayḫ Ǧamāl al-Dīn al-Mizǧāǧī to the faqīh Ismāʿīl al-Muqrī (sheet 83b). We do not provide here the works mentioned in the biographies that survived to the present day and have been included by Brockelmann into his work. We should only stress that, in all those cases, the data of the collection under discussion fully correlates with the data provided by Brockelmann, which means that the manuscript is a reliable source. [95][The author’s sources] The issue of the sources of the author of the collection is more or less clear. He employs a number of biographical works of his predecessors and contemporaries, mentioning them. To a certain part, he drew data from epistolary sources. The third category of his reports is based on his personal connections and observations. These reports are stressed by the formula qultu (“I have said”). Among the earliest biographical works employed by the author as his sources are:  Tārīḫ Ṣanʿāʾ (“The history of Sanaa”) by al-Rāzī (d. after 460/1068).77  Ḥilyat al-awliyāʾ (“The adornment of the saints”) by Abū Nuʿaym al-Iṣfahānī (d. 430/1038).78  the book of biographies of the prominent Šīʿī faqīhs of Yemen entitled Ṭabaqāt fuqahāʾ al-Yaman (“The generations of the faqīhs of Yemen”) by Ibn Samura al-Ǧaʿdī (d. 586/1190).79  Ibn al-Ǧawzī’s (d. 597/1200) compendium of the mentioned Abū Nuʿaym alIṣfahānī’s work on history of the saints, entitled Ṣafwat al-ṣafwa (“The purity of the purity”).80  “The epistle” of Ṣafī al-Dīn al-Ḥusayn b. ʿAlī Ibn Abī Manṣūr (d. 682/1283) in honour of his šayḫ (Risālat Ṣafī al-Dīn b. Abī Manṣūr fī manāqib šayḫihī), “in which he recounts the saints he met”. Among those saints, there was Sufyān b. ʿAbd Allāh al-Abyanī al-Yamanī, the participant of the famous Siege of 77 C. Brockelmann, GAL I, p. 333, No. 1; SB I, p. 570. Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad b. ʿAbd Allāh b. Muḥammad alRāzī al-Ṣanʿānī’s (d. ca. 460/1068) work is actually entitled Tārīḫ madīnat Ṣanʿāʾ (“The history of the city of Sanaa”). The work Tārīḫ Ṣanʿāʾ (“The history of Sanaa”) belongs to his contemporary and compatriot Isḥāq b. Yaḥyā b. Ǧarīr al-Ṭabarī al-Ṣanʿānī (d. ca. 450/1058). Both works are available in the published editions. See al-Rāzī, Tārīḫ madīnat Ṣanʿāʾ, ed. Ḥusayn ʿAbd Allāh al-ʿUmarī, 1989; al-Ṭabarī, Tārīḫ Ṣanʿāʾ, ed. ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad al-Ḥibšī, n. d. [N. o. the Ed.]. 78 C. Brockelmann, GAL I, p. 362, No. 1,1. 79 C. Brockelmann, GAL I, p. 391, No. 21; SB I, p. 676. 80 C. Brockelmann, GAL I, p. 362, No. 11; SB I, p. 617; 916b7. Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 91 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent Damietta (Ḥiṣār Dumyāṭ; 647/1249), in whose biography within the collection under discussion Ibn Abī Manṣūr’s Risāla is quoted (sheets 19b–20a). These works are used only episodically, because they are common for scholars throughout the Muslim world, while the number of known Yemeni ascetics of 1th– 6th/7th–12th centuries (the mentioned works date to the 5th–6th/11th–12th centuries) is not high compared to their number in the further centuries. To the largest part, the author’s material is drawn from the compositions of 8th–9th/14th–15th centuries. Among them, there is a number of works dedicated specifically to the prominent persons of Yemen:  “History” (Tārīḫ) by al-Ǧanadī (d. 732/1332), that is his Al-sulūk fī ṭabaqāt alʿulamāʾ wa-al-mulūk (“The path through the generations of scholars and kings”)81 is quoted systematically. It may be that the work of the same author mentioned on sheet 41b as Ṭabaqāt al-qurrāʾ (“Generations of the [Qurʾan] reciters”) is a part of the same book.  Al-Yāfiʿī’s (d. 768/1367) “History”, that is, his Mirʾāt al-ǧanān (“Mirrors of the soul”), is also quoted rather often.82  The history of the Rasūlids by ʿAlī al-Ḫazraǧī (d. 812/1409-1410), entitled Alʿuqūd (“The necklace”).83  “History” (Tārīḫ) by the faqīh al-Ḥusayn al-Ahdal (d. 855/1451)—the title under which, most likely, two historical works of the author are combined.84  Ṭabaqāt (“Generations”) of Šāfiʿī scholars by al-Isnawī (d. 777/1370)85 is mentioned once in the biography of al-Yāfiʿī (sheet 25a).  A biographical work by the ḥāfiẓ Abū al-Faḍl Ibn Ḥaǧar al-ʿAsqalānī (d. 852/1449)86 is mentioned in the biography of Aḥmad b. Abū Bakr al-Nāširī (sheet 9b).87 81 C. Brockelmann, GAL II, p. 184, No. 3; SB II, p. 236. C. Brockelmann, GAL II, p. 177, No. 1,13; SB II, p. 223. 83 C. Brockelmann, GAL II, p. 184, No. 6; SB II, p. 238. 84 C. Brockelmann, GAL II, p. 185, No. 7,1,2; SB II, p. 239. 85 C. Brockelmann, GAL II, p. 91, No. 15,7; SB II, p. 98. 86 C. Brockelmann, GAL II, p. 68, No. 13; SB II, p. 76. 87 The concrete title omitted by Belyaev cannot be retrieved here, because al-ʿAsqalānī has more than one biographical work. What could be implied is a biographical dictionary of leading figures of the 8th/14th century entitled Al-durar al-kāmina fī aʿyān al-mīʾa al-ṯāmina (“The hidden pearls among the celebrities of the eighth century”); an abridged collection of biographies of hadith narrators known as Tahḏīb al-tahḏīb (“The refinement of the refinement”); the abridged version of the latter entitled Taqrīb al-tahḏīb (“The approximation of the refinement”); a comprehensive dictionary of the Companions entitled Al-iṣāba fī tamyīz al-ṣaḥāba (“The right in distinction of the Companions”). [N. o. the Ed.]. 82 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 92 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent [96][The author and his informers] Yet, we did not succeed in gaining exact information on the author of Kitāb al-ansāb (“The book of genealogies”; sheet 52a), referred to as the Qāḍī Ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Nāširī. We can only identify him as a representative of the educated Yemeni clan Banū alNāširī. Another author who remains unidentified is al-Šunaykī, the author of Alṭabaqāt al-wusṭā (“The middle book of generations”). We can only assume that he worked after year 715/1315–1316, in which ʿAlī b. Ibrāhīm al-Baǧalī, mentioned in Alṭabaqāt, passed away (sheet 33b). Yet, it is less clear who were the contemporary informers of the author. It may be that the issue was clarified in the missing opening part of the manuscript. Basing on certain expressions, we may assume that the author had one major source, to which he refers as “our šayḫ” (šayḫunā). It is, however, impossible to say with any degree of certainty whether the author used a composition of his master or had written down his oral reports. It is also clear that, by šayḫunā, the author actually refers to several persons. On sheet 59a he mentions a work by “our šayḫ, the most learned, the saint Abū alQāsim b. Ǧaʿmān” (d. 857/1453), whose biography concludes the collection (sheets 91b–92b). This Abū al-Qāsim is the maternal uncle of the author’s master Muḥammad b. Abū Bakr b. Ibrāhīm b. Ǧaʿmān. The latter is mentioned in the author’s excursus on sheets 67b–68a as “our šayḫ from whom we have used [reports]”. The author provides the exact date of the šayḫ’s death: “the half of Šawwāl 856”/29 October 1452. It may be that the often mentioned “our šayḫ Šaraf al-Dīn”, from whom the author transmits numerous reports, is precisely the maternal uncle of his master. Thus, the author was tightly linked to the educated clan of Banū Ǧaʿmān, to which numerous Yemeni scholars owed their education and knowledge in various fields. In particular, somewhat later than our author lived, in this family, in Bayt al-Faqīh, the historian of Yemen Ibn alDaybaʿ (d. 944/1537) received knowledge in the field of law.88 [97][Ṣūfī education] In terms of facts and dates, the episode of Muḥammad b. Ibrāhīm al-Daḥmān’s (d. 603/1206–1207) biography on sheet 58a is important, for it contains information on the Ḥanafī Madrasa al-Daḥmāniyya, which was built in Zabīd by the Atabek Sunqur (d. 609/1212–1213) for al-Daḥmān and, with time, passed from the scholar’s descendants to the clan of the author’s šayḫ.89 The story is narrated from the author’s master: “Our šayḫ has said: ‘I think that this is the sultan al-Masʿūd, the last of the Egyptian 88 Ch. Rieu, Supplement to the Catalogue of the Arabic Mss in the British Museum, 1984, pp. 374–375, No. 586. 89 Here, by “Atabek Sunqur”, only the Ayyūbid high rank official (Atabek) Sayf al-Dīn Sunqur could have been implied. He governed Zabīd at the beginning of the 7th/13th century and died in 609/1212–1213. Thus, he could not have built a madrasa for Muḥammad b. Ibrāhīm al-Daḥmān, had the latter, as Belyaev’s original text reads, died in 803 YH. Therefore, most likely, Muḥammad b. Ibrāhīm al-Daḥmān died in d. 603/1206–1407 [N. o. the Ed.]. Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 93 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent kings,90 or al-Manṣūr b. Rasūl’.91 He has [also] said: “This Madrasa (i. e. al-Daḥmāniyya) was permanently owned by his (al-Daḥmān’s) descendants till the end of al-Muǧāhid’s rule (721–764/1321–1363), and then it passed to the most learned one, Aḥmad b. Naṣīṣ, and after him—to my grandfather, the faqīh Sirāǧ al-Dīn al-Sarḥī (may be al-Šarǧī?), who remained in it till the year 769 (i. e. 1367–1368), and then it was in our ownership till this day of the year 870 (i. e. 1465–1466). But no (‫)نعم‬, after my parent, the most learned one, Šaraf al-Dīn Ismāʿīl al-Būma taught in it.’92 I say: ‘The faqīh Ismāʿīl was a law-scholar, grammarian and lexicologist; he was learned in various sciences and could define exactly the literal meanings and implications of words (ḥaqqaqa almanṭūq wa-al-mafhūm). And when the Qāḍī Badr al-Dīn al-Damāmīnī arrived in Zabīd in 819 (i. e. 1416) and met him, he not once rewarded his merits and recognised his ascendancy in sciences. He wrote little. [Ṣūfī] poverty attracted him. He died in the year 803 (read 830, ṯalāṯīn instead of ṯalāṯ, i. e. 1427)’”. The author employs the same formula “our šayḫ” to refer to the representatives of the learned Ṣūfī orders Banū al-Nāširī and Banū al-Ǧabartī. To his contemporary from the Banū al-Ǧabartī, he refers as “our šayḫ, the šayḫ of the learned ones, the support of those who reached ultimate knowledge, Šaraf al-Milla wa-al-Dīn Abū al-Maʿrūf Ismāʿīl b. Abī Bakr al-Ǧabartī… And in our age, he is the Imam of the Ṣūfīs and the šayḫ of the šayḫs on the way pleasing Allāh”. In the same place, the author provides the sayings of “our šayḫ”, apparently, his major source, on the miracles of the šayḫ al-Ǧabartī, who died in 875/1470 (sheet 13a). With the same expression “our šayḫ”, he refers to the supreme qāḍī of his time, Muḥammad al-Ṭayyib b. Aḥmad al-Nāširī (d. 874/1469–1470): šayḫunā Qāḍī al-quḍāt al-Ṭayyib (“our šayḫ, the Qāḍī of the qāḍīs al-Ṭayyib”). For the šayḫ al-Nāširī, the author provides a considerable portion of his own data, introducing it with the formula qultu (sheet 85a). Likewise, transmitting reports directly from his source, the author notes: “Our šayḫ, Nafīs al-Dīn Sulaymān b. Ibrāhīm al-ʿAlawī” (sheet 22a). Finally, speaking of his own master, Muḥammad b. Abū Bakr b. Ibrāhīm b. Ǧaʿmān, the author makes an excursus: “But he is not mentioned by our šayḫ al-Sarḫī (may be al-Šarǧī), although, by Allāh, he deserves to be mentioned, so that it would be told of his merits and he would be glorified” (sheet 68a). A less clear “our šayḫ Zayn alDīn says” (sheet 26b), as it seems to us, refers to the same person (our šayḫ al-Sarḫī). If The šayḫ may imply al-Malik al-Masʿūd Yūsuf (r. 612–626/1215–1229), the last Ayyūbid ruler of Yemen, who, however, was not the last sultan of Egypt from the Ayyūbid dynasty. The šayḫ may also imply alMalik al-Masʿūd Yūsuf’s grandson, who indeed was the last Ayyūbid sultan of Egypt under the title alMalik al-Ašraf (r. 647–649/1250–1252). Al-Malik al-Ašraf’s name is Muẓaffar al-Dīn Mūsā b. al-Masʿūd. The patronymic Ibn al-Masʿūd could be the reason of the confusion. The šayḫ could imply the last Ayyūbid sultan of Egypt Ibn al-Masʿūd (and not the last Ayyūbid ruler of Yemen al-Malik al-Masʿūd), because, as an alternative to “the Sultan al-Masʿūd, the last of the Egyptian kings”, he suggests “alManṣūr b. Rasūl”, that is Ibn Rasūl al-Malik al-Manṣūr, the first Rasūlid ruler. Al-Malik al-Manṣūr’s reign (626–647/1228–1249) is close in time to that of Ibn al-Masʿūd [N. o. the Ed.]. 91 The šayḫ implied al-Malik al-Manṣūr, Nūr al-Dīn Abū al-Fatḥ ʿUmar b. ʿAlī, the first of the Rasūlids. He ruled in Yemen in 626–647/1228–1249 [N. o. the Ed.]. 92 In the text—“‫ ”الـبـومـﯩـه‬or “‫”الــبـوصـه‬. 90 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 94 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent we could read al-Sarḥī and al-Sarḫī (sheets 83b, 67b–68a, 58a, 65a, and 69b) as al-Šarǧī and to identify the person behind this name as the šayḫ Zayn al-Dīn (sheet 26b),93 we could consider this person the major source of the author and identify him as the author of the history of Yemeni saints and Ṣūfīs, Zayn al-Dīn Aḥmad al-Šarǧī al-Zabīdī (d. 893/1488).94 All three—the author of the collection, Muḥammad al-Ṭayyib al-Nāširī, and al-Šarǧī—were contemporaries and belonged to the same circle of learned Ṣūfīs.95 What also argues for the assumption that “our šayḫ Zayn al-Dīn” and “our šayḫ alSarḥī” are the same person is the author’s meticulous attention to the representatives of the Ḥanafī maḏhab in Yemen. Though not expressing himself in favour of this school anywhere, he always stresses a person’s being its follower. Thus, on sheet 83b, he quotes: “Our šayḫ says: ‘No one of the Ḥanafī scholars of Yemen since [the advent of] Islam to the present day has not created works equal to these [compositions] in number and value’”. Somewhat above, among the students of Abū Bakr and alḤaddād, the creator of the implied numerous valuable compositions, the author mentions the faqīh Aḥmad al-Sarḥī, which means that the latter could be Zayn al-Dīn Aḥmad al-Šarǧī, “our šayḫ”, the major source of the author. [98][The author’s comments] Throughout the biographies of the collection, personal comments of the author are spread along with reports referring to unknown persons, apparently, his direct informants. Among the latter, there are: Qāḍī Naǧm al-Dīn al-Ṭabarī (sheets 11b, 12a), faqīh Aḥmad Ibn Abī al-Ḫayr (sheet 12a),96 faqīh Ǧamāl al-Dīn b. Mūsā al-Nāsiḫ (sheet 10a) and others, who could be probably found in some other biographical works. The reports transmitted by the author from the mentioned persons and information provided by himself seriously complement the data drawn from the biographical works of his predecessors, cf. e. g. stories about the šayḫs al-Ǧabartī and Banū Ǧaʿmān who were close to him in terms of teaching, or about the šayḫs al-Nāširī, who were close to him within the shared Ṣūfī order (sheets 84a–85b). See also the story about the destruction of the settlement Bayt Ḥusayn (the place where numerous saints and scholars were active), which was plundered as a result of the Bedouin’s attack in 862/1458, after which a new town Bayt al-Faqīh was established in the place (sheet 50a). Reports on desolation of old settlements and establishment of new cities and townships in their place usually belong to the author himself: all dates of such events fall within his lifetime and he describes them in greater detail as they were familiar to him. On sheet 69b, we read: “The faqīh Zayn al-Dīn al-Sarḫī says: I asked the Qāḍī al-Ṭayyib al-Nāširī about the šayḫ Yaḥyā al-Marzūq…” etc. 94 C. Brockelmann, GAL II, p. 190, §9; SB II, p. 254, §9a, No.2. 95 The historian Ibn al-Daybaʿ learned the tradition from al-Šarǧī in Zabīd.—Ch. Rieu, Supplement to the Catalogue of the Arabic Mss in the British Museum, 1984, pp. 374–375, No. 586. 96 Aḥmad b. Abī al-Ḫayr remains unknown to us, but it stands to reason that he belongs to a renowned dynasty of Yemeni Šāfiʿī faqīhs Ibn Abī al-Ḫayr, of which the most prominent and well-known is the Imam Yaḥyā b. Abī al-Ḫayr (d. 558/1172–1173) [N. o. the Ed.]. 93 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 95 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent In separate author’s comments spread throughout the composition, his own ideology can be seen rather clearly. One can notice his depreciative attitude toward the Zaydīs and their teaching. When he tells of their raids during which they left their mountain area to attack Zabīd and the surrounding towns and villages in the seashore lowland of Tihāma, the Zaydīs are always pictured as enemies, and their raids always end up with failures or even the death of their Imam (sheets 63a, 59ab, 5b). Also he describes the shaming of the Zaydīs of Sanaa in a dispute and their being ridiculed by the citizens of Usaba (sheet 72b). It is stressed with a condemnation that the Zaydīs do not recognise the delight and miracles of the saints (sheet 10a). The representatives of the central, in particular Umayyad, caliphates remain alien to the author. Thus, he refers to Hišām b. ʿAbd al-Malik as “their caliph” (sheet 22a). The political committal of the author of the collection becomes clear owing to two episodes. Speaking about the šayḫ Aḥmad b. Muḥammad al-Aflaḥ, after quoting the words of the šayḫ, the author adds from himself: “(…) He died at the beginning of the rule of the master of the believers ʿAlī b. Ṭāhir, in the year 860 (that is 1456), and the people assembled because of his death in a great assembly: most of the inhabitants of Zabīd came to say a prayer for him in the major mosque of Zabīd. ʿAlī b. Ṭāhir, the master of the believers, accompanied him and carried his burial barrow (…)” (sheet 11a). The same title “the master of the believers” is found in the biography of the author’s contemporary, the šayḫ al-Baǧalī. Though the ruler’s name is not mentioned, apparently it refers to the same ʿAlī b. Ṭāhir (sheet 21b). This ruler was the second son of the founder of the Ṭāhirid dynasty in Yemen. He ruled in Aden in 853–883/1449–1478 (i. e. till his death), bearing the honorific al-Malik al-Muǧāhid Šams al-Dīn.97 Thus, the collection of biographies had been compiled during ʿAlī b. Ṭāhir’s reign. The author nowhere mentions the death of the ruler. For this reason, the latest date found in the collection—888/1483, the death of the šayḫ ʿUmar b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Qudsī—seems suspicious (sheet 45a). [99][Ṣūfī life in Yemen] Since the author himself is a Ṣūfī, he demonstrates a good knowledge of Ṣūfī life in his land. By comparing data of various biographies, even basing merely on the collection under discussion, one could reconstruct the picture of the development of Ṣūfism in Yemen. In the collection, we find abundant data characterising the outer side of local Ṣūfism. The terminology of Ṣūfism, the directions of the teaching addressed to its followers, the details of everyday life—all these are reflected well in the biographies. The Ṣūfī conception of grace transmitted by way of consecration from the master to the student together with mysterious knowledge and secrets is also clearly elucidated, as well as the notion of miracles related to this process. The succession is kept due to the long term of instruction and obedience. When the teacher considers his murīd (disciple) deserving to have been put in the position of šayḫ, he puts him in this position by conferring upon him special orders. The link between the master and the disciple is 97 S. Lane-Poole, The Mohammedan Dynasties: Chronological and Genealogical Tables with Historical Introductions, 1894. Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 96 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent firm, which also contributes to keeping the succession. A murīd often marries a woman in his master’s family. Lines of succession leading to the greatest Ṣūfī teachers, such as ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Ǧīlī (d. 561/1166),98 are followed attentively in the biographies of the collection. Typical traits and classical ethical norms of asceticism and sainthood are also elucidated with much attention. It is shown that the ascetics used to build mosques, zāwiyas and ribāṭs (in the latter case, dozens were built). Sometimes, they revived Ṣūfī life in empty ribāṭs. In other cases, the founders left their ribāṭs to build new centres, when they saw that the former ones became inhabited with ascetics and the Ṣūfī fraternities within them were active. Not once, settlements were established on the basis of ribāṭs. Such settlements were usually named after their founding šayḫsascetics and, with time, turned into towns. As follows from the biographies, Ṣūfism was highly active in Yemen, and was propagated both by word and deed. It spread beyond the borders of the Ṭāhirid state into Ḥaḍramawt, Šiḥr, the islands of the Red Sea and into Abyssinia. In that period, Aden was usually referred to as ṯaġr, namely “border picket” (pl. ṯuġūr), an analogy with Syrian-Mesopotamian ṯuġūr, and asceticism was actively developing in the city. As follows from certain episodes of the collection, Ṣūfī poverty does not imply absence of property. The biographies often mention tenured lands, sometimes vast, as well as plantations of palms that allow living solely on the income from them. It is stressed that some lands used by the Ṣūfīs were free of ḫarāǧ (taxes on land owned by the state), which was an inalienable privilege of the owners. Incomes from trade are also discussed as legal and usual for the local Ṣūfīs, and trade turnover is sometimes very high. Thus, the šayḫ Muḥammad b. al-Ḥusayn b. ʿAbdawayh (d. 525/1131), the owner of the Kamarān island in the Red Sea and a large fortune, who conducted trade with India via his slaves he sent there (sheet 51a). Owning large herds of sheep and cattle was also usual for the local Ṣūfīs. Their ideology manifested itself not in the mere fact of ownership, but in the way they distributed incomes, which were actually used to support poor, orphans, fellow-Ṣūfīs and faqīhs. It is often stressed that, though owning enough property, an ascetic was satisfied with little food, distributing almost everything to other people. However, another phenomenon is documented not once: a faqīh or a saint earned his living by copying books for money or by selling fuel wood, which he used to bring on his back in twigs, carrying them from mountains into his town (sheet 82b). Sometimes a scholar-saint owned a large library (sheets 51a, 65b), often composed of books he copied himself (sheet 45a), and left it into waqf-ownership by a mosque of his descendents (sheets 66b, 45a). In general, the collection reflects well the new period of rise of local Ṣūfism, when, enriched by the ideas of al-Ġazālī, it generated new ideological streams. The period of 8th–10th/14th–16th centuries had been the time of Ṣūfī expansion, when it moved into new territories in Arabia, Africa and India. Also referred to as al-Ǧīlānī and al-Kīlānī, a great Ṣūfī Imam and Ḥanbalī faqīh. The full name is Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Qādir b. Mūsā b. ʿAbd Allāh. In the lands of Maghreb, he is often referred to as Bū ʿAllām al-Ǧīlānī. In the lands of Mašriq—mostly as ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Ǧīlānī. [N. o. the Ed.]. 98 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 97 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent In spite of the author’s respect toward the followers of Ṣūfism, he is unable to conceal the existing of parties within it and contradictions between them, which often expressed themselves in aggravation of personal relations. Thus, in 825/1422, the son of the šayḫ Aḥmad al-Rudaynī, Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn Muḥammad was assassinated by the Ṣūfīs of the šayḫ al-Ġazālī (the son of the šayḫ Ṭalḥa b. ʿĪsā al-Hattār (d. 780/1378–1379)), incited by their leader (sheet 9a). The author does not deserve to condemn this fact, but his embarrassment and critical attitude toward it are clear in his remark: “Allāh will distinguish between the sewers of discord and the righteous”. [100][Ṣūfī streams] In certain biographies, we find direct indications at the exact time in which the major streams (ṭarīqas) of Ṣūfism had been established in Yemen, as well as the direct mention of their representatives. Both eastern and western ṭarīqas penetrate the land. The stream that gained the widest distribution and influence was the teaching of ʿAbd alQādir al-Ǧīlī (471–561/1078–1166). It had been introduced by the ascetic ʿAlī b. ʿAbd alRaḥmān al-Ḥaddād, who was dressed in tatters by the founder of the order in Mecca in 561/1166. Most of the šayḫs of the order in Yemen are connected with him. The šayḫ ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿAlī al-Asdī (d. 620/1223) received tatters from the šayḫ al-Ḥaddād and later was dressed in tatters by Muḥyī al-Dīn (the Reviver of Religion)99 in Mecca (sheets 34a, 26a). The teaching of the leader of the Western Ṣūfism of the 6th/12th century, Abū Madyan Šuʿayb b. al-Ḥasan al-Maġribī (d. 598/1193), was received by Muḥammad b. Muhannā al-Qurašī (was still alive in 621/1224) from the former’s disciple Abū Bakr al-Tilimsānī (sheet 53b) and had later disciples as well (sheet 19a). The teaching known as al-rifāʿiyya, named after its founder Aḥmad al-Rifāʿī (d. 576/1180–1181), gained distribution in Yemen by the direct order of his descendent, Naǧm al-Dīn b. al-Aḫḍar, to his disciple ʿUmar b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Qudsī (d. ca. 888/1483), who obeyed the order with his whole heart (sheets 44b–45a). However, already in 706/1306–1307, we find an earlier disciple of this teaching (sheet 63b). Likewise, the teaching of the šayḫ al-Šāḏilī (d. 656/1258) was propagated and distributed after his order by his disciple ʿAlī b. ʿUmar b. Daʿsayn (d. 828/1425), who was consecrated in Egypt, travelled later to Abyssinia and finally settled on the Red Sea coast in the settlement Maḫā (not to confuse with the port city al-Muḫā), “in which his zāwiya grew into a large settlement on the seashore” (sheets 41b–42a). Along with these streams, brought into Yemen from outside, local streams developed inside. Such a Ṣūfī stream was established by the šayḫ ʿAlī al-Ahdal (d. 690/1291), from the famous Yemeni clan Banū al-Ahdal, whose ancestor came to Yemen from Iraq. V. Belyaev does not explain who “the Reviver of the Religion” is, but, apparently, this must be ʿAbd alQādir al-Ǧīlānī, to whom he refers as al-Ǧīlī. Since the latter died almost sixty years earlier than ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿAlī al-Asdī, we have to assume that al-Asdī met al-Ǧīlānī in Mecca when being a teenager. [N. o. the Ed.]. 99 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 98 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent [101][Popular attitude toward Ṣūfīs] Ṣūfism had been very popular in Yemen, and the influence of its leaders was especially high, because most of them remained in close vicinity to people. As follows from the biographies of the collection, when a Ṣūfī saint came to city, this caused such a gathering of people that he hardly got through the crowd and had to go to mosque before the second call to prayer (iqāma) and leave the mosque right after the releasing call (salāma), avoiding his venerators (sheet 23a). A passing note of the author made in this respect is curious and tells a lot. Characterising the famous šayḫ Ismāʿīl al-Ǧabartī (d. 806/1403–1404), he concludes: “None of the contemporary šayḫs came near him in number of disciples and followers from kings, amīrs, secretaries and scholars. Indeed, in the cities, most šayḫs are followed by rabble and mob. As for him, most of his followers and nobility and best people, who have power and supremacy over the others” (sheet 12a). Due to their vicinity to people, šayḫs not once stood at the head of local popular movements. Thus, during the reign of al-Malik al-Masʿūd (612–626/1215–1229), the last Ayyūbid ruler of Yemen,100 an upraising led by the Ṣūfī named Mirġam is documented. Though he gathered around him numerous disciples, Mirġam eventually lost and was killed. After this uprising, the Ayyūbid ruler hated the Ṣūfīs. He had even forbidden wearing Ṣūfī tatters (muraqqaʿ, dilq) (sheet 47b). Generally, the author does not conceal the cases of negative attitude toward Ṣūfīs and saints. Thus, he refers to the faqīh ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Muḥammad b. Zakariyyāʾ as “the critic of the saints” (naqqād al-awliyāʾ) (sheet 23b and 83a). The faqīh and historian alḤusayn al-Ahdal (d. 855/1451), who wrote a commentary on the prayer for completing the reading of the Qurʾan, composed by the Ṣūfī Abū Ḥarba (lived during the reign of al-Malik al-Muʾayyad (696–721/1296–1321)), is reproached for “touching recklessly the things that it would be more befitting to him to let alone”. After this he adds: “However, I think that he—may Allāh have mercy on him!—composed the collections he has composed, merely to attack carelessly the saints—may Allāh reward them well!—and to violate their honour. But praise to one who had presented him this opinion as embraceable. He has no predecessors in it, except for Ibn Taymiyya and his followers” (sheet 50b). [102][Tribal dynasties of scholars] The collection provides abundant material for receiving notions of the development of science and learning in Yemen over the period of several centuries. This information, however, is confined almost exclusively to canonical sciences. Everything concerning the system and methods of learning is rather clear. The major compositions that were The implied al-Masʿūd Yūsuf was the last Ayyūbid ruler of Yemen, but not a sultan from the Ayyūbid dynasty—unlike some of his ancestors and descendants. Al-Masʿūd Yūsuf’s father, al-Malik al-Kāmil Nāṣir al-Dīn Muḥammad, was the fifth Ayyūbid sultan of Egypt (r. 614–635/1218–1238). Al-Masʿūd Yūsuf’s grandson, al-Malik al-Ašraf Muẓaffar al-Dīn Mūsā b. Masʿūd, was the last Ayyūbid sultan (r. 647– 649/1250–1252). [N. o. the Ed.]. 100 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 99 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent studied at school are well-known. The issue of the scholarly tradition is especially interesting, and all that was told above about the continuity of Ṣūfī knowledge may be repeated here, for these two lines are too closely intertwined to separate them even for methodological purposes. We should only mention family successions in sciences. A comparison between the very rich materials of the biographies allows for a comprehensive picture of the tradition transmitted by families. On the territory of Yemen, including Ḥaḍramawt, one may trace more than 30 lineages—with several more or less well-known scholars representing each of them. These scholars were, at the same time, respected as saints of ascetics. Most of these families are local, and some of them trace their lineage into indigenous Yemeni tribes. Others migrated from Ḥiǧāz, Iraq, Syria, Palestine, Egypt and even Maghreb, and put down roots in Yemen, at the same time, remembering of their origin. Among the most important of these clans, we shall mention Banū Ahdal (two or three genealogic lineages), Banū al-Ǧabartī, Banū Ǧaʿmān (two lineages), Banū al-Nāširī (two lineages), Banū ʿUǧayl, Banū al-Musabbiḥ (the area of Dumluwwa), Banū alḤaḍramī (in Ḥaḍramawt and Zabīd), Banū al-Hattār. The representatives of these clans were often in friendly or familial relations. Some of these clans traced their lineages to the same ancestor. So did Banū Ahdal (Wādī Saham), Banū al-Qādimī (Wādī Surdud) and Banū Bā ʿAlawī (Ḥaḍramawt). The founding ancestors of these clans were paternal cousins and arrived to Yemen from Iraq. They traced their genealogies to the Imam al-Ḥusayn, who “was killed for his faith” (sheet 30b). To have a full impression of local scholarly life, it would be, of course, necessary to conduct a systematic study of its centres and to correlate between the data on their scholarly and literary activity with information on the compositions written by their representatives. [103][Deviations from the Classical Arabic] Apparently, the manuscript was copied in a scholarly environment. There are no inconsistencies caused by the misunderstanding of the text by the copyist, except for the cases of incorrect diacritical punctuation and vocalisation of toponyms. At the same time, the manuscript contains deviations from the norms of the classical language, which can be explained by the phenomena of the spoken language. These deviations could exist already in the original text. Alternately, they could be inserted into one of the early copies, most likely, in Yemen, before one of the later copies left South Arabia. This assumption is based on the notion that, usually, in such cases, the foreign scholarly tradition appears to be stricter than the local one on the issue of language purity.101 The following deviations are observed in the manuscript: 1) The loss of a proper case-ending. Direct and objective cases are used voluntarily: ʿalā ḫālihī… Abū al-Qāsim (sheet 56a); balaġa ʿumruhū arbaʿūn(a) sana (sheet 101 I. J. Kratchkovsky, Daghestan et Yemen, 1937, p. 295. Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 100 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent 38a); ġālabahum faqran ṣāliḥīn (sheet 70a); fa-waǧadahū waladuhū Abā Bakr(in) fa-raḥḥaba bihī (sheet 67b). 2) Wrong use of cases endings as a result of the loss of case inflections: raʾā yahūdī rākiban (sheet 61a). 3) Improper agreement of the initial predicate with the following subject in dual number, namely, the predicate also has the dual form. 4) The absence of agreement where necessary: a) of agreement between the verbal predicate and the following subject in gender of the single-number form: kāna baynahū wa-bayna al-faqīhi … ṣuḥba(tun) wa-mawadda(tun) (sheets 38b, 41b, 44b, 45a, 45b, 47b, etc. almost on every sheet); b) of agreement between a pronoun used as a subject with the following noun used as a predicate: wa-huwa qalʿa(tun) ʿaẓīma(tun) šāhiqa(tun) (sheet 42b); c) of agreement between the predicate of a dependent, relative clause and the subject of an independent clause: wa-hiya ǧiha(tun) yuḥāḏī Wādī Zabīd (sheet 76a). 5) Improper agreement between the number 1, 2 with the countable names ( ‫س نه‬ ‫ س نه احد‬،‫—)اثنني‬very often. It is only once that the author intentionally stresses the use of a dialect form of the people of the mountainous part of Yemen in the text, providing a broad explanation of the phenomenon (sheet 37b). [104][Specifics of writing] With respect to the specifics of orthography, the manuscript notably splits into two parts. The following characteristics are to be mentioned: 1) in the first part, alif mamdūda is always written without hamza, and very seldom—with madda above alif; in the second part of the manuscript, hamza is always in its place; 2) sometimes, madda is written above the letter yāʾ to mark the long vowel ī at the end of the word; 3) alif maqṣūra is represented by the usual alif, though in the notes on pronunciation (ḍabṭ) is clearly stated: “there is alif maqṣūra at the end” (e. g. ‫حـيْـتَـا‬ َ ‫;)الـتُـ‬ 4) final yāʾ is constantly written with two dots below the letter; because of this, sometimes even yāʾ serving for alif maqṣūra goes with dots; 5) scriptio defectiva is applied constantly for names such as: ،‫ امسعيل‬،‫ داود‬،‫سفني‬ ‫ احسق‬،‫;ابرهمي‬ 6) dots above tāʾ marbūṭa are always missing in the first part and are used seldom in the second part; 7) medial hamza is never used—it is always replaced with yāʾ (with dots), e. g. ‫ مخساميه‬،‫;زايد‬ 8) tanwīn al-fatḥ is always marked in writing; Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 101 V. I. Belyaev 9) the word Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent ‫ابن‬ between the names of son and father, if appears at the beginning of a new line, may be written without alif; 10) a word preceded by the conjunction wa (“and”) may appear at the beginning of a new line separately from the conjunction left at the end of the previous line; 11) alif al-wiqāya is often used improperly: as it is used after wāw in plural verbal forms (third-person plural forms of the perfect; third-person plural forms in the conditional and subjunctive moods of the imperfect), it may be used with any other final wāw—a phenomenon which is very typical for manuscripts: ‫ويدعوا هلم‬ (sheet 68a), ‫( ذوا الانفاس‬sheet 70b). [105][Paper and ink] The text is written on thin Indian paper with black ink. The name of each person, when it serves as a title for his biography, is written in cinnabar. [106][Script] The copy was made by two copyists: the text on sheets 1–62 is performed in a smaller and thinner handwriting; on sheets 63–92—with larger and more round letters. Both scripts are the Indian nasḫ. In the first part, diacritical punctuation is sporadic. In the second part it is much more frequent. Vocalisation is extremely seldom in both parts—for some words only, without an explainable principle. In the first part, the text is organised in 21 lines on the page. In the second part—19 lines on the page. [107][Margins of pages] The margins are not wide, with occasional corrections and insertions of missing words. Insertions are made on the margins in order not to break the left line of the text. Next to each biography, on the margins, there is a letter ‫ف‬, stretched and written without dot. Most likely, it serves for an easier orientation within the text. On sheets 28b and 29a, two biographies are added on the margins. They are placed diagonally, with its side to the main text. They were added to the manuscript later than the copy had been accomplished, written by a third person. The text of these marginal additions is slightly defective because of how edging of the sheets was made for binding them. In the lower part of the sheets, there are catchwords. [108][Date & placee of the copy] Judging by palaeographic data, the copy was made in the 10th/14th century, in Northern India. [109][Pagination; paper of additional pages] The text occupies 92 sheets, after which one more sheet of Central Asian Kokand paper was added, with an additional note made on it. 20 × 13 cm. Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 102 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent [110][Preservation] The manuscript is defective: 10 sheets with 15 biographies are missing at the beginning, and 1 or 2 sheets are missing at the end. The paper is seriously worn-eaten, and wormholes damage the text, which sometimes makes its reading difficult, which influences understanding of personal names. Apart from that, the manuscript suffered from damp. There are many brown and yellow spots and stains, as well as mildew infestation on paper. Binding is missing, and the sheets of the manuscript are muchthumbed. [111][Marginalia] The inscriptions on the last, additional sheet is made diagonally, from the upper right corner into the centre of the page, with red ink, in 5 lines of nastaʿlīq: ‫فاز بـتـملـك هذا الكتاب املـسـتـطاب ومصاحـبـتـه بـمـطـالعـتـه والاستـفـادة منه املـسـتـفـيـض‬ ‫املـسـتـفـيـد املـتـتـبـع انظر رمحة الباري عبد العظمي البخاري الرشعـابـادي الـشفـيـعـي (!) احلـنـفـي‬ ‫القادري وانـتـخـب من تواريـخـه ما هو حصيح ىف كتب التارخي عند القوم وادرج يف كتابه املسمـى بعني‬ ‫التوارخي عند اغـتـرابـه بـمـوطـنـه الرشيف يف حدود التسعني بعد املاءتني والالف الـهـجـرية عىل صاحـبـها‬ .‫السالم والـتـحيـة‬ [112][The fate of the work] Thus, by objective laws or by chance, the life of the book comes full circle. After four and a half centuries we find it again in an environment similar to that in which the original composition had been produced. The manuscript of the collection which had been written in the Ṣūfī environment of Yemen was later copied in India, from which it made its obscure way to Bukhara, into the ownership of Muḥammad ʿAbd al-ʿAẓīm al-Buḫārī al-Šarʿābādī, a Ṣūfī scholar who belonged to the Qādiriyya order and who used it for his historical work “The source of chronograms” in 1290/1873–1874. This person also owned a number of other manuscripts which are presently stored in the same Tashkent collection in which we found the manuscript described above.102 E. Item No. 3036. [113][The composition] Though this manuscript does not belong to the Yemeni ones in terms of the origin of the copy under study, it undoubtedly deserves being described here because of the strong links of the text to Yemen. The manuscript is a cultural hybrid which is typical 102 V. Belyaev must have seen some other manuscripts with additions made by the same owner, but, unfortunately, he does not mention them. In the catalogue of Arabic manuscripts of the Institute of the study of Asian peoples of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (See Anas B. Khalidov, Katalog arabskih rukopisey Instituta nardov Azii Akademii Nauk SSSR, 1960), there is no index of owners. [N. o. the Ed.]. Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 103 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent in terms of both the environment of origin of the text and the roots of its transmission (considering cultural links between Yemen and adjacent lands). The composition itself is well-known to scholarship: Tuḥfat al-albāb wa-nuḫbat aliʿǧāb (“A gift to intelligent ones and the best of wonders”). The author is mentioned in the manuscript twice. In the colophon, in which the words of the author himself are quoted, he is mentioned as Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Raḥīm b. Sulaymān b. Rabīʿ al-Qaysī al-Andalusī al-Ġarnāṭī. In an addition taken by the copyists from the original author’s manuscript, the name is provided with full genealogy: Abū ʿUbayd Allāh Abū Ḥamīd Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Raḥīm b. Sulaymān b. Rabīʿ b. Muḥammad b. ʿAlī b. ʿAbd alṢamad, also known as Ibn Abī al-Rabīʿ al-Mazīnī al-Qaysī al-Andalusī al-Ġarnāṭī (born in Granada in 473/1080, died in Damascus on Thursday 6 Ṣafar 565/30 October 1169). [114][Paper, ink and script] The copy is made with black ink on thin, yellowish, burnished paper of Oriental origin. The paper lost its gloss because of dampness. Handwriting is a rather small and clear nasḫ, with incomplete diacritical punctuation. Titles, the first words of paragraphs as well as the key words in the additions at the end are written with red ink. [115][Paleographic characteristics] There are some palaeographic characteristics to be mentioned. The hamza of alif mamdūda is almost everywhere absent, but alif often appears with madda. When yāʾ serves for long final ā (alif maqṣūra), it almost always has a vertical fatḥa above. Sometimes such yāʾ is written with two dots below, and sometimes two dots below and vertical fatḥa are combined. Three dots of the letters šīn and ṯāʾ are written as an upwarddirected comma. Often, but not always, the letter tāʾ marbūṭa of the feminine ending goes without dots. Tanwīn al-fatḥ is almost always marked in writing. When medial yāʾ serves for bearing hamza, it is usually written with two dots below. The letter bāʾ in its isolated form at the end of the word, if preceded by alif, is often written above it. The letter mīm in its isolated form at the end of the word is markedly elevated above the line, as in nastaʿlīq script. The letters sīn and šīn in isolated, initial and final positions are written in two ways: more often with spikes, but sometimes without them—as a curved line. Sometimes, feminine endings are marked with tāʾ ṭawīla instead of tāʾ marbūṭa (sheet 20b). There are two more specific details to be mentioned. Firstly, when the word ‫ هذا‬is followed by a noun with the definite article, they are written together, while one alif is omitted (e. g. ‫)هذالكتاب‬. Secondly, the word ‫ ابن‬between the names of father and son is used in a disordered way: alif is either written or omitted without any rule. Orthography is almost perfect, but the author does not abide by the rules of Arabic syntax, which, most likely, occurs under the influence of spoken language with final inflections lost, without a proper notion of noun-cases and accord/agreement (e. g. the proper use of adjectives with the plural of inanimate objects, the genus of numerals, etc.). Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 104 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent [116][Volume of the manuscript] The manuscript consists of 58 sheets with text and two additional sheets of pink bookend paper. The text is organised in 15 lines per page. The margins are narrow, with rare corrections, alternative variants offered during comparison with another manuscript (marked with ‫)نسخة = ﯨحة‬, and, sometimes, contents of the paragraph. [117][Illustrations] Illustrations usual for this composition are made on margin in a very primitive, schematic form. On sheet 18b, there is a picture of the Cádiz Idol with an Arabic capture ṣūrat ṣanam Qādis (“A picture of the Cádiz Idol”). On sheet 19a—a picture of the Lighthouse of Alexandria, without an explaining capture. On sheet 21a—the Lighthouse of Sulaymān and the pyramides. On sheet 21b—the Pyramid of Maydūm, or Haydūm (ṣūrat haram Maydūm/Haydūm). On sheet 25b—a picture of the Black Stone of Ardebil (ṣūrat al-ḥaǧar). On sheet 41b, there is a picture of a sturgeon. There is no other illustrative material. [118][Cover] In the lower part of the sheets, there are catchwords, cut during repeated binding. The manuscript is backed with carton, with a spine of green leather. The covers are fined with green paper, with yellow frames. The edges are fined with green calico. On each cover, three medallions are pressed. [119][Preservation] The manuscript is defective. There is a lacuna of four sheets after sheet 2b, which perplexed the person who made the last binding. Considering the current pagination, the correct order should be as follows: sheets 1, 2, lacuna, 5ab–55ab, 3ab, 4ab, 57ab, 56ab, 58ab. The paper is seriously damaged by worms. Sometimes, the text is damaged. Sheets with severely damaged edges are reinforced with glued paper straps. The paper is damaged by dampness: there are many spots and stains, as well as mildew infestation, but the text did not suffer. [120][Manuscript copies] The composition is important for the reconstruction of the past of our country. Its edition prepared by Gabriel Ferrand, though based on several manuscripts, cannot be considered final and complete, which is recognised by the editor himself.103 Let alone the very suspicious variants of reading preferred by Ferrand in numerous doubted episodes, the issue of the total length of the composition and the question of its various editions remain unsolved. There is variant D, which turns to be more complete than variant A. Variant J (the Algerian manuscript) contains passages that are missing in the Paris manuscripts A–E, but coincide with the Saint-Petersburg manuscript F. 103 Al-Ġarnāṭī (d. 565/1170), Tuḥfat al-albāb wa-nuḫbat al-iʿǧāb, ed. G. Ferrand, 1925, p. 20. Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 105 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent Likewise, some compositions coming from the East quote episodes of al-Ġarnāṭī’s work that are missing in the Paris manuscripts. G. Ferrand did not aim at performing a systematic comparison of all known manuscripts of al-Ġarnāṭī’s composition, which, however, would be necessary as part of a philological work. This would have doubled the number of existing variations. On the other hand, this would contribute to the most complete picture of the textual tradition, allowing for reconstructing the tree of the relationship between the copies and for establishing the degree of correctness of the text in different manuscripts. The editor had to evaluate all manuscripts and argue for the use of a certain copy—the word which he has not done. Also G. Ferrand has not accomplished the critical analysis of the text, but he has provided all the scrupulously collected material. His edition, thus, is not satisfying from the philological point of view. On the other hand, the achievement of the editor is the representation of the monument in an observable form, completeness of provided material, and a critical apparatus. Answering the major question of philological critical analysis remains a task for the next stage of work, which is possible in terms of arguments sufficiency. The work made by G. Ferrand demonstrates us the monument as very significant and allows for its appraisal that is seriously different from the appraisals made by prominent Arabists of the past (such as Silvestre de Sacy, William Cureton, and Edmond Fagnan), rather justifying the appraisals by Boris A. Dorn, Georg Jacob, and G. Ferrand himself.104 In the described situation, each new manuscript copy of the work, all the more so a manuscript that pretends to be close to the author’s autograph, should draw special attention. The Tashkent manuscript under study is exactly the case. Its comparison to the already published text allows locating it on the tree of relationship between the known manuscripts. Its text appears to be most similar to manuscript D of Ferrand’s publication (= Paris, No. 2170, 1140/1728). Along with this Paris manuscript, the present copy provides variants of reading that we find to be the most correct. Among the Paris manuscripts, manuscript D is the most full. It is from this copy that Ferrand takes episodes missing in the other manuscripts to insert them in square brackets into his text. The length of the completions varies from one word to 3–7 lines. At the same time, our manuscript does not fully coincide with the Paris manuscript D, and not all inconsistencies could be explained by insufficient literacy of both copyists. [121][Scientific value] The manuscript under study often provides more successful variants of reading than those chosen by Ferrand. However, it would be impossible to define the value of our manuscript with absolute accuracy. Firstly, Ferrand does not provide all variants of reading for doubted episodes. Therefore, in each of such cases, we cannot understand whether an unsuccessful variant originates from the coincidence of all variants stud- Al-Marrākušī (695/1296), Histoire de l’Afrique, traduite et annotée par E. Fagnan, 1901–1904; alŠahrastānī (d. 548/1153), Books of Religions and Philosophical Sects, trans. & ed. William Cureton, 1846; Georg Jacob, “Des spanisch-arabischen Reisenden Abū Ḥāmid”, 1892, pp. 65–124. [N. o. the Ed.]. 104 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 106 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent ied by the editor (which seems unreal), from the editor’s inadvertence in choosing a variant when the episode seemed clear to him, or from his overlooking an obvious typo. At any rate, during work on a new critical edition, a repeated scrupulous comparison of all known variants will be necessary. The discovery of the new copy in Tashkent makes the question of a new critical edition relevant. There are also some other preconditions, of both positive and negative nature, for such work. The Tashkent manuscript is of very high authority because of its being a copy made from the author’s autograph. This is stated in the manuscript, and we have no reason to doubt this statement. Therefore, on the tree of the existing manuscripts, our manuscript has to be put in the first position among the copies. It is fourth of fifth copy made. These considerations allow for special attention toward it, or at least for evaluating its significance for the critical analysis of the text. [122][Critical analysis] At the same time, regardless of the vicinity of the copy under study to the author’s autograph and regardless of the fact that a number of its episodes contain much more successful variants of reading than those of Ferrand’s edition, the text of our manuscript cannot be regarded as absolutely reliable. Firstly, the copyist originated from a family of craftsmen and was close to the illiterate environment. For this reason, he was not absolutely literate and often switched his language and used vernacular forms. Secondly, sometimes he did not understand the text he copied. He distorts not only personal names and toponyms, but even usual words. It may be, however, that the diacritical punctuation of the original autograph was incomplete, for the diacritics of our copy are often incorrect. Thirdly, our copyist often omits separate words of even small groups of words. Sometimes, usually when two adjacent lines start with the same word, the copyist mistakenly skips one line. For example, on sheet 45a,3 in the final part of the story about a boy and a snake, the copyist omitted the line starting with the words wa-daḫalat al-ḥayya fī ṣadr ḏālika alšābb till the words (including them) fa-lam tuʾaṯṯir fīhā šayʾ.105 This is easily explained by the fact that the latter group of words also appears above, just before the former group of words. On sheet 44b,1 the copyist omitted the whole page, which did not remain unmarked by him. After the words wa-qad ruwiya fī al-ḫabar in Ferrand’s edition,106 a story of ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿUmar’s travel follows. In our manuscript, it is omitted till the words wa-qad waṣala ilaynā.107 The copyists of our manuscript, thus, skipped 13 lines of the published text. This is equal to one page of a manuscript of a larger format than that of the manuscript on which the publication is based. Our text reads: bi-Siǧistān sana wa-qad ruwiya fī al-ḫabar. Al-Ġarnāṭī (d. 565/1170), Tuḥfat al-albāb wa-nuḫbat al-iʿǧāb, ed. G. Ferrand, 1925, p. 123,3–1 below. Al-Ġarnāṭī (d. 565/1170), Tuḥfat al-albāb wa-nuḫbat al-iʿǧāb, ed. G. Ferrand, 1925, p. 122,6. 107 Al-Ġarnāṭī (d. 565/1170), Tuḥfat al-albāb wa-nuḫbat al-iʿǧāb, ed. G. Ferrand, 1925, p. 123,1. 105 106 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 107 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent On sheet 50b,10, after the words fa-kayfa naʿrifuhā naḥnu, there is a lacuna of 7 lines of the text of the published edition,108 till the words (including them) yā Daniyāl fa-iḫbarnī. And the text of the manuscript proceeds with bold title words (rubrum), reading: fa-mā taʾwīl hāḏihi al-ruʾyā. In the printed edition, these words appear without the initial fāʾ, because there is no lacuna before them. We shall notice separately larger textual variations. On sheet 15b, ult. after the words kaṯīr al-ʿuyūn wa-al-šaǧar šāhiq al-ǧibāl follows (sheet 16a) wa-ǧāʾa ilaynā… till the words (on sheet 16a,3)109 fa-(i)ʿtaḏara ilaynā ṯumma ǧalasa wa-umarāʾuhū qiyām, as in the manuscript D. Ferrand’s edition (p. 67, ult.) provides a larger piece which differs from our manuscript, while the relevant variation in the text of the manuscript D is provided in the critical apparatus below. Our text coincides with the manuscript D and differs from the printed edition in 6 lines. Moreover, the copyist of our manuscript skipped one line at the end of the episode because of the similarity between the expressions fī ǧamāʿa and bi-ǧamīʿ. Out text is, therefore, worse than the text of the printed edition. On sheet 16b,4 below, after the words ḥadīṯ Mansik b. al-Yafriḍ, a story of Rome follows (ḫabar rūmiyya ʿuẓmā), which is placed in Ferrand’s edition among the materials not appearing in the Paris manuscripts. In this episode, our manuscript coincides with the Algerian one (marked in Ferrand’s edition as J, fol. 12ro, 1. 16 ff. = p. 149 ff.) In our manuscript, the episode is located in the same place as in the Algerian manuscript. Right after the story of Mansik b. al-Yafriḍ, the episode entitled ḥadīṯ ṣanam qādis follows. In our manuscript, it goes after the story of Rome. In the Tashkent manuscript, of sheet 55b,7–8, there is a one-line-length episode which is absent both in the printed edition and in all other known manuscripts. After the words ǧāʾa al-mawdūʿ ṣāḥib al-māl110 the text reads: .‫فذهب به الامام اىل بيته وقدم اليه طعا ًما واخرج اليه املال فنظر صاحب املال فقال الـخ‬ After this, the texts coincide. Our manuscript, after the final verse of Ferrand’s edition and the Berlin manuscript,111 has one more verse and a final praise. The ending of our text goes as follows (sheet 57a,8): Al-Ġarnāṭī (d. 565/1170), Tuḥfat al-albāb wa-nuḫbat al-iʿǧāb, ed. G. Ferrand, 1925, p. 135,4 below— p. 136,3. 109 Belyaev does not explain the system of indices as obvious to his reader. Most likely, the small numbers in the lower register refer to paragraphs. [N. o. the Ed.]. 110 Al-Ġarnāṭī (d. 565/1170), Tuḥfat al-albāb wa-nuḫbat al-iʿǧāb, ed. G. Ferrand, 1925, p. 144,9. 111 Al-Ġarnāṭī (d. 565/1170), Tuḥfat al-albāb wa-nuḫbat al-iʿǧāb, ed. G. Ferrand, 1925, p. 148,12. In the original: p. 148 and 12. [N. o. the Ed.]. 108 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 108 ‫‪Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent‬‬ ‫‪V. I. Belyaev‬‬ ‫هـــــذا اخـــوه وصــهــره * وولــيــه هــل من نـظـيــره‬ ‫صـلــى عــلــيـه الــهــنـــــا * واعـــان شــــبــــره شــبـــيـره‬ ‫واحلـمـد لـلـه رب الـعـالـمـيـن وصلـواته عىل مـحـمـد وأهل اجـمعني وسمل ورشف وكرم أبدا‬ ‫نـجـز هذالـكـتـاب بـانـقـضـا هذالـكـتـاب (‪)rubrum‬‬ ‫قال مؤلف هذالكتاب فـى النسخة‬ ‫الـتـى نـقـلـت مـنـهـا هذه الـنـسـخـة وهـى بـخـط الـمولف تـغـمـده اللـه بـرحـمـتـه كـتـبـه جـامـعـه العبد‬ ‫الـمـعـتـرف بـعـجـزه وتـقـصـيـره اذلى مل يـحـصل من الـعـلـم عىل عـشـر عـشيـر نـقـيـره او قـطـمـيـره‬ ‫مـحـمـد ابـن عـبـد الـرحـيـم ابن سلـيـمـان ابن ربـيـع القـيـسـى الاندلىس الغرانطى غفر الـلـه هل ولـوادليه‬ ‫(‪ )sheet 57b‬ولـجـمـيـع الـمـسـلـمـني امـيـن ورب الـعـالـمـيـن‪ .‬كـمـل كـتـاب تـحـفـة الالـبـاب ونـخـبـة‬ ‫الاعـجـاب بـحـمـد الـلـه تـعـاىل وعـونـه وحـسـن تـوفـيـقـه فـى نـهـار الـربـوع ثـالـث شـهـر جـمـادل (!)‬ ‫الاول س نة اربع وتسعني وتسعـمـايـه من الـهـجـرت الـنـبـويـه عىل صـاحـبـهـا افضل الصالة والـسـالم‬ ‫عىل يد الفقري اىل الـلـه تـعـالـى احـمـد ابن نـاخوذه مـحـمـد (‪an addition above the line reads bin‬‬ ‫‪ )Aḥmad‬الـزبـيـدى غـفـر هلل لـه ولـوالـديـه ولـمـالـك هذالنـسـخة ولـوادليـه وجلـمـيـع الـمـسـلـمـيـن‬ ‫بـمـنـه وكـرمـه امـيـن امـيـن واحلـمـد لـلـه وحـده تـم‪.‬‬ ‫‪To the right of the colophon, two hemstitches of a line of verse are written in two lines:‬‬ ‫اخلــط يــــبــقـى زمــانــــا بــــعــــد اكتــــبــــه‬ ‫واكتـب اخلــط تـحـت الارض مدفـون‬ ‫‪To the left of the colophon, two hemstitches of a line of Persian verse are also written‬‬ ‫‪in two lines:‬‬ ‫مــن نـوشـتــم صــرف كــردم روزاكر‬ ‫مــان نـمـانـم خـط نـمـانـد روزاكر‬ ‫‪Also to the right of the colophon, written with ink of impure-crimson colour, an addi‬‬‫‪tion by the owner of the manuscript reads:‬‬ ‫لـلـراقـم الـسـقــيـم ابـى مـحـمـد عبد الـعـظـيـم الـشـرعـابـادى‬ ‫قد اتفق مطالعة هذا الكتاب بعد تـمـلـكـه ا‬ ‫الـبـخـارى بـبـلـده الشـريـف احـسـن اللـه حـالـه واصـلـح بـالـه بـمـحـمـد واهل فـى سـنـة ‪ ۹۱۱۹‬عند‬ ‫الاشـتـغـال بـالـصـحـيـح الـبـخـارى والـ ُعـبـور عـلـيـه مر ًارا بـفـضـل اللـه الـعـظـيـم*‬ ‫‪109‬‬ ‫)‪Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020‬‬ ‫‪Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent‬‬ ‫‪V. I. Belyaev‬‬ ‫‪On sheet 56a, an addition copied from the last sheets of the author’s original (but not‬‬ ‫‪belonging to al-Ġarnāṭī) starts from above. It is interesting as it allows for a notion of‬‬ ‫‪the environment in which the text was transmitted. Therefore, we provide it here in‬‬ ‫‪full:‬‬ ‫ما وجد مكتوب ابخر النسخة الىت بـخط املولف بغري خطه ما صورته سـمـع جـمـيـع هذالـجزء من‬ ‫كـتاب تـحـفـة الالبـاب عىل مولفه الش يخ الامام الاجل العامل انصـح ادلين جـمـال الاسالم اىب حامد‬ ‫مـحـمـد بن عبد الرحيـم ابن سلـيـمـان ابن ربـيـع القيىس الاندليس الغرانطي ادام اللـه ايـامه الـمـشايـغ‬ ‫الساده الـشـيـخ الامام العـالـم العارف مـعـيـن ادلين رشف الاسالم لسان الـحـقـيـقـة ابـو حـفـص عـمـر‬ ‫ا‬ ‫العـز‬ ‫ابن مـحـمـد ﯨن اخلرض ادام اللـه ايـامـه والش يخ اسـمـاعيل ابن مـحـمد بن ابـي الفضل والـشـيـخ ابو ا‬ ‫يـوسف ابن احـمـد ابن مـنـيـع ابن حسان والشـيـخ الزاهد ابو طاهر ابن ابـي احلسن والش يخ الـعـالـم‬ ‫عبد الرحـمن ابن عبد الواحد ابن عـبـد اللـه الـبـغـدادي ومـحـمـد ابن عاىل ابن سام الرحـمـان خادم‬ ‫الش يخ خادم الش يخ (!‪ )sic, bis‬املسموع عـليه وابو احلسن ابن منصور ابن ايب البـركـات وسـمـع الش يخ‬ ‫ابو الفتح نرص ابن خري ابن عبد اللـه اكـثـره ومسعود ابن مـحـمـد بن عىل ومـحـمـد ابن ايب بكر وابن ايب‬ ‫الطاهر ومـحـمـود ابن عيل (‪ )sheet 56b‬ابـن صـاحـب شـرف ادليـن وابو العال نـصـيـر ابن صـفـى‬ ‫ادليـن اىب بـكـر ابن نـصـيـر ابن حـسـام واجـاز لـهـم الـبـاقـى الشيـخ الامام املسموع عليه املقدم ذكره‬ ‫وسـمأع سـالـم ابن الـوفـا ابن سـالـم بـعـضـه واجـاز الشيـخ لـه الـبـاقـى واكنت (واكتب ‪ )0.‬الـسـمـاع‬ ‫هـبـه هلل ابن يـوسف ابن عـمـر ابن عىل الزنـجـانـي سـمـع جـمـيـعـه وذكل فـى مـجـالـس اخرها الثالث‬ ‫من ربـيـع الاخر من شـهـور سنـه سبـع وخـمسني وخـمسمـايه ابلـموصل فـى زاويـة الـشـيـخ مـعـيـن‬ ‫ادلين رشف الاسالم عـمـر بـن مـحـمـد بـن الـخـضـر ادام ايـامـه وتـم ذكل بـحـمـد اللـه واحلـمـد للـه‬ ‫وصلواتـه عـلـى مـحـمـد والـه وتـحـت ذلـك بـخـط الـمولف ما صورته هذا صـحـيـح كـتـبـه مـحـمـد بـن‬ ‫عـبـد الـرحـمـان ابن سلـيـمـا (!) الانـدلـسـي الـغـرنـاطـي ومـكـتـوب ايـضـا بـاخـر نـسخـة الـمولف بـغـيـر‬ ‫عـلـى هذالـكـتـاب من اوهل الـى اخره الشـيـخ الامام العـالـم العارف سديد ادلين‬ ‫خطه مـا صورته قرا ا‬ ‫ابـي (!) نصـ احـمـد ابـن سعـيـد ابن الـمـظـفـر احسن اللـه توفـيـقـه وسـمـع مـعـه من ااوهل اىل اول ابب‬ ‫عـجـايـب الـبـحـار الشـيـخ الصـالـح الزاهد ابـى (!) مـنـصور عـيـسـى ابـن الـشيـخ الـفـراتــى وسـمـعه‬ ‫من اول هذالبـاب اىل اخره امجلـاعـة الصـلـحـا ابـو عـبـد اللـه احلسـيـن ابن مـحـمـد ابن الـتـرابــي‬ ‫(‪ )sheet 58a‬والـشـيـخ يـوسف ابن مواهب زرعـة اخلياط وابو طالب ابن مـحـمـد ابن مـواهب ابن‬ ‫الرساج سـمـعـه من‬ ‫الاخشابـي ونـصـر ابن الـمفضل بن نرص ويـونس ابن عيل ابن احـمد الـخـداشـى ا‬ ‫اوهل اىل اخره وذكل فـى مـجـلـسـيـن اثـنـيـن اخـرهـمـا فـى يـوم الاحـد الـعـشـريـن من شهر رمضان‬ ‫سـنـه سـبـع وخـمـسـيـن وخـمـسـمـايـه كـتـبـه الفـقـيـر اىل اللـه تـعـاىل عـمـر ابـن مـحـمـد بن‬ ‫احلرضمـي (!) الـمال الـموصىل حامدً ا هلل تـعـالـى ومصلاـيًـا عىل رسولـه تـمـت تـمـام شد‪.‬‬ ‫‪110‬‬ ‫)‪Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020‬‬ ‫‪Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent‬‬ ‫‪V. I. Belyaev‬‬ ‫‪After this colophon, performed in the form of a corner directed downward, a copy of‬‬ ‫‪another addition follows. It contains a short biography of al-Ġarnāṭī:‬‬ ‫ومـكـتـوب ايضا ابول نسخة الـمولف بـغـيـر ]خطه[ مـا صورته مولف هذالكـتـاب هو ابو عبيد هلل ابو‬ ‫الصـمـد‬ ‫حامد مـحمـد بن عبد الرحـيـم ابن سلـيـمـان ابـن ربـيـع ابـن مـحـمـد بـن عىل ابـن عبد ا‬ ‫الـمـعـروف بـابـن ابـي االربـيـع الـمـازنـي القـيـسـى الانـدلـسـي الـغـرنـاطـي ولـد سـنـة ثالث وسبـعـيـن‬ ‫واربـع مـايـه ومات بدمشق يـوم اخلـمـيـس سادس صـفـر سـنـة خـمـس وسـتـيـن وخـمـسمـايـه بـلـغ مـن‬ ‫العـمـر اثـنـيـن (‪ )sheet 58b‬وتـسـعـيـن سـنـه وقـدم الاسكنـدريـه سـنـة ثـمـان وخـمـسـمـايـه فسمع بـهـا‬ ‫من ابـي بـكـر مـحـمـد ابـن الولـيـد الفـهـري الطـرطـوشـى ومن عـبـد اللـه مـحـمـد بن احـمـد االرازي ثـم‬ ‫دخل الـى مرص فسمع بـهـا من ابـي صادق مرشد ابـن يـحـيــى الـمـديـنـى ومـن ابـي احلـسـن عىل ابن‬ ‫الفـراء ‪ )sic!, 0.‬الـمـوصلـي ومـن ابـي عـبـد هلل مـحـمـد ابـن بـركـات ابـن هالل‬ ‫احلـسـيـن الفر (? ا‬ ‫الـنـحـوى ودخل الـى احلـجـاز والشـام والعراق وخـراسان وما وراء الـنـهـر ووصل بـلـغـار وبـاشـعـزد (!)‬ ‫وسـمـع بـبـغداد من ابـي الـحـصـيـن هـبـه هلل ابن مـحـمـد ابن عبد الواحـد ابن احلـصـيـن الـبـغـدادي‬ ‫مـسـنـد احـمـد ابن حـنـبـل ثـم انـتـقـاه بـعـد ذكل انـتـقـاء جـيـد (!) وال نـعـرف لـه خـبـر هذا الـكـتـاب‬ ‫ومـنـتـقـا مـسـنـد احـمـد ابن حـنـبـل وتـكـلـم فـيـه ابو القـاسـم عىل ابن عساكـر ادلمشقـى واتـهـمـه‬ ‫ابلكذب ووثقه ابن الـنـجـار الـبـغـدادي وقـدم ما عـلـمـتـه الا امـيـنـا صـح هذا ما وجـد مـكـتـوبـا فـى‬ ‫نـسـخـه الـمـؤلـف تـغـمـده هلل بـرحـمـتـه واحلـمد للـه وحـده ا‬ ‫وصىل هلل عىل من ال نـبـي بـعـده سـياـدنـا‬ ‫رب الـعـالـمـيـن وحـسـبـنـا هلل‬ ‫مـحـمـد وألـه وصـحـبـه وسـلـم تـسـلـيـمـا كـثــيـرا دايـ ًمـا ابـدً ا واحلـمـد هلل ا‬ ‫ونـعـم الوكـيـل وال حـول وال قـوة الا بـاللـه الـعلـى الـعـظـيـم‪.‬‬ ‫]‪[123][Date & place of the copy‬‬ ‫‪The data included in the colophon of the manuscript (994/1586) and the additions‬‬ ‫‪scrupulously copied from the author’s original by the copyists tell us that the manu‬‬‫‪script under study was copied from the autograph by a man from Yemen, whose name‬‬ ‫‪was Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. Aḥmad al-Zabīdī. His father, who was apparently born‬‬ ‫‪in Zabīd, a city which is close to the sea, was a captain of a ship (nāḫūḏa). The specifics‬‬ ‫‪of palaeography (paper and handwriting) as well as an addition in the Persian lan‬‬‫‪guage allow assuming that the manuscript was copied in India, the land which had in‬‬‫‪tensive contacts with Southern Arabia via sea routes during all periods of the history‬‬ ‫‪of Arab culture before and after the advent of Islam. Arab merchants, travellers and‬‬ ‫‪scholars not only readily visited India but even settled in its various regions. Quite a‬‬ ‫‪few Arab scholars combined in their names Yemeni and Indian nisbas. If our manu‬‬‫‪script was indeed copied by the son of the captain Muḥammad al-Zabīdī, and not‬‬ ‫‪simply copies a manuscript copied by him with its colophon and additions, we may‬‬ ‫‪indeed assume him to be an immigrant from Yemen who settled in India. It would be‬‬ ‫‪difficult, however, to say with certainty whether he made his copy after familiarising‬‬ ‫‪111‬‬ ‫)‪Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020‬‬ V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent himself with al-Ġarnāṭī’s autograph during a trip to Mosul or whether he copied it in India, to which the autograph of al-Ġarnāṭī came via an obscure route. [124][First readings of the manuscript] Our manuscript also provides an opportunity to receive some information about the early stage of the work’s history. The additions at the end of the original text, kept by the copyist intact, are very interesting. The first one contains samāʿ (pl. samāʿāt, “audition certificates”)112 by Hibat Allāh b. Yūsuf b. ʿUmar b. ʿAlī al-Zanǧānī. It presents a list of persons who listened to the work read aloud at the author’s place in Mosul—to all the text or to its parts—and received the author’s permission (iǧāza) to transmit the whole work. The work was read during several sessions (maǧālis), the last of which took place on 3 Rabīʿ II 557/22 March 1162. The list contains 16 names. At the beginning of the list, we find the name of the head of the Ṣūfīs of Mosul: Muʿīn al-Dīn Abū Ḥafṣ ʿUmar b. Muḥammad b. al-Ḥiḍr al-Mallāʾ,113 who encouraged the author to compose the work. Apparently, this samāʿ reflects the first acquaintance of the author’s surrounding with his work. The composition was read aloud in the zāwiya of the šayḫ Muʿīn al-Dīn in Mosul. The iǧāza for its transmission was sealed by al-Ġarnāṭī, the author. After the first samāʿ, a samāʿ written by the šayḫ Muʿīn al-Dīn al-Mallāʾ follows. It testifies to the fact that 7 persons, whose names are provided, listened to the work at his place during two sessions, the last of which took place on Sunday, 20 Ramaḍān 557/2 September 1162, that is five and a half months after the author’s reading. Thus, alĠarnāṭī’s composition ordered to him by the šayḫ Muʿīn al-Dīn al-Mallāʾ remained in the author’s autograph in Mosul and was disseminated there among the local learned šayḫs. [125][Additions] The next addition keeps for us a short biography of al-Ġarnāṭī. Its origin is unknown, but, in general, it coincides with the data on al-Ġarnāṭī’s life and oeuvre provided by Ferrand who studied his composition and the works by Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad alMaqqarī al-Tilimsānī and Ḥāǧǧī Ḫalīfa.114 This addition contains an interesting detail not provided by al-Maqqarī. When being in Alexandria in 508/1114–1115, al-Ġarnāṭī, apart from Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad b. Aḥmad al-Rāzī, also learned from Abū Bakr Muḥammad b. al-Walīd al-Fihrī al-Ṭurṭūšī (d. 520/1126 or 525/1131). Thus, among his teachers, we find the famous author of Sirāǧ al-mulūk (“The lamp of the kings”), who On samāʿāt, see Tilman Seidensticker, “Audience certificates in Arabic manuscripts—the genre and a case study”, 2015. 113 On this person, see al-Ġarnāṭī (d. 565/1170), Tuḥfat al-albāb wa-nuḫbat al-iʿǧāb, ed. G. Ferrand, 1925, p. 284; GAL, SB I, pp. 783–784, No. 14a. 114 Al-Maqqarī (1041/1632), Nafḥ al-ṭīb, 1968, vol. 2, pp. 235–236 [N. o. the Ed.]. 112 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 112 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent lived in those years in Alexandria and taught the tradition.115 In his work, al-Ġarnāṭī mentions his encounter with al-Fihrī in Cairo four years later.116 The last addition leads us to Bukhara. The manuscript was owned by the same Muḥammad ʿAbd al-ʿAẓīm al-Šarʿābādī al-Buḫārī that owned the collection of Ṣūfī biographies described above. He read the work in Bukhara in 1290/1873–1874, at the same time, studying meticulously al-Buḫārī’s Ṣaḥīḥ, “crossing it over numerous times (as one crosses over a river)”. The way of our manuscript from India to Central Asia is unknown. Tashkent 19 September 1944 Bibliography (by the editor) Abū Bakr al-Ṣūlī (d. 335/946), Kitāb al-awrāq, trans. & comment Victor Ivanovich Belyaev & Anas Baqievich Khalidov; ed., frw. & ind. Anas Baqievich Khalidov, St. Petersburg, Peterburgskoe vostokovedenie, 1998. [In Arabic & Russian]. Ahlwardt, Wilhelm. 1887–1899. Verzeichniss der arabischen Handschriften, Berlin, A. Asher & Co, 10 vols. Ansari, Hassan, Sabine Schmidtke & Jan Thiele. 2016. “Zaydī Theology in Yemen”, in: Sabine Schmidtke (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Theology, Oxford, Oxford University Press, pp. 473–493. Baba, Tamon. 2017–2018. “Notes on migration between Yemen and Northeast Africa during the 13–15 centuries”, Chroniques du manuscrit au Yémen s. i. 1, pp. 69–86. Belyaev, Victor Ivanovich. 1939. “Arabskije istochniki po istorii turkmen i Turkmenii IX–XIII vekov” [Arabic Sources on the History of the Turkmen People and Turkmenistan, 9th–13th centuries], in: Semyon Volin et al. (eds), Materialy po istorii turkmen i Turkmenii [Materials on the history of the Turkmens and Turkmenistan], vol. 1 (7th–15th centuries AD), Moscow-Leningrad, Izdatel’stvo Akademii nauk , pp. 12–40. [In Russian]. _____ . 1947. “Arabskie rukopisi iz Yemena v sobraniah Tashkenta” [Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent], Sovetskoe Vostokovedenie 4 [Soviet Oriental Studies 4], pp. 35–72 [In Russian]. Brockelmann, Carl. 1892–1902. Geschichte der arabischen Litteratur (GAL), Leiden, E. J. Brill, 2 vols & Supplement Bänder (supplements). Fedchenko, Alexey Pavlovich. 1875. Travels in Turkestan. Vol. 1, Part 2: In the Kokand Khanate [Puteshestvie v Turkestan. Tom 1, Chast’ 2: V Kokanskom Khanstve], St. Petersburg, M. M. Stasyulevich [In Russian]. 115 C. Brockelmann, GAL I, p. 459, No. 7; SB I, pp. 829–830. Al-Ġarnāṭī (d. 565/1170), Tuḥfat al-albāb wa-nuḫbat al-iʿǧāb, ed. G. Ferrand, 1925, pp. 106, 260–261. See also the manuscript of the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts (Leningrad/St.-Petersburg), sheet 36b,11– 37a,2. 116 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 113 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent Al-Ǧabūrī, Kāmil Sulaymān (ed.). 2003. Muʿǧam al-udabāʾ min al-ʿaṣr al-ǧāhilī ilā ٢٠٠٢, Beirut, Dār al-kutub al-ʿilmiyya, 6 vols. Al-Ġarnāṭī (d. 565/1170), “Tuḥfat al-albāb”, ed. Gabriel Ferrand, Journal Asiatique 207 (July–September 1925), pp. 1–304.117 Goeje, Michael Jan (de) (ed.). 1885. Compendium Libri Kitāb al-Boldān Auctore Ibn aIFakīh al-Hamadhānī, Leiden, E. J. Brill, coll. “The Bibliotheca Geographorum Arabicorum”, 5. Ḥāǧǧī Ḫalīfa (d. 1067/1657), Kašf al-ẓunūn ʿan asāmī al-kutub wa-al-funūn, ed. Muḥammad Šaraf al-Dīn Yāltaqāyā, Beirut, Dār iḥyāʾ al-turāṯ al-ʿarabī, 2007, 2 vols. Al-Ḫazraǧī (d. 812/1409–1410), Al-ʿasǧad al-masbūk fī ḏikr man waliya al-Yaman min almulūk, n. ed., Sanaa, Wizārat al-iʿlām wa-al-ṯaqāfa, 1981. _____ , Al-ʿuqūd al-luʾluʾiyya fī tārīḫ al-dawla al-rasūliyya, ed. Muḥammad Basyūnī ʿAsal, Beirut, Dār al-ādāb, 1983, 2 vols [1st print: E. J. Brill, ser. “E. J. W. Gibb Memorial”, 1905-1908; reprint. Maṭbaʿat al-hilāl, 1911–1914]. _____ , Al-ʿaqd al-fāḫir al-ḥasan fī ṭabaqāt akābir ahl al-Yaman/Ṭirāz aʿlām al-zaman fī ṭabaqāt aʿyān al-Yaman, ed. ʿAbd Allāh al-ʿAbbādī et al., Sanaa, Maktabat al-ǧīl al-ǧadīd, 1429–1430/2008–2009, 4 vols. Houtsma, Martijn Theodoor. 1894. Ein türkisch-arabisches Glossar, nach der Leidener Handschrift, Leiden, E. J. Brill. Ibn Ḫallikān (d. 681/1282), Wafayāt al-aʿyān wa-abnāʾ al-zamān, ed. Iḥsān ʿAbbās, Beirut, Dār Ṣādir, 1978, 8 vols. Ibn al-Murtaḍā (d. 840/1437), Kitāb al-baḥr al-zaḫḫār al-ǧāmiʿ li-maḏāhib ʿulamāʾ alamṣār, ed. ʿAlī b. ʿAbd al-Karīm b. Muḥammad al-Faḍīl, Sanaa, Dār al-ḥikma alyamāniyya, 1988, 7 vols. Jacob, Georg. 1892. “Des spanisch-arabischen Reisenden Abū Ḥāmid Kosmographie ‘Tuḥfat al-albāb’ und ihre wissenschaftliche Ausbeute. Ornithologisches zu Qazwīnī”, Studien in arabischen Geographen 3, Berlin, Mayer & Müller, pp. 65–124. Khalidov, Anas Baqievich. Jan. 2019. “Arabic manuscript collections in the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen”, intr., ed., ind. & trans. Maxim Yosefi, foreward Anne Regourd, Chroniques du manuscrit au Yémen 26, pp. 57–104. _____ . 1960. Katalog arabskih rukopisey Instituta nardov Azii Akademii Nauk SSSR. Vypusk 1. Hudozhestvennaya proza [The catalogue of Arabic manuscripts of the Institute of the study of Asian peoples of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Issue 1. Artistic prose], ed. Victor Belyaev, Moscow, Izdatel’stvo vostochnoy literatury, 1960. [In Russian]. Kratchkovsky, Ignatiy Julianovich. 1924. “Sobranie arabskih rukopisey v Kazani” [The collection of Arabic manuscripts in Kazan], in: Sergey Fyodorovich Oldenburg 117 C. Brockelmann, GAL I, p. 477, No. 5,1; SB I, pp. 877–878. Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 114 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent (ed.): Doklady Rossijskoj Academii Nauk [Reports of the Russian Academy of Sciences], series C, Leningrad, Izdatel’stvo Akademii nauk, pp. 169–172. _____ . 1937. Daghestan et Yemen. Mélanges de géographie et d’orientalisme offerts à M. E. F. Gautier, Tours, Arrault. _____ (†). 1955–1960. Izbrannye sochinenia [Russ.: Selected works], ed. Vladimir Aleksandrovich Gordlevskiy, Victor Ivanovich Belyaev, Vera Alexandrovna Kratchkovskaya et al. Moskow-Leningrad, Izdatel’stvo Akademii nauk, 6 vols. [In Russian]. _____ . 2016. Among Arabic Manuscripts, trans. Tatiana Minorsky, intr. Michael Kemper, Leiden/Boston, E. J. Brill. Lane-Poole, Stanley. 1899. Musulmanskiye dinastii [The Mohammedan Dynasties], trans. & ed. by Vassiliy Bartold, Saint-Petersburg, M. M. Stasiulevich. Lory, Pierre. 1987–1988. “La magie des lettres dans le Shams al-Maʿārif d’al-Būnī”, Bulletin d’Études Orientales 39–40, pp. 97–111. Madelung, Wilferd & Sabine Schmidtke. 2016. Al-Ṣāḥib Ibn ʿAbbād. Promoter of Rational Theology: Two Muʿtazilī kalām Texts from the Cairo Geniza, Leiden, E. J. Brill. Al-Malik al-Ašraf, ʿUmar b. Yūsuf (d. 696/1296), Ṭurfat al-aṣḥāb fī maʿrifat al-ansāb, ed. Karl Vilhelm Zetterstéen, Damascus, Maṭbaʿat al-Tarqī, 1949. Al-Marrākušī, Aḥmad Ibn-Muḥammad Ibn-ʿIḏārī (695/1296), Histoire de l’Afrique et de l’Espagne, intitulée Al-Bayano ‘l-Mogrib [Al-bayān al-muġrib fī aḫbār mulūk alAndalus wa-al-Maġrib], transl. & annotations Edmond Fagnan, Alger, Pierre Fontana & Cie, 1901–1904, 2 vols. Menzel, Theodor. 1928. “Das heutige Russland und die Orientalistik-II”, Der Islam 17, pp. 59–96. Al-Maqqarī (d. 1041/1632), Nafḥ al-ṭīb min ġuṣn al-Andalus al-raṭīb, ed. Iḥsān ʿAbbās, Beirut, Dār Ṣādir, 1968, 8 vols. Al-Rāzī (d. ca. 460/1068), Tārīḫ madīnat Ṣanʿāʾ, ed. Ḥusayn ʿAbd Allāh al-ʿUmarī, Beirut, Dār al-fikr al-muʿāṣir, 1989. Rieu, Charles Pierre Henri. 1894–1895. Supplement to the catalogue of the Arabic manuscripts in the British Museum, London, Longmans & co., 2 vols. Al-Saḫāwī, Šams al-Dīn Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān (d. 902/1497), Al-ḍawʾ al-lāmiʿ li-ahl al-qarn al-tāsiʿ, Beirut, Dār al-ǧīl, 1992, 12 vols. Al-Šahrastānī (d. 548/1153), Kitāb al-milal wa-al-niḥal. Books of religions and philosophical sects, ed. William Cureton, London, The Society for the Publication of Oriental Texts, 1846, 2 vols. Seidensticker, Tilman. 2015. “Audience certificates in Arabic manuscripts—the genre and a case study”, Manuscript Cultures 8, pp. 75–91. Semyonov, Alexander, et al. (eds). 1952–1975. Sobranie vostochnyh rukopisey Akademii Nauk Uzbekskoy SSR [The Collection of Oriental Manuscripts of the Academy of Sciences of the Uzbek SSR], Tashkent, Izdatel’stvo Akademii nauk Uzbekskoy SSR (The Academy of Sciences of the Uzbek SSR), 10 vols. Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 115 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent Semyonov, Alexander (ed.). 1952. Sobranije vostochnyh rukopisej Akademii Nauk Uzbekskoj SSR [Oriental manuscript collection of the Academy of Sciences of the Uzbek SSR], Tashkent, Izdatel’stvo Akademii nauk Uzbekskoy SSR (The Academy of Sciences of the Uzbek SSR), vol. 1. Al-Subkī (d. 771/1370), Ṭabaqāt al-šāfiʿiyya al-kubrā, Cairo, n. p., 1324/1906, 6 vols. Al-Ṯaʿālibī (d. 429/1038), Yatīmat al-dahr fī maḥāsin ahl al-ʿaṣr, ed. Mufīd Muḥammad Qamīḥa, Beirut, Dār al-kutub al-ʿilmiyya, 1983, 5 vols. Al-Ṭabarī (d. ca. 450/1058), Tārīḫ Ṣanʿāʾ, ed. ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad al-Ḥibšī, Sanaa, Maktabat al-Sanḥānī, n. d. Tritton, Arthur Stanley. 1934. “Rasūlides”, EI1, vol. 3, pp. 1218–1219. Yāqūt (d. 626/1229), Muʿǧam al-udabāʾ/Iršād al-arīb ilā maʿrifat al-adīb, ed. Iḥsān ʿAbbās, Beirut, Dār al-ġarb al-islāmī, 1993, 7 vols. _____ , Iršād al-arīb ilā maʿrifat al-adīb, ed. David Samuel Margoliouth, Leiden, E. J. Brill, 1907–1927, 7 vols. Zambaur, Edouard (de). 1927. Manuel de Généalogie et de Chronologie, Hanovre, Librairie orientaliste Heinz Lafaire. Zetterstéen, Karl Vilhelm. 1930. Die arabischen, persischen and türkischen Handschriften der Universitätsbibliothek zu Uppsala, Uppsala, Universitäts-bibliothek zu Uppsala, ser. “Acta Biblopthecae R. Universitatis Upsaliensis”, 3. Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 116 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent Indices Indices of names .............................................................................................................................. 117 Authors/scholars .................................................................................................................. 117 Copyists .................................................................................................................................. 121 Rulers ...................................................................................................................................... 121 History/Tradition ................................................................................................................ 122 Prominent Ṣūfīs ................................................................................................................... 123 Owners of manuscripts ..................................................................................................... 124 Indices of works ............................................................................................................................... 125 Other manuscript copies of works studied in the text ............................................. 125 Book titles ............................................................................................................................. 125 Index of cities, countries, regions, communities and groups ............................................. 127 Index of tribes .................................................................................................................................. 130 Indices of subjects .......................................................................................................................... 130 Subjects ................................................................................................................................. 130 Subjects related to Ṣūfism ................................................................................................. 131 Technical indices ............................................................................................................................ 132 Paper ...................................................................................................................................... 132 Ink ........................................................................................................................................... 132 Script ...................................................................................................................................... 132 Binding .................................................................................................................................. 132 Seals ..........................................................................................................................................133 Indices of names118 Authors/scholars al-Ahdal, al-Ḥusayn (d. 855/1451) [95], [101] Ahlwardt, Wilhelm (d. 1909) [30], [33], [37], [74], [76] al-Arraǧānī (d. 544/1149) [12] 118 The order is: family/tribal name (if known; separated with comma), title/laqab (if known; separated with comma), kunya (if given) + personal name+ 1–4 generations of nasab (separated with comma), geographic/religious/tribal nisbas without commas between them. E. g. Ibn al-Raddād, Šihāb al-Dīn, Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad b. Abū Bakr b. ʿAlam al-Dīn Muḥammad, al-Qurašī al-Taymī al-Bakrī al-Makkī/alZabīdī [N. o. the Ed.]. Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 117 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent ʿĀmir b. Abī ʿAlī b. Ṣāliḥ b. Muḥammad (d. after 994/1586) [14] al-ʿAsqalānī, Šihāb al-Dīn Abū al-Faḍl Aḥmad b. Ḥaǧar (d. 852/1449) [70], [74], [95] al-Baǧalī, ʿAlī b. Ibrāhīm (d. 715/1315–1316) [96], [98] al-Bayḍāwī (d. 685/1286) [92] Brockelmann, Carl (d. 1956) [3], [28], [30], [33], [37], [43], [45], [48], [74], [76], [93], [94] al-Buḫārī (d. 256/870) [92], [125] al-Bulġārī, Abū al-Šaraf al-Ḥusayn (d. after 1262/1845–1846) [42], [58] al-Būnī (d. 622/1225) [92] Citizen of Kazan (anonymous, n. d.) [19] Cureton, William (d. 1864) [120] al-Damāmīnī, Badr al-Dīn (Qāḍī) (d. after 819/1416) [97] Dorn, Boris A. (d. 1881) [120] al-Ḏahabī (d. 749/1348) [12], [70] Fagnan, Edmond (d. 1931) [120] Ferrand, Gabriel (d. 1935) [120]–[122], [125] al-Ǧaʿdī, Samura (d. 586/1190) [95] al-Ǧanadī, Bahāʾ al-Dīn, Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad b. Yaʿqūb b. Yūsuf (d. 732/1332) [2], [95] al-Ǧuwaynī (d. 478/1085) [92], [93] al-Ġarnāṭī, Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Raḥīm b. Sulaymān b. Rabīʿ, al-Qaysī al-Andalusī (d. 565/1169) [113], [120], [122]–[125] al-Ġazālī, Abū Ḥamīd Muḥammad b. Muḥammad, al-Ṭūsī (d. 505/1111) [28], [31], [92], [99] al-Ḥaḍramī, Ismāʿīl b. Muḥammad (d. 676/1277) [93] Ḥāǧǧī Ḫalīfa (d. 1067/1657) [76], [125] Ḥayy Sayyidī, Ḍiyāʾ al-Islām, Ismāʿīl b. Muḥammad b. al-Ḥasan b. al-Qāsim (d. before 914/1508) [12] al-Ḥubayšī, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. ʿUmar (d. 780/1378–1379) [93] al-Ḥusaynī, ʿImād al-Dīn Yaḥyā b. al-Mahdī (d. after 793/1391) [56] Ḫān, Muḥammad (d. after 1124/1712) [73] al-Ḫaṯʿamī, Abū al-Qāsim ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. al-Ḫaṭīb Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh Abū alḤasan (b. Aḥmad), al-Andalusī al-Suhaylī (d. 581/1185) [28] al-Ḫayyāṭ, ʿAbd al-Qādir (n. d.) [14] al-Ḫazraǧī, Muwaffaq al-Dīn/Šams al-Dīn, Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. al-Ḥasan b. al-Wahhās, alYamanī (d. 812/1409–1410) [2], [3], [95] al-Hamaḏānī, Abū al-Ḥasan Aḥmad b. Fāris b. Zakariyyāʾ b. Ḥabīb, al-Qazwīnī al-Rāzī (also ref. to as Ibn Fāris) (d. 395/1005 or 396/1005–1006) [27], [28] al-Hamaḏānī/al-Hamḏānī, Aḥmad (d. 334/945) [77] al-Hamaḏānī, Badīʿ al-Zamān (d. 398/1007) [27] al-Hāšimī, al-Sayyid al-Šarīf Zayd b. ʿAbd Allāh b. Masʿūd (also ref. to as Sayyid al-Riḍā) (d. 497/1104) [34], [46] al-Hattār, Ṭalḥa b. ʿĪsā (d. 780/1378–1379) [93], [99] Houtsma, Martijn Theodoor (d. 1943) [74] Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 118 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent Ibn Abī al-Ḫayr, Aḥmad (n. d.) [98] Ibn Abī Manṣūr, Ṣafī al-Dīn, al-Ḥusayn b. ʿAlī (d. 682/1283) [95] Ibn al-Aṯīr (d. 630/1233) [77] Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi (d. 328/940) [77] Ibn ʿAbdawayh, Muḥammad b. al-Ḥusayn (d. 525/1132) [92], [99] Ibn ʿArabī (d. 543/1148), see al-Maʿāfirī Ibn Birġam, Ǧamāl al-Dīn, Aḥmad b. ʿAlī (n. d.) [38] Ibn Birġam, Yaḥyā b. Aḥmad (ca. 850/1446) [38] Ibn Daʿsayn, Abū Bakr b. Aḥmad (d. 752/1351) [93], [94] Ibn al-Daybaʿ (d. 944/1537) [96] Ibn Diḥya (d. 633/1235) [28] Ibn Fāris (d. 395/1005 or 396/1005–1006), see al-Hamaḏānī Ibn al-Ǧawn, Abū Dulāma Zand (d. 160/776–777) [77] Ibn al-Ǧawzī, Abū al-Faraǧ ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. ʿAlī b. Muḥammad (d. 597/1200) [45], [95] Ibn Ḥaǧar, Abū al-Faḍl (d. 852/1449) [95] Ibn Ḥamza, al-Manṣūr bi-Allāh, ʿAbd Allāh (d. 614/1217) [39] Ibn Ḥazm (d. 456/1064) [28] Ibn al-Raddād, Šihāb al-Dīn, Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad b. Abū Bakr b. ʿAlam al-Dīn Muḥammad, al-Qurašī al-Taymī al-Bakrī al-Makkī/al-Zabīdī (d. 821/1418) [93] Ibn Taymiyya (d. 728/1328) [101] Ibn Wadʿān, Muḥammad (d. 494/1101) [34] Ibn al-Wardī (d. 749/1348) [92] al-Iṣfahānī, Abū Nuʿaym (d. 430/1038) [95] al-Isnawī (d. 777/1370) [95] al-ʿImrānī (d. 558/1163) [92] al-ʿIrāqī, Zayn al-Dīn, Abū al-Faḍl ʿAbd al-Raḥīm b. al-Ḥusayn b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān (d. 806/1404) [70] Jacob, Georg (d. 1937) [120] Jewish scholar (n. d.) [79] Kaʿb al-Aḥbār (d. 35/656) [59] Kaʿb b. Zuhayr (d. 26/646) [85] al-Kaynaʿī, Ibrāhīm b. Yaʿmur (d. 793/1391) [56] Kratchovsky, Ignatiy Julianovich (1883–1951) [30] al-Laḫmī, Abū Ǧaʿfar Aḥmad b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Muḥammad b. Saʿīd, al-Andalusī (Qāḍī alQuḍāt) (d. 592/1195–1196 or 593/1196–1197) [28] Lane-Poole, Stanley (d. 1931) [83] al-Maʿāfirī, Abū Bakr Muḥammad b. ʿAbd Allāh b. Aḥmad (also ref. to as Ibn al-ʿArabī) (d. 543/1148) [28] al-Mallāʾ, Muʿīn al-Dīn, Abū Ḥafṣ ʿUmar b. Muḥammad b. al-Ḥiḍr (d. after 557/1162) [124] al-Maqqarī, al-Tilimsānī, Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad (d. 1041/1632) [125] al-Marġīnānī, ʿAlī (d. 593/1197) [92] Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 119 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent al-Māwardī (d. 450/1058) [92] Menzel, Theodor (d. 1939) [30] al-Miḥlabī, Ṣārim al-Dīn, Dāʾūd b. Kāmil, al-Ḥaǧǧī (d. after 793/1391) [53] al-Muhtadī, Aḥmad (n. d.) [12] al-Muhtadī, Ibrāhīm (n. d.) [12] Muslim b. al-Ḥaǧǧāǧ (d. 261/875) [92] al-Nasafī (d. 537/1142) [92] al-Nāsiḫ, Ǧamāl al-Dīn b. Mūsā (n. d.) [98] al-Nāširī, Aḥmad b. Abū Bakr (n. d.) [95] al-Nāširī, Ibn ʿAbd Allāh (Qāḍī) (n. d.) [96] al-Nāširī, Muḥammad al-Ṭayyib b. Aḥmad (Qāḍī) (d. 874/1469–1470) [92], [97] al-Nawādī (n. d.) [77] al-Nawawī (d. 676/1278) [77], [92] al-Qalīṣī Yūsuf b. Abū Bakr (n. d.) [92] al-Qalqašandī, Šihāb al-Dīn, Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad b. ʿAlī (d. 821/1418) [84], [85] al-Qazwīnī (d. 665/1266) [92] al-Qudūrī (d. 428/1036) [92] al-Qurayẓī, Muḥammad b. Saʿīd (the beginning of the 8th/14th century) [93] al-Rāfiʿī (d. 623/1226) [77] al-Rāzī, Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad b. ʿAbd Allāh b. Muḥammad, al-Ṣanʿānī (d. after 460/1068) [95] al-Rāzī, Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad b. Aḥmad (n. d.) [125] al-Rāzī, Abū al-Fatḥ Sulaymān b. Ayyūb (also ref. to as Sulaym b. Ayyūb b. Sulaym) (d. 447/1055–1056) [28] Rieu, Charles Pierre Henri (d. 1902) [74] al-Rūnī/al-Radnī, Aḥmad b. ʿAlī (al-Būnī?, d. ca. 622/1225) [14] al-Sabtī, Abū al-Ḫaṭṭāb ʿUmar b. al-Ḥasan b. ʿAlī b. Ǧumayya, al-Kūfī al-Ẓāhirī (Ibn Diḥya) (d. 633/1235) [28] (de) Sacy, Silvestre (d. 1838) [120] al-Samʿānī (d. 562/1166) [90] al-Saylaqī, al-Ḥasan b. Mahdī al-Ḥasanī (n. d.) [34] al-Siǧistānī Abū Dāwūd (d. 275/888) [92], [93] al-Subaytī, ʿĪsā (d. ca. 805/1402–1403) [93] al-Šarʿābādī, Muḥammad ʿAbd al-ʿAẓīm, al-Buḫārī (d. after 1290/1873–1874) [112], [125] al-Šarǧī, Zayn al-Dīn, Aḥmad b. Aḥmad b. ʿAbd al-Laṭīf, al-Ḥanafī al-Zabīdī (d. 893/1488) [89], [97] al-Šīrāzī (d. 476/1083) [92], [93] al-Šunaykī (d. after 715/1315–1316) [96] al-Ṣafadī (d. 764/1363) [12] al-Ṣāḥib b. ʿAbbād (d. 385/995), see al-Ṭālqānī Ṣārim al-Dīn, Ibrāhīm (d. 914/1508) [12] al-Tilimsānī, Yūsuf b. ʿAlī (d. 690/1291) [14] Tritton, Arthur Stanley (d. 1973) [83] Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 120 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent al-Ṯaʿālibī (d. 429/1038) [27] al-Ṭabarī, Naǧm al-Dīn (Qāḍī) (n. d.) [98] al-Ṭālqānī, al-Ṣāḥib, Ismāʿīl b. ʿAbbād (also ref. to as al-Ṣāḥib b. ʿAbbād) (d. 385/995) [27] al-Ṭurṭūšī, Abū Bakr Muḥammad b. al-Walīd al-Fihrī (d. 520/1126 or 525/1131) [125] al-Ūṣābī, Mūsā b. Aḥmad, al-Tibāʿī (d. 621/1224) [93] al-Wāḥidī, Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. ʿAlī, al-Nīsābūrī al-Šāfiʿī (d. 468/1076) [93] al-Yāfiʿī (d. 768/1367) [95] Yāqūt (d. 626/1229) [27], [90] al-Zabīdī, Muḥammad [123] (de) Zambaur, Edouard (d. 1931) [83] al-Zanǧānī, Hibat Allāh b. Yūsuf b. ʿUmar b. ʿAlī (d. after 557/1162) [124] Copyists ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿAbd al-Nabī, al-Sayyid (d. after 1228/1913) [24], [29] al-Zabīdī, Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. Aḥmad (d. after 994/1586) [123] Rulers Alexander the Great (r. 336–323 BC) [46] al-Amawī, Hišām b. ʿAbd al-Malik (r. 105–125/724–743) [98] Ayyūbids (r. 566–658/1171–1260) [75], [101] ʿAbbāsids (r. 132–923/750–1517) [45] al-Būwayhī, Faḫr al-Dawla, ʿAlī (r. 365–369/976–980 and 373–387/984–997) [27] al-Būwayhī, Maǧd al-Dawla, Abū Ṭālib (r. 387–420/997–1029) [27] Buwayhids/Buyids (r. 936– 1055/360–447) [27] Ġassānids (220 AD–17/638) [76] Ibn Ayyūb, al-Malik al-Ašraf, Muẓaffar al-Dīn Mūsā b. al-Masʿūd (r. 647–649/1250–1252) [97] Ibn Ayyūb, al-Malik al-Masʿūd, Yūsuf (b. al-Malik al-Kāmil Nāṣir al-Dīn Muḥammad) (r. 612– 626/1215–1229) [97], [101] Ibn Rasūl, al-Malik al-Afḍal, ʿAbbās b. (al-Muǧāhid) ʿAlī b. Dāwūd (r. 764–778/1363–1376) [75], [77]–[80] Ibn Rasūl, al-Malik al-Ašraf, Ismāʿīl b. (al-Afḍal) ʿAbbās b. ʿAlī (r. 778–803/1376–1400) [3], [75] Ibn Rasūl, al-Malik al-Ašraf, ʿUmar b. (al-Muẓaffar) Yūsuf b. ʿUmar (r. 694–696/1295–1296) [75], [77]–[80] Ibn Rasūl, al-Malik al-Manṣūr, ʿUmar b. ʿAlī (r. 626–647/1228–1249) [97] Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 121 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent Ibn Rasūl, al-Malik al-Muʾayyad, Dāwud b. (al-Muẓaffar) Yūsuf b. ʿUmar (r. 696–721/1296–1321) [101] Ibn Rasūl, al-Malik al-Muǧāhid, ʿAlī b. (al-Muʾayyad) Dāwūd b. Yūsuf (r. 721–764/1321–1363) [94], [97] Ibn Rasūl, al-Malik al-Masʿūd, Abū al-Qāsim b. (al-Ašraf) Ismāʿīl b. ʿAbd Allāh (r. 847– 858/1443–1454) [97] Ibn Ṭāhir, al-Malik al-Muǧāhid, Šams al-Dīn, ʿAlī (r. 870–883/1466–1479) [98] Mamlūks (sultans of Cairo) (r. 648–923/1250–1517) [61], [84] al-Masʿūd (see Ibn Rasūl, al-Malik al-Masʿūd) [97] Rasūlids (r. 626–858/1229–1454) [3], [75]–[77], [83], [94], [95], [97] Sunqur (r. during several years till 609/1212–1213) [97] Šāh ʿĀlim (r. 1119–1124/1707–1712) [73] al-Ṣāḥib b. ʿAbbād (r. 366–385/976–995), see al-Ṭālqānī Solomon (r. 970–931 BC) [46] Ṭāhirids (r. 855–923/1451–1517) [98], [99] al-Ṭālqānī, al-Ṣāḥib, Ismāʿīl b. ʿAbbād (also ref. to as al-Ṣāḥib b. ʿAbbād) (r. 366–385/976–995) [27] Umayyads (r. 41–132/661–750) [45], [85], [98] History/Persons in tradition Abraham [46] al-Amawī, Ḫālid b. Saʿīd b. al-ʿĀṣ (Companion of the Prophet) (d. 13/634) [4] al-ʿAbbās b. ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib (d. 32/653) [45] ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿUmar (d. 73/693) [122] al-Baṭṭāl, Abū Muḥammad (d. 122/740) [85] Daniyāl (n. d.) [122] al-Dār al-Faǧamī (n. d.) [4] Ḏū al-Nūn (d. 245/859) [46] al-Ǧumaḥī, al-Qāsim b. Muḥammad b. ʿAbd Allāh (n. d.) [4] al-Ḥusayn b. ʿAlī (d. 61/680) [102] Ibn Adham, Ibrāhīm (d. 165/782) [46] Ibn al-Murtaḍā, al-Mahdī li-Dīn Allāh, Aḥmad b. Yaḥyā (Zaydī Imam) (d. 840/1437) [28], [44] Jesus (d. ca. 33 AD) [46] Kāfūr al-Taqwā (n. d.) [4] Mālik b. Anas (d. 179/795) [27] Mansik b. al-Yafriḍ (n. d.) [122] Muʿāḏ (Companion of the Prophet) (d. 18/639) [32] Muḥammad, the Prophet [28], [46], [49], [70], [85] Seven sleepers of Ephesus (ca. 250 AD) [46] Umayya b. ʿAbd Šams (6th century AD) [45], [85] Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 122 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent Zayd b. ʿAlī (d. 122/740) [45] Prominent Ṣūfīs Abū Ḥarba (lived during 696/1296–721/1321) [101] al-Abyanī, Aḥmad b. al-Ǧaʿd (d. after 690/1291) [93] al-Abyanī, Sufyān b. ʿAbd Allāh, al-Yamanī (d. after 647/1249) [95] al-Aflaḥ, Aḥmad b. Muḥammad (d. 860/1456) [98] al-Ahdal, ʿAlī (d. 690/1291) [100] al-Ahdal, al-Ḥusayn (d. 855/1451) [95], [101] al-Asdī, ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿAlī (d. 620/1223) [100] al-ʿAlawī, Nafīs al-Dīn, Sulaymān b. Ibrāhīm (n. d.) [97] Bā (ʿAbbād) ʿAlawī, ʿAbd Allāh b. Muḥammad (d. 687/1288) [94] al-Baǧalī, ʿAlī b. Ibrāhīm (d. 715/1315–1316) [96], [98] al-Būma, Šaraf al-Dīn, Ismāʿīl (n. d.) [97] al-Daḥmān, Muḥammad b. Ibrāhīm (d. 603/1206–1207) [97] al-Ǧabartī, Šaraf al-Milla wa-al-Dīn, Abū al-Maʿrūf Ismāʿīl b. Abī Bakr (d. 806/1403–1404) [97], [98], [101] al-Ǧaʿdī, Samura (d. 586/1190) [95] al-Ǧīlī, ʿAbd al-Qādir (d. 561/1166) [99], [100] al-Ḥaddād, ʿAlī b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān (d. after 561/1166) [97], [100] al-Ḫallī, Aḥmad (n. d.) [90] al-Ḫallī, Ismāʿīl b. Aḥmad (n. d.) [90] al-Hamdānī, ʿUmar b. Saʿīd (d. 663/1265) [94] al-Hattār, al-Ġazālī b. Ṭalḥa b. ʿĪsā (d. after 825/1422) [99] al-Hattār, Ṭalḥa b. ʿĪsā (d. 780/1378–1379) [93], [99] Ibn Abī Manṣūr, Ṣafī al-Dīn (n. d.) [95] Ibn al-Aḫḍar, Naǧm al-Dīn (d. before 888/1483) [100] Ibn al-Raddād, Šihāb al-Dīn, Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad b. Abū Bakr b. ʿAlam al-Dīn Muḥammad, al-Qurašī al-Taymī al-Bakrī al-Makkī/al-Zabīdī (d. 821/1418) [93] Ibn ʿAbdawayh, Muḥammad b. al-Ḥusayn (d. 525/1132) [92], [99] Ibn ʿAlawān, Aḥmad (d. 665/1266) [93] Ibn ʿArabī (d. 543/1148), see al-Maʿāfirī Ibn Daʿsayn, Abū Bakr b. Aḥmad (d. 752/1351) [93], [94] Ibn Daʿsayn, ʿAlī b. ʿUmar (d. 828/1425) [100] Ibn Ǧaʿmān, Abū al-Qāsim (d. 857/1453) [96] Ibn Ǧaʿmān, Muḥammad b. Abū Bakr b. Ibrāhīm (d. 856/1452) [96], [97] Ibn Naṣīṣ, Aḥmad (d. after 764/1363) [97] Ibn ʿUǧayl, Aḥmad b. Mūsā (d. after 663/1265) [94] Ibn Zakariyyāʾ, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Muḥammad (n. d.) [101] Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 123 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent al-Maʿāfirī, Abū Bakr Muḥammad b. ʿAbd Allāh b. Aḥmad (also ref. to as Ibn al-ʿArabī) (d. 543/1148) [28] al-Maġribī, Abū Madyan Šuʿayb b. al-Ḥasan (d. 598/1193) [100] Mirġam (d. before 626/1229) [101] al-Mizǧāǧī, Ǧamāl al-Dīn (d. after 752/1351) [94] al-Muqrī, Ismāʿīl (d. after 752/1351) [94] al-Qudsī, ʿUmar b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān (d. 888/1483?) [98], [100] al-Qurašī, Muḥammad b. Muhannā (d. after 621/1224) [100] al-Qušayrī, Abū al-Qāsim (d. 465/1072–1073) [92] al-Rifāʿī, Aḥmad (d. 576/1180–1181) [100] al-Rudaynī, Aḥmad (d. some years before or after 825/1422) [99] al-Rudaynī, Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn Muḥammad b. Aḥmad (d. 825/1422) [99] al-Sarḥī/al-Šarǧī, Sirāǧ al-Dīn (d. ca. 769/1367–1368) [97] al-Sarrāǧ al-Salāmī, Abū Bakr b. Muḥammad (d. at the beginning of the 800s/1400s) [93] al-Šāḏilī (d. 656/1258) [100] al-Tilimsānī, Abū Bakr (d. some years before or after 621/1224) [100] al-Zaylaʿī, Aḥmad b. ʿUmar (n. d.) [93] Owners of manuscripts ʿĀmir b. Abī ʿAlī b. Ṣāliḥ b. Muḥammad [14] Citizen of Kazan (anonymous, n. d.) [19] Ḫān, Muḥammad (d. after 1124/1712) [73] al-Muhtadī, Aḥmad (n. d.) [12] al-Muhtadī, Ibrāhīm (n. d.) [12] al-Šarʿābādī, ʿAbd al-ʿAẓīm, al-Buḫārī (d. after 1290/1873–1874) [112], [125] Ṣārim al-Dīn, Ibrāhīm (d. 914/1508) [12] Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 124 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent Indices of works Other manuscript copies of works studied in the text Al-ʿaqd al-fāḫir al-ḥasan fī ṭabaqāt aʿyān al-Yaman/Ṭirāz aʿlām al-zaman fī ṭabaqāt aʿyān alYaman (Cambridge manuscript) [3] Concise dictionary of the Classical Arabic language (Tashkent manuscript, the Institute for the Study of Oriental Manuscripts) [27] Iṯnatā ʿašrata kalimatan (Uppsala manuscript) [59] Kitāb Sīrat al-nabī (Berlin manuscript) [28] Muḫtaṣar fī ʿilm al-ansāb/Buġyat ḏawī al-himam fī maʿrifat ansāb al-ʿarab wa-al-ʿaǧam (Berlin manuscript) [83] Tazyīn al-maǧālis bi-ḏikr al-tuḥaf al-nafāʾis wa-maknūn ḥisān al-ʿarāʾis (Berlin manuscript) [48] Al-tuḥfa al-sunniyya li-maʿānī al-aḥādīṯ al-saylaqiyya/Ḫuṭab al-arbaʿīn/Al-arbaʿīn alwadʿāniyya (Berlin manuscript) [43] Tuḥfat al-albāb wa-nuḫbat al-iʿǧāb (Algerian manuscript J) [120], [122] Tuḥfat al-albāb wa-nuḫbat al-iʿǧāb (Berlin manuscript) [122] Tuḥfat al-albāb wa-nuḫbat al-iʿǧāb (Paris manuscripts A–E) [120], [122] Tuḥfat al-albāb wa-nuḫbat al-iʿǧāb (Saint-Petersburg manuscript F) [120] Book titles Aḥādīṯ fī ṣifat al-ǧanna wa-al-nār [49] Al-arbaʿīn al-wadʿāniyya [34] Al-ʿaqāʾid [92] Al-ʿaqd al-fāḫir al-ḥasan fī ṭabaqāt akābir al-Yaman [1] Al-ʿaqd al-fāḫir al-ḥasan fī ṭabaqāt aʿyān al-Yaman [3] Al-bahǧa [92] Al-baḥr al-zaḫḫār al-ǧāmiʿ li-maḏāhib ʿulamāʾ al-amṣār [44] Al-basīṭ [92] Al-bayān [92] Al-durar al-kāmina [74] Al-ḥāwī al-kabīr fī al-furūʿ [92] Al-ḥāwī al-ṣaġīr [92] Al-hidāya (al-Marġīnānī) [92] Al-iršād (Ibn ʿAbdawayh) [92] Al-ʿiqd al-farīd [77] Al-lumaʿ [92], [93] Al-minhāǧ (al-Bayḍāwī) [92] Al-muhaḏḏab [92], [93] Al-qawāʿid al-wafiyya fī aṣl al-ḫirqa al-ṣūfiyya [93] Al-rawḍa [92] Al-risāla al-qušayriyya [92] Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 125 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent Al-sulūk fī ṭabaqāt al-ʿulamāʾ wa-al-mulūk [95] Al-tanbīh [92] Al-tuḥfa al-sunniyya li-maʿānī al-aḥādīṯ al-saylaqiyya [38] Al-ṭabaqāt al-wusṭā [96] Al-ʿuqūd [95] Al-waǧīz [92] Al-wasīṭ [92], [93] Bāb ḏikr al-mawāqif al-ḫamsīn [51] Bānat Suʿād [85] Buġyat ḏawī al-himam fī maʿrifat ansāb al-ʿarab wa-al-ʿaǧam [76] Fī ṣifat al-nār wa-šiddat ʿaḏābihā naʿūḏu bi-Allāh minhā [49] Fī ṭarīq al-qawm [94] Ǧāmiʿ al-taʾwīl [27] Ḥadīqat al-ḥikma [39] Ḥamāsa (Ibn Fāris) [27] Ḥilyat al-awliyāʾ [95] Ḫuṭab al-arbaʿīn [34] Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīn [92] Irtiyāḍ al-fikar fī šarḥ sīrat ʿitratihi al-aʾimma al-muntaḫabīn al-zuhar [45] Iṯnatā ʿašrata kalimatan [59] Kitāb al-ansāb [96] Kitāb al-arbaʿīn al-ḥadīṯ (sic!) al-saylaqiyya [34] Kitāb al-baraka [93] Kitāb al-laṭāʾif fī iǧtilāʾ ʿarūs al-maʿārif [93] Kitāb al-mustaṣfā [93] Kitāb al-naẓm [93] Kitāb al-qarab bi-maḥabbat al-ʿarab [69] Kitāb al-wasāʾil al-ʿuẓmā [56] Kitāb Ḏī al-Fiqār al-mārr bi-yad al-faqr al-manṣūr [93] Kitāb mūǧibāt al-raḥma fī ʿamal al-yawm wa-al-layla [93] Kitāb Sīrat al-nabī [27] Kunh al-murād fī šarḥ Bānat Suʾād [85] Lubāb ṯamarat al-ḥaqīqa [93] Maqāmāt [27] Minhāǧ al-muttaqīn wa-miʿrāǧ al-muḫliṣīn [53] Mirʾāt al-ǧanān [95] Muʿǧam al-udabāʾ [27] Muḫtaṣar (al-Qudūrī) [92] Muḫtaṣar fī ʿilm al-ansāb [75] Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 126 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent Muḫtaṣar mimmā allafahu al-faqīh al-aǧall [3] Mulaḫḫaṣ mimmā ǧammaʿa al-faqīh al-aǧall al-fāḍil Muwaffaq [3] Nihāyat al-arab fī maʿrifat qabāʾil al-ʿarab [84] Nubḏa min bidāyat al-nihāya [31] Rasāʾil (al-Hamaḏānī) [27] Risālat Ṣafī al-Dīn b. Abī Manṣūr fī manāqib šayḫihī [95] Sirāǧ al-mulūk [125] Sunan [92], [93] Šarḥ al-baḥr al-zaḫḫār [38] Šiʿr (Aḥmad b. Abū Bakr al-Raddād) [93] Ṣafwat al-ṣafwa [95] Ṣaḥīḥ (al-Buḫārī) [92], [125] Ṣaḥīḥ (Muslim) [92], [93] Ṣifat al-ǧanna wa-naʿīmihā wa-malikihā al-ʿaẓīm [49] Tafsīr (al-Wāḥidī) [93] Tārīḫ (al-Ǧanadī) (see Al-sulūk fī ṭabaqāt al-ʿulamāʾ wa-al-mulūk) [95] Tārīḫ (al-Ḥusayn al-Ahdal) [95] Tārīḫ Ṣanʿāʾ [95] Tazyīn al-maǧālis bi-ḏikr al-tuḥaf al-nafāʾis wa-maknūn ḥisān al-ʿarāʾis [44] Torah [59] Tuḥfat al-akyās fī šarḥ taʿyīn Āl Umayya wa-al-ʿAbbās [45] Tuḥfat al-albāb wa-nuḫbat al-iʿǧāb [113] Tuḥfat al-ṭālib li-al-maṭlūb fī labs al-ḫirqa [93] Tuḥfat al-wuʿʿāẓ [45] Ṭabaqāt (of Šāfiʿī scholars, by al-Isnawī) [95] Ṭabaqāt fuqahāʾ al-Yaman [95] Ṭabaqāt al-ḫawāṣṣ ahl al-ṣidq wa-al-iḫlāṣ [89] Ṭabaqāt al-qurrāʾ [95] Ṭirāz aʿlām al-zaman fī ṭabaqāt aʿyān al-Yaman [3] Ṭurfat al-aṣḥāb fī maʿrifat al-ansāb [77] ʿUddat al-muršidīn wa-ʿumdat al-mustaršidīn fī aḥkām al-ḫirqa wa-al-nisba li-al-nās wa-alṣuḥba [93] Yawāqīt al-siyar fī šarḥ Kitāb al-ǧawāhir wa-al-durar min sīrat ḫayr (sayyid) al-bašar waaṣḥābihi al-ʿašara al-ġurar wa-ʿitratihi al-aʾimma al-muntaḫabīn al-zuhar [45] Yatīmat al-dahr [27] Index of cities, countries, regions, communities and groups Aden [78], [98], [99] Abyan [93] Abyssinia [99], [100] Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 127 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent Africa [99] Alexandria [117], [125] Algerian [120], [122] Andalusī [28] Arab/Arabic/Arabian/Arabia/Arabian Peninsula [18], [19], [27], [28], [61], [63], [70], [75], [76], [78], [79], [84], [85], [99], [103], [115], [117], [123] Ardebil [117] Baghdad [27] Bayt al-Faqīh [96], [98] Bayt Ḥusayn [98] Bedouins [98] Berber tribes [61], [85] Berlin [28], [83], [122] Bukhara [112], [125] Cádiz [117] Cairo [28], [70], [125] Cambridge [3] Central Asia [109], [125] Daḥmān [97] Damascus [113] Damietta [95] Dumluwwa [102] Egypt/Egyptian [61], [70], [84], [85], [97], [100], [102] Ephesus [46] Fes [28] Ǧabal Maswar [46] Granada [113] Ḥaḍramawt [78], [94], [99], [102] Ḥaǧǧa [53] Ḥiǧāz [102] al-Ḥudayḍa [24], [47] Ḥumayma Banū al-Minṯāb [46] Hamadān (Hamidān/Hamaḏān) [27] Hebron [91] India/Indian [14], [64], [66], [99], [105], [106], [108], [112], [123], [125] Iraq [61], [100], [102] Jerusalem [91] Jews; Yemeni Jews [79] Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 128 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent Kamarān [99] Karsaf [27] Kazan [19] Kawkabān [39], [53] Kokand [11], [68], [109] al-Kūfa [45] Maghreb/Maghrebian [28], [102] Maḫā [100] Maydūm, or Haydūm [117] Mecca [91], [100] Medina [70], [91] Mesopotamia [61], [99] Mosul [123], [124] al-Muḫā [24], [29], [57], [100] non-Arabs [85] Palestine [85], [102] Paris [120], [122] Persian [18], [27], [122], [123] Qādis/Cádiz [117] Qazwīn [27] Qurayš [85] Red Sea [28], [99], [100] Rome [122] Saint-Petersburg [120] Sanaa [95], [98] South Arabia/South Arabian [61], [76], [78], [88], [103], [123] Surat [66], [72], [82], [87] Syria/Syrian [76], [85], [99], [102] Syrian Desert [85] Šibām [39], [53] Šiḥr [99] Taʿizz [78] Tashkent [112], [120]–[122], [124], [125] Tihāma [98] Turkish [18], [85] Paris [120], [122] Ray [27] Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 129 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent Uppsala [59] Usaba [98] Wādī Saham [102] Wādī Surdud [102] Western [100] Zabīd [78], [88], [89], [97], [98], [102], [103], [123] Zaydī [19], [28], [38], [44]–[46], [54], [56], [98] Ẓafār [44] Index of tribes Banū Abān [85] Banū al-Ahdal [100], [102] Banū Bā ʿAlawī [102] Banū al-Ǧabartī [97], [102] Banū Ǧaʿmān [96], [98], [102] Banū al-Ḥaḍramī [102] Banū al-Hattār [102] Banū Kilāb [85] Banū Laḫm [85] Banū Lawāta [85] Banū Marin [85] Banū Mazāta [85] Banū al-Musabbiḥ [102] Banū al-Nāširī [97], [102] Banū al-Qādimī [102] Banū Saʿīf [78] Banū Sinān [78] Banū Ṣanhāǧa [85] Banū ʿUḏra [85] Banū ʿUǧayl [102] Banū Zināra [85] Banū Zināta [85] Banū Zubayd [85] Banū Zubayda [85] Indices of subjects Subjects adab [75] Ayyūbids (r. 566–658/1171–1260) [75], [101] ʿAbbāsids (r. 132–923/750–1517) [45] Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 130 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent Bedouins [98] Berbers [61], [85] biographies [1]–[4], [6], [28], [45], [56], [70], [74], [88], [90]–[99], [101], [105], [107], [110], [122], [125] Buwayhids/Buyids [27] dirge [12] ethics [19], [54], [99] Ġassānids (r. 415 BH–17/220–638) [76] genealogies [61], [74]–[80], [85], [90], [96], [102], [113] Hadith [32]–[35], [39], [40], [46], [49], [70] history [2], [70], [75], [79], [83], [88], [91], [95], [97], [123], [124] holy places [91], [92] iǧāza [124] Imam/imams [28], [44], [45], [56], [92], [97], [98], [102] Jews; Yemeni Jews [79] Mamlūks (Cairo) [61], [84] maxims/dicta [93] qāḍī [29], [94], [96]–[98] qirāʾāt/Qurʾanic recitation [92] Qurʾan [28], [45], [70], [92], [95], [101] Rasūlids [3], [75]–[77], [83], [94], [95], [97] samāʿ/samāʿāt (audition certificate) [124] Sufism [32], [91]–[102], [112], [124], [125] šayḫ [12], [27], [45], [92]–[94], [96]–[101], [124] tafsīr/tafāsīr/Qurʾanic interpretation [92], [93] Ṭāhirids [98], [99] Umayyads (r. 41–132/661–750) [45], [85], [98] Zaydism [19], [28], [38], [44]–[46], [54], [56], [98] Subjects related to Ṣūfism ascetics [46], [56], [88], [90], [91], [95], [99], [100], [102] correspondence between the šayḫs [94] godly women [46] hermits [46] madrasa [70], [91], [92], [97] Madrasa al-Daḥmāniyya [97] ribāṭ [91], [99] saints [88], [90]–[93], [95]–[99], [101], [102] Ṣūfī poems [93] šayḫ (of a Ṣūfī order) [45], [92]–[94], [96]–[101], [124] zāwiya [91], [99], [100], [124] Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 131 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent Technical indices Paper bookend [116] burnished [5], [20], [64], [114] Central Asian [109] Countermark/Initials [20] European [11], [20] green [118] heavyweight [5], [20] Indian [64], [105] Kokand [11], [68], [109] laid [20] Open crown [11] Oriental [5], [114] pink [116] thin [105] three crescents [20] watermark [11], [20] white [20], [64] yellowish [5], [114] Ink black [5], [13], [14], [20], [64], [71], [81], [86], [105], [114] cinnabar [5], [6], [13], [21], [29], [35], [40], [45], [47], [50], [52], [54], [56], [57], [60], [64], [71], [72], [81], [82], [86], [105] crimson [122] flat [64], [71] greyish [14] impure [14], [122] lustrous [81] red [111], [114] Script clear [5], [114] half-nasḫ [13] Indian [106] insecure [63] larger [106] Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 132 V. I. Belyaev Arabic manuscripts from Yemen in the collections of Tashkent medium [5], [21], [63] nasḫ [5], [21], [63], [106], [114] nastaʿlīq [58], [73], [111], [115] Persian [122], [123] rounded [5], [106] running [63] small [13], [114] smaller [106] thin [106] tiny [55], [58] ṯuluṯ [5] Yemeni [5] Binding calico [118] carton [118] dark-red [62] embossed [15], [26] goatskin [15], [62] green paper [118] half-leather [15], [26], [62] leather [26], [118] medallions [15], [118] red [15], [26] Index of seals 10th/16th century [14] author’s [124] blurred over [14]; half-blurred [73] Indian type [14] lancet-shaped [26], [29] owner’s [69], [73] round [14], [73] scrubbed [14] small [26], [29] Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 133 J.-F. Faü Un manuscrit yéménite relatif à l’expulsion de Mawzaʿ en 1679 UN MANUSCRIT YEMENITE RELATIF A L’EXPULSION DE MAWZAʿ EN 1679 Jean-François Faü (Université Senghor, Alexandrie) Résumé Ce manuscrit décrit sur un bifeuillet l’expulsion des Juifs du Yémen vers Mawzaʿ, un exil intérieur qui constitua une ligne de fracture dans la vie des communautés yéménites. Son auteur, Yaḥyā b. al-Ḥusayn b. al-Qāsim, est né en 1034/1625 dans le quartier al-Abār, Sanaa, où il est décédé aux alentours de 1098/1687. Issu d’une famille aristocratique zaydite, il reste un observateur des événements de son époque. Le texte rapporte l’expulsion vers Mawzaʿ de manière précise, parfois historiographique. Le style employé et les points retenus dans sa description montrent que l’auteur de ces lignes aurait pu en être témoin. Abstract This manuscript describes, in one bifolio, the expulsion of Yemeni Jews towards Mawzaʿ, an internal exile that constituted a fault-line in the life of Yemeni communities. Its author, Yaḥyā b. al-Ḥusayn b. alQāsim, is born in 1034/1625 in the al-Abār district of Sanaa, where he died around 1098/1687. Coming from a Zaydi aristocratic family, he remains an observer of the events of that time. The text reports Mawzaʿ’s expulsion precisely, and is sometimes historiographical. The style used and the points retained in its description indicate that the author of these lines could be witnessing them. ‫ملخص‬ ‫ وهو منفى داخيل أدى اىل‬،‫ اجالء هيود المين اىل َم ْو ِزع‬،‫ وتقع يف ورقتني مزدوجتني‬،)‫تصف هذه اخملطوطة (الرساةل‬ ،‫ يف يح (الابر) بصنعاء‬0291/0131 ‫ ودل يف‬،‫ حيىي بن احلسني بن القامس‬: ‫ املؤلف‬.‫تصدع يف حياة اجملمتعات المينية‬ ‫ ويعرض النص الوقائع عرضً ا دقيقًا ويرسدها‬.‫ ينمتي املؤلف اىل الرسة املالكة يف المين‬،0211/0121 ‫وتويف حوايل يف‬ .‫أحياانً رسدًا اترخي ًيا وتشري التفاصيل والسلوب املس تخدم يف وصف هذا احلدث اىل أن املؤلف اكن شاهد عيان‬ Mots clés Imamat zaydite, expulsion, Juifs, ḏimmī, Mawzaʿ, Yémen Keywords Zaydi Imamat, expulsion, Jews, ḏimmī, Mawzaʿ, Yemen ‫اللكامت الرئيس ية‬ ‫ المين‬،‫ موزع‬،‫ ذ امي‬،‫ الهيود‬،‫ اجالء الهيود‬،‫الامامة الزيدية‬ Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 134 J.-F. Faü Un manuscrit yéménite relatif à l’expulsion de Mawzaʿ en 1679 I. Introduction Le bifeuillet manuscrit qui fait l’objet de notre étude est conservé à Dār al-maḫṭūṭāt, à Sanaa1, sous un numéro d’inventaire erroné du fait d’une mauvaise transcription2, le 81/465. Il décrit l’exil intérieur de la communauté juive yéménite vers la région de Mawzaʿ, en 1679, un événement connu sous le nom d’« expulsion de Mawzaʿ ». Cet événement fut décrit par des sources juives, publiées et étudiées notamment par Youssef Tobi3 ou Jane Hathaway4, et arabes, telles les chroniques de Yaḥyā b. al-Ḥusayn b. al-Qāsim (1044/1635-ca. 1098/1687)5, ou d’Ahmad b. Nāsir (1094/16451116/1705), qui a fait l’objet d’une édition critique en anglais6. Ces travaux ont permis d’apporter un regard nouveau en déroulant cet épisode de l’histoire du Yémen à l’aune des mouvements messianiques juifs, locaux ou sabbateïste, qui ravivèrent le discours eschatologique du pouvoir zaydite. II. Le contexte historique de la communauté juive yéménite au xviie s. À partir du xviie s. un ensemble de phénomènes économiques, religieux, et juridiques, externes et internes au Yémen, contribuèrent à une dégradation de la condition des communautés juives dans ce pays. Alors que l’Empire ottoman commençait à intégrer en son sein ses minorités, en particulier par la reconnaissance légale de leur statut communautaire7, le Yémen zaydite érigeait l’inégalité entre musulmans et Juifs en véritable système politique. La situation des communautés juives du Yémen s’aggrava après la première colonisation ottomane (952/1546-1045/1636), lorsqu’elles furent accusées de collusion avec l’occupant8. La restauration de la dynastie Qasimide (1044/1635-1214/1800) fut caractérisée par un pouvoir fondamentaliste zaydite, défavorable aux Juifs en réaction à la tolérance dont les Ottomans firent preuve à leur égard. Sur un autre registre, les déclarations de prétendants juifs à la messianité9 se multiplièrent pendant cette période troublée, en particulier celle du sabbataïsme qui toucha le Yémen à partir de 1666. Ce mouvement messianique se déroula en deux 1 Ms. 81/465, bifeuillet, s. d., p. 2. Entretien oral avec Ahmed Al-Ghomari, 12 mai 1999, à Sanaa. 3 Y. Tobi, Juifs et musulmans au Yémen. De l’avènement de l’islam à nos jours, 2019, p. 113-134. 4 J. Hathaway, « The Mawzaʿ Exile at the Juncture of Zaydi and Ottoman Messianism », 2005, p. 111-128. 5 A. al-Ġ. al-Amīr, Al-awḍā al-siyāsiyya, 2008. 6 P. S. Van Koningsveld, J. Sadan & Q. Al-Samarrai, Yemenite Authorities and Jewish Messianism. Ahmad b. Nasir al-Zaydi’s Account of the Sabbathian Movement in Seventeenth Century Yemen and its Aftermath, 1990. 7 A. Levy, The Sephardim in the Ottoman Empire, 1992, p. 83-86. 8 R. Blackburn, « The Ottoman Penetration of Yemen », 1980, vol. 4, p. 55-100. 9 S. D. Goitein, « Ha-mashiah », 1950, p. 23-36. 2 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 135 J.-F. Faü Un manuscrit yéménite relatif à l’expulsion de Mawzaʿ en 1679 temps, mais mina de façon durable le statut juridique de la ḏimma, car les Juifs furent perçus comme rompant cet accord de protection. En janvier 1667, des lettres en provenance de Gaza et d’Égypte parvinrent au Yémen, évoquant le mouvement de Sabbatai Zevi (1626-1676)10. Celui-ci s’était déjà converti à l’islam depuis 1666 quand ces nouvelles atteignirent le Yémen, mais ses adeptes, qui se nommaient eux-mêmes maaminim, les croyants, l’ignoraient. Le contrecoup de cette espérance millénariste, qui affecta également certaines populations musulmanes, se traduisit par une recrudescence des émeutes anti-juives à travers tout le pays. La dégradation du statut de ḏimmī et de la sécurité personnelle des Juifs s’amplifia lorsque l’Imam Ismāʿīl al-Mutawakkil (1053/1644-1086/1676) initia une politique de conversion forcée en décrétant un premier édit annulant le statut de ḏimmī, puis un second, promulgué au mois d’avril, appelé le « décret du turban », interdisant le port des coiffes traditionnelles11. Les Juifs furent obligés d’aller tête nue, ce qui constituait une véritable humiliation publique suivant les canons de la société yéménite de cette époque. Puis, une seconde phase messianique, qui semblait s’affranchir du mouvement sabbataïste12, déferla sur le pays au mois de mai 1667, à la suite de la pseudo-révélation d’un messie local nommé Slīmān Ǧamāl (?-1667). Il annonça à Sanaa, dans une harangue appelée le prêche du « Grand Shabbat », le retour imminent du messie lors de la fête de Pâques de cette année-là13. Aussi l’agitation messianique prit-elle une ampleur incontrôlée et apparut-elle rapidement comme le point focal d’une rébellion ouverte contre le pouvoir de l’Imam14, dont la réaction fut d’appeler à la suspension de la ḏimma, qui régit les droits et les obligations des Juifs en pays musulmans. En 1668, à la suite d’une longue sécheresse, le Yémen fut frappé par la disette. Le pouvoir zaydite mit en place une politique de contrainte indirecte pour amener les Juifs à adopter l’islam. Il leur fut alors interdit de bénéficier du revenu de la zakat, et ils furent exclus des centres d’approvisionnement en nourriture organisés par les autorités de l’Imamat. Pour y avoir accès, ils devaient se convertir sur le lieu des distributions de vivres15. 10 G. Scholem, Sabbataï Tsevi. Le messie mystique, 1626-1676, 1983. P. S. Van Koningsveld, J. Sadan & Q. Al-Samarrai, Yemenite Authorities and Jewish Messianism, 1990, p. 131. 12 H. Lenowitz, The Jewish Messiahs, 1998, p. 232, 233. Les avis divergent néanmoins sur la question de savoir si ce mouvement s’inscrit ou non dans la continuité de celui de Shabbetay Zvi, voir : L. Valensi, P. S. Van Koningsveld, J. Sadan & Q. Al-Samarrai, « Yemenite Authorities and Jewish Messianism. Ahmad ibn Nâsir al-Zaydî’s Account of the Sabbathian Movement in Seventeenth Century Yemen and its Aftermath », 1994 ; B.-Z. Eraqi-Klorman, « Jewish and Muslim Messianism in Yemen », 1990. 13 Y. Tobi, Juifs et musulmans au Yémen, 2019, p. 124. 14 P. S. Van Koningsveld, J. Sadan & Q. Al-Samarrai, Yemenite Authorities and Jewish Messianism, 1990, p. 147. 15 A. Ariel, Jewish-Muslim Relations and Migration from Yemen to Palestine in the Late Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, 2014, p. 47. 11 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 136 J.-F. Faü Un manuscrit yéménite relatif à l’expulsion de Mawzaʿ en 1679 Plusieurs sources, dont certaines furent postérieures, comme la chronique du rabbin Saʿīd Saʿadī, Dofi ha-zaman datant du xviiie s, attestent de cette pratique : « À cause de nos nombreux péchés, la famine s’est intensifiée pendant le mois de Tamuz. Quatre ou cinq Juifs de cette région (Sanaa) se convertissaient chaque jour à l’islam, parfois jusqu’à dix ou plus. Le roi subvenait à leurs besoins. »16 La pression sociale pour une conversion en échange de nourriture demeura une constante du pouvoir zaydite, qui put ainsi convertir plusieurs centaines de familles : leur nombre atteint cinq cents lors de la famine de 1668, à la suite d’une pression constante et indirecte. Une vague de persécution s’ouvrit en 1670. Elle fut marquée par l’adoption d’un décret sur la conversion à l’islam des orphelins de moins de 13 ans, puis par l’assignation à résidence du chef de la communauté, le nāǧid, dans l’île de Kamarān, et une série de spoliations de biens appartenant aux notables17. Cette politique anti-juive atteignit son paroxysme en 1679, lorsque l’Imam Aḥmad al-Mahdī (1086/1676-1091/1681), donna l’ordre d’expulser l’ensemble des Juifs de l’Imamat dans la région de Mawzaʿ, située aux confins de la Tihāma, à une semaine de marche à l’ouest de Sanaa18. Le pouvoir princier pensait que les conditions de vie très dures dans cette région désolée, allaient pousser les Juifs à se convertir à l’islam ou à émigrer19. Seules les communautés de l’Est du pays, éloignées du gouvernement central et sous protection tribale, échappèrent à l’application de cette disposition. Au mois de septembre 1679, les expulsés se rassemblèrent au départ des villes et des villages du Yémen pour prendre la direction du littoral de la mer Rouge. Un an plus tard, en 1681, les survivants purent soit retourner dans leurs régions d’origine, soit émigrer vers l’Empire ottoman ou vers le sous-continent Indien. Leurs biens avaient été confisqués, détruits ou revendus, comme la grande synagogue de Sanaa, Kanīsat al-ʿulāmāʾ, « la synagogue des sages », qui fut transformée en mosquée au nom évocateur de Masǧid al-ǧalāʾ, « la mosquée des bannis ». Nombreux furent ceux qui succombèrent en route, soit près des deux-tiers des exilés20, et les conversions à l’islam se multiplièrent. Cependant, l’objectif politique visant à provoquer l’émigration de la communauté yéménite échoua en partie21. La décision de signer cet édit s’inscrivait dans une double projection, mystique et politique, qui aboutit à la conceptualisation d’un antijudaïsme d’état imposant, in fine, un choix ultime : celui de la conversion ou de l’exil. Cet épisode déclencha un nouveau débat sur l’interprétation de la légalité de la présence juive dans la péninsule Arabique, au nom d’une tradition émise par le Prophète Muḥammad, et faisant miroir Y. Qafih, « Sefer ’Dofi ha-zeman’ le-Rabi Saʿid Saʿdi », 1956, p. 186-239. Y. Tobi, Juifs et musulmans au Yémen, 2019, p. 126. 18 A. al-Ġ. al-Amīr, Al-awḍā al-siyāsiyya, 2008, p. 317. 19 Y. Tobi, « Les Juifs du Yémen », 2014, p. 253. 20 S. D. Goitein, From the Land of Sheba, 1973, p. 23. 21 B. Lellouch, « Les Juifs dans le monde musulman », 2011, p. 284. 16 17 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 137 J.-F. Faü Un manuscrit yéménite relatif à l’expulsion de Mawzaʿ en 1679 à la mesure d’expulsion décidée par le Calife ʿUmar b. al-Ḫaṭṭāb en 63522. La fièvre messianique juive raviva également le discours eschatologique chez les musulmans23. Un lettré yéménite Aḥmad b. Nāṣir (1054/1645-1116/1705), contemporain de ces événements, relevait la terreur religieuse d’inspiration millénariste qui régnait chez les musulmans en même temps que la ferveur des communautés juives. Il considéra ce mouvement comme une subversion politique, les Juifs ayant annoncé que leur règne transformerait les musulmans en sujets soumis à leur tour à l’impôt des minoritaires, la ǧizya, et « que l’ère musulmane touchait à sa fin »24. Par son ampleur, cette agitation mit fin à l’équilibre social qui permettait à la minorité juive de cohabiter avec la majorité musulmane. Enfin, « L’expulsion de Mawzaʿ » provoqua l’effondrement du cadre institutionnel de nombreuses communautés à travers tout le pays25. Dès lors, leurs membres vécurent suivant le schéma classique d’un prolétariat rongé par un chômage endémique et caractérisé par la triple aliénation à la précarité, l’indigence et la pauvreté. Dans ce contexte de ségrégation, l’absence d’une bourgeoisie éclairée, ouverte sur le monde, demeurait également chronique. Cet exil intérieur constitua un traumatisme qui s’enracina dans la mémoire historique de cette communauté. La littérature contribua notamment à la pérennisation de sa mémoire. Le poète yéménite Shalom Shabazī (1619-1720), témoin de ces événements, écrivit, dans un poème intitulé waṣalnā hātif al-alḥān, « La nouvelle nous est parvenue » : « Je verserai mes larmes. Elles tomberont comme la pluie Sur tous les fils partis en exil. ... »26. Un autre poète yéménite, Šalem ʿAšrī, rédigea une complainte commémorant cet événement : « Les amants en exil sont partis. La journée s’épuisait dans la misère. Le soleil et la lune sur leur chemin disparaissaient, … » 27. 22 M. Hussein, Al-Sira, 2010, p. 547. Y. Tobi, Judeo-Arabic and Muslim Apocalyptic Visions in Yemen, 1996, p. 235-241. 24 B. Lellouch, « Les Juifs dans le monde musulman », 2011, p. 283. 25 Y. Tobi, Juifs et musulmans au Yémen, 2019, p. 261. 26 Y. Ratzaby, « Gerūsh Mawzaʿle-Or Meqōrōt Ḥadashīm », 1972. 27 S. Shabazi, Sefer Hashirim, 1976, p. 51. 23 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 138 J.-F. Faü Un manuscrit yéménite relatif à l’expulsion de Mawzaʿ en 1679 Carte du Yémen au xviie s. Courtoisie DAO CE, Alexandrie/CNRS, C. Shaalan, novembre 2019. III. Le manuscrit étudié Le bifeuillet manuscrit portant la cote erronée 81/465 a été collecté à Sanaa, au mois de mai 1999, chez un particulier. C’est Ahmed Al-Ghomari, Directeur de Dār almaḫṭūṭāt, qui avait alors acquis plusieurs bifeuillets volants traitant de divers sujets, dont l’épisode de l’expulsion vers Mawzaʿ28. Ce bifeuillet correspond aux feuillets 621 et 622 de Bahǧat al-zaman fī tārīḫ alYaman, écrit par Yaḥyā b. al-Ḥusayn b. al-Qāsim pendant la seconde moitié du xviie s., dans l’édition complète publiée de ce texte, qui s’appuie sur un manuscrit non daté de 632 feuillets, conservé à Dār al-maḫṭūṭāt29. 28 Entretien oral avec Ahmed Al-Ghomari, 12 mai 1999, à Sanaa. Ms. numéro 49, collection « Histoire et chronique », s. d., Dār al-maḫṭūṭāt. La chronique de Yaḥyā b. al-Ḥusayn b. al-Qāsim, Bahǧat al-zaman fī tārīḫ al-Yaman a été éditée par Amat al-Ġafūr ʿAbd alRaḥmān ʿAlī al-Amīr dans sa thèse de doctorat en histoire, soutenue à l’Université de Sanaa en 2006, puis publiée en 3 volumes, en 2008, sous le titre d’Al-awḍā al-siyāsiyya fī al-niṣf al-ṯānī min al-qarn alḥādī ʿašar al-hiǧrī al-sābaʿ ʿašar al-mīlādī 1054-1099 h, 1644-1688. Ce travail présente une biographie du chroniqueur, aux pages 472 et 473. Une compilation de passages sélectionnés de la chronique Bahǧat al- 29 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 139 J.-F. Faü Un manuscrit yéménite relatif à l’expulsion de Mawzaʿ en 1679 L’auteur, Yaḥyā b. al-Ḥusayn b. al-Qāsim, est né en 1625 dans le quartier d’alAbār, à Sanaa, où il mourut vers 168730. Issu d’une famille aristocrate zaydite proche du pouvoir, il est le petit-fils de l’Imam al-Manṣūr bi-Allāh al-Qāsim (995/1587-1028/1619), qui mena la lutte contre les Ottomans31. Yaḥyā b. al-Ḥusayn se désintéressa des affaires politiques du Yémen, mais il demeura très au fait des événements de son temps32. Il fut, à l’âge de 54 ans, le témoin impartial de l’exil de Mawzaʿ, qu’il décrivit très précisément sous ses aspects chronologiques et juridiques. Le document côté 81/465 se compose d’un bifeuillet isolé de papier de couleur blanc-gris, de qualité médiocre, sans contremarque ni filigrane, d’une dimension de 20 × 15 cm. Il comprend 20 l. au feuillet 1b et 26 l. (dont quatre insérées) au feuillet 2a, avec la réclame, ‫ « نفعهم‬ils sont utiles ». Le verso du bifeuillet est vierge et porte, inscrit sur l’angle supérieur gauche, le numéro de foliotation 2. L’écriture montre un style dépouillé et précis. Elle est caractérisée par l’emploi de courbes allongées et des lettres courtes33, avec une accentuation de certaines voyelles, comme le wāw. L’angularité de l’écriture du texte s’apparente au style nasḫ. Écrit à l’encre noire, avec de nombreuses ratures dans les marges, des lettres déformées et des phrases barrées, il semblerait s’agir davantage d’un essai que d’un texte à caractère définitif, qui a été édité dans le manuscrit mentionné précédemment34. Cette hypothèse s’appuie également sur le fait que le verso de 1a et 2b est vierge, le recto seul du bifeuillet ayant servi de support au texte. Cependant, faute d’avoir accès au ms. n° 49 conservé à Dār al-maḫṭūṭāt à Sanaa35, la comparaison du texte du manuscrit 81/465 a donc été faite avec la version éditée36. Les variantes sont notées entre le texte manuscrit, reproduit en corps d’article, et l’édition imprimée, qui comporte 15 l. à la page 621, et 20 l. à la page 622. Le passage barré du feuillet 1b, l. 1-7, cité dans Bahǧat al-zaman fī tārīḫ alYaman, narre l’histoire d’un juge soupçonné d’être un imposteur et d’exercer sa charge sans mandat du pouvoir princier. Ce récit, qui se trouve à la même place dans le texte édité37, ne présente aucun lien avec le thème de l’expulsion de Mawzaʿ. C’est également le cas du passage barré, au feuillet 2a, l. 14-22. Ce passage constitue un rapport juridique concernant l’utilisation de la formule d’agrément qui suit les zaman a été publiée par ʿAbd Allāh b. Muḥammad al-Ḥibšī, Yawmiyyāt Ṣanʿāʾ fī al-qarn al-ḥādī ʿašar, 1046-1099 H, 1996. 30 A. al-Ġ. al-Amīr, Al-awḍā al-siyāsiyya, 2008, p. 164. 31 Y. Kuriyama, « Yemen’s Relations with Ethiopia in the 17th Century and the Situation in the Red Sea », 2017-2018, p. 33. 32 A. al-Ġ. al-Amīr, Al-awḍā al-siyāsiyya, 2008, p. 453. 33 P. Orsatti, « Les manuscrits islamiques », 1993, p. 269-331. 34 Ms. n° 49, collection « Histoire et chronique », s. d., Dār al-maḫṭūṭāt. 35 Ms. n° 49, collection « Histoire et chronique », s. d., Dār al-maḫṭūṭāt. 36 A. al-Ġ. al-Amīr, Al-awḍā al-siyāsiyya, 2008. 37 A. al-Ġ. al-Amīr, Al-awḍā al-siyāsiyya, 2008, p. 621. Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 140 J.-F. Faü Un manuscrit yéménite relatif à l’expulsion de Mawzaʿ en 1679 noms des ṣaḥāba qui ont refusé de reconnaître le Califat de ʿAlī al-Ḥasan b. Abī Ṭalib dans les écrits des chaféites38. Les deux marges39, laissées partiellement vides, deviennent ici le réceptacle de deux passages raturés sur cinq lignes au feuillet 1b et sur quatre lignes au feuillet 2a. La marge du feuillet 1b rapporte l’anecdote d’un homme endormi dans la Grande Mosquée de Sanaa, où un serpent s’était glissé, puis, de là, dans son sarouel, sans le mordre toutefois. Ce récit est mentionné dans les quatre dernières lignes de la page correspondante de la version imprimée40, sans qu’on puisse définir sa provenance41. Cette marge ne comporte pas de marque d’insertion. Les quatre lignes de la marge du feuillet 2a constituent un ajout au texte principal, comme l’indique une ligne en pointillé qui s’insère entre les lignes 10 et 11 du feuillet 2a, exactement comme le montre la version imprimée de Bahǧat al-zaman fī tārīḫ al-Yaman42. Afin de respecter cet ordre, j’ai inséré le texte de la marge 2a à sa place dans le manuscrit. IV. Édition du texte arabe et traduction A. Édition Symboles utilisés >><< = texte raturé dans l’original / \ = texte rajouté dans l’original […] = passage non déchiffrés par l’éditeur ( ) = texte rajouté par l’éditeur 38 A. al-Ġ. al-Amīr, Al-awḍā al-siyāsiyya, 2008, p. 622. 39 https://www.univ-montp3.fr/uoh/lelivre/partie2/de_lannotation_aux_marginalia.html, consulté le 12 mars 2020. ً ‫ويف هذه الايم اتفق أن‬ ‫ خفرج حنش من احليات يسعى يف املسجد حىت دخل رسوال‬،‫رجال رقد الهنار جبامع صنعاء‬ ‫ فقال اذلين رأوه‬،‫ ذكل النامئ‬،‫ والرجل انمئ‬،‫ مث خرج من رسواهل ملا مل جيد منفذ ًا‬،‫ دعوه ال حتركوه لئال يرضه وال تنهبوه‬: .‫ حفمد هلل عىل السالمة‬،‫فلام قام من نومه أخربوه ابلقصة‬ 40 « Un de ces jours, il a été rapporté qu’un homme s’était endormi de bon matin dans la mosquée de Sanaa. Soudain un serpent, qui était dans la mosquée, se faufila dans le pantalon du dormeur. Les témoins de cette scène décidèrent de ne pas toucher le serpent, ni de réveiller cet homme, afin qu’il ne lui fasse pas de mal. Puis, le serpent n’ayant pas trouvé de débouché, sortit du pantalon, alors que l’homme dormait toujours. Quand il se réveilla, ses compagnons lui racontèrent l’incident ; il loua Dieu pour sa protection ». A. al-Ġ. al-Amīr, Al-awḍā al-siyāsiyya, 2008, p. 621 [notre trad.]. 41 À partir de ces quatre dernières lignes, p. 621, l’agencement du texte de la version éditée diffère de celle du manuscrit étudié ; ce qui montre qu’il n’y a pas deux versions identiques de cette chronique. Il s’agit en fait des différents éléments d’un même montage, mais articulés de manière distincte au sein du même texte. 42 A. al-Ġ. al-Amīr, Al-awḍā al-siyāsiyya, 2008, p. 622. Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 141 ‫‪Un manuscrit yéménite relatif à l’expulsion de Mawzaʿ en 1679‬‬ ‫‪J.-F. Faü‬‬ ‫‪F. 1b‬‬ ‫‪43‬‬ ‫‪>> .0‬قاهرة ورشوط الوالية ]…[ وأن ذكل رمبا يف‬ ‫‪ [...] .9‬والعصمة عرسة‪ ،‬نسأل‬ ‫‪ .3‬هلل الثبات عىل الس نة‪ .‬واكن املذكور مع هذا حيمك ابلقضاء‬ ‫‪ .1‬ويتوىل فصل الشجارات ملن اليه أىت من غري والية‬ ‫‪ .1‬هل من املتولك وال من بعده‪ ،‬وقال مرة ملن سأهل‬ ‫‪ .2‬عن ذكل وكيف تقيض من غري واليه فاكنه ال حيتاج الهيا‪،‬‬ ‫‪ .1‬فان واليته من هلل تبارك‪ 44‬وتعاىل و>>يف شهر صفر‬ ‫‪ .8‬جدى املهدي أمحد بن حسن ابخراج الهيود من المين وأرسل‬ ‫‪ .9‬علهيم ُم َر ِ امسني ومتقاضني هلم وخمرجني‪ ،‬خفرج‬ ‫‪ .10‬هيود صنعاء‪ 45‬ومجيع بالدها وسائر‪ 46‬شاهرة وسامره‬ ‫‪ .11‬وبريدا‪ 47‬اىل جنوب موزع حس امب أمرمه بأهلهيم وأوالدمه‪.‬‬ ‫‪ .12‬واكن نزوهلم اىل هذا احملل‬ ‫‪ .13‬مبشورة محمد بن املتولك فانه ملىا عرض أمحد بن حسن عليه‬ ‫‪ .14‬يف \حديث بيهنم‪ 48/‬واكن محمد بن املتولك غري ر ٍاض‬ ‫‪ .15‬ابخراهجم ورأى أ ىن املهدي قد أرص عىل اخراهجم‬ ‫‪ .16‬أشار بأنه اذا اكن والبد فاىل أطراف المين‬ ‫‪ .17‬كبالد السواحل ومل يعرف أ ىن ذكل‬ ‫‪ .18‬ال يمت هلم لتفرق معايشهم يف أرض المين حلرفهم‬ ‫‪49‬‬ ‫‪ .19‬وأشغاهلم واجامتعهم يف حمل واحد ال ُجيعل‬ ‫‪ .91‬لعائق ملَهْرمه‪ 50‬صناعاهتم‬ ‫‪ : passage manquant.‬وأن ذكل رمبا يف‬ ‫‪ : mot manquant.‬تبارك‬ ‫‪ : ainsi dans le bifeuillet manuscrit.‬صنعا‬ ‫ما بني‬ ‫ونزلوا‬ ‫الالكم يف حديهثم ‪Passage remplacé par :‬‬ ‫حيصل‬ ‫‪ rajouté.‬ؤ‬ ‫‪142‬‬ ‫‪43‬‬ ‫‪44‬‬ ‫‪45‬‬ ‫‪46‬‬ ‫‪47‬‬ ‫‪48‬‬ ‫‪49‬‬ ‫‪50‬‬ ‫)‪Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020‬‬ ‫‪Un manuscrit yéménite relatif à l’expulsion de Mawzaʿ en 1679‬‬ ‫‪J.-F. Faü‬‬ ‫\نفعهم ‪/51‬‬ ‫‪F. 2a‬‬ ‫‪ .1‬ونفعهم وانتفاعهم فكن أرادوا ابخلروج اىل سواحل‬ ‫‪ .2‬هتامة يف اجلهة الغربية مما ييل بالد اللمهجم والكدراء‬ ‫‪54‬‬ ‫‪ .3‬مفنع أهلها عهنم وقالوا‪ 53‬علهيم رضر بنصف‬ ‫‪ .4‬مراعهيم وحقوقهم وبالدمه وأن ذكل ال يمت‬ ‫‪ .5‬هلم فعدلوا اىل هتامة اجلنوبية بنوايح بالد موزع‬ ‫‪55‬‬ ‫‪ .6‬وترضر أهل البالد مهنم ومه أيضً ا ترضروا بعدم‬ ‫‪ .7‬متام نفاق معايشهم فرجع أكرثمه‬ ‫‪ .8‬اىل حيث اكنوا والقليل مهنم تفرقوا يف المين السفل وفروا‬ ‫‪ .9‬واكن قد ابعوا بيوهتم بصنعاء وغريها بنصف قميهتا‬ ‫خرهبا‬ ‫‪ .10‬اال اليسري مهنا‪ ،‬واكن بعض َمن اشرتاها قد ى‬ ‫\<< وملا تفرق الهيود كام ُذكر كتب أمحد بن احلسن ايل صاحب أوسة بسواحل احلبشة أهنم‬ ‫خيرجون اىل هجاته وهل جزيهتم فأىب ذكل وأجاب عىل املهدي أن البالد للسلطان فأمر هلم يف‬ ‫السكون حيث اكنوا مفهنم من رجع اىل تكل البدل اليت اكن فهيا ومهنم اىل قريهبا وهيود صنعاء‬ ‫معروا هلم غرب بري العزب خارج صنعاء دميًا وبيواتً يف أطراف أصالب اكنت جبانب الوقف‬ ‫اس تأجروا أرضها ومعروها <<‪/‬‬ ‫‪\ .11‬وابع مؤنهتا وجحارها وأخشاهبا‪ /56‬ورضب أمحد بن احلسن‬ ‫‪ .12‬رضبة جديدة فهيا بعض اخالص مع صغر البعثة‬ ‫‪ .13‬حىت بلغ الرصف لجلها القرش بأربعة ويف هذه‬ ‫‪ << .01‬الايم وقع سؤال حببور يف كتابة الرتضية عىل الصحابة‬ ‫‪ 15‬ريض هلل عهنم كيف تكون فمين خرج عىل عيل بن أيب طالب‬ ‫‪ .02‬مكعاوية ومعرو بن العاص واملغرية بن شعبة وأش باههم‬ ‫‪52‬‬ ‫‪143‬‬ ‫‪Réclame manquante.‬‬ ‫‪51‬‬ ‫والكدر‬ ‫‪: ponctué.‬‬ ‫بتضيق‬ ‫لعدم‬ ‫‪ : passage manquant.‬وابع مؤنهتا وجحارها وأخشاهبا‬ ‫‪52‬‬ ‫‪53‬‬ ‫‪54‬‬ ‫‪55‬‬ ‫‪56‬‬ ‫)‪Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020‬‬ J.-F. Faü Un manuscrit yéménite relatif à l’expulsion de Mawzaʿ en 1679 57 ‫ فمين كتهبا من الشافعية يف الصل عىل مذههبم‬.01 ‫ واكن الناخس ال يروي مقاهلم‬.01 58 ‫ فأجاب الس يد حيىي بن ابراهمي بن حجاف‬.02 ‫ أهنا تكتب من الصل عىل حالها حاكية لقول‬.91 ‫ وأجاب‬،‫ املصنف وال ينبغي تغريها‬.90 59 >> ‫ صنوة اسامعيل بن حيي حجاف حبدفها‬.99 B. Traduction F. 1b 1. << La chose essentielle est de respecter la souveraineté 2. ceci requiert peut-être […] 3. et que Dieu nous aide à rester ferme sur les principes de la Sunna. Toutefois, cet homme exerçait la charge de juge ; 4. il tranchait les différents des personnes ayant eu recours à lui et cela sans avoir mandat 5. de (l’Imam Muḥammad b.) al-Mutawakkil60, ni de son successeur. Une fois, on lui a demandé 6. comment il pouvait prononcer des jugements sans mandat, il répondit qu’il n’en avait pas besoin 7. car sa charge provenait de Dieu – splendeur de Sa majesté ! >> Au mois de Ṣafar, 8. al-Mahdī Aḥmad b. Ḥasan s’efforça d’expulser les Juifs du Yémen. Il envoya 9. des collecteurs d’impôts de la ǧizya61, des dettes publiques et du ḫaraǧ62 chargés d’appliquer l’édit d’exil. 10. Les Juifs se mirent donc en route, avec leurs enfants et leurs familles, de Sanaa, de toutes les parties du Yémen, de Šāhara et de Samāra63, 11. jusqu’au sud de Mawzaʿ, suivant les dispositions de cet édit. 57 58 59 ? ponctué. : ponctué. ‫حبذفها‬ L’Imam Muḥammad b. al-Mutawakkil dirigea le Yémen de 1029/1620 à 1053/1644. La capitation payée par les non-musulmans. 62 L’impôt foncier auquel étaient astreints les ḏimmī. 63 La ville de Šāhara se trouve dans l’actuel gouvernorat de ʿAmrān, au nord de Sanaa, et celle de Samāra dans la région de Ibb. 60 61 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 144 J.-F. Faü Un manuscrit yéménite relatif à l’expulsion de Mawzaʿ en 1679 12. Leur installation dans cette région avait préalablement 13. été ordonnée par Muḥammad b. al-Mutawakkil. 14. En dépit d’un certain désaccord initial avec cette mesure, exposé lors d’une entrevue, 15. al-Mahdī (Aḥmad b. Ḥasan) se résolut à suivre la politique d’expulsion préconisée [par son prédécesseur] et 17. suggéra de déplacer les populations juives 18. vers les confins côtiers du Yémen. Il (al-Mahdī Aḥmad b. Ḥasan) ignorait que ce projet était irréalisable 19. du fait même de la dispersion des différentes communautés (juives), et que l’idée d’un regroupement en un seul lieu restait illusoire 20. car leur savoir-faire artisanal était […] / Ils sont utiles\ F. 2a 1. […] autant utile que bénéfique pour ce pays. Les exilés se dirigèrent vers le littoral 2. de la Tihāma, en direction de l’ouest et des villes d’al-Mahǧam et d’al-Kadrāʾ64. 3. Mais les tribus locales refusèrent de les accueillir en argumentant qu’ils constituaient une menace 4. pour leurs champs et pour toute la région. 5. Pour cette raison, ils (les expulsés) prirent la direction du sud de la Tihāma, la région de Mawzaʿ, 6. où les habitants souffraient déjà de la pauvreté. 7. Alors la plupart d’entre eux retournèrent 8. dans leur région d’origine et certains se rendirent dans le Sud du Yémen (al-Yaman al-asfal) d’où ils purent s’enfuir. 9. Ceux de Sanaa et de certaines autres villes avaient vendus leurs maisons à moitiéprix. 10. Certains des acheteurs les avaient détruites /<< Suite à la dispersion des Juifs, tel qu’il l’a été rappelé, Aḥmad b. Ḥasan écrivit au wālī65 d’Awsā66, sur les côtes d’Abyssinie, pour lui demander d’accueillir les Juifs expulsés, et, en retour, de percevoir leur ǧizya. Al-Mahǧam, grande ville du Wādī Surdud ; al-Kadrāʾ est la grande ville du Wādī Sihām. Ici : ṣāḥib. La référence au titre de wālī, absente de cette version, est précisée dans : A. al-Ġ. al-Amīr, Al-awḍā al-siyāsiyya, 2008, p. 105. 66 Awsā fut un Imamat, puis un Sultanat qui demeura autonome jusqu’à son annexion par l’Éthiopie, en 1974. 64 65 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 145 J.-F. Faü Un manuscrit yéménite relatif à l’expulsion de Mawzaʿ en 1679 Cependant, ce dernier refusa l’offre d’al-Mahdī, lui répondant que son pays était sous l’autorité du Sultan67. Il (al-Mahdī) leur (aux Juifs) permit alors de retourner dans les localités d’où ils étaient originaires. Certains retournèrent chez eux et d’autres se rendirent dans leurs environs. Quant aux Juifs de Sanaa, il leur fut donné l’ordre de bâtir des maisons à l’ouest de Bīr al-ʿAzab68, hors des murs de la ville, et elles furent construites sur un terrain en bien de mainmorte (waqf), en périphérie d’Aslāb69. >>\ 11. pour revendre le mobilier, les pierres et le bois. Aḥmad b. Ḥasan dû émettre 12. une nouvelle unité monétaire 13. dont le taux de change était d’une piastre (nouvelle) pour quatre (anciennes) […] 14. << En ces jours, une question fut soulevée, relative aux écrits 15. qui acceptent les noms des Compagnons du Prophète (ṣaḥāba) – que Dieu garde leurs âmes, même ceux qui ont refusé de reconnaître le Califat de ʿAlī al-Ḥasan b. Abī Ṭālib : 16. il s’agit essentiellement de Muʿāwiya, ʿAmrū b. al-ʿĀṣ, al-Muġīra b. Šuʿba70 et de leurs partisans, 17. comme cela est mentionné dans les écrits des chaféites des origines, 18. alors que les copistes ne citaient pas leurs paroles. 19. Al-Sayyid Yaḥyā b. Ibrāhīm b. Ǧaḥḥāf71 a répondu que 20. la formule d’agrément devait être écrite suivant le texte d’origine, 21. et sans modification. Néanmoins, 22. Ṣanūa Ismāʿīl b. Yaḥyā Ǧaḥḥāf 72 pense que cette formule doit être supprimée. >> V. Conclusion Yaḥyā b. al-Ḥusayn b. al-Qāsim rédigea cette courte chronique dans un style presque journalistique. Il y rapporte le processus d’expulsion de Mawzaʿ de manière chronologique, les dissensions internes au dīwān qui précédèrent la mise en application de l’édit, l’intervention des différents collecteurs d’impôts, chacun campé dans sa spécialité et la détresse humaine inhérente à cette tragédie. Puis, pour conclure, il cite le dé- Le nom du Sultan, Muḥammad b. Ibrāhīm (1057/1648-1099/1688), absent de cette version, est cité par A. al-Ġ. al-Amīr, Al-awḍā al-siyāsiyya, 2008, p. 90. 68 Pour Biʾr al-ʿAzab. 69 Village situé au sud de Sanaa. 70 Amrū b. al-ʿĀṣ, al-Muġīra b. Šuʿbat (?-43/664) fut un compagnon du Prophète, arbitre lors de la bataille de Ṣiffīn, qui permit à Muʿāwiya (21 av./602-60/680) de devenir le premier calife de la dynastie omeyyade. 71 Nous n’avons pas pu identifier ce personnage. 72 Nous n’avons pas pu identifier ce personnage. 67 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 146 J.-F. Faü Un manuscrit yéménite relatif à l’expulsion de Mawzaʿ en 1679 sordre économique qui suivit ces événements, le pouvoir princier devant émettre une nouvelle unité monétaire, de la valeur d’une piastre, au taux de change de ¼ par rapport à l’ancienne. Ce récit constitue un témoignage de première main, méthodiquement consigné ; il révèle un mode de transmission original, notamment à travers les détails mentionnés et les noms propres cités, attestant d’un véritable travail d’historiographie. Cette chronique permet, tout d’abord, de comprendre l’état d’esprit d’un lettré yéménite du xviiie s., dont l’objectivité se démarque de la position officielle du gouvernement de l’Imam. Ce bifeuillet éclaire la chronologie de cette crise à l’aune du regard d’un membre de la société civile. Son impartialité ouvre un autre registre, celui du mode de pensée et du ressenti d’un chroniqueur issu de la classe dominante. Il demeure également éloigné des restitutions métaphoriques des poètes juifs contemporains de cet événement, tel Shalom Shabazī ou Šalem ʿAšrī. Yaḥyā b. alḤusayn, campe l’exil de Mawzaʿ dans le contexte politique du règne de l’Imam Aḥmad al-Mahdī, tout en prenant le soin de relever les paramètres humains de cet épisode. Les apparats critiques montrent, à travers la comparaison des deux textes, que le manuscrit étudié est plus complet, davantage élaboré que la version publiée, tant dans le mode descriptif que dans certains détails. Les variations portent essentiellement sur des particularités orthographiques, une ponctuation ajoutée, des omissions ou des ajouts de certains passages. Les différences de mise en page des paragraphes, articulés de manière inégale au sein d’une même trame, constituent également un critère de disparité entre les deux versions. Enfin, il semble qu’Amat al-Ġafūr ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ʿAlī al-Amīr se soit appuyée sur les feuillets correspondant aux pages 621 et 622 du manuscrit Bahǧat al-zaman fī tārīḫ al-Yaman pour réaliser son édition raisonnée, et non sur le bifeuillet étudié. Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 147 J.-F. Faü Un manuscrit yéménite relatif à l’expulsion de Mawzaʿ en 1679 Ms. 81/465, bifeuillet 1b-2a, Dār al-maḫṭūṭāt, Sanaa. Photo Jean-François Faü. Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 148 J.-F. Faü Un manuscrit yéménite relatif à l’expulsion de Mawzaʿ en 1679 Bibliographie Sources M. 81/465, Dār al-maḫṭūṭāt, Sanaa, s. d. Yaḥyā b. al-Ḥusayn b. al-Qāsim (ca. 1098/1687), Bahǧat al-zaman fī tārīḫ al-Yaman, Sanaa, Dār al-maḫṭūṭāt, s. d. _____ . Yawmiyyāt Ṣanʿāʾ fī al-qarn al-hādī ʿašar, 1054-1099, éd. ʿAbd Allāh b. Muḥammad al-Ḥibšī, Abu Dhabi, Al-maǧmaʿ al-ṯaqāfī, 1996. Études Al-Amīr, Amat al-Ġafūr ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ʿAlī. 2008. Al-awdā al-siyāsiyya al-niṣf al-ṯānī min al-qarn al-ḥādī ʿašar al-hiǧrī al-sābaʿ ʿašar al-mīlādī 1054-1099 h, 1644-1688 m, Sanaa, Mūʾasasat al-ʿImām Zayd b. ʿAlī al-ṯaqāfiyya. Ariel, Ari. 2014. Jewish-Muslim Relations and Migration from Yemen to Palestine in the Late Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Leyde, E. J. Brill. Blackburn, Richard. 1980. « The Ottoman Penetration of Yemen. An Annotated Translation of Özdemür Bey’s Fethnâme for the Conquest of San’â’ in Rajab 954/August 1547 », Archivum Ottomanicum 6, p. 55-100. Blukacz, François. 1994. « Le Yémen sous l’autorité des Imams zaydites au XVIIe s., une éphémère unité », dans : Michel Tuchscherer (éd.), « Yémen, passé et présent de l’unité », Revue des mondes musulmans et de la Méditerranée 67, p. 40-51. Eraqi-Klorman, Bat-Zion. 1990. « Jewish and Muslim Messianism in Yemen », International Journal of Middle East Studies 22, p. 202-210. Fabbro, Michela (éd. & tr.). 1990. « Al-Ḥusayn Ibn Muḥammad b. Saʿīd b. ʿIsā al-Laʿī alMaghribī, Risāla fī baqāʾ al-Yahūd fī ʾarḍ al-Yaman », Islamochristiana 16, p. 6790. Faü, Jean-François. 2020. Conversions des tribus juives au christianisme puis à l’islam : péninsule Arabique VIe-XIVe siècles, Paris, Paul Geuthner. Goitein, Shlomo Dov. 1950. « Ha-mashiaḥ mi-Behān », Haʾarez 17, p. 23-36. _____ . 1973. From the Land of Sheba, New York, Schocken Books. _____ . 1983. The Yemenites: History, communal organization and spiritual life, Jérusalem, Ben-Zvi Institute. Hathaway, Jane. 2005. « The Mawzaʿ Exile at the Juncture of Zaydi and Ottoman Messianism », American Jewish Studies Review 29, part. 1, p. 111-128. Haykel, Bernard. 2003. Revival and Reform in Islam: The Legacy of Muhammad alShawkani, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. Kuriyama, Yasuyuki. 2017-2018. « Yemen’s Relations with Ethiopia in the 17th Century and the Situation in the Red Sea », dans : Anne Regourd & Nancy Um (éd.), « From mountain to mountain: exchange between Yemen and Ethiopia, Medieval to Modern », Chroniques du manuscrit au Yémen n. s. 1, p. 31-42. Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 149 J.-F. Faü Un manuscrit yéménite relatif à l’expulsion de Mawzaʿ en 1679 Lenowitz, Harris. 1998. The Jewish Messiahs, Oxford/New York, Oxford University Press. Lellouch, Benjamin. 2011. « Les Juifs dans le monde musulman du XVe au milieu du XIXe s. », dans : Antoine Germa, Benjamin Lellouch & Evelyne Patlagean (ss la dir.), Les Juifs dans l’Histoire, Seyssel, Champs Vallon. Levy, Avigdor. 1982. The Sepharadim in the Ottoman Empire, Princeton, Darwin Press. Lewis, Bernard. 1986. Juifs en terre d’Islam, Paris, Flammarion. Mahmoud, Hussein. 2010. Al-Sira, Paris, Pluriel. Orsatti, Paola. 1993. « Les manuscrits islamiques : caractéristiques matérielle et typologie », dans : Marilena Maniaci & Paola Munafo (éd.), Ancient and medieval book materials and technique, Rome, Bibliothèque Vaticane, vol. 2, p. 269-331. Qafih, Yosef. 1956. « Sefer ‘Dofi ha-zeman’ le-Rabi Saʿid Ṣaʿdi », Sefunot 1, p. 185-242. Ratzaby, Yehudah. 1972. « Gerūsh Mawzaʿle-Or Meqōrōt Ḥadashīm », Zion 37, p. 197215. Serjeant, Robert Bertram. 1983. « The Post-medieval and Modern History of Sana and the Yemen, c. 953–1382/1515–1962 », dans : Robert Bertram Serjeant & Ronald Lewcock (éd.), Ṣanʿāʾ, An Arabian Islamic City, Londres, World of Islam Festival Trust, p. 68-107. Shabazi, Shalom. 1976. Sefer Hashirim Hagadol—The Large Song Book, Jérusalem, Yosef Hasid. Scholem, Gershom. 1983. Sabbataï Tsevi. Le messie mystique, 1626-1676, trad. Marie-José Jolivet & Alexis Nouss, Lagrasse, Verdier. Tobi, Yosef. 1996. « Judeo-Arabic and Muslim Apocalyptic Visions in Yemen », Proceeding of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 27, p. 235-241. _____ . 1999. The Jews of Yemen: Studies in their History and Culture, Leyde, E. J. Brill. _____ . 2013. « Les Juifs du Yémen », dans : Abdelwahab Meddeb & Benjamin Stora, Histoire des relations entre Juifs et musulmans, Paris, Albin Michel. _____ . 2014. « Politic and Poetry in the Works of Shalom Shabazi », Israel Afffairs 20/2, p. 240-255. _____ . 2019. Juifs et musulmans au Yémen. De l’avènement de l’islam à nos jours, trad. Jean-Luc Allouche, Paris, Tallandier. Valensi, Lucette, Pieter Sjoerd Van Koningsveld, Joseph Sadan & Qasim Al-Samarrai. 1994. « Yemenite Authorities and Jewish Messianism. Ahmad ibn Nâsir alZaydî’s Account of the Sabbathian Movement in Seventeenth Century Yemen and its Aftermath », Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales 49e année/4, p. 986-988. Van Koningsveld, Pieter Sjoerd, Joseph Sadan & Qasim Al-Samarrai. 1990. Yemenite Authorities and Jewish Messianism. Ahmad b. Nasir al-Zaydi’s Account of the Sabbathian Movement in Seventeenth Century Yemen and its Aftermath, Leyde, Leiden University. Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 150 M. Hoffmann-Ruff Water sale contracts from Balad Sīt, Northern Oman “BI-ḤADDIHI WA-ḤUDŪDIHI”— REMARKS ON THREE WATER SALE CONTRACTS FROM BALAD SĪT, A MOUNTAIN OASIS IN NORTHERN OMAN1 Michaela Hoffmann-Ruf (University of Bonn) Abstract “bi-ḥaddihi wa-ḥudūdihi”—remarks on three water sale contracts from the early 20th century, from Balad Sīt, a mountain oasis in Northern Oman The following article introduces three legal documents dealing with the transfer of water titles in Balad Sīt, a mountain oasis in northern Oman, dating from the early 20th century, i. e. before modern state administration. It consists of three main sections. Section one provides a brief introduction to the geographic and social situation. This is followed in section two by a transcript of the documents, a translation into English as well as a discussion of the main aspects of their form and the content. The third and concluding section provides some general remarks on water in Omani legal literature. Résumé “bi-ḥaddihi wa-ḥudūdihi” – Remarques sur trois contrats de vente d’eau de Balad Sīt, une oasis de montagne au Nord d’Oman, datant du début du xxe siècle Cet article présente trois documents légaux traitant des titres de transfert d’eau à Balad Sīt, une oasis de montagne au nord d’Oman, datant du début du xxe s., c’est-à-dire avant l’avèvement de l’administration de l’État moderne. Il est divisé en trois sections principales. La première introduit au contexte géographique et social. Elle est suivie par l’édition du texte des documents, une traduction en anglais ainsi qu’une discussion sur les aspects essentiels de leur forme et contenu. La troisième section, sur laquelle se clôt l’article, livre des remarques générales sur l’eau dans la littérature légale omanaise. ‫خالصة‬ ‫ ويه واحة‬،)‫”حبده وحدوده“ – مالحظات حول ثالثة عقود لبيع املياه يف أوائل القرن العرشين يف بدلة (سيت‬ ‫جبلية يف شامل عُامن‬ ‫ يعود‬،‫يقدم املقال التايل ثالث واثئق قانونية تتعلق بنقل ملكية املياه يف بدلة (سيت) ويه واحة جبلية يف شامل عُامن‬ ‫ القسم الول يعطي‬: ‫ يتضمن املقال ثالثة أقسام رئيس ية‬.‫ أي قبل نشأة ادلوةل احلديثة‬،‫اترخيها اىل أوائل القرن العرشين‬ ‫ ابالضافة اىل‬،‫ نص الواثئق مع ترمجهتا اىل اللغة االجنلزيية‬: ‫ والقسم الثاين‬.‫مقدمة موجزة عن الوضع اجلغرايف والاجامتعي‬ 1 When writing this article I obtained support from colleagues and friends who provided information and photographic material. I would like to express my gratitude to Prof. A. Bürkert/Kassel, Dr. Birgit Mershen/Muscat, Dr. Abdullah Al-Ghafri/Nizwa and Dr. Nasser Al-Saqri/Muscat. Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 151 M. Hoffmann-Ruff Water sale contracts from Balad Sīt, Northern Oman ‫ بعض املالحظات العامة حول املياه‬: ‫ ويقدم القسم الثالث واخلتايم‬.‫مناقشة اجلوانب الرئيس ية لشلكها وحمتواها‬ .‫والدبيات القانونية العامنية‬ Keywords Oman, sales-contract, iqrār, aflāǧ, oasis-settlement, early 20th century, Balad Sīt Mots-Clés Oman, contrat de vente, iqrār, aflāǧ, peuplement des oasis, début du xxe s., Balad Sīt ‫تعابر رئيس ية‬ ‫ بدلة سيت‬،‫ أوائل القرن العرشين‬،‫ واحة – مس توطنة‬،‫ الفالج‬،‫ اقرار‬،‫ عقود بيع‬،‫عامن‬ I. Introduction: Key features of Omani society in the early 20th century: Oasis settlements, tribalism, Ibadism Social, economic, political and cultural life in Oman’s past cannot be understood without consideration of the particular environment of the oasis settlements. These villages and small towns, next to maritime trade, were the cornerstones of Omani traditional economy and culture. The specific features of Omani oasis settlements are their adaptation to the environmental conditions, marked by the scarcity of the vital resources of water and land, and an intricate social organisation based on tribal structures. In Oman—in contrast to other areas of the Middle East—dry farming is not possible. Agriculture always depends on irrigation. The core of the oasis economy are highly complex water management systems, the so-called aflāǧ (sg. falaǧ).2 Without the aflāǧ, no settlements would exist and they were also the main determining factor with regard to the physical layout of settlements.3 These systems require wellorganised cooperation between the members of the community of the oasis concerned for their functioning and maintenance. Tribal structures were the major organising principle for these communities. An individual’s position in society was defined to a large extent by family and tribal affiliation and the political landscape was shaped by alliances between families and tribal groups.4 A further important aspect of Omani society is the predominance of the Ibāḍī doctrine in religious and legal matters, which includes a strong emphasis on the equal- 2 For a discussion of the origins of this system, see J. C. Wilkinson, Imamate Tradition, 1987, pp. 23–25. J. C. Wilkinson, Imamate Tradition, 1987, p. 25. 4 For a detailed study on the tribal society of Oman and the irrigation systems see J. C. Wilkinson, Water and Tribal Settlement, 1977. 3 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 152 M. Hoffmann-Ruff Water sale contracts from Balad Sīt, Northern Oman ity of all believers and the position of an elected imam as political and religious leader of the community.5 The oasis settlements of Oman became a major topic of academic research since the 1970s, i. e. in the era of Sultan Qābūs b. Saʿīd (l. 1940–2020, r. 1970–2020), as they were an important part of Oman’s cultural heritage and have undergone major changes during the past decades. The DFG-funded interdisciplinary project “Transformation Processes in Oasis Settlements of Oman” (1999–2007) gathered archaeologists, urban planners, historians, ethnologists and agronomists with the objective of thoroughly studying a selection of Omani settlements, past and present.6 The various studies resulting from this project include a comparative study of the two mountain oases Balad Sīt and Maqṭa, with regard to crop plants and nutrients in oasis agriculture. During the fieldwork for these studies, some private documents were made available in Balad Sīt, belonging to one family living there. In the following three documents concerning the sale of water-rights in Balad Sīt will be introduced and further analyzed. They date from the early 20th century, long before the modern development and the concomitant profound economic and social changes started. Oman at that time was ruled by Fayṣal b. Turkī al-Būsaʿīdī (l. 1864–1913, r. 1888–1913), the greatgrandfather of the actual ruler, Sultan Hayṯam b. Ṭāriq b. Taymūr b. Fayṣal al-Būsaʿīdī (l. 1954–, r. 2020–). V. Hoffman, “The Ibāḍīs”, 2010. For further information on this project, its contributors and its results, see H. Gaube & A. Gangler (eds), Transformation Processes, 2012. The documents discussed in this article were made available during fieldwork in Balad Sīt. The owners granted permission to photograph them for further academic research. 5 6 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 153 M. Hoffmann-Ruff Water sale contracts from Balad Sīt, Northern Oman II. The geographical and social frame A. The oasis-town of Balad Sīt Fig. 1. Map of Northern Oman. A. Buerkert & E. Schlecht (eds), Oases of Oman, 2010, p. 57 (edited by the nCmY committee). Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 154 M. Hoffmann-Ruff Water sale contracts from Balad Sīt, Northern Oman Fig. 2. Digital Elevation Model of Balad Seet (Balad Sīt) and Al Hamra (al-Ḥamrāʾ). M. Nagieb et al., “Settlement history of a mountain oasis in northern Oman”, 2004, p. 83 (edited by the nCmY committee). Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 155 M. Hoffmann-Ruff Water sale contracts from Balad Sīt, Northern Oman Fig. 3. Aerial photograph of Balad Sīt in 2016. Courtesy Andreas Bürkert. Fig. 4. Balad Sīt in 2000. Courtesy Andreas Bürkert. Balad Sīt7 (‫ )بدل سيت‬is an oasis settlement at the entrance of Wādī Banī ʿAwf, a mountain valley on the northern side of the western Hajar mountain-ridge (al-Haǧar alĠarbī).8 It is the largest village in that valley and situated at an altitude between 950 and 1,020 meters above sea level, surrounded by steep rocks that reach up to 1,200 me- Not to be confused with Bilād Sayt (‫)بالد سيت‬, a settlement in the vicinity of Tanūf in central Oman. The information on Balad Sit in this paragraph is essentially based on the following publications: H. Gaube & A. Gangler (eds), Transformation Processes, 2012, pp. 33–50; M. Nagieb, Beschreibung, 2000; M. Nagieb, Nährstofflüsse, 2004; M. Nagieb et al., “Settlement History”, 2004. 7 8 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 156 M. Hoffmann-Ruff Water sale contracts from Balad Sīt, Northern Oman ters. Due to its location, the village was almost inaccessible in the past and it is only since 1982 that it can be reached by car. Fig. 5. Balad Sīt in 2000. Courtesy Andreas Bürkert. Fig. 6. Balad Sīt in 2006: old settlement core with watchtower to the left. Courtesy Andreas Bürkert. Archaeological research has revealed that Balad Sīt is an ancient settlement whose origins go back to the second century BC. This long settlement history is most probably due to the favorable ecological location, especially the large and reliable water resources. The old settlement core of Balad Sīt is situated on a hill which is surrounded by six terrace systems and date palm groves. The oasis is watered by seven irrigation sys- Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 157 M. Hoffmann-Ruff Water sale contracts from Balad Sīt, Northern Oman tems (aflāǧ), which are fed by 12 sources; in addition to that, there are 14 privately used wells.9 Apart from date palms other fruit trees such as citrus, mango, banana and pomegranate are grown as well.10 The layout of the village is determined by the topography of the site. There are neither protective gates nor walls.11 As other mountain settlements, it consists of “only one residential area instead of several quarters”.12 Until the 1980s the inhabitants were for the most part economically self-sufficient (subsistence agriculture); only goods such as clothes, kerosene, sugar, coffee and household items were imported; surplus in agricultural produce was traded with alRustāq, the biggest settlement in Wādī Faraʿ and one of the traditional centers of this region. But there were also long-lasting economic as well as social ties with al-Ḥamrāʾ and Nizwā, two big oasis settlements on the southern side of the mountain range, in central Oman.13 Until the oasis was connected to al-Rustāq by an unpaved road “most trade occurred with al-Hamra which was connected to Balad Seet by two ancient trade routes. The major 27 km long donkey trade path connected the two places via Hat, and a 19 km long footpath allowed travelers to climb the cliff above Balad Seet partly by rock stairs”.14 B. The inhabitants of Balad Sīt According to the national census of 1993 the population of Balad Sīt amounted to 80 households with a total of 632 inhabitants. The demographically dominant group was the Banū Ḏuhl, followed by the Miyāʾiḥa and the ʿAbrīyīn.15 Considering the fact that it was only in the 1980s that the economic and social situation in the mountain settlements of Oman started to change fundamentally, it might be assumed that the demographic situation at the time when the three documents were written was not so different. Information on the Banū Ḏuhl is not abundant. According to Lorimer, whose data refer to the transition from the 19th to the 20th century, the Banū Ḏuhl then comprised 700 persons living in the quarter Ṭawī al-Sayḥ of al-ʿAwābī in Wādī Banī Ḫarūṣ, as well as in the quarter Dabbāġ of the city of Liwā, on the Bāṭina plain.16 In the past, al-ʿAwābī lying, at the entrance of Wādī Banī Ḫarūṣ, was of great strategic importance, as it controlled an important connecting path between the coast and the interior of Oman. Its inhabitants belonged to a variety of tribal groups with the ʿAbrīyīn as the demographically dominant tribe, whereas the Banū Ḏuhl belonged M. Nagieb, Nährstofflüsse, 2004, p. 39; M. Nagieb et al., “Settlement History“, 2004, p. 87. M. Nagieb et al., “Settlement History”, 2004, p.90. 11 H. Gaube & A. Gangler (eds) 2012, Transformation Processes, pp. 33, 36. 12 B. Mershen, “Settlement Space”, 1999, p.109. 13 M. Nagieb et al., “Settlement History”, 2004, p. 85. 14 M. Nagieb et al., “Settlement History”, 2004, p. 90. 15 M. Nagieb, Beschreibung, 2000, p. 9. 16 J. G. Lorimer, Gazetteer IIA, 1908, pp. 186, 1109, 1392, 1396. 9 10 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 158 M. Hoffmann-Ruff Water sale contracts from Balad Sīt, Northern Oman to minor groups. The quarter Ṭawī al-Sayḥ, where they owned about 10% of the local water shares, was considered as their tribal centre.17 Since long, the Banū Ḏuhl are “followers” (tābiʿūn) of the ʿAbrīyīn, one of the powerful tribes of central Oman, with al-Ḥamrāʾ as its tribal capital. Their association, which dates back a long time, was induced by the former’s wish to extend their sphere of political and economic influence from al-Ḥamrāʾ to the other, northern side of the mountain range. The Banū Ḏuhl, on the other hand, hoped for political and—at least in former times—military assistance.18 The Miyāʾiḥa (sg. Miyāḥī) were according to Lorimer more numerous, comprising 7,000 persons. They are also called Banū Ġāfir and settle in various places in the western Haǧar mountains, in Wādī Banī Ġāfir, in Wādī Saḥtan and in Wādī Faraʿ (there especially in al-Rustāq and al-Ḥazm). But they can also be found at different places in the Ẓāhira region such as in Darīz, as well as in the city of Bahlāʾ, in central Oman.19 The ʿAbrīyīn finally belong, as already mentioned, to the politically powerful and largely independent tribes of central Oman. Lorimer gives their number as 6,500 persons. Their tribal territory (dār) extends from their region around their capital alḤamrāʾ, over the mountains to the upper and middle sections of Wādī Saḥtan and Wādī Banī ʿAwf. But members of this tribe also settle in Bahlāʾ as well in al-ʿArāqī, in the Ẓāhira region.20 S. al-Siyābī, Ansāb, 1965, p. 47; J. C. Wilkinson, Imamate Tradition, 1987, pp. 114, 337 n. 5; M. HoffmannRuf, Scheich Muḥsin, 2008a, pp. 229–230. 18 S. al-Siyābī, Ansāb, 1965, pp. 46–48; J. C. Wilkinson, Imamate Tradition, 1987, p. 114; M. Hoffmann-Ruf, Scheich Muḥsin, 2008a, p. 230. 19 J. G. Lorimer, Gazetteer IIA, 1908, pp. 1238–1239, 1396. 20 J. G. Lorimer, Gazetteer IIA, 1908, pp. 16, 1239, 1391; J. C. Wilkinson, Imamate Tradition, 1987, pp. 110– 115; M. Hoffmann-Ruf, Scheich Muḥsin, 2008a, pp. 56–66. 17 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 159 ‫‪M. Hoffmann-Ruff‬‬ ‫‪Water sale contracts from Balad Sīt, Northern Oman‬‬ ‫‪III. The documents‬‬ ‫‪A. Transcript‬‬ ‫‪Document 1: B.S. 19; 11.11.1319/19.02.1902‬‬ ‫‪Document 1: B.S. 1921; 11.11.1319/19.02.1902.‬‬ ‫‪1‬‬ ‫بسم هلل الرحامن الرحمي‬ ‫‪2‬‬ ‫اقر عندي سامل بن خامت بن عامثن اذلهيل ان عليه لبدر بن عامر بن مرهون‬ ‫‪3‬‬ ‫اذلهيل اثنني وثالثني قرشا فضة فرنسييات جايزات الرصف و قد ابع هل حبقه هذا‬ ‫‪4‬‬ ‫قياس و ربعة ماء من ماءه اليت أال عليه ابالرشا عند معر بن * *‪ 22‬من فلج‬ ‫‪5‬‬ ‫الكبريه من بدل سيت و مبا يس تحقه هذا املبيع من مجيع احلقوق لكها و حبده‬ ‫‪6‬‬ ‫وحدوده وطرقه سواقيه بيعا قطعا بتارخي يوم ‪ ٨٨‬شهر القعدة س نة ‪٨١٨١‬‬ ‫‪7‬‬ ‫وكتبه سامل بن زاهر بن محمد اذلهيل بيده‬ ‫‪21‬‬ ‫‪B. S. refers to Balad Sīt. the place the documents originate from; the original photographs were taken‬‬ ‫‪during the Oasis Settlement Project mentioned above.‬‬ ‫‪22‬‬ ‫‪Reading not clear.‬‬ ‫‪160‬‬ ‫)‪Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020‬‬ ‫‪M. Hoffmann-Ruff‬‬ ‫‪Water sale contracts from Balad Sīt, Northern Oman‬‬ ‫‪Document 2: B.S. 21, 06.06.1319/20.09.1901‬‬ ‫‪Document 2: B.S. 21, 06.06.1319/20.09.1901.‬‬ ‫‪1‬‬ ‫بسم هلل الرحامن الرحمي‬ ‫‪2‬‬ ‫اقر عندي سامل بن س يف بن خلف امليايح ان عليه لبدر بن عامر بن‬ ‫‪3‬‬ ‫مرهون اذلهيل مخسني قرشا فضة فرنسسييات جايزات الرصف و قد‬ ‫‪4‬‬ ‫ابع هل حبقه هذا قياسني ماء من ماءه من فلج الكبريه من بدل سيت و مبا‬ ‫‪5‬‬ ‫يس تحقه هذا املبيع من مجيع احلقوق لكها و حبدهن وحدودهن و‬ ‫‪6‬‬ ‫وطرقهن و سواقهين بيعا قطعا بتارخي يوم ‪ ٦‬جامدى الاخر س نة ‪[sic]٨١‬‬ ‫‪7‬‬ ‫‪ ٨١‬و كتبه سامل بن زاهر بن محمد اذلهيل بيده‬ ‫‪161‬‬ ‫)‪Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020‬‬ M. Hoffmann-Ruff Water sale contracts from Balad Sīt, Northern Oman Document 3: B.S. 22, 07.01.1321/05.04.1903 Document 3: B.S. 22, 07.01.1321/05.04.1903. ‫بسم هلل الرمحن الرحمي‬ 1 ‫اقر عندي سامل بن خامت بن عامثن اذلهيل ان عليه لسعيد بن بدر بن عامر اذلهيل‬ 2 ‫س تة قروش ومخسني قرشا فضة فرنسييات جايزات الرصف و قد ابع هل حبقه هذا‬ 3 ‫قياسني و ربعة قياس ماء من ماءه من فلج الكبريه من بدل سيت من وادي بين عوف‬ 4 ‫و مبا يس تحقه هذا املبيع من مجيع احلقوق لكها و حبدهن وحدودهن وطرقهن‬ 5 [sic]‫ و كتبه سامل بن زاهر بن محمد اذل‬٨١٢٨ ‫ حمرم س نة‬٧ ‫و سواقهين بيعا قطعا بتارخي يوم‬ 6 ‫هيل بيده‬ 7 B. Translation Document 1: B.S. 19 Sale of water rights in Balad Sīt, in Wādī Banī ʿAwf (wilāyat al-Rustāq) Date: 11.11.1319/19.02.1902 In the name of God, the most gracious, the most merciful. He acknowledged, Sālim b. Ḫātim b. ʿUṯmān al-Ḏuhlī, towards me, that he owes Badr b. ʿĀmir b. Marhūn al-Ḏuhlī thirty two (32) valid silver qirš and [that] he sells [lit. has sold] him for [i. e. to settle] this legal claim one and a quarter (1¼) qiyās water of the Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 162 M. Hoffmann-Ruff Water sale contracts from Balad Sīt, Northern Oman water that had passed to him by purchase from ʿUmar b. […] from [the] Falaǧ alKabīra [sic] in Balad Sīt and [together with] all that comprises [lit. is entitled to] this sale regarding all rights and boundaries and paths and water channels; [he sells it] as definitive sale, on the 11 of the month of al-Qaʿda of the year 1319; and Sālim b. Zāhir b. Muḥammad al-Ḏuhlī wrote [lit. has written] it by his own hand. Document 2: B.S. 21 Sale of water rights in Balad Sīt, Wādī Banī ʿAwf (wilāyat al-Rustāq) Date: 06.06.1319/20.09.1901 In the name of God, the most gracious, the most merciful. He acknowledged, Sālim b. Sayf b. Ḫalaf al-Miyāḥī, towards me, that he owes Badr b. ʿĀmir b. Marhūn al-Ḏuhlī fifty (50) valid silver qirš and that he sells [lit. has sold] him for [i. e. to settle] this legal claim two qiyās water of his water from [the] Falaǧ alKabīra [sic] in Balad Sīt and all that comprises this sale regarding all rights and boundaries and paths and water channels; [he sells it] as definitive sale, on the 6th of Ǧumādā the second of the year 1319; and Sālim b. Zāhir b. Muḥammad al-Ḏuhlī wrote [lit. has written] it by his own hand. Document 3: B.S. 22 Sale of water rights in Balad Sīt, Wādī Banī ʿAwf (wilāyat al-Rustāq) Date: 07.01.1321/05.04.1903 In the name of God, the most gracious, the most merciful. He acknowledged, Sālim b. Ḫātim b. ʿUṯmān al-Ḏuhlī, towards me, that he owes Saʿīd b. Badr b. ʿĀmir al-Ḏuhlī fifty six (56) valid silver qirš and [that] he sells [lit. has sold] him for [i. e. to settle] this legal claim 2 ¼ qiyās water of his water from [the] Falaǧ alKabīra [sic] in Balad Sīt in Wādī Banī ʿAwf and [together with] all that comprises [lit. is entitled to] this sale regarding all rights and boundaries and paths and water channels; [he sells it] as definitive sale, on the 7th of Muḥarram of the year 1319; and Sālim b. Zāhir b. Muḥammad al-Ḏuhlī wrote [lit. has written] it by his own hand. C. Form and content of the documents All three documents were of the iqrār type. The term iqrār is used “to reveal or confirm a previously existing right, but also often in practice to produce a new juridical situation”23. According to Schacht it is “the most conclusive and uncontrovertible means of creating an obligation on the part of the person who makes it”24. It is used in a variety of transactions (sales, rents, bonds, heritage and marriage matters) and most often translated as “acknowledgment”, although some authors consider “recognition of 23 24 Y. Linant de Bellefonds, “Iḳrār”, 1974, p. 1078. J. Schacht, An introduction to Islamic Law, 1964, p. 151. Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 163 M. Hoffmann-Ruff Water sale contracts from Balad Sīt, Northern Oman rights” as more appropriate.25 The form in which these acknowledgment documents were written down was usually highly standardised in order to avoid any legal uncertainty.26 The documents from Balad Sīt correspond in many points with the documents Bernhard Moritz presents in his “Schriftstücke” under the heading “business communication” (“geschäftlicher Verkehr”) including sales of landed property, mortgages and bonds.27 This holds true with respect to the initial use of the term aqarra as well as the qualification of the sale by the terms “bi-ḥaddihā wa-ḥudūdihā” and “bayʿan qaṭʿan” or “bayʿ al-qaṭʿ ”. A remarkable feature of the documents from Balad Sīt is the fact that in none of them witnesses are involved, although witnesses were usually an essential element in legal documentation.28 This lack of persons who certified to the correctness of the document’s content might be explained by the shortness of the documents. A closer look at the documents presented by Moritz indicates that in some cases the documentation was reduced to the absolute necessary minimum. It might be assumed that the scribe who was responsible for the correct form of the document also acted as witness but without explicitly mentioning it.29 D. Persons involved With regard to the persons involved, in the transactions there is no specific information to derive from the documents besides their tribal affiliation. The seller in document one and three is the same, Sālim b. Ḫātim al-Ḏuhlī. The buyer in document one and two is identical; whereas the buyer in document three might be a son of this person. The only “outsider” is the seller in document two, Sālim b. Sayf b. Ḫalaf al-Miyāḥī. This indicates that these transactions were carried out in a rather limited circle of persons, which might be the reason for the rather minimalistic form of the documents. Y. Linant de Bellefonds, “Iķrār”, 1974; J. Schacht, An introduction to Islamic Law, 1964, pp. 151–160. For the variety of transactions that kind of acknowledgements was used for see the index in ʿA. Ḥ. al-Sālimī, Ǧawābāt, 2010, vol. 6, pp. 263–264 and the respective entries in the various volumes. For this kind of debt acknowledge-ment see also https://www.indianoceanhistory.org/An-Ocean-of-Paper/Types-of-Contracts.aspx; 23.12.2019. 26 For a detailed account of the principles concerning form and content of such documents see J. Wakin, Function of Documents, 1972, pp. 39–70. 27 B. Moritz, Schriftstüecke, 1892, documents no. 35, 36, 39, 41–44, pp. 24–26, 28–30. 28 Christian Müller, in his extensive German-language study on court documents from the Mamluk period, provides ample evidence of the importance of witnesses in legal documentation. Müller refers to this kind of document as “witnessed certificate” (“Zeugenurkunden”) and defines it as a ‘note’ concerning a past transaction that bear the signatures of witnesses, who, if needed, can certify to the correctness of the content. C. Müller, Der Kadi, 2013, pp. 44–45. The importance of witnesses is also stressed by Wakin in her study of the chapters on sales from the “Kitāb al-šurūt” by the Ḥanafī jurist Aḥmad b. Muḥammad al-Ṭaḥāwī (d. 933). J. Wakin, Function of Documents, 1972, pp. 65–70. 29 J. Wakin, Function of Documents, 1972, pp. 9–10. 25 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 164 M. Hoffmann-Ruff Water sale contracts from Balad Sīt, Northern Oman E. The water shares sold The term qiyās refers to the time span that was sold. In Oman, as in other regions with highly complex irrigation systems, water is not measured in volume but in time. The various measurement units denote the time span that the water can be used for irrigating a certain agricultural plot that is attached to a certain irrigation system. The actual amount of water may differ from day to day due to natural circumstances, i. e. the flow rate of the falaǧ. 30 In Oman every falaǧ is organized according to a fixed rotation cycle or timeschedule called dawrān. This term indicates the period of time that “the water is distributed around the irrigated land”31 until it starts from anew. The basic principle is that the individual shareholder’s water is delivered to him at an appointed place and at an appointed time” 32, i. e. on a specific day during that rotation cycle. The length of the respective dawrān is determined by the number of the original share-holders of a falaǧ and comprises a period of several days. One 24-hour-day is usually considered as basic share and referred to as ḫabūra (lit. share). To facilitate the organization, the shares are quite commonly named after the original share holder or refer to a geographic feature. This share is then further divided into two halves called bāda, that is “the day—or night-half of the 24-hour day”33, defined by the rising and setting of the sun. The next smaller unit is the aṯar which denotes one twenty-fourth part of a bāda, i. e. about half an hour. One ḫabūra, accordingly, comprises 48 aṯar of 30 minutes. So much for theory. In practice the length of one aṯar is “more variable than the theoretical division”34 described here. As the length of the bāda-halves may vary depending on the season of the year, the following subdivisions vary as well. In addition to that, the time units may also differ from one system to the other. For measuring the various time units of the day-bāda a kind of sundial is generally used.35 During the night the persons responsible for the allocation of the watershares utilize the observation of the movements of the stars.36 Wilkinson stresses the 30 For a detailed account of the organizing principles of such an irrigation system see J. C. Wilkinson, Water and Tribal Settlement, 1977, pp. 97–121; A. al-Ghafri et al., “Timing Water Shares”, 2013. The following paragraph is based on these works as well as on M. Nagieb, Nährstofflüsse, 2004 and M. Nagieb et al., “Settlement History”, 2004. 31 J. C. Wilkinson, Water and Tribal Settlement, 1977, p. 101. 32 J. C. Wilkinson, Water and Tribal Settlement, 1977, p. 102. 33 M. Nagieb, Nährstofflüsse, 2004, p. 42; J. C. Wilkinson, Water and Tribal Settlement, 1977, p. 108. 34 A. al-Ghafri et al., “Timing Water Shares”, 2013, p. 3. 35 This seems to be the most frequently used method. J. C. Wilkinson, Water and Tribal Settlement, 1977, pp. 109–110; A. al-Ghafri et al., “Timing Water Shares”, 2013, pp. 3–5. For the layout of a sundial see A. alGhafri et al., “Timing Water Shares”, 2013, p. 5. In some places in Ǧabal Aḫḍar there is also another mechanical device in use called tāsa (water clock). A. al-Ghafri et al., “Irrigation Scheduling”, 2003, pp. 152– 153; H. Nash, Water Management, 2011, pp. 23–24. 36 A. al-Ghafri et al., “Irrigation Scheduling”, 2003, pp. 156–157; A. al-Ghafri et al., “Timing Water Shares”, 2013, pp. 4–9. For a detailed study of the use of stars in the water irrigation systems at various places in Oman see H. Nash, Water Management, 2011. Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 165 M. Hoffmann-Ruff Water sale contracts from Balad Sīt, Northern Oman point that, in any case, the persons who operate the system rely to a large extent on experience and knowledge that is passed on orally. The information concerning the structure and division of a falaǧ, such as the length of its dawrān and the names of the individual shares (ḫabūra), were usually written down in a falaǧ-book. This book also recorded the ownership of the shares as well as changes that occurred due to inheritance or sale. According to Wilkinson a “falaj certificate held by a shareholder” usually refers to the name of the ḫabūra from which he is entitled to draw water.37 Quite often families or individuals owned titles from different shares of the falaǧ, as Wilkinson demonstrates for the falaǧ Malkī in Izkī.38 But it might also happen that no falaǧ-book exists, due to the smallness of the respective settlement, where it suffices that the “[f]alaǧ shares are known to the wakil and the proprietors”39. In Balad Sīt the “documents concerning the water distribution and the contracts to buy and sell water rights are in the responsibility of the document writer, who [when the above mentioned study was carried out was] living in the village”. 40 Most probable this was the wakīl, the managing director, of the falaǧ, i. e. the person responsible for all the administrative tasks involved (book keeping, organization of the maintenance, organization of the lease of the shares owned by the falaǧ itself etc.)41 In Misfat al-ʿAbriyyīn, a small mountain oasis in the vicinity of al-Ḥamrāʾ on the southern side of the mountain range, the term qiyās denotes the following smaller unit, worth one twenty-fourth part of the aṯar, which is 1 ¼ minutes or 75 seconds.42 The reason for this fragmentation of shares are the complex Islamic inheritance laws and quite often these small time units are only used “to keep the mathematics of the falaj shareholding straight”43. But there are also places, such as Rustāq, where the qiyās is, as Wilkinson puts it, “a meaningful unit of shareholding”.44 This also applies to alʿAwābī, an oasis town at the entrance of Wādī Banī Ḫarūṣ. The main time units mentioned in the falaǧ-book of al-ʿAwābī, i. e. the document where the individual ownerships were written down, the main units are the aṯar and the kiyās [sic].45 37 J. C. Wilkinson, Water and Tribal Settlement, 1977, p. 102. J. C. Wilkinson, Water and Tribal Settlement, 1977, pp. 114–115. 39 S. Bandyopadhyay et al, Al-Hamra: Misfat Al-Abriyin, 2015, p. 37. In Misfat al-ʿAbriyyīn, due to the smallness of the settlement, also the number of people who are responsible for the management of the falaǧ is reduced. H. Nash, Water Management, 2011, p. 33. 40 H. Gaube & A. Gangler (eds), Transformation Processes, 2012, p. 36. 41 J. C. Wilkinson, Water and Tribal Settlement, 1977, pp. 112, 119–120. 42 Ministry of Tourism, Al-Hamra: Misfat Al-Abriyin, 2015, p. 37. The same holds true to Izkī, a town in central Oman. J. C. Wilkinson, Water and Tribal Settlement, 1977, p. 108. 43 J. C. Wilkinson, Water and Tribal Settlement, 1977, p. 108. 44 J. C. Wilkinson, Water and Tribal Settlement, 1977, p. 108. 45 This is indicated by the copy of the falaǧ-book of al-ʿAwābī which the author was able to have a look at. In that book the term kiyās is written that way. The main time units in the falaǧ-book of falaǧ Dāris in Nizwā are also aṯar and qiyās. 38 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 166 M. Hoffmann-Ruff Water sale contracts from Balad Sīt, Northern Oman The time shares sold in the three documents were all part of the same irrigation system, al-Falaǧ al-Kabīr (lit. the big Falaǧ). This falaǧ is the main out of seven irrigation systems that bring water to that oasis. It has a dawrān comprising 9 irrigation days, called ḫabūra or also maqfūl46. All the aflāǧ in Balad Sīt are of the ʿaynī falaǧ type, i. e. a system that conveys “the water above-ground from a spring [in the mountains] to the fields”.47 The water from al-Falaǧ al-Kabīr, which is fed by five sources in the southeast of the oasis, is used for watering date palm gardens as well as agricultural areas. Usually the night bāda is used for the irrigation of date palms and the day bāda, for cropland.48 Along this falaǧ, the old cemetery as well as the washing and bathing facilities for women and men are located. It distributes its water into the western date palm gardens and fields of the oasis.49 In his study on Balad Sīt, Nagieb does not mention any time unit smaller than the aṯar.50 If we assume that the qiyās in Balad Sīt is equal to that in Misfat alʿAbriyyīn, which seems plausible as both settlements are located within the ancient tribal homeland (dār) of the ʿAbriyyīn and possess long-dating socio-economic ties, then the shares sold in the documents presented here, are 1 ¼ qiyās = 93,75 seconds, 2 qiyās = 150 seconds and 2 ¼ qiyās = 168,75 seconds.51 This means that each transfer refers to a time span of less than 3 minutes, which is—at least for an outsider—hard to imagine how it was dealt with in practice, i. e. the actual distribution of water. It becomes more comprehensible when looking at the explanation provided by the aflāǧ specialist Abdullah al-Ghafri, who says that “[p]ractically, qiyas is the smallest unit of water share, which is approximately equal to the time required to irrigate one date palm tree with good falaj flow”.52 F. The definitive sale (bayʿan qaṭʿan) The term bayʿan qaṭʿan denotes a definite sale. The use of “the term qaṭʿ suggests that the original owner was cut off (inqaṭaʿa) from ownership of the property for a sum of money”53. This concurs with Moritz, who translates bayʿ al-qaṭʿ with “perfect sale” 46 M. Nagieb, Nährstofflüsse, 2004, pp. 42–43. M. Nagieb et al., “Settlement History”, 2004, p. 82. For the various types of aflāǧ and their characteristics see J. C. Wilkinson, Water and Tribal Settlement, 1977, pp. 73–96. 48 M. Nagieb, Nährstofflüsse, 2004, p. 39; H. Gaube & A. Gangler (eds), Transformation Processes, 2012, p. 49. 49 H. Gaube & A. Gangler (eds) 2012, Transformation Processes, p. 33. 50 M. Nagieb, Nährstofflüsse, 2004, p. 43. The same holds true for studies of other falaǧ systems such as the one by A. al-Ghafri et al., “Timing Water Shares”, 2013. 51 A. al-Ghafri also equates 1 qiyās with 1 ¼ minutes. But he stresses the point that “the traditional way of irrigation scheduling differs from one falaj system to another”, which makes “the standardization of timeshare (…) tricky”. A. al-Ghafri et al., “Irrigation Scheduling”, 2003, pp. 162–163. 52 A. al-Ghafri et al., “Irrigation Scheduling”, p. 150. See also Ministry of Tourism, Al-Hamra: Misfat AlAbriyin, 2015, p. 37. 53 https://www.indianoceanhistory.org/An-Ocean-of-Paper/Types-of-Contracts.aspx; 23.12.2019. 47 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 167 M. Hoffmann-Ruff Water sale contracts from Balad Sīt, Northern Oman (“perfecter Verkauf”)54. It indicates the clear intention of a transfer of title. According to Bishara a transfer like that was made “either for cash up front or as payment for a past debt”.55 This kind of sale stands in contrast to the bayʿ al-ḫiyār, a term that refers to a sale including “the option or right of withdrawal, i. e. the right for the parties involved to terminate the legal act unilaterally”.56 The option of withdrawal might be automatically granted, for example in cases of fraud or hidden defects. 57 But it might also be stipulated by one of the parties involved (or both of them) as a condition that gives the right to annul or confirm in a specific time, the legal act. The ensuing confirmation or rejection has then not to be justified.58 In nineteenth century, Oman and East Africa the bayʿ ḫiyār has been widely used as means of raising a credit to finance a commercial enterprise. Some person (debtor) would “sell” his property to someone else (creditor) for a certain amount (usually the sum needed to finance the intended project). This sum then would have to be repaid by the debtor within a fixed period of time “in order to reclaim the property and render the initial ‘sale’ void”.59 The property “sold” clearly served as security for the credit. If the debtor failed to repay his loan in the fixed timeframe, the property would pass in the possession of the creditor. Transactions like these were written down in legal deeds, known as waraqa (lit. piece or slip of paper).60 In the case of the three documents from Balad Sīt it is clearly not a bayʿ ḫiyār as means to raise a loan. Rather, it seems to be a definite sale of property to settle an existing debt. That there might be also a third possibility becomes evident when looking at the price (see paragraph H.). G. Further specification of the sale The term “bi-ḥaddihi wa-ḥudūdihi wa-ṭuruqihi wa-sawāqīhi”61 in this context is to be understood as a specification that the water share sold is not bound to any particular water channel (sāqiya/pl. sawāqin), but can be used to irrigate any plot of land within reach of the falaǧ.62 It further emphasizes that this water share includes the right of 54 B. Moritz, Schriftstücke, 1892, p. 76. F. A. Bishara, Sea of Debt, 2017, p. 84. 56 For this kind of sale see also 55 https://www.indianoceanhistory.org/An-Ocean-of-Paper/Types-of-Contracts.aspx; 23.12.2019. 57 J. Schacht, An introduction to Islamic Law, 1964, pp. 152–153. For more information on this legal term see A. Delcambre, “Khiyār”, 1986. 59 F. A. Bishara, Sea of Debt, 2017, pp. 90–91. 60 A detailed study of the use of waraqa as financial instrument is provided by F. A. Bishara, Sea of Debt, 2017; for an example of a bayʿ al-ḫiyār sale see p. 85, Fig. 3. 61 Like this in the first document (B.S. 19), while in the other two documents (B.S. 21, B.S. 22) the term “biḥaddihinna wa-ḥudūdihinna wa-ṭuruqihinna wa-sawāqīhinna” is used. 62 It might be assumed that in the documents presented by Moritz, none of them concerning water rights, the term “bi-ḥaddihā wa-ḥudūdihā” refers to actual boundaries. 58 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 168 M. Hoffmann-Ruff Water sale contracts from Balad Sīt, Northern Oman passage through whichever falaǧ channel and area of land the water would need to flow in order to be used for irrigation.63 H. The currency used In all three documents the worth of the transaction is given in fiḍḍa faransiyya, literally Frankish silver. This term refers to the Maria-Theresa dollar, a currency in wide use throughout the countries of the Near and Middle East until the recent past due to its high content of fine silver. It enjoyed the status of “a trans-national currency which could be used without the need to resort to money changers and exchange offices”.64 On 7 May 1970/1 Rabīʿ I 1390, in the Sultanate of Oman a change of currency occurred, shortly before the ascension to the throne of Sultan Qābūs b. Saʿīd on July 23, 1970. The currency that was introduced at that time came to be known as riyāl saʿīdī and baysa saʿīdiyya. Before that time a variety of coins were in use, with the MariaTheresia Dollar as the most important due its “reliable weight and alloy”.65 In the second half of the nineteenth century, the Indian silver rupee gained in importance especially in Muscat, while in the interior of Oman the Maria-Theresa Dollar was preferred. The Indian (copper) quarter anna on the other hand was used throughout Oman for small change.66 At the beginning of the twentieth century, i. e. the time of the documents, the principal silver coin was still the Maria-Theresa Dollar. But the Indian (silver) rupee and (copper) quarter anna were “accepted in Muscat and Muttrah as a substitute for a national currency”.67 Generally the Maria-Theresa Dollar was referred to as qirš faransī or riyāl faransī, but as the documents from Balad Sīt show, the term fiḍḍa faransiyya was also in use. The term baysa initially referred to the Indian (copper) quarter anna, but was later also used for a copper coin of Omani provenance. Due to a shortage of copper coins at the turn of the century, Sultan Fayṣal b. Turkī undertook to strike his own coinage in Muscat, with the earliest coins dating from 1311/1893–1894.68 We cannot be sure if the amount mentioned in the three documents was really paid in Maria-Theresia Dollars. Quite often in contracts the worth of a transaction was given in a currency of generally recognized high quality and stable value. But the actual payment was done in another less stable currency according to the respective With regard to understanding the term “bi-ḥaddihi wa-ḥudūdihi wa-ṭuruqihi wa-sawāqīhi” in this context I owe this explanation to my reviewer, who I would like to thank for this excellent additional piece of information. 64 R. Darley-Doran, History of Currency, 1990, p. 63. 65 R. Darley-Doran, History of Currency, 1990, p. 63. 66 R. Darley-Doran, History of Currency, 1990, p. 64. 67 R. Darley-Doran, History of Currency, 1990, p. 72. 68 R. Darley-Doran, History of Currency, 1990, pp. 72–73. 63 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 169 M. Hoffmann-Ruff Water sale contracts from Balad Sīt, Northern Oman exchange rate of the day.69 The intention to use a stable currency is emphasized by the term ǧāʾizāt al-ṣarf (lit. that allows to be exchanged) meaning simply “valid”. A comparison of prizes in the three documents reveals that the amount paid for a qiyās did not vary very much, from 25 qurūš in 1901, to 25,60 qurūš in 1902, to 24,89 qurūš in 1903. As further information on prices paid for water shares is not easily obtained, a more extensive analysis is difficult. When looking at the prices given by Wilkinson for 1970 for the falaǧ of Mintirib, an oasis in the eastern region of Oman, there is an interesting point to note. He says that the shares allocated to the falaǧ itself for its maintenance are leased for “twenty to twenty-two qirsh (Maria Theresa dollars) per athar” while “a permanent share (athar aṣli) (…) tended to change hands at between 600 and 1,000 qirsh”. 70 Sometimes the water shares were auctioned on a short-time basis (a week or a rotation cycle), but quite often they were auctioned for the duration of one season.71 This suggests that the three documents from Balad Sīt do not record the transfer of permanent water titles, but rather refer to a temporally limited right of water use, most probably for a season. IV. Water in Ibāḍī legal works from Oman72 As Rohe has stated, “[t]he access to and efficient use of water count among the most important fields of daily life, which have to be legally regulated, not least in the parts of the world where water supply is a constant matter of distributing rare resources”.73 In Oman, as mentioned above, agriculture is always dependent on irrigation, either by water drawn from a well or by water provided by the highly complex water management systems the aflāǧ. A typical feature of the aflāǧ is that they are the common property of a local community, who is responsible for their original funding and construction as well as for later maintenance. It therefore requires a well-organised cooperation between the members of this community. There might exist “no particular Ibāḍī treatises available relating to this issue”, i. e. Ibāḍī water law and particularly not with regard to “water as a merchantable good” as Rohe claims.74 But water in general and aflāǧ in particular do play a not insignificant role in Ibāḍī legal works from Oman.75 According to Wilkinson “the basic practic- See for example M. Hoffmann-Ruf, “ṣadāqan ʿāǧilan”, 2008b, pp. 250–251. J. C. Wilkinson, Water and Tribal Settlement, 1977, p. 113. 71 J. C. Wilkinson, Water and Tribal Settlement, 1977, p. 113. 72 N. B. This is no study on Ibāḍī law; neither does the author pretend to be an expert in this field of research. Nevertheless, she would like to make some general remarks on water in Omani legal literature for a better understanding of the documents presented here. 73 M. Rohe, “Water and the Law”, 2015, p. 249. 74 M. Rohe, “Water and the Law”, 2015, p. 251; J. C. Wilkinson, Water and Tribal Settlement, 1977, p. 144. 75 With regard to one of the works Rohe refers to, the Šarh kitāb al-nīl wa-šifāʾ al-ʿalīl by Muhammad b. Yūsuf Aṭṭafayyiš (1821–1914), the famous Ibāḍī scholar from the Mzāb (Algeria), this statement might hold true. But the situation is different with regard to Omani juridical works. 69 70 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 170 M. Hoffmann-Ruff Water sale contracts from Balad Sīt, Northern Oman es of traditional Oman aflaj organization and terminology were largely determined during the First Imamate [i. e. in the late 9th/early 10th century]”76 and later authors also dealt with this topic. In his multi-volume work on Ibāḍī jurisprudence, Al-muṣannaf, the Omani scholar Abū Bakr Aḥmad b. ʿAbd Allāh al-Kindī (d. 557/1162) discusses the topic water in some length. Starting with several chapters on water in general (the sea, rivers, wells etc.) he comes to deal with aflāǧ with a special focus on the maintenance of the individual watering channels (sāqiya, pl. sawāqin)77 that bring the water from the main branch(es) of the respective falaǧ to the individual date palm garden or agricultural plots. The famous Omani scholar Nūr ad-Dīn ʿAbd Allāh b. Ḥumayyid al-Sālimī (d. 1332/1914), a contemporary of the North-African Ibāḍī scholar Muḥamamd b. Yūsuf Aṭṭafayyiš (d. 1332/1914) and in close contact with him, is concerned with the topic as well. In his Ǧawābāt, a comprehensive collection of his legal opinions (fatāwā/sg. fatwā), the issues water and aflāǧ take up considerable space. But in contrast to al-Kindī, Nūr ad-Dīn al-Sālimī discusses the different aspects of aflāǧ management under various headings, and especially in the section “The neighborhood and the common property” (Al-ǧiwār wa-al-marāfiq al-muštaraka).78 This underlines the view on aflāǧ as common task and responsibility. Among the issues discussed by both authors are the ḥarīm (i. e. the zone of protection surrounding water supply facilities), where no one is permitted to add an additional exploitation device79 and the responsibilities of the owners with regard to the maintenance of the system. It becomes clear that, as Wilkinson puts it, “[u]nderlying a mass of falaj rulings is the principle of corporate responsibility: all members of the falaj community are responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of the falaj as a whole in proportion to their shareholding”.80 In fact, the same principles are applied to the aflāǧ as to other issues of communal interest, such as “the building of defensive walls around a settlement”81 or the maintenance of paths, schools and mosques. The main difference between these last-mentioned issues of collective responsibilities and the aflāǧ seems to be that the latter are private property (mulk), i. e. the property of the persons who have contributed to their construction, and that this property could be inherited and sold, similar to land or houses. So, while the water shares of a falaǧ are considered as private property, the legal rulings concerning their organization principles resemble very much to those of other, real communal assets (mosques, protective walls etc.). The fact that in smaller settlements with only one or two aflāǧ the 76 J. C. Wilkinson, Water and Tribal Settlement, 1977, p. 258. A. B. A. b. ʿA. A. al-Kindī, Al-muṣannaf, 1983–1984, vol. 17 passim. 78 ʿA. Ḥ. al-Sālimī, Ǧawābāt, 2010, vol. 3, pp. 229–231. 79 J. C. Wilkinson, “Islamic Water Law”, 1978, pp. 88–89. 80 J. C. Wilkinson, Water and Tribal Settlement, 1977, pp. 259–260. 81 J. C. Wilkinson, Water and Tribal Settlement, 1977, p. 260. 77 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 171 M. Hoffmann-Ruff Water sale contracts from Balad Sīt, Northern Oman population of the settlement is identical with the aflāǧ-owning community might explain, at least partly, these similarities. A remarkable aspect is that water titles and land titles could and would be sold separately.82 The three documents presented above clearly confirm this. But water and land cannot be completely separated from each other, as water from a falaǧ is always delivered “at an appointed place and at an appointed time”.83 It cannot be taken away to any place nor can it be used at any hour. It will always be part of one specific irrigation system and connected to one specific area. Applied to the documents from Balad Sīt it means that the water shares mentioned there form part of al-Falaǧ al-Kabīr and can only be used in the western date palm gardens and fields as mentioned above. Wilkinson, as well as Rohe, stress the point that legal regulations concerning water management derive to a large extent from local or regional custom (ʿurf) rather than from Islamic law rulings.84 The main principles guiding legal regulations were a) the proper use of water and b) the “general interest of the falaj community”.85 The influence of local custom on jurisdiction is also confirmed by the lack of common Ibāḍī water laws; instead, there are considerable differences in the various regions where Ibāḍīs live.86 V. Conclusion The present article introduces a type of written sources that until recently has obtained little attention. The documents provide information on legal matters that used to be (and probably still are) of great importance with regard to the functioning of the oasis settlements. They give insight in the practical handling of these issues in contrast to legal compendia that rather deal with theoretical reflections on the subject. The three documents from Balad Sīt show that the documentation of legal matters was by and large done according a highly standardised model. But there are aspects which differ considerably from legal requirements and customary habits. The first of these is the lack of witnesses who guarantee for the legal validity of the transfer. The second is the lacking specification of the water shares sold, i. e. the information to which daily share they refer. This might be explained by the fact that the persons involved knew (and trusted) each other and the circumstances were well enough to forego further specification and legal safeguard. And if we take the transfers as temporary lease that were done repeatedly, this might further explain the reduction to the bare minimum. Due to the M. Rohe, “Water and the Law”, 2015, p. 249. J. C. Wilkinson, Water and Tribal Settlement, 1977, p. 102. 84 J. C. Wilkinson, Water and Tribal Settlement, 1977, p. 121; M. Rohe, “Water and the Law”, 2015, p. 249. 85 J. C. Wilkinson, Water and Tribal Settlement, 1977, p. 121; M. Rohe, “Water and the Law”, 2015, p. 252. 86 J. C. Wilkinson, Water and Tribal Settlement, 1977, p. 101; M. Rohe, “Water and the Law”, 2015, p. 252. 82 83 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 172 M. Hoffmann-Ruff Water sale contracts from Balad Sīt, Northern Oman limited material the present study can only be explorative. For a more extensive comparison it would be necessary to have more documents of that type. Bibliography Arabic Sources Aṭṭafayyiš, Muhammad b. Yūsuf (d. 1332/1914), Šarh kitāb al-nīl wa-šifāʾ al-ʿalīl, Beirut, Dār al-fatḥ, 1972–1973, 17 vols [2nd ed.]. Kindī, Aḥmad b. ʿAbd Allāh b. Mūsā al- (d. 557/1162), Al-muṣannaf, ed. ʿAbd al-Munʿim ʿĀmir, Muscat, Wizārat al-turāṯ al-qawmī wa-al-ṯaqāfa, 1983–1984, 42 vols. Sālimī, ʿAbd Allāh b. Ḥumayid al- (d. 1332/1914), Ǧawābāt, ed. ʿAbd Allāh b. Muḥammad b. ʿAbd Allāh al-Sālimī, Biddiya, Maktabat al-Imām al-Sālimī, 2010, 6 vols. Siyābī, Sālim b. Ḥammūd al-. 1965. Isʿāf al-aʿyān fī ansāb ahl ʿUmān, Beirut, Manšūrāt al-Maktab al-islāmī. Articles and Studies Al-Ghafri, Abdullah, Takashi Inoue & Tetuaki Nagasawa. 2003. “Irrigation Scheduling of Aflaj of Oman: Methods and its Organisation”, in: Zafar Adeel (ed.), Sustainable Management of Marginal Drylands. Application of Indigenous Knowledge for Coastal Drylands, Tokyo, The United Nations University, ser. “UNU Desertification Series”, 5, pp. 148–166. _____ , Harriet Nash, & Mohammed Al-Sarmi. 2013. “Timing Water Shares in Wādī Banī Kharūṣ. Sultanate of Oman”, Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 43, pp. 1–10. Bandyopadhyay, Soumyen, Giamila Quattrone, Martin S. Goffriller, Haitham al-Abrī, Désirée Campolo, Konstantina Georgiadou & Claudia Briguglio. 2015. Al-Hamra: Misfat Al-Abriyin. Tourism Development Plan, Muscat, Ministry of Tourism. Bishara, Fahad Ahmad. 2017. A Sea of Debt: Law and Economic Life in the Western Indian Ocean, 1780–1940, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. Buerkert, Andreas & Eva Schlecht (eds). 2010. Oases of Oman—Livelihood Systems at the Crossroads, Muscat, Al Roya Press & Publishing House. Costa, Paolo. 1983. “Notes on Traditional Hydraulics and Agriculture in Oman”, World Archaeology 14, pp. 273–295. Darley-Doran, Robert. 1990. History of Currency in the Sultanate of Oman/Tārīḫ alnuqūd fī Salṭanat ʿUmān, London, Spink & Son limited. Delcambre, Anne-Marie. 1986. “Khiyār“, EI2, vol. 5, p. 25. Donaldson, William J. 1993. “The Pre-metric Weights and Measures of Oman in the 1970s”, New Arabian Studies, pp. 83–107. Gaube, Heinz & Anette Gangler (eds). 2012. Transformation Processes in Oasis Settlements of Oman, Muscat, Al Roya Press & Publishing House. Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 173 M. Hoffmann-Ruff Water sale contracts from Balad Sīt, Northern Oman Hoffman, Valery. 2010. “The Ibāḍīs”, in: Andrew Rippin (ed.), The Islamic World, London, Routledge, pp. 235–245. Hoffmann-Ruf, Michaela. 2008a. Scheich Muḥsin bin Zahrān al-ʿAbrī. Tribale Macht im Oman des 19. Jahrhunderts, Berlin, Klaus Schwarz. —. 2008b. “ṣadāqan ʿāǧilan wa-āǧilan. Einige Anmerkungen zu Form und Inhalt von Ehedokumenten in Oman”, in: Lorenz Korn, Eva Orthmann & Florian Schwarz (eds), Die Grenzen der Welt. Arabica et Iranica ad honorem Heinz Gaube, Wiesbaden, Reichert, pp. 243–256. _____ . 2013. “Private Documents as Source for Regional History: The Archive of the ʿAbrīyīn of al-Ḥamrāʾ”, in: Steffen Wippel (ed.), Regionalizing Oman: Political, Economic and Social Dynamics, Dordrecht et al., Springer, pp. 251–265. Linant de Bellefonds, Yvon. 1971. “Iḳrār“, EI2, vol. 3, pp. 1078–1081. Lorimer, John Gordon. 1908. Gazetteer of the Person Gulf, ‘Oman, and Central Arabia. Vol. IIA. Geographical and Statistical, Westmead et al., Gregg. McDow, Thomas F. 2018. Buying Time: Debt and Mobility in the Western Indian Ocean, Athens, Ohio University Press. Mershen, Birgit. 1999. “Settlement Space and Architecture in South-Arabian Oases: Preliminary Remarks on the Use and Division of Space in Omani Oasis Settlements”, Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 29, pp. 103–110. Miles, Samuel Barret. 1919. The Countries and Tribes of the Persian Gulf, London, Harrison. Moritz, Bernhard (Hg.). 1892. Sammlung arabischer Schriftstücke aus Zanzibar und Oman: mit einem Glossar, Stuttgart, Spemann, ser. “Lehrbücher des Seminars für Orientalische Sprachen”, 9. Müller, Christian. 2013. Der Kadi und seine Zeugen: Studien der mamlukischen ḤaramDokumente aus Jerusalem, Wiesbaden, Otto Harrassowitz. Nagieb, Maher. 2000. Beschreibung und Funktionsweise einer Bergoase in Oman unter Anwendung eines geographischen Informationssystems, unpublished diploma thesis, Witzenhausen University of Kassel. _____ . 2004. Nährstoffflüsse und pflanzengenetische Ressourcen in zwei Bergoasen des nördlichen Omans, Kassel, Kassel University Press. _____ , Stefan Siebert, Eicke Luedeling, Andreas Buerkert & Jutta Häser. 2004. “Settlement History of a Mountain Oasis in Northern Oman: Evidence from Land-Use and Archaeological Studies”, Die Erde 135, pp. 81–106. Nash, Harriet. 2011. Water Management: The Use of Stars in Oman, Oxford, Archaeopress. Nāṣir, Muḥammad b. Ṣāliḥ & Sulṭān b. Mubārak al-Shaybānī. 2006. Muʿǧam aʿlām alIbāḍiyya. Qism al-Mašriq (Dictionnaire des hommes illustres de l’Ibadisme), Beirut, Dār al-ġarb al-islāmī. Rohe, Mathias. 2011 [3rd ed.]. Das Islamische Recht. Geschichte und Gegenwart, Munich, C. H. Beck. Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 174 M. Hoffmann-Ruff Water sale contracts from Balad Sīt, Northern Oman _____ . 2015. “Water and Law in Oman”, in: Barbara Michalak-Pikulska (ed.), Ibadi Jurisprudence: Origins, Developments and Cases, Hildesheim, Georg Olms, pp. 249– 256. Schacht, Joseph. 1964. An introduction to Islamic law, Oxford, Clarendon Press. _____ . 1971. “Bayʿ”, EI2, vol. 3, pp. 1078–1081. Wakin, Jeannette A. (ed.). 1972. The Function of Documents in Islamic Law. The Chapters of Sales from Ṭāḥāwī’s Kitāb al-Shurūṭ al-Kabīr, Albany, State University of New York Press. Wilkinson, John Craven. 1977. Water and Tribal Settlement in South-East Arabia. A Study of the Aflāj of Oman, Oxford, Clarendon Press. _____ . 1978. “Islamic Water Law with Special Reference to Oasis Settlement”, Journal of Arid Environment 1, pp. 87–98. _____ . 1987. The Imamate Tradition of Oman, Cambridge et al., Cambridge University Press. Internet Sources Indian Ocean in World History, “Types of Contracts”, https://www.indianoceanhistory.org/An-Ocean-of-Paper/Types-of-Contracts.aspx; 23.12.2019 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 175 A. Regourd The Beneyton collection THE MANUSCRIPTS OF THE TRAIN THAT NEVER ARRIVES: THE BENEYTON COLLECTION, BNF1 I. THE CODICES: THE STORY OF A CAPROTTI MANUSCRIPT Anne Regourd (CNRS, UMR 7192) Abstract This two-part article presents the small collection of manuscripts brought back from Yemen by Marie Julien Beyneton, known as Alfred Beyneton (1869–1947), a French engineer sent at the beginning of the 20th century to survey the route of a railway linking al-Ḥudayda to Sanaa. The first part of the article introduces his reconstructed biography, the archives concerning him which are mainly at the French National Library, and his collections. The margin of one of the two Zaydi manuscripts refers to the Italian businessman Giuseppe Caprotti (1862–1919), who, together with his brother Luigi, was responsible for the largest collection of Yemeni manuscripts in the West. Résumé Cet article en deux parties présente la petite collection de manuscrits rapportée du Yémen par Marie Julien Beyneton, dit Alfred Beyneton (1869-1947), ingénieur français dépêché pour effectuer les études préliminaires à la construction d’un chemin de fer reliant al-Ḥudayda à Sanaa, au début du xxe s. La première partie de l’article introduit à sa biographie reconstruite, aux archives le concernant, conservées principalement à la Bibliothèque nationale de France, et à ses collections. Les marges de l’un des deux manuscrits zaydites rapportent ce dernier à l’homme d’affaire italien Giuseppe Caprotti (18621919), à l’origine, avec son frère Luigi, de la plus grande collection de manuscrits yéménites en Occident. 1 My gratitude goes to Marie-Geneviève Guesdon, BnF, oriental manuscripts, for pointing out these Yemeni manuscripts to me. Olivier Loiseaux, Département des Cartes et Plans, Acquisitions et collections géographiques, has given me regular access to the handwritten originals, for which I am grateful. At the Archives départementales de l’Allier, Isabelle Rongère was kind enough to look for information about Marie Julien Beneyton. It was the service de l’État-Civil, section des Généalogies de la Mairie de Commentry which informed me of the date of his death. On December 6, 2018, I presented my current research under the title: “A tiny and forgotten library of Zaydi manuscripts” at the Conference organized by Sabine Schmidtke & Hassan Ansari: “Yemeni Manuscript Collections and Zaydi Studies”, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton NJ. During a stay in Milan in June 2019, Monsignor Gallo, Director of the Ambrosian Library, gave me access to the various manuscripts in the Caprotti collection entitled Allaʾālī al-muḍīʾa: their consultation proved to be extremely valuable. Finally, I would like to thank Peter Nix, Chroniques du manuscrit au Yémen, for assisting my research by patiently accumulating documents on the life of Alfred Beneyton and the railway project. He also kindly translated into English this quite long piece of mine. All citations originally in French can be retrieved in the article, which was originally published in French, “Les manuscrits du train qui n’aboutit jamais : La collection Beneyton, BnF. I. Les codex : histoire d’un manuscrit Caprotti”, July 2019. Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 176 A. Regourd The Beneyton collection ‫خالصة‬ ‫ واملعروف‬،‫يقدم هذا املقال املكون من جزأين مجموعة صغرية من اخملطوطات اليت نقلها من المين ماري جوليان بينيتون‬ ‫ وهو همندس فرنيس ُأرسل يف بداية القرن العرشين لتخطيط سكة احلديد اليت‬،)1947-1869( ‫ابمس ألفريد بينيتون‬ ‫ وأرش يفه واثئقه اخلاصة‬،‫ يقدم اجلزء الول من املقال سريته اذلاتية اليت أعيد بناؤها‬.‫اكنت سرتبط بني احلديدة وصنعاء‬ ‫ يشري هامش احدى اخملطوطتني الزيديتني اىل عالقته برجل العامل‬.‫به يف املكتبة الوطنية الفرنس ية وكذكل مجموعاته‬ ‫ قد مجعا أكرب مجموعة من اخملطوطات المينية‬،‫ اذلي اكن مع شقيقه لوجيي‬،)1919-1862( ‫االيطايل جوس يايب اكبرويت‬ .‫يف الغرب‬ Keywords Yemen, 1909–1910, 1911–1912, Imam Yaḥyā Muḥammad Ḥamīd al-Dīn (d. 1367/1948), Ottoman Turks, Marie Julien Beyneton known as Alfred Beyneton (1869–1947), Commentry, Allier, infrastructure, railway, Geography, Geology, cartography, al-Ḥudayda, Manṣūriyya, Zabīd, al-Ḥays, Taʿizz, Yarīm, Ḏamār, Sanaa, Société de Géographie (SG), Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF), Al-laʾālī al-muḍīʾa fī aḫbār aʾimmat al-Zaydiyya, Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. Ṣalāḥ al-Šarafī (d. 1055/1646), commentary, Al-qaṣīda albassāma, Ṣārim al-Dīn Ibrāhīm b. Muḥammad (b. ʿAbd Allāh b. Hādī) b. al-Wazīr (d. 914/1508–1509), chronicle in verses, history of the Zaydis of Yemen, Al-kawākib al-nayyira al-kāšifa li-maʿānī al-taḏkira fī fiqh al-ʿitra al-muṭahhira, Yaḥyā b. Aḥmad b. Muẓaffar [al-Ṣanʿānī] (d. 875/1470–1471), fiqh, Ambrosiana Library, Milan, Giuseppe Caprotti (1862–1919), Luigi Caprotti (1858–1889), Hermann Burchardt (1857– 1909), André Malraux (1901–1976), Pierre Loti (1850–1923), Émile Mâle (1862–1954), Marshall Lyautey (1854–1934) Mots-clés Yémen, 1909-1910, 1911-1912, Imam Yaḥyā Muḥammad Ḥamīd al-Dīn (m. 1367/1948), Turcs-Ottomans, Marie Julien Beyneton dit Alfred (1869-1947), Commentry, Allier, infrastructure, chemin de fer, géographie, géologie, cartographie, al-Ḥudayda, Manṣūriyya, Zabīd, al-Ḥays, Taez, Yarīm, Ḏamār, Sanaa, Société de Géographie (SG), Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF), Al-laʾālī al-muḍīʾa fī aḫbār aʾimmat al-Zaydiyya, Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. Ṣalāḥ al-Šarafī (m. 1055/1646), commentaire, Al-qaṣīda albassāma, Ṣārim al-Dīn Ibrāhīm b. Muḥammad (b. ʿAbd Allāh b. Hādī) b. al-Wazīr (m. 914/1508-1509), chronique en vers, histoire des Zaydites du Yémen, Al-kawākib al-nayyira al-kāšifa li-maʿānī al-taḏkira fī fiqh al-ʿitra al-muṭahhira, Yaḥyā b. Aḥmad b. Muẓaffar [al-Ṣanʿānī] (m. 875/1470-1471), fiqh, Bibliothèque Ambrosienne, Milan, Giuseppe Caprotti (1862-1919), Luigi Caprotti (1858-1889), Hermann Burchardt (1857-1909), André Malraux (1901-1976), Pierre Loti (1850-1923), Émile Mâle (1862-1954), Maréchal Lyautey (1854-1934) ‫تعابر رئيس ية‬ ‫ ماري‬،‫ التراك العامثنيني‬،)1948/1367 ‫ امام حيىي محمد محيد ادلين (تويف‬،1912-1911 ،1910-1909 ،‫المين‬ ،Allier( ‫) يف حمافظة أليا‬Commentry( ‫ مدينة كومانرتي‬،)1947-1869( ‫جوليان بينيتون املسمى ألفريد بينيتون‬ ،‫ تعز‬،‫ احليس‬،‫ زبيد‬،‫ املنصورية‬،‫ احلديدة‬،‫ عمل اخلرائط‬،‫ اجليولوجيا‬،‫ اجلغرافيا‬،‫ السكة احلديدية‬،‫ البنية التحتية‬،)‫فرنسا‬ ‫ أمحد بن‬،‫ اللىلء املضيئة يف أخبار أمئة الزيدية‬،‫ املكتبة الوطنية الفرنس ية‬،‫ اجملمع العلمي للجغرافيا‬،‫ صنعاء‬،‫ ذمار‬،‫يرمي‬ ‫ صارم ادلين ابراهمي بن محمد (بن عبد هلل بن‬،‫ قصيدة البسامة‬،‫ رشح‬،)1646/1055 ‫محمد بن صالح الرشيف (تويف‬ ‫ الكواكب النرية الاكشفة ملعاين‬،‫ اترخي الزيدية المينية‬،‫ الشعر التارخيي‬،)1509-1508/201 ‫الهادي) بن الوزير (تويف‬ Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 177 A. Regourd The Beneyton collection ‫ مكتبة‬،‫ فقه‬،)1471-1470/111 ‫ حيىي بن أمحد بن مظفر ]الصنعاين[ (تويف‬،‫التذكرة يف فقه العرتة املطهرة‬ ‫ هرمان‬،)1889-1858( ‫ لوجيي اكبرويت‬،)1919-1862( ‫ جوس يايب اكبرويت‬،)‫ مدينة ميالنو (ايطاليا‬،‫المربوزايان‬ ،)1954-1862( ‫ امييل مأل‬،)1923-1850( ‫ بيار لويت‬،)1976-1901( ‫ أندري مالرو‬،)1909-1857( ‫بورشارت‬ )1934-1854( ‫مارشال ليويت‬ I. Introduction Gathered by Alfred Julien Beneyton2 during his survey missions to Yemen for the installation of a narrow-gauge railway network in 1909–1910 and 1911–1912, this small collection consists of two codices and three letters from the Imam Yaḥyā Muḥammad Ḥamīd al-Dīn (r. 1918–1948; d. 1367/1948). It is part of the Beneyton collection of the Société de Géographie (Geographical Society), which was deposited in the Bibliothèque nationale (now the Bibliothèque nationale de France, BnF) during the Second World War, following an agreement in 1942 that was subsequently amended several times3. The manuscripts of the Société de Géographie at the National Library were inventoried in 19844. The Beneyton collection then fell into oblivion until 2017. The historical context in which the collection was made, as well as its collector, plunge us into a troubled period when, at the beginning of the 20th century, Zaydis rose up against the Ottoman presence under the leadership of the Imam Yaḥyā. The design, the construction, and the military, political and economic implications of the Franco-Turkish railway project ensuring easier access from the Red Sea to the highlands were inevitably intertwined with the play between the major powers in the region. The Imam Yaḥyā’s letters are directly related to the Yemeni railway project, its history and its historical context, topics which will be examined at their forthcoming publication. Here, we will present the Beyneton collection kept at the BnF and its collector, then describe the handwritten books. Finally, we will discuss one of these two codices, which belonged to the Italian businessman Giuseppe Caprotti (1862–1919), originator with his brother Luigi (1858–1889) of the most important collection of Yemeni Arab codices in the West. II. The Beneyton/Yemen collection Of the material concerning Yemen kept at the BnF, Alfred Beneyton is the donor of:  4 silver photographs of Himyarite inscriptions from Arabia in several copies, 19105. Recorded in 1931. Still image, positive photographs, 2 His photo is on Gallica, https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8453731b See: https://socgeo.com/venir-a-la-bnf/ 4 A. Fierro, Inventaire imprimé des manuscrits de la Société de Géographie, 1984. 5 The inscriptions were published in the Corpus inscriptionum semiticarum. Pars IV, inscriptiones himyariticas et sabaeas continens, Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres (AIBL), vol. 3, 1929 [unverified 3 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 178 A. Regourd The Beneyton collection shelfmark: SG WD–273 https://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb40589734d  6 silver photographs of Yemen, 1912. Recorded in 1945. Still image, positive photographs, shelfmark: SG WD–348 https://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb405898084 Beneyton is the author of these photos. They were labelled by him, in pencil: “Yemen 1912. A Zaranick village in the vicinity of Bet el-Fakih. Notice their straw hats in the shape of sugar loaves” (WD 348 (1)); “Yemen 1912. The summit of Jebel Menar, 3100m altitude, horses of the Yemeni type” (WD 348 (2)); “Yemen 1912. Zaraniks6 from the Bet el Fakih region. Notice the long and curly hair” (WD 348 (3)); “Yemen 1912. Hodeidah seen from the plain on the road to Merawa” (WD 348 (4)); “Yemen 1912. 5 km SW from Ibb. Wadi Meidam and in the background the city of Djiblé. Note the cultivation on horizontal terraces that conserves topsoil and water by preventing wild water runoff” (WD 348 (5)); “In Jebel Badan (between Ibb and Yerim) at 2800m altitude. Note cultivation on horizontal terraces” (WD 348 (6)). In addition, twelve silver photographs of his 1911 trip to Yemen were donated in 1923 (still images, positive photographs), shelfmark: SG WD–165 https://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb40589627v We presume that Beneyton is the author. They are not labelled, but most are views of the highlands, with houses or villages, or of Sanaa; three have human subjects: a man and a woman covered with a sitār that is probably from Sanaa, an adult Jewish male in front of a row of houses (al-Qāʿa?) and men on the march preceded by a soldier on a horse. They bring to 18 the number of “ethnic” photographs of Yemen in this collection, which seem to have been, taking the images together, significant7. The Yemen/Beneyton archive kept at the BnF still includes his notes on the following works:  note by A. Beneyton on the work of his mission to Yemen, Paris, 15 October 1912 (2 f. typed) information]. In this case, it would have been with the collaboration of R. P. Vincent Scheil, a member of the commission of the Corpus inscriptionum semiticarum since December 18, 1908. According to J.M. Vosté, “Essai de bibliographie du Père Jean-Vincent Scheil O. P.”, 1942, p. 104, under no. 458. 6 Spelt thus, differently from the first occurrence. 7 See the sequence of 12 photos put up for sale at Drouot by Gros & Delettrez, n. d., lot 321, http://www.gros-delettrez.com/html/fiche.jsp?id=5496588&np=17&lng=fr&npp=20&ordre=1&aff=1&r= The description in the catalogue refers to an “Album, small quarto, oblong, red percaline binding, consisting of 259 silver and citrate prints of the period glued on cardboard. Numerous handwritten captions on the mounts. Sizes: from 5.1 × 6.2 to 10.2 × 16.6 cm”. Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 179 A. Regourd The Beneyton collection shelfmark: SG COLIS 35 (3914) https://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb38797638k  text of his lecture on Yemen, made on 16 May 1913 (246 f. typed) and map printed on 1/1 500 0008 shelfmark: SG COLIS 35 (3916) https://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb387976404  A. Beneyton, “Note sur l’emplacement de Tamna” (Note on the location of Tamna, 4 f. handwritten), map of Yemen at 1/250,000 and covering for the note and map, 29 November 1915 shelfmark: SG CARTON BA-BIE (87) https://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb38793810s as well as some of his letters:  letter about the lecture he will soon be giving on Yemen, Bourges, 21 April 19139, shelfmark: SG COLIS 35 (3915) https://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb38797639x  letter from A. Beneyton about the city of Tamna (Yemen), 23 November 1915, shelfmark: SG CARTON BA-BIE (86) https://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb38793809k  letter about his departure for Hanoi, Bourges, 11 April 1916, BnF, shelfmark: SG CARTON BA-BIE (88) [no entry in online catalogue] The rest of the Beneyton archive, as well as objects of documentary value, are scattered. Apparently some of it was sold at auction: “N° 187. Commentry – LOTI (P.) – Beneyton family. Bundle of documents from the archives of the explorer and engineer Alfred Beneyton. Various letters; offers of service to the British government (1914) and replies; thanks from the Societé de Géographie for various donations; several documents concerning his appointment to the order of the Legion of Honour; birth certificates; various documents from the Ministry of the Colonies; a file for the erection of his funeral monument (concession, letters from suppliers, In the microfilm shelfmark 35, the label “notice 3916” appears twice: following the first is probably the typed text that Beneyton intended to send to the Société de Géographie with his letter of 21 April 1913, shelfmark: SG COLIS 35 (3915). In this letter, he said that he wanted to submit a text to the Société before the day of his Lecture, but announced that he would prepare the final text. The 246 typed sheets mentioned in the electronic catalogue are indeed under label 3916, but follow the second appearance of the label “notice 3916” on the microfilm. 9 See Annales de géographie 23, 1914, p. 329. BnF 8 https://data.bnf.fr/15129411/alfred_beneyton/#allmanifs Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 180 A. Regourd The Beneyton collection estimates, plans...); NB an autograph note signed by Pierre Loti, “État major du G.A.E. secteur 16a"(Headquarters of Army Group East sector 16a), 1p. 12mo “It is the impossibility of reading your signature that prevented me from answering earlier...”; 2 autograph letters signed by Émile Male (3 and 4pp. 8vo, thanks, evocation of Africa...) as well as a note on a business card signed by the same10; an autograph note signed by Lyautey, Rabat, 10/03/15, 1p. 12mo, refusal of a job in Morocco. – Attached: the medal of the Order of the Legion of Honour; Alfred Beneyton’s Croix de Guerre and Veterans’ medal – some thirty photographs located (Africa, China...) (11 × 9 cm and 16 × 12 cm, faded). 180/200€”11. Originals of the documents concerning his appointment to the Order of the Legion of Honour remain accessible to the public through the website of the Ministry of Culture (see III.). Beneyton collected objects, too. In his Lecture to the Société de Géographie of 16 May 1913 (now “Lecture”)12 he said that he had found in Yemen: “an Arabic astronomical circle with 6 concentric dials and some other curiosities such as Himyarite gold and silver coins”13, but without it being clear that he had acquired them. In his contribution to La Géographie, he says that he brought back copies of inscriptions found in ʿAmrān in 1910 and at Ḏamār in 1911, and gave the Société de Géographie two stelae which were given to him by Šarīf ʿAbd al-Raḥmān as coming from Mārib14. He also brought back from Yemen in 1913 “two incantation objects” which he described as fol- 10 Émile Mâle, born on June 2, 1862, also in Commentry (Allier), and died on October 6, 1954 in FontaineChaalis (Oise), was a French art historian, a member of the Académie française and the Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres and father of the psychoanalyst Pierre Mâle. A. Grabar, “Notice sur la vie et les travaux de M. Émile Mâle, membre de l’Académie”, 1962; Ch. Charle, Émile Mâle dans sa génération universitaire, 1972; Émile Mâle (1862-1954) : la construction de l’œuvre, Rome et l’Italie, actes de la table ronde tenue à l’École française de Rome, 17-18 juin 2002, 2005. His correspondence with Marcel Proust (8 letters) was, following its donation by his daughter Gilberte (1912–2008) to the Institut de France, publicised, reference: VOI206, a reading of the letters, put online on 29 April 2007 as an MP3 file at this address: https://www.canalacademie.com/emissions/voi206.mp3, address of the article : https://www.canalacademie.com/ida1227-Lettres-de-Marcel-Proust-a-Emile-Male.html. 11 J.-L. Devaux & S. Dagot, Livres Anciens et Régionaux, Saturday, November 9, 2013, refers to the lot number in the unpaginated online catalogue, http://www.interencheres.com/medias/h/4/3/5/8/3/b/1/c/d/0/43583b1cd0ade6fb08bf7c5ee1248e2df79c95d123 9a240208184e605ba6e8ba.pdf Unfortunately, the authors of the catalogue were unable to provide any details concerning the lot or the sale (correspondence October 2018). 12 SG COLIS 35 (3916). Text typed on papers: “EXTRA STRONG Johannot et Cie”, five thicker sheets “RONEO BOND” (pp. 198–199; 220; 223bis; 246) and 2 unmarked sheets (pp. 200, 221); handwritten revisions and some cut sheets. 13 SG COLIS 35 (3916), p. 206, end of December 1911. 14 A. Beneyton, “Mission d’études au Yémen”, 1913, p. 207. About Šarīf Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān de Mareb (Sheba): “C’est lui qui a accompagné Glaser” (It was he who accompanied Glaser), Lecture, SG COLIS 35 (3916), p. 205. Also: copy of Himyarite inscriptions “in the position in which I read them”, Lecture, SG COLIS 35 (3916), p. 39. Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 181 A. Regourd The Beneyton collection lows: a stamp and a bronze cup covered with texts in “pre-Islamic Semitic script”15. In this regard, his letter from Commentry of 26 December 1935 is even more relevant, because, at that date, its author already had a career behind him which included his visit to Arabia: addressed to the Secretary General of the Société de Géographie, he revealed his intention to donate, a certain number of coins, objects and documents “of interest to Geography” during the coming year, among them: “a collection of medals and coins gathered in Old Greece and Asia Minor, Arabia, Mexico and China; several hundred lantern slides relating to Arabia (Yemen), Mexico, West Africa and Niger”. Unfortunately, he does not specify the origin of the “documents, plans, maps, etc. etc.”, which he intends to include, duly sorted and classified, in the successive consignments. The acknowledgement of receipt by the Secretary General is dated 11 February 1936 and is addressed to: “M. A.M.J. Beneyton”16. III. Who was Alfred Beneyton? Alfred Beneyton, whose civil name was Marie Julien Beneyton, is born in Commentry, Allier, on February 20, 1869, to Julien Beneyton, then aged 26, and Nelly Catherine Royet (born in 1847–living in 1936), aged 2117. He is admitted to the Société de Géographie in 1899 under the name Alfred-Julien-M. However, Alfred will remain his pen name and the one that will come down to posterity. His younger sister Arthémise Marie Beneyton is born on 5 June 1872 according to the register of births, which indicates that the father, a grocer, is 29 years old, the mother, without profession, is 24 years old, and that they are domiciled in the rue St Charles, in Commentry18. In the 1926 census, Arthémise Marie is registered under the (customary?) name of Albina 15 Letter dated 23 November 1915 to Baron Hulot, BnF, shelfmark: SG CARTON BA-BIE (86). His wish was to temporarily entrust these objects to a scientist for study. At p. 176 of his Lecture, he describes two corresponding objects, without saying that he took them away: “I found, in Sanaa, a magnificent fully engraved stamp that was the main tool of a healer. When a patient came along, he made him swallow, with a cup of water, a ball made of a piece of paper to which he had previously applied his inked stamp! // I found a copper bowl, covered with inscriptions arranged in a rosette and on which astronomical signs could be seen, that pregnant women were made to drink from to facilitate their delivery! There is undoubtedly a Sabaean tradition in there”. They would therefore have been collected in Sanaa. For an inscribed magico-therapeutic cup, particularly used to facilitate childbirth in Sanaa in the 1990s, A. Regourd, “Deux coupes magiques, biens de fondation pieuse (Nord du Yémen) : transmission du savoir et efficacité”, 2007. 16 BnF, shelfmark Colis 14 (2439), no. 16 and 17. 17 See his birth certificate, http://www2.culture.gouv.fr/LH/LH322/PG/FRDAFAN84_O19800035v2380330.htm; the stamp he uses on his letter of 8 August 1937 addressed to the Grand Chancellor of the Legion of Honour gives as the initials of his first names: “A. M. J.”. 18 No. 231, p. 200/248, http://recherche.archives.allier.fr/ark:/84133/a011519373573DL1Bmb/1/200 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 182 A. Regourd The Beneyton collection (cf. infra) and, in 1936, she is Albina Marie A. [Fig. 2]. This is the last trace we have of her. A graduate in civil engineering, Beneyton is also a student at the École des Arts et Métiers at Angers and an auditor at the Faculté des Sciences in Lyon19. He does a year’s military service with the 121st Infantry Regiment in Montlu20 çon . He is discharged on 1 April 1901, but on his return from Mexico makes himself available to the Minister of War by letter dated 16 November 1914: he is again rejected as unsuitable for military service by the Conseil de révision of the Department of the Cher on 5 December 191421. His letters of 23 and 29 November 1915 to Baron Hulot, Société de Géographie, 184, bd Saint-Germain in Paris22, give the sender’s address as: 43, avenue de la Gare, in Bourges (Cher)23. On 23 November, he complains about the refusal to let him join his assigned contingents of soldiers, and states the reasons for the decision: apart from his age, 47, he “suffers” from obesity and is not part of any administration attached to the State or of any affiliated organisation24. He undertakes two missions in Yemen. According to the text of his Lecture25, he embarks in Marseille on 25 September 1909. Disembarking in Aden on 6 October, he reaches al-Ḥudayda the next day at 9 pm by coastal steamer and finally sets foot on land on the morning of 8 October. He leaves Yemen, once again going by coaster between al-Ḥudayda and Aden on 26–28 March 1910, and arrives in Marseille on 11 April. For his second mission, he leaves Marseille on 29 January 1911, arriving in Aden on the morning of 9 February and at al-Ḥudayda on 16 February. At the end of August 1911, Beneyton considers the mission he had been entrusted with accomplished and with- 19 http://www2.culture.gouv.fr/LH/LH322/PG/FRDAFAN84_O19800035v2380332.htm 20 The date is not specified in the certificate of morality for the rank of Officer of the Legion of Honour issued by the Ministry of Colonies, http://www2.culture.gouv.fr/LH/LH322/PG/FRDAFAN84_O19800035v2380332.htm 21 http://www2.culture.gouv.fr/LH/LH322/PG/FRDAFAN84_O19800035v2380332.htm http://www2.culture.gouv.fr/LH/LH322/PG/FRDAFAN84_O19800035v2380334.htm 22 Baron Étienne Gabriel Hulot (1857–1918), advocate, geographer and Secrétaire général of the Société de Géographie from 1897. His father, Henri-Joseph Hulot (1820–1888), was Inspecteur général des finances, and his grandfather, Étienne Hulot, Baron de Magerny (1774–1850), General of the Revolution and of the Empire. Family tree, https://gw.geneanet.org/correcaminos75?lang=fr&p=etienne+gabriel&n=hulot; Louis Raveneau, “Le baron Étienne Hulot”, 1918, pp. 390–391; A. Fierro, La Société de géographie, 1821-1946, 1983, pp. 90, 91, 94, 105, 106. 23 Beneyton already resided in Bourges at this address in the spring of 1913, as indicated in his letter of 21 April (BnF, shelfmark: SG COLIS 35 (3915)) and he still resided there when he left for Tonkin (Hanoi) on 16 April 1916 (his letter of 11 April 1916, BnF, shelfmark: SG CARTON BA-BIE (88)). In the Post Scriptum, he specifies that he is keeping his address in Bourges and that his mail will be forwarded to Hanoi. 24 Letter BnF, shelfmark: SG CARTON BA-BIE (86) (87). 25 SG COLIS 35 (3916). To establish the chronology of the two missions, we preferred to follow the text of the Lecture to the Société de Géographie, which is the more detailed, since the differences in dates between one text and the other were precisely due to the events on the journey one would want to privilege (departure, arrival, etc.). Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 183 A. Regourd The Beneyton collection draws to Sanaa26. It is at this point that the political situation, already rendered tense by two battle fronts in Yemen and in ʿAsīr, changes, with Italy entering into the war on 29 September, 1911 in conflict with the Sublime Porte over territories in Libya. As a result, Italy sends its gunboats to the Red Sea and institutes the blockade of al-Ḥudayda. The final departure of the mission was initially set for 28 April 1912, but the route via al-Ḥudayda being inaccessible, an embarcartion at Aden is preferred and the armed caravan sets off in that direction on the morning of 22 April 1912. The last date Beneyton states in the Lecture is that of 9 May 1912, 4 a.m., when a carriage provided to him by the Sultan of Laḥǧ, “a Victoria from Bombay”, picks him up. He then reaches the English border, easily passes the two customs posts thanks to the support of the Sultan of Laḥǧ and, an hour later, enters Aden27. It is one year after his return that he gives his Lecture at the Société de Géographie on 16 May 191328. According to the various reports on it, it was to be entitled: “Trois années en Arabie Heureuse” (Three Years in Arabia Felix)29. In his Lecture, he divided his travels within the country as follows: Journeys of the 1st mission (September 1909–May 1910)—Introduction and voyage from Marseille to al-Ḥudayda30 (October 1909) (pp. 1–4); al-Ḥudayda (pp. 5–11); Road from alḤudayda to Sanaa (p. 12–24); Fersch31 and Sihām32 (pp. 25–35); ʿAmrān33 (Feb. 1910) (pp. 36–39); Sanaa (pp. 40–55); Return from Sanaa to al-Ḥudayda (March 1910) (pp. 56– 60). Journeys of the 2nd mission January–September 1911—Second journey from al-Ḥudayda to Sanaa by Bayt al-Faqīh and ʿUbāl34 (February–April 1911) (pp. 61–81); from Sanaa to Yarīm35 (pp. 82–94); in Wādī Zabīd36 (pp. 95–109); The Turkish Soldier (pp. 110–113); From Ḏamār to Taʿizz and Muḫā37 (pp. 114–125); From Taʿizz to al-Ḥays38 and back Return to Sanaa on August 30, “having completed in the field the difficult reconnaissance I was charged with”, SG COLIS 35 (3916), p. 143. 27 SG COLIS 35 (3916), pp. 242–243. 28 SG COLIS 35 (3916). 29 See bibliography, A. Beneyton, “Trois années en Arabie Heureuse”, under the years 1913, 1913 and 1913– 1914. We were unable to consult two of the references, but they are certainly echos of the activity of the Société de Géographie of Paris, because of the links existing between these learned societies. This list is therefore not intended to be exhaustive. 30 In the French original: Hodeidah. Here and below. 31 In the French original. 32 In the French original: Saham. 33 In the French original: Amran. 34 In the French original: Obal 35 In the French original: Yerim. Here and below. Sometime Yérim. 36 In the French original: Wadi Zebid/Zebid. Here and below. 37 In the French original: From Dhamar to Tais and Mokha. Here and below. Sometime Taïs, Moka. 38 In the French original: Hais. Here and below. Sometime Haïs. 26 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 184 A. Regourd The Beneyton collection through Wādī (the ouadi) Naḫla39 (pp. 126–133); From Taʿizz to Sanaa by al-Ǧanad (?)40, the Ǧabal Baʿdān41 and Ibb (pp. 134–143). Fig. 1. Alfred Beneyton’s house in Ḏamār. From: J. Toiton, « À travers l’Arabie heureuse. Trois ans d’exploration dans l’Yémen » (Across Arabia Felix. Three years of exploration in Yemen), September 14, 1913, p. 276. Things seen. The Zaydi revolution (pp. 144–149); Mœurs of the Arabs (pp. 150–177); The camel, the horse, the donkey and the mule. Livestock, wild animals. The gazelle (pp. 178–187); Coffee in Yemen (pp. 188–192); Products of the soil (pp. 193–197); Physical geography (pp. 198–200). New journey (November 1911–February 1912). Stay in Sanaa, journey to al-Ḥudayda and new journey from Sanaa to al-Ḥudayda by Taʿizz, al-Ḥays and Zabīd (pp. 201–211); The blockade and the Turkish-Italian war (pp. 212–219). Second return. Journey from Sanaa to Aden by land (April–May 1912) (pp. 220–243); The Anglo-Turkish frontier, English territory (pp. 244–246). During his travels, Beyneton records his observations on the localities, the fauna, the flora, the inhabitants... The photo with the description of the agricultural terraces kept at the BnF can be compared with his descriptions to underline the deliberately documentary nature of the pictures42. His Lecture was accompanied by lantern slides. Although the text about the survey mission for La Géographie is thematic and very quickly leaves aside the question of the railway (pp. 201–204), the text of the Lec- 39 In the French original: Nakla. In the French original: Djenet. 41 In the French original: Djebel Badan. See also WD 348 (6), p. 179. 42 Lecture, SG COLIS 35 (3916), p. 22, and photographs of terraces, SG WD–348. 40 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 185 A. Regourd The Beneyton collection ture follows a chronological narrative. With the exception of the chapter “Things Seen”, it is in fact ordered according to the progress of the geographical and geological reconnaissance of the terrain intended to define the appropriate route for the future railway. Thanks to his notice signed in Paris on October 15, 1912, accompanying the mailing of the maps he made, we know the list: “. – Documents. – 1° Map printed at 1: 250 000 summarizing the work of the various missions accomplished in Yemen. 2° Map printed at 1: 50 000 of the al-Ḥudayda-Zabīd- Taʿizz-Ibb-Yarīm-Ḏamār and Sanaa alignment and the road from Taʿizz to Muḫā. 3° Originals of the surveys at 1: 50 000”. He continues with: “II. – Descriptions of the operations carried out to establish the 1/50,000 map. 1st Mr. A. BENEYTON, Head of the Survey Mission, travelled over the terrain on horseback at a rate of about 200 square kilometres per day; freehand surveys with the help of a barometer and compass made it possible to fix the exact centre of the survey to be made at 1: 50 000. 2nd The 1: 50 000 survey of the required area was carried out by Mr. G. Bertrand using a plane table with a compass and alidade, a stadiametric telescope by Goulier, a Burnier clinometer compass and a lyre compass. Distances were measured using a 5, 10 or 20-metre base marked on the ground by two signals and covered by the divisions of the stadiametric telescope. Replacing the height of an object with a base increases the accuracy of the measurement of the distance; this is a variation in the appli (p. 2) cation of the Goulier telescope. The terrain’s principal features have been fixed on the plan by means of crosschecking and their altitude has been determined by measuring the gradients with a clinometer”. Further technical details are given in the postscript: “P. S. – The alignment indicated in the attached documents, measured by four survey brigades, was then mapped completely at 1: 2 000 scale on plans with contour lines; these plans, which cover 350 square metres of paper, include more than 200,000 points measured with the Moinot tacheometer”. In short, he travelled on horseback, covered great distances per day, and was accompanied by the engineer M. G. Bertrand43. His note ends with the context of his mission, during which he seems to have nearly lost his life: “III. – Special conditions of the execution of these surveys. – In his Lecture to the Société de Géographie, he says simply that he was accompanied by “two engineers” on his second mission, SG COLIS 35 (3916), p. 83, May 1, 1911. 43 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 186 A. Regourd The Beneyton collection The work in question is remarkable only for the conditions under which it was carried out. The Mission remained under the constant protection of a 850-strong battalion providing security as if it were in enemy territory. For my own greater mobility, I went out accompanied only by the cavalry troop, which guarded me very closely. In June 1911, I was attacked with rifle shots at the place called Es-WAK in the Ouadi Zebid; after 3 hours of defence provided by the cavalry, and the infantry battalion having rushed to our relief, we were then all surrounded in our camp; however, we finished our operations after a pitched battle with the Bedouins, and we then fought our way back for several days in extremely harsh conditions, losing a few men and some of our pack animals. Paris, October 15, 1912” Signed: “Beneyton”44. The certificate of morality issued by the Ministry of the Colonies, which nominated him for the Legion of Honour medal, gives an idea of his professional career from 1889 to 1937: Construction Engineer of the Ottoman Railway from 1889 to 1897 (with an interruption of one year); Railway Construction Engineer in China from 1898 to 1907 (Quang-Si and Yunnan); Deputy Chief Engineer to the Director of Works of the Bern-Saïtschberg-Simplon Railway 1907–1909 (Switzerland); Chief Engineer “of the Yemen Railways” from 1909 to 1913 (Turkish Arabia); Chief Engineer, Head of Mission in Mexico of the Compagnie Générale des chemins de fer secondaires de Bruxelles from 1913 to October 1914 (mission interrupted by the War); Acting Director of the Water Service and Plant in Hanoi (Tonkin) from 1916 to 1919; Head of Mission in Mexico of Messrs. Hersent (J. & G.) Schneider & Cie (of Creusot) from 1919 to 1921; Head of the Survey Mission of the Railways of Dahomey and Togo from 1922 to 1923; Chargé de mission in Dakar (July to December 1924); cartography and exploration of the Yemen (1909–1913); Collaboration in the expansion programme of the General Government of Indochina from 1898 to 1907 and work on penetration railways in Quang-Si and Yunnan; Interim Director of the Hanoi Water Department during the mobilisation in France of the Director from 1916 to 1919; collaboration in the public works programme of French West Africa 1922–1924; “Propaganda” through articles and lectures45. General Lebon, charged with presenting Beneyton at his Lecture to the Société de Géographie in 1913, details his role during the period from 1889 to 1937 in the construction of railway lines: “in European Turkey, Salonique-Monastir and Salonique- 44 Note conserved at shelfmark: SG COLIS 35 (3914). 45 http://www2.culture.gouv.fr/LH/LH322/PG/FRDAFAN84_O19800035v2380334.htm and http://www2.culture.gouv.fr/LH/LH322/PG/FRDAFAN84_O19800035v2380335.htm. In this context, “Pro- paganda” perhaps has the meaning of publicity/promotion, to propagate, see A. Rey (dir.), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, 2000, vol. 3, p. 2972a: “Propagande n. f. est l’adaptation (1689) du latin moderne propaganda dans l’expression Congregatio de propaganda fide (…), association fondée en 1622. Propaganda, littéralement « qui doit être propagée », est l’adjectif verbal, au féminin, du latin propagare (> propager)”. Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 187 A. Regourd The Beneyton collection Dedeagach; in Asian Turkey, Smyrna-Izmir-Ankara46; in China, from Laokay to Yunnan-Fou”. During the work on the Simplon railway, we are again reminded that he was particularly devoted to the work on the great Lœtschberg tunnel, which passes under the Bernese Alps47. The railway in Yemen was, as we can see, an episode in the life of Alfred Beneyton’s, railway engineer. From other destinations, such as China and Mexico, he also brought back photographic albums48. He received many honours. As a civil engineer he was made a Knight of the Legion of Honour by decree of 10 July 1925 on the recommendation of the Minister of the Colonies. He was then promoted to the rank of Officer of the Legion of Honour by decree of 11 June 1937 on the recommendation of the Minister of the Colonies as Civil Engineer of various railway construction companies abroad and in the colonies49. The Ministry of Colonies’ information note concerning him, as well as the certificate of morality for obtaining the Legion of Honour, indicates that he is also the recipient of a silver medal in London in 1908 (Exhibition50), of the gold medal of the Société de Géographie de France (1913), of the gold medal of the Société de Topographie de France (1912) and that he was an Officer of the Academy51. In the original: “Smyrna-Ismin-Angora”. In: A. Beneyton, “Trois années en Arabie Heureuse”, 1913, p. 495. On the geo-commercial importance of the project as seen: E. Terrail-Tardy, “L’ouverture du Lœtschberg”, August 1913, by a former member of the Entreprise générale du Lœtschberg. 48 See BnF, https://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb387960616; 46 47 https://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb40589620f 49 See the Léonore database, under: www2.culture.gouv.fr/public/mistral/leonore_fr?ACTION=RETROUVER&FIELD_98=NOM&VALUE_98 =%27BENEYTON%27&NUMBER=4&GRP=0&REQ=((%27BENEYTON%27)%20:NOM%20)&USRNA ME=nobody&USRPWD=4$%34P&SPEC=9&SYN=1&IMLY=&MAX1=1&MAX2=1&MAX3=100&DOM =All and doc. 1, http://www2.culture.gouv.fr/LH/LH322/PG/FRDAFAN84_O19800035v2380328.htm 4, http://www2.culture.gouv.fr/LH/LH322/PG/FRDAFAN84_O19800035v2380331.htm 6, http://www2.culture.gouv.fr/LH/LH322/PG/FRDAFAN84_O19800035v2380333.htm 50 This was the Franco-British exhibition held in London between May 14 and October 31, 1908, to celebrate the Entente cordiale signed in 1904 by the United Kingdom and France. List of medalists in: Y. Guyot & G.-R. Sandoz (general rapporteurs), P. Bourgeois & L. Claretie (assistant general rapporteurs), Exposition Franco-Britannique de LONDRES, 1908, Rapport général, vol. 3; Beneyton was judged by the Class 29 Committee on “Modèles, plans et dessins de travaux publics”. (Group VI.), he is attached to the Entreprise générale du chemin de fer des Alpes Bernoises, in Paris, p. clxxvia. 51 http://www2.culture.gouv.fr/LH/LH322/PG/FRDAFAN84_O19800035v2380332.htm and http://www2.culture.gouv.fr/LH/LH322/PG/FRDAFAN84_O19800035v2380335.htm Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 188 A. Regourd The Beneyton collection Fig. 2. Census published in 1937 (year 1936), Commentry (Allier), excerpt. See Census. In the 1872 census, he appears with his father, a grocer born in the Loire, and his mother, born in the Allier, at no. 5 (?) in the rue Saint-Charles, a street that no longer exists in Commentry52. In the census of 1876–1921, there is no record of a “Beneyton”. In 1926, in Vieux Bourg, are mentioned: Beneyton Albina (sic), born in 1872 in Commentry, of French nationality, designated as “Chef” [head of the family], without profession (“s. p.”, i. e. “sans profession”), Beneyton Nelly, born in 1847 in Commentry, of French nationality, mother, profession not indicated, and finally Beneyton Alfred, born in 1869 in Commentry, of French nationality, brother, without profession (“s. p.”)53. In 1931, the following appear in Vieux Bourg: Beneyton Nelly Catherine Royet, born in 1847 in Commentry, head [of the family], Beneyton, Marie Arthémise, born in 1872 in Commentry, daughter54. In 1936, he is listed at 1, rue des Jardins, in Commentry, his native town, as head [of the family], with Beneyton, Albina Marie (sic), born in 1872 in Commentry, sister, and Beneyton, Nelly C., born in 1847 in Commentry, mother, still alive at that date55 [Fig. 2]. When he is decorated with the rank of Officer of the Legion of Honour at the end of 1937, he is 68 years old. After that, we lose track of him. A letter dated August 8, 1937 is sent from Commentry56. Furthermore, we know from the Pierre Loti sale of 9 November 2013, that he was awarded the Croix de Guerre and the Médaille des Vétérans, distinctions which do not appear in the 1937 list, and also that there is a file for “the erection of his funeral monument (concession, letters from suppliers, estimates, plans...)” 57. As for the Société de Géographie, it is dissolved during the Second World War, in 1942. Beneyton finally passes away at Commentry on December 30, 194758, aged 78 years and almost 11 months. 52 Pp. 74a–74b, http://recherche.archives.allier.fr/ark:/84133/a011557407754sTAoBH/1/74 P. 124, http://recherche.archives.allier.fr/ark:/84133/a011557407754nLa8tG/1/124 54 P. 170, http://recherche.archives.allier.fr/ark:/84133/a011557407754pHX1re/1/1 55 P. 58, http://recherche.archives.allier.fr/ark:/84133/a011557407754VohVd7/1/58 53 56 http://www2.culture.gouv.fr/LH/LH322/PG/FRDAFAN84_O19800035v2380336.htm 57 See note 11. Information provided by the Service de l’État-Civil, Département des Généalogies, of the Mairie of Commentrie. 58 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 189 A. Regourd The Beneyton collection Throughout his life, Alfred Beneyton seems to have kept a foot on the ground in his home town. Born on rue de la Mine (now rue Christophe Thivier) where his parents lived [Fig. 3], he is found on rue Saint-Charles in 1872. On July 23, 1925, he is living in Vieux-Bourg, served by the Commentry post office59, where he was recorded in 1926. Finally, he lives at 1, rue des Jardins, a street that has disappeared, probably as a result of urban development. Fig. 3. Commentry, rue de la Mine. During the construction of the railway from Thessaloniki to Dédéagatch, Beneyton discovered a Roman cemetery at Gradubov (14 km from Thessaloniki) and Greek tombs at Salmani, near Lété. One of these tombs contained the hilt of an iron sword and fragments of a silver funeral wreath60. Later, he will have some publications relating to his survey mission for the railways of Dahomey and Togo (1922–1923)61. But it is the expedition to Yemen that will establish his scientific reputation, thanks to a 59 His letter addressed to the Grand Chancellor of the Legion of Honour on that date, http://www2.culture.gouv.fr/LH/LH322/PG/FRDAFAN84_O19800035v2380339.htm A. L. Frothingham & A. Marquand, “Archaeological News. Summary of recent Discoveries and Investigations”, April–June 1896, section on Europe. Greece. Thessalonike (Salonika), pp. 250–251. 61 A. M. J. Beneyton, “Les chemins de fer du Dahomey et du Togo (1922-23)” (The railways of Dahomey and Togo (1922–23)), followed by “La chaux et le ciment au Dahomey et au Togo” (Lime and cement in Dahomey and Togo), 1926. 60 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 190 A. Regourd The Beneyton collection few articles and, on his return, some lectures62. His topographical work and his map of Yemen seem to have had a very considerable impact: he had to take on this cartographic task himself, he says, because of the deficiency of the English map, the only one available63. On March 11, 1911, on his way to Bāǧil from Bayt al-Faqīh, Beneyton spotted a site between al-Manṣūriyya and al-Mehaat (?) with “debris of brick, of buildings, of pottery, etc.” over a square kilometre or so. He announces his discovery to the Société de Géographie, which, he says, reports it in 1913. In his letter of 23 November 1915 to Baron Hulot, he returns to the subject of the city he had discovered in 1911, because he thinks he can identify it as “the Tamna of Genesis, the city of 65 temples”64. In the same letter of November 23, 1915, he also tries to identify the “dike of the plain of Chiraa”65, which he sees as a construction made by the Adites and attached “to the famous constructions of the terrestrial Eden of Sheddad and then of Yérim”; he assimilates Yérim/Yarīm to the famous city of Iram. In 1916, his “Note on the location of TAMNA”, presented at a meeting of the Geography Section on Saturday 4 March 1916, is published66. It closes with these words: “I propose, consequently, in a more or less distant future, to probe the ruins in question to find a verification of this hypothesis”, i. e. that it is indeed Tamnaʿ; these words are on page 11 of the manuscript of the note sent to the Société de Géographie, dated November 21, 191567. In November 1915, Beneyton is in the process of applying for the post of Director of the Franco-Ethiopian railway from Djibouti to Addis Ababa, in order to get closer to Yemen68. In April 1916, he knows it was in vain69. But his real and distinct scientific in- Echoed in the Journal officiel de la République française, report in 1913, p. 4337: “M. Beneyton décrit la ville de Hodéïdah, dont la prospérité contraste avec la décroissance de Mokha” (Mr. Beneyton describes the city of Hodéïdah, whose prosperity contrasts with the decline of Mokha). 63 A. Beneyton, “Mission d’études au Yémen”, 1913, p. 202. 64 Letter of 23 November 1915, SG CARTON BA-BIE (86). 65 A. Beneyton, “Mission d’études au Yémen”, 1913, pp. 205–206. 66 Bulletin de la Section de Géographie. Comité des travaux historiques et scientifiques 31, 1916, minutes of the meeting of Saturday, March 4, 1916, “Mr. Henri Cordier gives notice of the following note sent by Mr. Beneyton, engineer in Bourges, and at the same time presents the official map of the railways in Yemen: Note on the location of Tamna”, pp. x–xi. The historic city of Tamnaʿ, located in Wādī Bayḥān at the place now known as Haǧar Kuḥlān, south-east of Marib and south-west of Šabwa, on the edge of the Empty Quarter, has been identified and excavated, for an up to date account see, A. de Maigret (†) & Ch. J. Robin, Tamnaʿ (Yemen), 2016, pp. 7, 21ff. Between 1890 and 1895, Eduard Glaser (1855–1908), an antique dealer in Vienna, had identified the Qtbn (for Qatabān) and Tmnʿ of the inscriptions he had acquired in Yemen with their variants from ancient authors and situated Tamnaʿ in Wādī Bayḥān, from where the inscriptions came. Beneyton does not seem to have been aware of this published work. It was the Briton, George Wyman Bury (1874–1920), sponsored by the Vienna Academy of Science, who was the first to visit the site to conduct surveys in February 1900. However, his report remained unpublished. The chronology of published works based on these early discoveries and studies goes beyond the chronological scope of this article. The site discovered by Beneyton has yet to be identified. 67 The published text reproduces, with some formal corrections, the Beneyton manuscript, kept at the BnF, SG CARTON BA-BIE (87). 68 His letter of 23 November 1915 to Baron Hulot, BnF, shelfmark: SG CARTON BA-BIE (86). 62 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 191 A. Regourd The Beneyton collection terest is reflected in this passage in his correspondence where he mentions his candidacy while he is explaining to Baron Hulot his final thoughts on the identification of biblical sites. His passage of arms with André Malraux, returning from his exclusively aerial expedition to Yemen to find the capital of the Queen of Sheba in the company of the aviator, journalist and future General, Édouard Corniglion-Molinier (1900–1963)70, has gone down in the annals71. On April 6, 1934, in response to Malraux’s declarations of his Yemeni discoveries in the newspaper L’Intransigeant, that he thought he had found the Queen’s Palace, a certain “J.” Beneyton wrote a response in the columns of the newspaper Le Temps published under the title: “Archaeological discovery by plane. We have received the following letter”72. He returned to the identification of the ruins discovered by Malraux in the following terms: “If the ruins overflown by Mr. Malraux are under the sands of Téhama, near the coast, it is certainly not ancient Saba” [Fig. 4]. 69 In his letter dated 11 April 1916, he indicated that he had not obtained the post in Ethiopia and had immediately accepted the offer he had been made to go to Hanoi “for the duration of the war”. He announced his embarkation on the “André Lebon” on 16 April (BnF, shelfmark: SG CARTON BA-BIE (88); the addressee of the letter is lost). 70 For the genesis of the expedition see: A. Malraux, Antimémoires, 1967, vol. 3, Part 1, Chapter 3, “Les noyers de l’Altenburg”. A. Bennis, “André Malraux explorateur à la recherche de la capitale de la reine de Saba. De l’archéologie aérienne au reportage littéraire”, art. 101, June 2011; J.-C. Perrier, André Malraux and the Queen of Sheba, 2016, pp. 21ff. Édouard Corniglion-Molinier wrote three articles in L’Intransigeant, on his return from the expedition: “La Naissance d’un raid”, May 5, 1934, pp. 1–2; “L’Adieu à la capitale mystérieuse de la reine de Saba... et le retour dans la tempête”, May 11, 1934, pp. 1– 2; “Visite au roi des rois”, May 12, 1934, pp. 1–2. 71 Ph. Delpuech, introd. to: A. Malraux, La Reine de Saba : Une aventure géographique, 1993, pp. 36–37, respectively n. 1 and 1; about the history of publication in L’Intransigeant, and then the controversy it provokes, J.-C. Perrier, André Malraux et la reine de Saba, 2016, pp. 57–58, 59ff. Beneyton’s article in Le Temps has a dedicated entry in the detailed bibliography of the literary site “André Malraux, Recherche et information, International et pluridisciplinaire”, http://malraux.org/b/ 72 Le Temps no. 26516, 6 April 1934, p. 2. Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 192 A. Regourd The Beneyton collection Fig. 4. “Archaeological discovery by plane. We have received the following letter”, Le Temps 26516, 6 April 1934, p. 2. Cut to the quick, Malraux was not long in publishing his scathing reply, which appeared in the same newspaper on 10 April: “If, like everyone else, we risk being mistaken in identifying a city that we have seen, our opponents risk being even more mistaken in identifying a city that they have not seen at all... We are in no way confusing, as our opponent supposes, a city of the confederation of Sheba with Moka, any more than the Acropolis of Athens with the Champs-Élysées”73. A. Malraux, “Découverte archéologique par avion. M. André Malraux nous adresse la lettre suivante” (Archaeological discovery by plane. Mr. André Malraux sends us the following letter), Le Temps 26520, 10 April 1934, p. 2. 73 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 193 A. Regourd The Beneyton collection In any case, these exchanges, as well as numerous passages in Beneyton’s writings, betray the passion for biblical studies that animated explorations in the East around the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century. The biblical problematic governs the search for sites, weighs on considerations of genealogy and the classification of populations, leads to the privileging of certain subjects rather than others and ends up determining the choice of manuscripts. During his mission to Yemen, on November 8, 1909, Beneyton dined with Hermann Burchardt (1857–1909), and he referred several times in his Lecture to his assassination and to that of the Italian Vice-Consul, Benzoni, who was accompanying him, in 1909, at al-ʿUdayn74. Perhaps it was during his trip to Anatolia that Beneyton met the writer P. Loti (1850–1923). In any case, he quotes him in the section where he mentions the fact that he travelled through this region of Turkey and that he speaks a little Turkish75. Let us also note likely exchanges with Émile Mâle and Marshal Lyautey (1854– 1934)76. He never met the Imam Yaḥyā77. Politically, he does not hide his support for the Turkish-Ottoman hold on Zaydi Yemen: he emphasises the Ottoman contribution in terms of infrastructure and justifies the need for a strong power—albeit external—by the tribal nature of the country, which acts as a centripetal force78. But he shows himself to be a traveller, explorer and photographer curious about what he saw, anxious to understand it with composure, and piling up detailed notes composed of his historical and geographical observations79. His Lecture on Yemen at the Société de Géographie, given shortly after his return in May 1913, is sustained by this throughout its 246 typed pages and concludes as follows: “You come back from these countries with the satisfaction of not having left your life there; however, I have been back twice, and today I have only one desire: to return. The East has its mirages and my wandering soul does not seem to want to renounce their sovereign attraction”80. IV. The Manuscripts: the codices The two codices now in BnF were donated by Alfred Beneyton to the Société de Géographie (SG), and have retained their (SG) shelfmark. 74 SG COLIS 35 (3916), Lecture, pp. 26–27, 33–34, 57–58, 107. G. Caprotti wrote a letter from al-Ḥudayda, dated 23 December 1909, to the Burchardt family deploring his murder; the passage quoted in: M. Friedländer, “Hermann Burchardt: Mitteilungen aus seinen letzten Briefen”, 1910, p. 110, was originally in French. 75 SG COLIS 35 (3916), Lecture, p. 112. 76 See note 11. 77 A. Beyneton, “Mission d’études au Yémen” (Survey missions in the Yemen), 1913, « Quelques grandes figures de l’Yémen » (Some prominent figures of the Yemen), p. 207. 78 A. Beyneton, “Mission d’études au Yémen” (Survey missions in the Yemen), 1913, p. 207. 79 A. Beyneton, “Mission d’études au Yémen” (Survey missions in the Yemen), 1913, pp. 204–218, i. e. 14 p. 80 SG COLIS 35 (3916), Lecture, p. 246. Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 194 A. Regourd The Beneyton collection Sg Ms. in-4° 67 (1252) / SG MS4–67 (1252)81 The shelfmark SG, in black pencil in a cartouche, appears several times in the manuscript. On p. 2, there are some signs outside the cartouche (shorthand?). The manuscript has been paginated in black pencil by a western hand; the original folio has become detached and placed further on in the book to preserve it, and has been incorrectly numbered “6”. For convenience, this article will respect the pagination as it exists. A. Identification of the text a. Title, authors, subject Al-laʾālī al-muḍīʾa, commonly known as: Al-laʾālī al-muḍīʾa fī aḫbār aʾimmat al-Zaydiyya82 commentary by Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. Ṣalāḥ alŠarafī (d. 1055/1646)83 on a verse chronicle, history of the Zaydites of Yemen, Al-qaṣīda al-bassāma 84 by Ṣārim al-Dīn Ibrāhīm b. Muḥammad (b. ʿAbd Allāh b. Hādī) b. al-Wazīr (d. 914/1508–1509)85. Quotations from the commentary of Nūr al-Dīn Muḥammad b. ʿAlī b. Yūnis al-Zuḥḥayf al-Ṣaʿdī (d. 916/151086) can be identified in the manuscript. 81 On Gallica, https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b531518904 GAL II, pp. 712/529, 6a, S I p. 560, 9, S II p. 248, 11, 5b, p. 550, 6a, 1. A. F. Sayyid, Sources de l’histoire du Yémen à l’époque musulmane, 1974, p. 233, notice 16/1; ʿA. al-S. b. ʿA. al-Waǧīh, Aʿlām al-muʾallifīn alZaydiyya, 1420/1999, no. 158, p. 172. 83 Al-Šawkānī, Al-badr al-ṭāliʿ, n. d., vol. 1, no. 73, p. 119; ʿU. R. Kaḥḥāla, Muʿǧam al-muʾallifīn, 1376/1957, vol. 2, p. 112a; A. F. Sayyid, Sources de l’histoire du Yémen à l’époque musulmane, 1974, pp. 232–233, no. 16 “– aš-Šarafī”; ʿA. al-S. b. ʿA. al-Waǧīh, Aʿlām al-muʾallifīn al-Zaydiyya, 1420/1999, no. 158, pp. 171–173; Ibrāhīm b. al-Qāsim b. al-Imām al-Muʾayyad bi-Allāh, Ṭabaqāt al-Zaydiyya al-kubrā, 1421/2001, vol. 1, no. 80, pp. 178–179; Ibn Abī al-Riǧāl, Maṭlaʿ al-budūr, 1425/2004, vol. 1, no. 216, pp. 441–445. 84 Or: Al-bassāma al-ṣuġrā, Al-bassāma ahl al-bayt, often called Al-qaṣīda al-muḍīʾa fī sīrat al-aiʾmma alaḫyār (ʿA. al-S. b. ʿA. al-Waǧīh, Aʿlām al-muʾallifīn al-Zaydiyya, 1420/1999, no. 30, p. 70) or Ǧawāhir alaḫbār fī siyar [or: sīrat] al-aʾimma al-aḫyār (O. Löfgren & R. Traini, Catalogue of the Arabic manuscripts in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, vol. 2, 1981, ms. Ambrosienne No. 198/XIII (ff. 54–66), pp. 94–95, which refers to A. F. Sayyid, Sources de l’histoire du Yémen à l’époque musulmane, 1974, p. 192, no. 3/1). 85 ʿA. al-S. b. ʿA. al-Waǧīh, Aʿlām al-muʾallifīn al-Zaydiyya, 1420/1999, no. 30, pp. 69–71; Ibrāhīm b. alQāsim b. al-Imām al-Muʾayyad bi-Allāh, Ṭabaqāt al-Zaydiyya al-kubrā, 1421/2001, vol. 1, no. 21, pp. 80–89. According to al-Šawkānī he was not born in 834, but in 860 of the Hegira (GAL II, p. 241/188, S II, p. 248; al-Šawkānī, Al-badr al-ṭāliʿ, n. d., vol. 1, notice 17, p. 31; A. F. Sayyid, Sources de l’histoire du Yémen à l’époque musulmane, 1974, p. 192, no. 3); Ibn Abī al-Riǧāl, Maṭlaʿ al-budūr, 1425/2004, vol. 1, no. 42, pp. 163–171. 86 GAL S I, p. 560, 13; ʿU. R. Kaḥḥāla, Muʿǧam al-muʾallifīn, 1376/1957, vol. 11, p. 73b; al-Šawkānī, Al-badr alṭāliʿ, s. d., vol. 2, no. 488, p. 232; A. F. Sayyid, Sources de l’histoire du Yémen à l’époque musulmane, 1974, p. 196, no. 4 “– az-Zuḥḥayf”. 82 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 195 A. Regourd The Beneyton collection b. Incipit, p. 1, p. 4 by mistake ‫واين كنت من بين املنصور اذ قصد واضعا يف ختل اهل السافيه (؟) ىف ُزفَ ِر‬ Commented verse written in red ink c. Explicit, p. 253 ‫ الزمان اشاره اىل قصه وادى اعرد وقوهل وىه بدله من اعامل‬87‫وقوهل واصرب عىل قصص‬ ‫ذمار ”صربى عىل اعر ٍد ما دُمت ساكهنا صرب اجلياد عىل طول املغارات‬ 89 88 “‫قوم ًا اذا حرضوا للرشع ما قبلوا الا مييين مع تطليق زوجاىت‬ ‫الزحيف هكذا فرسه الس يد رمحه الـهل تع‬ ‫قال‬ The commentary of Nūr al-Dīn Muḥammad b. ʿAlī b. Yūnis al-Zuḥḥayf al-Ṣaʿdī (d. 916/1510) appears here (see A. a.). Al-Zuḥḥayf is the author of a dīwān. B. Identification of the copy a.Tatimma, p. 253 ‫مت اجلز الثاىن من الالىل املض اية‬ ‫وامحلد لـهل رب العاملني‬ ‫و(؟) ييل اجلزء الثالث ان شا اللـه تعاىل‬ ‫مت رمقه وقت الاحضى ىف يوم الربوع اتسع شهر جامدا الاخر س نة ]الف و[مثانيه وثالثني حبمده ومنه‬ ‫وفضهل وكرمه واحسانه‬ Date: 9 ǧumādā al-āḫir 1038/3 February 1629 b. Total number of folios 124 c. Dimensions of the written surface 23 × 14 cm d. Number of lines per page 32 (throughout)—ruled In the manuscript: ‫عصص‬. Variant: ‫للحمك‬. 89 Poem cited in: M. b. A. al-Ḥaǧarī al-Yamānī, Maǧmūʿ buldān al-Yaman wa-qabāʾilihā, s. d., vol. 2, part 3, entry “wādī ʿIrrad”, p. 194. 87 88 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 196 A. Regourd The Beneyton collection e. Ink Text written in black ink, with letters and words written in black ink overwritten in red ink. Hemistich and end of verses marked in the poems. f. Alignment of the written surface at the left Rather than hyphenation: use of marks (two oblique strokes) to complete the line; a few words are completed in the margin; words completed above the line, respecting the margin; greater spacing between words at the end of the line (ex. pp. 20, 26, 28, 29, 34, 43, 78, 94, 97, 113, 122, 131, 137, 140, 142, 166, 169, 170, 182, 215, 237, 244). Elongation of letters to reach the margin. g. Rubrication, cutting and visual Text which is commented on is in red, introduced by: “Qāla al-Sayyid raḥimahu Allāh taʿālā” rubricated (see pp. 1 (actually 6, 1 verse), 7 (7), 124 (1), 141 (2), 145 (3), 151 (2), 157 (1), 159 (3), 167 (3), 173 (3), 192 (7), 216 (3), 238 (2), 244 (5), 251 (9) = 52 verses). Rubrication by slightly larger letters, but mostly by: 1. elongated ligature between the last two letters of the words in the heading or the last letter of words, and consistently of the lām of aqwāl; 2. thickened elongations; 3. letters written in black ink overwritten in red ink. Beginning, middle and end marks of verses in black and red ink. h. Characteristics of the script, diacritics and ihmāl Hamzas and maddas, irregular. Few diacritics overall; irregular signs of ihmāl: dāl and ṭāʾ under-punctuated; chevrons on rāʾs, sīns, ṣāds, ʿayns; irregular vocalization of termination (direct and indirect case) or used to resolve an ambiguity; repetition mark (šadda), irregular. i. Erasures, corrections (marginal or interlinear) Few; e. g. pp. 12, 38, 46, 53, 58, 59, 62, 80, 109, 117, 118, 119, 123, 125, 141 (with symbol ‫)ص‬, 145 (‫)ص‬, 147 (‫)ص‬, 155, 161, 163, 164, 174, 177, 213, 217, 221, 231, 252 j. Catchwords In black ink, apparently by the same hand, oblique (inclined from right to left), are not aligned on the left of the written surface. Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 197 A. Regourd The Beneyton collection C. Material identification a. Paper Same paper from beginning to end of the manuscript, unmarked paper. Very common paper in Yemen from the 14th to the first half of the 16th century, much rarer afterwards90. b. Dimensions of a folio 30.5 × 20.5 cm The folios corresponding to pages 225–228, 231–247, 250–253 are uneven in height, but are all smaller than the rest. c. Thickness of quire block 3.5 cm d. Quires 11 quinions + 1 septenion. A scribe’s mark on the recto of the first folio of the quire confirms the septenion (p. 223): “hāḏihi al-kurāsa sabʿ waraq”. From the outset, this quire contained some bifolios that were smaller than the others (pp. 231–247, and the bifolios paginated 225–226/252–253). e. Pagination Pp. 2–255. The manuscript has been paginated in pencil, probably on accession at the Société de Géographie. The pagination starts at 2 and the f. 1, a loose sheet currently detached from the quire, placed to preserve it between the ff. 2 and 3, has been numbered 4–5 by mistake. The following jumps in pagination: p. 114 followed by p. 116, p. 231 by p. 234, finally p. 238 by p. 242, arise from the fact that pages 115, 232–233, 240–241 have been allocated to loose sheets from other manuscripts. P. 239, for its part, could be the initial guard sheet of our manuscript: the edges of the sheet, made of the same paper, are damaged, the front is free of writing and the back bears poetry. The page numbers assigned to these loose sheets ipso facto indicate their place in the manuscript. A fragment of a folio from a vertical format codex was not retained in the pagination. Page numbers 256 and 257 have been given to a loose folio from a small Qurʾan. 90 If we take the E. Glaser collection at the Staatsbibliothek in Berlin as a benchmark. An exception is ms. Glaser 178, dated 1045/1636 in the colophon, which was written on various watermarked papers and includes a few sheets of the paper in question. Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 198 A. Regourd The Beneyton collection The loose folios paginated 232–233 and 240–241 come from the same manuscript. The loose folios are not all complete. f. Binding In poor condition, partially exposing the structure; traces of insect activity on the glue, along the back. Type: with a flap, the flap has disappeared. Block cover: brown leather; cardboard boards; gauze band fixed to the back and the boards; sheet glued to the boards; the vertical edges of the gauze were covered with a strip of paper fixed on the boards and directly on the 1st manuscript folio at the beginning of the manuscript, and onto the back gauze band at the end of the manuscript. The quires were sewn together at one and two thirds of the height. The quire block, now detached from the cover block, was attached to the strip of gauze glued to the back by glue that mostly remains in place, as does the seams of the upper and lower headbands on the back gauze and the quire block remain. Covers, ornate: identical decorations on the two covers, as far as the wear on the upper cover reveals; cold stamped; composition: rosette with 6 petals in a hexagon, then a circle, finally a double-festoon medallion with radiating decoration, whose axes are marked vertically by a pointed festoon extending to the frame, punctuated by two motifs in ˫ (one in each direction), and horizontally by a pattern in ˫. The frame is formed of a double net frieze, spiked, then by corner-pieces, taking up the motif of the frieze with, in their center, the motif in ˫ and on their edge, 5 motifs of the same type as those of the rays of the central medallion (composition of the corner-pieces comparable to ms. Milan, Ambrosian Library, E 267ar)91. D. Marginalia and transmission of texts Few marginalia in the manuscript. Upper board a. stamp in red ink, “G. [CA]PROTTI SANAA (Yemen Arabie)”, also found as follows: full stamp in the upper margin, pp. 79, 172, lower, p. 254: “G. CAPROTTI SANAA (Yemen Arabie)”, after the tatimma (p. 253); b. 4 verses, attempted erasure of the last two; c. šahāda including ʿAlī, Ḥasan and Ḥusayn (5 l.). 91 A. D’Ottone, “La reliure arabo-yéménite médiévale : un projet d’étude”, 2007, Fig. 2, rubbing. Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 199 A. Regourd The Beneyton collection P. 191, marginal note dated 1155H (expressed in numbers and letters, “kutiba fī sanat ḫamsa wa-ḫamsīn wa-miʾa wa-alf”), i. e. 1742–1743; p. 156: “yadullu ʿalā anna al-muʾallif ʿāša ilā sanat 1106”, i. e. 1694–1695. P. 254, verses introduced, many names, in particular: - al-Sayyid al-ʿallāma Šams al-Dīn Aḥmad b. Muḥammad al-Šarafī; - al-Qādī Aḥmad b. Ṣalāḥ al-Dawādī (d. 1018/1610)92; - mawlānā al-Sayyid al-Imam ʿIzz al-Dīn Muḥammad b. ʿIzz al-Dīn b. Ṣalāḥ b. al-Hasan b. Amīr al-Muʾminīn (16th century)93; - al-wālid al-ʿallāma ʿImād al-Dīn Yahyā b. Muhammad b. al-Hasan Amīr al-Muʾminīn; - Ibn al-Muʾayyid; - al-wālid al-afḍal Šams al-Dīn Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. al-Ḥasan b. Amīr al-Muʾminīn; - al-Hādī. P. 255, verse. Some elongations and words deliberately completed in the margin, allowing service as a marker, like a paragraph indication: this is the case with names of individuals or groups, of places. In the second case, a distance is placed between the beginning of the word, aligned with the margin, and its end in the margin (see for example p. 175, Tihāma, or 176, al-Ḫazraǧī). Lower board: free of writing. p. 63, l. 24: a space has been left blank by the copyist for the month of the year 751. It is possible that the space left on p. 109 is for the same purpose. E. Condition of the manuscript Traces of moisture; detached folios; the quire block is no longer attached to the spine and the boards, the flap has disappeared; traces of insects in the glue; the leather covering the spine has become detached from the leather covering the top cover. Ibn Abī al-Riǧāl (d. 1092/1681), Maṭlaʿ al-budūr, 1425/2004, vol. 1, no. 134, pp. 324–326; Ibrāhīm b. alQāsim b. al-Imām al-Muʾayyad bi-Allāh, Ṭabaqāt al-Zaydiyya al-kubrā, 1421/2001, vol. 1, no. 55, pp. 148– 150; ʿA. al-S. b. ʿA. al-Waǧīh, Aʿlām al-muʾallifīn al-Zaydiyya, 1420/1999, pp. 121–122. 93 Ibn Abī al-Riğāl (d. 1092/1681), Maṭlaʿ al-budūr, 1425/2004, vol. 3, no. 831, pp. 174–176; Ibrāhīm b. alQāsim b. al-Imām al-Muʾayyad bi-Allāh, Ṭabaqāt al-Zaydiyya al-kubrā, 1421/2001, vol. 2, no. 400, p. 678. 92 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 200 A. Regourd The Beneyton collection Sg Ms. in-4° 68 (1253) / SG MS4–68 (1253) A. Identification of the text a. Title, author, subject Al-kawākib al-nayyira al-kāšifa li-maʿānī al-taḏkira fī fiqh al-ʿitra almuṭahhira, treatise on Zaydi fiqh, Yemen, by Sayyidunā al-ʿallāma Yaḥyā b. Aḥmad b. Muẓaffar [al-Ṣanʿānī] (d. 875/1470–1471)94, written in the fifteenth century. The Arabic manuscript, in its original binding, was copied in the first half of the 18th century. In 2 parts: Part 1, pp. 11–269; Part 2, pp. 270–535. Marked by a rubricated title. b. First part Title Al-ǧuzʾ al-awwal, p. 11; title page on v. of f. 4 of the binion ْ ‫اجلزء الاول من الكواكب النريه الاكشفه ملعاين‬ ‫التذكره‬ ‫ حيىي بن امحد بن مظفر توال الـهل من يسمع به‬/‫يف فقه العرته املطهِره اتليف س يدان العال\مه‬ ‫وصىل الـهل عىل س يدان محمد واهل وسمل‬ Incipit, p. 12 .‫الطهارة اخل‬ ‫بسم هلل االرمحن الرحمي وامحلد هلل رب العاملني وصلوته عىل رسوهل الامني كتاب‬ Explicit, p. 269 ‫وع والفقها فاهنام يتخلفان وبفسخ بيع هذه الارض السلمية من العيب الختالفهام يف مثهنا‬.. ‫واما عىل قول‬ ‫مت النصف الاول حبمد هلل تعاىل‬ ‫الح َو ِال‬ ِ ُ ‫َو َالْ َح ْمدُ ِ ى ِّلِل عَىل‬ ْ ‫لك َح ٍال ِم َن َا‬ 94 GAL II, p. 204, ms. Berlin 4884. Short biography, bibliography including this title followed by other manuscript copies in Yemen, at the British Library, and sources in: ʿA. al-S. b. ʿA. al-Waǧīh, Aʿlām almuʾallifīn al-Zaydiyya, 1420/1999, no. 1168, pp. 1092–1093; Ibn Abī al-Riǧāl (ms. 1092/1681), Maṭlaʿ albudūr, 1425/2004, vol. 4, no. 1325, pp. 486–487 Ibrāhīm b. al-Qāsim b. al-Imām al-Muʾayyad bi-Allāh, Ṭabaqāt al-Zaydiyya al-kubrā, 1421/2001, vol. 1, no. 764, pp. 1205–1206. Access on Gallica: https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b531518832; author of text: Yaḥyā ibn Aḥmad ʿImād al-Dīn Ibn Muẓaffar (1...-1470), [catalogue, Visualiser dans Gallica]. Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 201 ‫‪A. Regourd‬‬ ‫‪The Beneyton collection‬‬ ‫ـــو ُة ]هكذا[ ِا َال َاب ْ ىّلِل َالْ َعلـــي‬ ‫َوص َــــ ىىل َا ْ َ ُّلِل عَلــــى ُمحــَمـــى ٍد َوعَلـــى َال ِــــ ِه خــــَ ْ ُري َالٍ َو َال َح ْو ُل ]هكذا[ َو َال قُ َ‬ ‫َالْ َعظــــــ ْمي هـ هـ‬ ‫‪c. Second part‬‬ ‫‪Title‬‬ ‫‪Al-ǧuzʾ al-ṯānī, p. 270‬‬ ‫بســـــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــم اللـه الرمحن الرحمي وبه نس تعني وصىل اللـه \عىل‪ /‬محمد \واهل‪/‬‬ ‫اجلزء الث َِاين ِم ْن ال َك َوا ِك ِب النى ِ َريه‬ ‫َ‬ ‫الاك ِش َفه ِلم َع ِاين ال َت ْذ ِك َره‬ ‫ِيف ِف ْق ِه ال ِع ْ َرت ِه امل ُ َطها َِره‬ ‫اتليف س يدان املقام العالمه الاوحد الصمصامه‬ ‫اوحدى الزمن واحلافظ للفرايض والسنن مفىت الشام‬ ‫والمين حمىي موات ادلين املشحى خللوق امللحدين‬ ‫قاموس العمل ونرباسه وراس ذروه‬ ‫اجملد واساسه عامد ادلنيا وادلين‬ ‫سلمك العلام الراشدين ‪ʘ‬‬ ‫حيىي بن امحد بن مظفر امتع هلل << >> \براكته‪ /‬الزخار‬ ‫وحرس مشعريه ربوع الاميان حبمد الـهل‬ ‫الامني وصىل الـهل عىل س يدان محمد‬ ‫واهل وحصبه‬ ‫وسمل‬ ‫‪ʘ‬‬ ‫‪Incipit, p. 271‬‬ ‫ــــــــــــــر ْ َمحــــن الْ‬ ‫ــــــهل ِالْ‬ ‫بـــــــــــســــ ِم َالْ ى ِ‬ ‫ـــــــمي‬ ‫ْ‬ ‫َ‬ ‫َ‬ ‫ـــــــــــــــر ِح ِ‬ ‫ِ‬ ‫كــــــــــــــــــــــتــــــــــــاب َ‬ ‫الشف َعة‬ ‫‪202‬‬ ‫وبه نس تعني‬ ‫)‪Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020‬‬ A. Regourd The Beneyton collection Explicit, p. 535 ‫اللـــــهم اساكل س َؤال مترضع متواضع مبدكل خاشع ان يوفقى خلري احليوه وخري املامت فبقى رش احليوه‬ ‫ ودلى واملسلمني‬..‫ورش املامت وان يرزقىن رضوانك واجلنه وحيريب من معسك والنار ووادلى و‬ ‫ ابحبار الارض والسموات انك مسيع ادلعأ والـفاحته (؟) عىل ما يشا‬95‫واملسلامت الاحيا مهنم والاموات‬ ‫ محمد وعىل اهل الطيبني الطاهرين وعىل مجيع الانبيا واملرسلني وال حول وال قوة‬/‫وان تصىل عىل س يد\ان‬ ‫الا ابلـهل العىل العظمي‬ B. Identification of the copy a. No colophon. P. 535, following the explicit of the second part, two to three lines of text were erased; the following text has been written over them: ‫ هذا الكتاب برمس مالكيه اوالد القايض العالمه وجيه ادلين عبد الهادي‬.1 ‫ رمحه هلل تعاىل‬96‫ بن امحد الثاليئ‬.2 ‫ عار به عندى الفقري اىل الـهل‬.3 ‫ عبد الرمحن بن امحد يعمل ذكل‬.4 In fact there are several hands, some of which reappear; after p. 170, l. 12 or 13, the script becomes tighter. b. Total number of folios 269, paginated from 2 to 539; the loose folios have been paginated where they were found by repeating the page number on the left, and, possibly, by adding “bis” or “ter” (e. g. ff. 408bis on one side, 408ter on the other). c. Dimensions of the written surface 17 × 24 cm (variations of 0.5 cm, height and width) Numerous marginal extensions of the matn: letters, fāʾ (p. 282), lām (p. 294), yāʾ (p. 328); words completed in the margin, with or without a 95 Reference to the prayer duʿa al-amwāt, ‫اللهم اغفر للمؤمنني واملؤمنات واملسلمني واملسلامت الحياء مهنم والموات‬ much commented on, as by Muḥammad b. Muḥammad al-Ḥusaynī al-Zabīdī Murtaḍā (d. 1205/1791), in his commentary on al-Ġazālī (d. 505/1111), Itḥāf al-sāda al-muttaqīn bi-šarḥ Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīn, vol. 5, chap. 4, K. al-aḏkār wa-al-daʿwāt, p. 333. 96 M. 1048/1638: Ibn Abī al-Riǧāl (d. 1092/1681), Maṭlaʿ al-budūr, 1425/2004, vol. 3, no. 754, pp. 61–63; Ibrāhīm b. al-Qāsim b. al-Imām al-Muʾayyad bi-Allāh, Ṭabaqāt al-Zaydiyya al-kubrā, 1421/2001, vol. 1, no. 347, pp. 575–577; al-Šawkānī, Al-badr al-ṭāliʿ, n. d., vol. 1, no. 190, p. 405. Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 203 A. Regourd The Beneyton collection space marking the limit of the written surface, especially practised by the copyist in the work from p. 284; completion of the last word of a line in the margin, going up, vertically. d. Number of lines per page 32–35 (throughout)—ruled e. Ink Black and red, red for the matn, black for the šarḥ—sparkling black ink97 (title page of 1st volume). f. Rubrication and work of the copyist The navigation of the text is dependent on the rubrication. The marginal mark “faṣl” on p. 529, in black ink, perpendicular to the text, is exceptional. * Rubricated titles * Sections (faṣl, bāb, kitāb) * Aqwāl Examples of noticeable variations, pp. 188, 228. Sections in red ink are completed in the field left at the time of the main copy, in black ink. P. 494, the field left for rubrication is much larger than is required for the text written in red ink, as it is. g. Characteristics of script, diacritics and ihmāl Unevenly diacritised; irregular ihmāl signs: chevrons on the ḥāʾs, rāʾs, sīns, ṣāds, ʿayns; sign “z” or “٤” on yāʾs; dāls and ṭāʾs under-punctuated; rare vocalization, sometimes of aesthetic value. e. Erasures By the copyist, but also by other hands. f. Catchwords Up to p. 155, catchwords perpendicular to the text, in the left side margin, near the fold and near the bottom edge. Pp. 157–169, oblique catchwords written from bottom to top; pp. 171–283, oblique but from top to bottom: A. Regourd & K. Scheper, “Shifting sands of writing inks in Yemen. The occurrence of sparkling particles in Yemeni Manuscripts”, 2018. 97 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 204 A. Regourd The Beneyton collection these oblique catchwords are written using a thicker calame and by different hands; pp. 285–533, return of the first calame and the first hand with, towards the end, a tendency to obliqueness. This first “generation” of catchwords is sometimes written in red. The manuscript has been trimmed; when the catchword was less visible or has been altered, it has been taken up again, generally on an oblique line from right to left, playing on the colour of the ink, black or red, as opposed to matn: where matn is in black ink, the catchword appears in red and vice versa. E. g. catchword in red, whereas the catchword was originally in black, as was the matn: pp. 105, 131, 405, 423, 431, 433, 435, 441, 443, 445, 447, 453, 455, 459, 479, 489, 499 (in the last 3 cases, in a clumsy hand). C. Material features a. Paper Same paper from one end of the manuscript to the other, unmarked paper. Very common paper in Yemen from the 14th to the first half of the 16th century, much rarer afterwards98. b. Dimensions of the folios 28.5 × 21 cm c. Thickness of the quire block 5 cm d. Quires 1 additional sheet installed in a binion, followed by quaternions. e. Pagination In Arabic numerals, inside a circle, in lead pencil on the upper left corner of the left folio and upper right corner of the right folio. The pagination begins on the recto of f. 1 paginated 2, resulting in the appearance of even numbers on the recto and odd numbers on the verso. f. Binding Still in place; the play between the spine and the block of quires resulting from the stretched head and tail bands reveals the structure of the binding. The whole is in fairly good condition. 98 See note 90. Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 205 A. Regourd The Beneyton collection Type: Flap binding, flap has disappeared. Cover block: full dyed reddish-brown leather; cardboard boards; strip of gauze attached to the spine and the boards; rectangle of leather glued on the boards; the vertical edges of the gauze have been covered with a strip of white laid paper attached to the boards. The quires were sewn together at one and two thirds of their height. The quire block has been attached to the gauze strip attached to the spine with diluted glue detectable by touch; there are remnants of the upper and lower headbands seams on the spine gauze and the block of quires. Covers, ornate: stamped decorations, identical on the two covers. Type: mandorla (U. Dreibholz, type 4, Fig. 499). Central mandorla adorned, inside, with cross-shaped patterns (“X”) produced by small irons, and on its perimeter with two oval borders, the first with a pattern of small grooves (waves), the second with small triangles whose point is turned outwards, giving the whole a spiky air (“These mandorlas often have a somewhat ‘hairy’ or ‘prickly’ appearance because of all the spikes extending from the outer boundary. Spikes are also not uniquely Yemeni, but they certainly are in this density”100); the vertical and horizontal axes end near the frame with a pattern composed of a groove extended by a point and flanked by two oblique triangles. The frame is formed by three bands: the outer band, near the edge, carries a stamped text partially erased by manipulation: “Al-ʿizz al-dāʾim li-ṣāḥibihi” (eternal glory to its owner)101. The middle band shows a decoration of intertwined ovals with a central motif. Finally, the internal strip contains crossbars (“X”). The “kite” corner-pieces are typical of the type 4 described by U. Dreibholz and similar to those in the illustration she gives102. D. Marginalia and transmission of texts a. Upper board Text in ring letters In the editing of the texts, the following symbols have been used: [ ] = lacuna in the manuscript / \ = text written above, or below, the line, or in the margin, vertically U. Dreibholz, “Unusual and not-so-usual decorations on Yemeni bindings”, 2003, pp. 41, 43. U. Dreibholz, “Unusual and not-so-usual decorations on Yemeni bindings”, 2003, p. 41. 101 The formula was found in the repertory of epigraphic irons appearing on the bindings of manuscripts in the Caprotti collection dated or datable to the 14th–15th century, cf. A. d’Ottone, “La reliure araboyéménite médiévale : un projet d’étude”, 2007, par. 8. 102 U. Dreibholz, “Unusual and not-so-usual decorations on Yemeni bindings”, 2003, p. 41; “The Stamps”, “Kite”, p. 41; Fig. 4, p. 43. 99 100 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 206 A. Regourd The Beneyton collection <<>> = deletions in the manuscript b. P. 2 (f. 1r) Dated mark Rabīʿ awwal 1216/July–August 1801 ʿAtīqa Bint ʿAlī Sayyidnā ‫ امحلدهل‬.1 ‫ـر (؟) عتيقه بنت عىل س يدان ابلـ] [ـه‬.‫ بعـ‬.2 ‫ (؟) ربيع اول‬8 ‫ الصحيحه بتارخيه شهر‬.3 1216 ‫ س نه‬.4 Inheritance mark Ḏū al-qaʿda 1214/March–April 1800 ʿAtīqa Bint ʿAlī Ḥamīd Yaḥyā Šaraf al-Muṭahhar al-Muẓaffar (?) [‫ احلـ]ـمدهل‬.1 ‫ بقيت (؟) الـحره عتيقه بنت عيل محيد‬.2 ‫ ابالقسمه اىل حيىي‬.3 1214 ‫ شهر الـقعده س نة‬.4 )‫ رشف الـمطهر املظفر (؟‬.5 c. Pp. 3–11, series of texts by several hands, each occupying half a page in its lower half Many of these texts are attuned to popular culture, whether they are about fumigation, talismanics, prediction, omens or the choice of propitious times: they are so not only because of the concerns they respond to, but also because of the methods or systems of calculation employed. Some are marked by dialectal pronunciation. With our present knowledge, which is still so limited, it is difficult to find more precise regional indicators, the Zaydi milieu remaining the best evidenced. The short text on ṭanbūr, an Indian musical instrument, would thus testify to the known exchanges between the Indian community arrived from India and the Zaydis. - P. 3 1. Proven talisman (ṣarf) against locusts (10 l.) The Yemeni highlands have been plagued by locust invasions. ‫امحلد هلل وحده‬ Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) .1 207 ‫‪A. Regourd‬‬ ‫‪The Beneyton collection‬‬ ‫‪ .2‬رصف للجراد جمربه انفعه ابذن اه تعاىل توخد تسع جراد ان‬ ‫‪ .3‬تكتب عىل جناح الاوال ”فس يكفيكهم ]ا[لـهل وهو السميع العلمي“‪ 103‬وىف الثانيه‬ ‫‪” .4‬حسبنا اه ونعم الوكيل“‪ 104‬والثالثه ”مث انرصفو]ا[ رصف هلل قلوهبم ابهنم قوم ال‬ ‫‪] .5‬يفـ[ـقهون“‪ 105‬وىف الرابعه ”فلام قىض ولو]ا[ اىل قوهمم منذرين“‪ 106‬وىف اخلامسه ”وحيل‬ ‫‪108‬‬ ‫‪107‬‬ ‫‪] .6‬بـ[ـيهنم وبني ما يش هتون“ ويف السادسه ”اات امر الـهل فال تس تعجلوه“‬ ‫‪109‬‬ ‫‪] .7‬و[يف السابعه ”ويه متر مر السحاب صنع الـهل اذلى اتقن لك يش علهيا“‬ ‫‪] .8‬و[يف الثامنه ”اي قومنا اجيبو]ا[ داعى هلل وامنوا“‪ 110‬برسوهل وىف التا‬ ‫‪111‬‬ ‫‪] .9‬سـ[ـعه ”ما امر الساعه الا لكمح البرص او هو اقرب“‬ ‫‪[ ] .10‬‬ ‫‪Some signs of ihmāl, above rāʾs and sīns (chevrons).‬‬ ‫)‪2. Cast based on correspondence with the stars to find out the outcome of a case (8 l.‬‬ ‫‪The correspondence is established on the basis of 8 stars, including the‬‬ ‫‪Tail of the Dragon (al-ḏanab).‬‬ ‫‪ .0‬امحلد هلل وحده‬ ‫‪ .9‬مسئـ[ـهل عن وىب تسال اذا ار]د[ت ان تعمل احلاجه مقضيه ام ال فاقبض بكفك عىل ما يكون‬ ‫‪ [ .3‬حىص او غـيـ]ـر[ه (؟) واخرج مهنا مثانيه مث انظر ما بقي يف يدك فانه بقى واحد فهو للزهره و‬ ‫‪[ .1‬ـحه تمت وينقيض وان بقى اثنني فهو للمرخي فهيا توقف وان بقى ثالثه فهو اذلنب وهو‬ ‫‪[ .1‬ـشني ويه ال << >> تصح وان بقى اربعه فهو للزحل تصح بعد تعب وان بقى مخسـ]ـه فـ[ـهو‬ ‫للمشرتى‬ ‫‪ [ .2‬تصح ىف ارسع وقت وان بقى س ته فهو للقمر تتـم يف رسعه وال تتاخر وان‬ ‫‪ .1‬بقى[ س بعه فهو لعطارد تصح وتتـ]ـم و[يظـ]ـهر[ (؟) ] [ وان بقى مثانية فهو للشمس فال (؟)‬ ‫‪] .1‬‬ ‫‪112‬‬ ‫‪L. 8 is probably the last line of the text.‬‬ ‫‪Qurʾan, sura 2, Al-baqara, v. 137.‬‬ ‫‪Qurʾan, sura 3, Āl ʿImrān, v. 173.‬‬ ‫‪105‬‬ ‫‪Qurʾan, sura 9, Al-tawba, v. 127.‬‬ ‫‪106‬‬ ‫‪Qurʾan, sura 46, Al-aḥqāf, v. 29.‬‬ ‫‪107‬‬ ‫‪Qurʾan, sura 34, Sabāʾ, v. 54.‬‬ ‫‪108‬‬ ‫‪Qurʾan, sura 16, Al-naḥl, v. 1.‬‬ ‫‪109‬‬ ‫‪ is an addition.‬علهيا ‪Qurʾan, sura 27, Al-naml, v. 88. The last word‬‬ ‫‪110‬‬ ‫‪Qurʾan, sura 46, Al-aḥqāf, v. 31.‬‬ ‫‪111‬‬ ‫‪Qurʾan, sura 16, Al-naḥl, v. 77.‬‬ ‫‪112‬‬ ‫‪The mīm of “am” is tied to the following word, “lā”, in the original.‬‬ ‫‪103‬‬ ‫‪104‬‬ ‫‪208‬‬ ‫)‪Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020‬‬ A. Regourd The Beneyton collection Signs of ihmāl, irregularly, above the rāʾs, sīns, ṣāds, ʿayns (chevrons). - Pp. 4–5 1. Mark of sale ‫ انتقل هذا الكتاب اىل مملكه الفقيه العالمه عبد الهادى‬.1 ‫ بن امحد ابلرشا الصحيح والاوساط الرصحيه‬.2 Al-faqīh al-allāma ʿAbd al-Hādī The second line is written backwards, from left to right. 2. Lunar mansions: value of augury and auspiciousness for weddings The indicators of agricultural work (al-maʿālim al-zirāʿiyya) are linked to the course of the sun in the lunar mansions (manāzil al-qamar). In Yemen, this knowledge has survived the centuries and was still alive at the end of the 1990s113. Their use in talismanic magic has already been noted. Here, the mansions are studied for their value as auguries and in order to make a marriage auspicious by choosing the right moment—or iḫtiyār—to cross the threshold of the groom’s house. The iḫtiyārāt are one of the main chapters of astrology but in this case, the calculation is an elementary one based on popular agricultural knowledge very much alive in Yemen, a country which, in the 1990s, still had between 70 and 80% of its population in rural areas. The text is divided as follows: l. 2–5 bāb asmāʾ almanāzil: their names, related to the four seasons, starting in Summer; l. 6 bāb ḥisāb al-naḥs wa-al-saʿd: those who bring happiness or unhappiness, finally, l. 11 bāb al-ʿurs: the destiny of a marriage according to the entry of the moon into each of the mansions at the time of entry into the groom’s house. The incomplete text stops at l. 15 and ends on the next page, p. 5, 16 l. (catchword). As far as our investigation is concerned, it seems that alzabānān for al-zabānā is a Yemeni peculiarity—in contrast to the SyroLebanese area, attested from the Rassoulide era, and not an indication of the regional circulation of the manuscript114. However, the question of the vernacular al-b.tḥ for al-šaraṭān remains. 113 Attested to by the compendium of this agricultural knowledge and its oral transmission through proverbs, compiled by Y. b. Y. al-ʿAnsī, Al-maʿālim al-zirāʿiyya fī al-Yaman, 1998. The author conducted a field survey in different regions of Yemen. 114 D. M. Varisco, Medieval Agriculture and Islamic Science, 1994, l. 2 of the text p. 24 and corresponding note, p. 234; list of mansion, p. 90, entry 16, and note 12, p. 240. Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 209 ‫‪The Beneyton collection‬‬ ‫‪A. Regourd‬‬ ‫]ص ‪[4‬‬ ‫‪ .1‬بسم‪ 115‬هلل الرمحن الرحمي هذه جنوم الـصيف شاميه‬ ‫‪116‬‬ ‫‪ .2‬ابب اسام املنازل اولها البطح والبطني والـرثاي وادلبران والهقعه والهـنعه والذراع ‪ῳῳῳ‬‬ ‫‪ .3‬وهذه جنوم اخلريف شاميه اولها النرثه والطرف واجلهبه والزبره والرصفه والعوا والسامك ‪ῳῳῳ‬‬ ‫‪117‬‬ ‫‪ .4‬وهذه الس بعه الامينيه (الش توية) اولها الغفر والزابانن والالكيل والقلب والشوهل والنعامي والبدله ‪ῳῳ‬‬ ‫‪ .5‬وهذه جنوم الربيع س بعه ميانيه اولها سعد اذلاحب وسعد بلع وسعد السعود وسعد الاخبيه \واملُقدم‬ ‫واملُوخر واحلوت‪/‬‬ ‫‪ .6‬ابب حساب النحس والسعد الرشطني حنس البظني مين سعد طلق الرثاي سعد ادلبران حنس الهقعه‬ ‫‪ .7‬مين سعد الهنعه حنس اذلراع حنس وقيل انه مين سعد الـنرثه حنس الطرف مين سعد اجلهبه حنس‬ ‫‪ .8‬الزبره مين سعد الرصفه حنس العوا حنس السامك مين سعد الغفر حنس الزابانن‪ 118‬حنس الالكيل حنس‬ ‫‪ .9‬القلب حنس الشوهل حنس النعامي مين سعد البدله حنس سعد اذلاحب سعد ســعد بلع مين سعد‬ ‫‪ .10‬سعد السعود مين سعـد سعـد الاخبية مين سعد ُمقدم ادللو حنس و ُموخر ادلَ لو مين سعد‬ ‫‪ .11‬بطن احلوت مين سـعد ‪ ῳῳῳ‬ابب العرس ودخولها واللـه اعمل واحمك اذا دخلت العرس‬ ‫‪ .12‬ادلار والقمر ىف البطح‪ 119‬فان زوهجا متت واذا دخلت والقمر ىف البطني فاهنا متوت نفاس‬ ‫‪ .13‬واذا دخلت والقمر ىف الرثاي فاهنا تكون مباركه وان دخلت والقمر ىف ادلبران فاهنا تكون‬ ‫‪َ >> << .14‬صاحبت ديون وان دخلت والقمر ىف الهقعه فاهنا تكون مـردية‪ 120‬يف بيهتا‬ ‫‪ .15‬خبيثه وان دخلت والقمر ىف الهنعه فاهنا تكون كثرية الاوجاع وان دخلت والقمر ىف‬ ‫]ص ‪[5‬‬ ‫‪ .1‬ىف‪ 121‬اذلراع فاهنا تكون ابطشه‪ 122‬عظميه قويه ال يطيقها احد وىه تودى الزق (؟) وان دخلت‬ ‫‪ .2‬والقمر ىف النرثه فاهنا تكون حنسه وان دخلت والقمر ىف الطرف فاهنا تكون تصيب ماال‬ ‫‪The letter bāʾ of bi-sm, i. e. the first letter of the text, is recalled in the margin, see n. 104.‬‬ ‫‪.‬الرشطني ‪Corresponds to:‬‬ ‫‪117‬‬ ‫‪. M. Piamenta gives al-zubāna, with a tāʾ marbūṭa, in: Dictionary of Post-Classical‬الزابان ‪Corresponds to:‬‬ ‫‪Yemeni Arabic, vol. 1, 1990, p. 196b, but without specifying the region.‬‬ ‫‪118‬‬ ‫‪.‬الزابان ‪Corresponds to:‬‬ ‫‪119‬‬ ‫‪.‬الرشطني ‪Corresponds to:‬‬ ‫‪120‬‬ ‫‪From the root m.r.d. which gives mārid. Dozy gives murdiya with the sense “être bardache” (to be‬‬ ‫‪bardache), R. Dozy, Supplément aux dictionnaires arabes, 1881, p. 588a.‬‬ ‫‪121‬‬ ‫‪ is repeated in the matn as a catchword. It also appears in the right margin, at the level of the first‬ىف‬ ‫‪line of the text, on p. 5, as well as the first letter of the first word of the first line of the text, on p. 4, bāʾ.‬‬ ‫‪122‬‬ ‫;‪Scheme fāʿila, not attested for bataša (A. de B. Kazimirski, Dictionnaire Arabe-Français 1860, vol. 1‬‬ ‫‪R. Dozy, Supplément aux dictionnaires arabes, 1881, vol. 1; M. Piamenta, Dictionary of Post-Classical Yem‬‬‫‪eni Arabic, vol. 1, 1990).‬‬ ‫‪115‬‬ ‫‪116‬‬ ‫‪210‬‬ ‫)‪Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020‬‬ ‫‪A. Regourd‬‬ ‫‪The Beneyton collection‬‬ ‫‪ .3‬وىه مباركه وان دخلت والقمر ىف اجلهبه فان زوهجا يطلقها من حفش يرضها وان‬ ‫‪ .4‬دخلت والقمر ىف الزبره فاهنا تكون \ثقيهل‪ /‬هينه دنسه‪ 123‬كسهل وان دخلت والقمر ىف الرصفه فاهنا‬ ‫‪ .5‬تكون ترصف الرزق وان دخلت والقمر ىف العوا فاهنا تكون امره خفيفه مباركه منقلبه رزقها‬ ‫‪ .6‬كثري وىه تفرقه وان دخلت والقمر ىف << >> السامك فاهنا تكون << >>\د‪/‬نسه ثقيهل عىل زوهجا‬ ‫وان دخلت والقمر‬ ‫‪124‬‬ ‫‪ .7‬ىف الغفر فاهنا تكون خفيفه وان داخلت والقمر ىف الزابانن فـ]ـا[هنا تكون حنسه وان د\ا‪/‬خلت‬ ‫‪ .8‬والقمر ىف الالكيل فاهنا تاكد تـصح وان داخلت والقمر ىف القلب فاهنا تكون حتارف زوهجا وان‬ ‫داخلت‬ ‫‪125‬‬ ‫‪ .9‬والقمر ابلشوهل فاهنا تكون زاينه صاحبت رجال وان داخلت والقمر ىف الناعامي فـنجاح لها مباركه‬ ‫‪َ .10‬ســـــــــــــعيده وان داخلت والقمر ىف البدله فاهنا تكون يفارقها زوهجا وان داخلت والقمر ىف سعد‬ ‫‪ .11‬اذلاحب فاهنا متوت وكذكل زوهجا << >> حبزن وان داخلت والقمر ىف ســعد بلع فاهنا تكون‬ ‫‪126‬‬ ‫معتارضه‬ ‫سوا وان داخلت ىف ســعد السعود فنجاح لها ههيات هـهيات جامعت للامل‬ ‫‪ .12‬يف زوهجا ال ترد به ٌ‬ ‫‪ .13‬والشمل والرزق وحصه الودل والبدن وان دخلت والقمر ىف ســعد الاخبيه فاهنا تكون سعيده‬ ‫‪ .14‬مباركه منقلبه وان دخلت والقمر ىف الـفرع الـمـ]ـقـ[ـدم فاهنا تكون يرزق الاوالد اذلكور وان دخلت‬ ‫والقمر ىف‬ ‫‪ .15‬الفرع املوخر فاهنا تكون مباركه وان احتالت ىف بيهتا ال غريه ماتت وان دخلت والقمر ىف احلوت‬ ‫ارضت بزو‬ ‫‪ .16‬هجا واقربيه ولك اوالدها والـهل اعمل واحمك‪.‬‬ ‫‪Ihmāl signs, irregularly, above ḥāʾs, rāʾs, sīns, ṣāds, ʿayns (chevrons), and‬‬ ‫‪kāfs (small letter kāf); below the dāls and ṭāʾs (dot).‬‬ ‫‪- P. 6‬‬ ‫‪Qaṣīda of 11 verses, with hemistiche mark, of Amīr al-muʾminīn al-Mahdī li-dīn Šaraf‬‬ ‫‪al-ʿālamīn (l. 1). According to the note following the poem in the same hand, the au‬‬‫‪thor of the poem would be Aḥmad Ibn Yaḥyā b. al-Murtaḍā (l. 12). It would therefore‬‬ ‫‪be the renowned savant and polymath, born in 763/1362 or 774/1373, died in 840/1437,‬‬ ‫‪M. Piamenta, Dictionary of Post-Classical Yemeni Arabic, vol. 1, 1990, p. 157b.‬‬ ‫‪ from here on, generally.‬داخلت‬ ‫‪123‬‬ ‫‪124‬‬ ‫‪The diacritic points of yāʾ and nūn are inverted. Kazimirski indicates that the adjective in the form‬‬ ‫‪“zāyīn” also applies to the feminine (A. de B. Kazimirski, Dictionnaire Arabe-Français, p. 1034b).‬‬ ‫‪126‬‬ ‫‪ in the original; ḍād and ṭāʾ are substituted for each other in Yemeni highland dialect.‬معتارطه‬ ‫‪211‬‬ ‫‪125‬‬ ‫)‪Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020‬‬ ‫‪A. Regourd‬‬ ‫‪The Beneyton collection‬‬ ‫‪who ruled as Zaydi Imam from 793/1391 to his death. Among his writings are works on‬‬ ‫‪fiqh and uṣūl al-fiqh127.‬‬ ‫‪ .1‬امحلد هلل وحده‬ ‫‪ .2‬هذه القصيدة ملولنا امري املؤمنني املهدى دلين رشف العاملني‬ ‫(‪)...‬‬ ‫‪ .12‬وصىل اىل ىه لك يوم وليهل عىل امحد اخملتار (؟) طول الليايل متت قصيده امحد ابن حيىي بن‬ ‫املرتىض‬ ‫‪- P. 7‬‬ ‫‪1. Right‬‬ ‫)‪* Ḫabar about Ibn ʿAbbās (12 l.‬‬ ‫)‪* Ḫabar about the Prophet (10 l.‬‬ ‫‪2. Left‬‬ ‫)‪Medicinal recipe; two kitābas to make someone love you (9 l.‬‬ ‫‪ .1‬ويقال انه اذا سوى الثوم والك دهىن ابلبوا‬ ‫‪ .2‬سري ووجع الرس ومن قىل الثوم ومراره الظان و‬ ‫‪ .3‬جعهل يف اذنيه يربا من الصمم هـــ وذكر اان من كتب هذه‬ ‫‪ .4‬احلروف وتعلقها احبه الناس حبا شديدا ويه هذه‬ ‫‪ .5‬ا ب احلي هح ط س ط مراع ال ه ال ل ه د ط ه هل ه ه د د ا‬ ‫‪ .6‬و و ع ع ع متـــــــــت ابب وهجه اذا اردت ان ترا جعيبا فاكتب هذه‬ ‫‪ .7‬الاسام اببره عىل سفرجهل او تني حبه واطعها من حتب فان الكها فانك ترا جعيبا وهاذا‬ ‫‪ .8‬كتابهتا طواس كهواس مكعوس د من د س وان كتبهتا بدم ظفادع‪ 128‬بكفك وترضب‬ ‫‪ .9‬به صدر من حتب فانك ترا ش يا عظامي متــــــــــت‬ ‫‪Note the use of ink containing quince or fig.‬‬ ‫‪- P. 8‬‬ ‫‪1. Left‬‬ ‫)‪Three legal questions on divorce (6 + 4 + 6 l.‬‬ ‫‪GAL I, pp. 238–240. My thanks to Julien Dufour (Université de Strasbourg) for his remarks.‬‬ ‫‪, following a dialectal pronunciation, common in the Zaydi area.‬ضفادع ‪For‬‬ ‫‪212‬‬ ‫‪127‬‬ ‫‪128‬‬ ‫)‪Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020‬‬ A. Regourd The Beneyton collection 2. Right, 90° Recipe and talisman (kitāba) to make oneself or someone else invisible (10 l.) 129 ‫ ]بـ[ـاب اذا اردت ان ترا وال يرا او يرا و ال ترا فاكتب هذا الرموز والاشاكل ما الندا والاكفور‬.1 ‫ مث اتخذ‬131‫ يف رق الضيب‬130‫الابيض‬ ‫ اكفور ابيص نقى البياض وتسحقه مبا النادا وخذ ربع فتهل زعفران ومثلها مسك ومثل امجليع اكفور ابيض‬.2 ‫مث احسقه مجيعا‬ ‫ ]فان[ مسحت به جيدا ذكل وعينك امجليع وربطت الكتاب يف عينك الامين فانه ال يراك ]احدا[ ابدا‬.3 ‫حصيح جمرب فان مسحت به جفن عينك المينا‬ ‫ حفرص عينك المينا فانك ال ترا احدا ابدا فبالالـه العظمي مث ابلالـه عليك اي من وقع عىل هاذا الكتاب يف‬.4 ‫يده ال تس تعمهل‬ 133 132 ‫ معصيه وال تظهره لغريك فان خالفت خالفت خسـرت والا خرست وهاذا كتابه الالـه الالـه الالـه‬.5 ‫خَفي َال يرا‬ ‫الالـه الالـه الالـه خفي ال يرا هبم‬ ‫ الالـه الالـه الالـه‬.6 ‫الالـه الالـه الالـه‬ ‫ ] خـ[ـفى ال يرا‬.7 ‫ ”الهام زدان وال تنقصنا واكرمنا وال هتناا واعطنا وال حترمنا واثران وال اتثر علينا وارض عناا وار‬.8 ‫ برمحه منك اي رحمي الرامحني‬134“‫ ضنا‬.9 ‫ دعا به صلعمل‬.10 Ihmāl signs, irregular, above ḥāʾs, rāʾs, sīns, ṣāds, ʿayns (chevrons); below ṭāʾ (dot, once). 3. Below, written perpendicularly to the texts of 1 Small note on the Indian musical instrument, the ṭanbūr (8 l.) The term mustaʿarab certainly refers to people from India (Hind) living on Yemeni soil and, given the subject of the book and the context indicated by the marginal texts, in the Zaydi area. Our reading, the loop of the mīm being absent and the demonstrative in the masculine singular. Kāfūr: camphor, usually used as a perfume or cosmetic; abyaḍ? 131 For ‫الظيب‬, following a dialectal pronunciation, common in the Zaydi area. 132 A passage quite unclear to us. 133 The tāʾ manuscript is marbūṭa. 134 Duʿā known from muḥaddiṯīn. It should read: “wa-lā tuʾṯir ʿalaynā” and in various commentaries the passage on the earth is inverted, “wa-arḍinā wa-arḍa ʿannā”. 129 130 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 213 ‫‪The Beneyton collection‬‬ ‫‪ .1‬قوهل الطنبور‬ ‫‪ .2‬قال ىف املس تعرب‬ ‫‪ .3‬الطنبور رابب اهل‬ ‫‪ .4‬الهند معروف عند‬ ‫‪ .5‬اهل اللهو قيل ان هل‬ ‫‪ .6‬اربعني وتر للك‬ ‫‪ .7‬وتر صوت ال يش هبه‬ ‫‪ .8‬الاخر متــــــــــت‬ ‫‪A. Regourd‬‬ ‫‪Ihmāl signs, irregularly, above rāʾs and ṣāds.‬‬ ‫‪- P. 9‬‬ ‫‪1. Right‬‬ ‫)‪Legal question (8 l.‬‬ ‫‪2. Left at 90°‬‬ ‫)‪Riwāya about the cubit (ḏirāʿ) (8 l.‬‬ ‫‪3. At the bottom of the page‬‬ ‫‪Basmala‬‬ ‫بسم هلل الرمحن الرحمي وبه نس تعني وصىل هلل عىل س يدان محمد‬ ‫‪- P. 10‬‬ ‫)‪* Religious text (14 l.‬‬ ‫‪ .1‬اذا قيل هلم ال اهل الا الـهل اخل‬ ‫‪* Near the top edge‬‬ ‫)‪Duʿā al-īmān (5 l.‬‬ ‫‪ .1‬ال اهل الـهل املوجود بلك زمان ال اهل الا الـهل املعروف‬ ‫‪ .2‬بلك احسان ال اهل الا الـهل املعبود بلك ماكن ال اهل الا الـهل‬ ‫‪ .3‬املذكور بلك لسان ال اهل الا الـهل لك يوم هو يف شان ال اهل الا الـ]ـ[ـهل‬ ‫‪ .4‬امان من زوال الاميان ومن رش الش يطان واي قدمي الاحـســان‬ ‫‪ .5‬اي غفور اي غفور اي غفور‬ ‫‪214‬‬ ‫)‪Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020‬‬ A. Regourd The Beneyton collection * Between the two texts, obliquely An ownership mark (tamlīk) ‫ هذا الكتاب مكل‬.1 ‫ الفقري اىل هلل س بحانه‬.2 ‫ حيىي (؟) بن زين الارصيح‬.3 Yaḥyā (?) b. Zayn al-Aṣraḥī - P. 11 * Augury by smoke (8 l.) ‫ د س ه اتخذ مراره هدهد‬135‫ ابب (الـ)ـطحـال (؟) ا ل هـ ن‬.1 ‫ اسود وطحال املاعز‬137‫ ومراره هر‬136‫ ومراره حذا‬.2 ‫ تدق دق ًا انعامً وختلط بدهن تتقسح وتكتحال به‬.3 ‫ س بع ليايل لك ليهل س بعه اميال فانه يرا ان شا اللـه تع‬.4 ‫ ابيض فهو سهل فان اكن‬138‫ فان اكن ال دخان‬.5 ‫ يـ]ـ[ـصعد السام فهو بعيد وان اكن قريب من الا‬.6 ‫ رض فهو قريب وادلخان الابيض سهل‬.7 ‫ اسود والـهل اعمل‬139‫ وادلخان الاسود من صفا‬.8 Ihmāl signs, irregularly, above ḥāʾs, rāʾs, sīns, ṣāds, ʿayns (chevrons). * At the top of the page, left free, from top to bottom 1. Sale mark 140 )‫ امحلد هلل رب العاملني الـهل (؟‬.1 ‫ من فضل هلل عىل صار هذا الكتاب ابلرشا الصحيح‬.2 135 The letter is not diacritised in the original. Ḥizāʾ, one of the local names for šabat, Anethum graveolens L., whose oil is perfumed, ʿA. al-W. A. alḪulaydī & ʿA. al-R. S. al-Dubaʿī, Al-nabātāt al-ṭibbiyya wa-al-ʿiṭriyya fī al-Yaman, 1230/1997, p. 92. Among the very many uses of this plant collected by the authors in various scriptural sources are disease of the spleen (ṭuḥāl) and inducing sleep. Unfortunately, the specific region in which this vernacular is used is not indicated and its area of cultivation extends throughout Yemen. Attested by R. Dozy, Supplément aux dictionnaires arabes, 1881, vol. 1, p. 282b, entry ḥazan, ḥazā and ḥizāʾa; according to one of the cited authors, this plant is unknown in the Maghreb. 137 Not identified. 138 For ‫ادلخان‬. 139 ‫? صقة‬ 140 A symbol for Allāh? 136 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 215 A. Regourd The Beneyton collection ‫ عون ادلين احلسني بن محمد بن امحد بن عون ادلين بن املطهر بن الامام‬/‫ تعا\ىل‬/‫ واان الفقري \اىل هلل‬.3 ‫رشف ادلين عارف برويته‬ ‫ اللهم اغفر رسويل واسري عيوىن محمد صلواتك وسالمك عليه‬.4 ‫ بتارخي شهر جامدى الاوىل س نة‬.5 1154 .6 ʿAwn al-Dīn al-Ḥusayn b. Muḥammad b. Aḥmad b. ʿAwn al-Dīn b. alMuṭahhar b. al-Imam Šaraf al-Dīn Ǧumādā al-ūlā 1154/July–August 1741 2. Title of the first part (see above, 2. f) 3. Ownership mark? After the title, in another hand: ‫ صارت هذه اجلزيني يف توفري العبد الفقري املعرتف ابذلنب والتقصري املس تجري بربه من عذاب السخر‬.1 )‫(؟‬ 141 ‫ قامس بن عيىس الزين وفقه هلل يف ادلارين‬.2 1221 ‫ شعبان س نه‬2 ‫ اترخي شهر‬.3 ‫ امحلد هلل وحده‬.4 Qāsim b. ʿIsā al-Zayn 2 šaʿbān 1221/15 October 1806 Glittering ink142. 4. To the left of the field of 3 Legal question about reparation of an error made during prayer (suǧūd al-sahw, 3 l.) When the prayer is performed in a group, should we wait until the Imam, who has made the error, repairs it (suǧūd al-sahw) or can the orants (almuʾtammīn) immediately perform the prostration of reparation? In this marginal text, the answer is that they do not have to wait for the Imam to perform the customary prostration. ‫ مساةل اذا أحدث الامام فيلزم (؟) جسود السهو‬.1 ‫ فانه ال جيب عىل املومتني انتظاره‬.2 141 Non-diacritised, like almost all the title. A. Regourd & K. Scheper, “Shifting sands of writing inks in Yemen. The occurrence of sparkling particles in Yemeni Manuscripts”, 2018. 142 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 216 A. Regourd The Beneyton collection ‫و متت‬143‫ بل يسجد‬.3 Editing and interpretation: Scott Lucas (University of Arizona) d. Lateral margins of Al-kawākib al-nayyira - Collation marks (b.l.ġ., e. g. p. 158). - Numerous marginal notes, in various hands, some erased. Some are in the internal margin. Types: * Mainly corrections of the text (taṣḥīḥ), various hands, generally in the margin, sometimes in the interval between two lines (p. 226); “ṣḥ” symbol, mark in the text or corrected word/passage neatly struck out with a thin line in red (p. 180) or light yellow ink (p. 247), some with tawḍīḥ (e. g. pp. 196, 197, 198). P. 80, “ṣaḥ aṣl”. P. 407, circular in shape. Among the documentary occurrences, p. 16: “rawā al-faqīh ʿAbd Allāh b. Zayd fī šarḥihi ʿan al-Hādī wa-al-Qasim wa-al-Nāṣir144 an yalzamuhu al-farḍā (?) qabl farʿ wa-huwa qawl al-hādawiyya ṣḥ”. * Commentary (taʿlīq) generally closed with “tammat”, the most numerous being at the beginning (p. 12), sometimes in red ink (e. g. pp. 98, 133, 437). Named are, Imam Šaraf al-Dīn (pp. 13, 33), al-Sayyid Muḥammad b. Ilāh (?) al-Qāsim; al-faqīh Ḥātim (?) b. Manṣūr (p. 293). Among the most commented on topics is al-wuḍū (p. 14, one of which quotes K. al-Lamʿ, 17). Long comments, pp. 33, 39, 98, 150, 293. * Clarification (tawḍīḥ, e. g. pp. 96 in red ink, 246, 273 by diagrams, 275, 296 by diagram, 307); explanation (tabyīn, e. g. p. 219). * On p. 99, a per se nota type. e. Fawāʾid Pp. 536–539: same hand - p. 536, ruqya (18 l.) - p. 538, after the central text, “ṣifa” (5 l.) f. Lower board Mainly commented poetry, comments arranged like veins of a leaf; no date. I. e. ‫ي ُسجد‬. I. e. the imams al-Qāsim b. Ibrāhīm al-Rassī (d. 246/860), al-Hādī ilā al-Ḥaqq (d. 298/911) and al-Nāṣir al-Utrūš (d. 304/917). 143 144 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 217 A. Regourd The Beneyton collection D. State of the manuscript Traces of humidity; quire stitching stretched; pp. 214sq.: First 2 l. cloudy, trace of humidity. Traces of humidity almost everywhere on the upper margin and at first on the upper 2 lines, but then on the upper 5, also a little at the bottom of the written surface. V. The question of the acquisition of the two codices by Alfred Beneyton Alfred Beneyton did not understand Arabic. The manuscript of Al-kawākib al-nayyira circulated among Zaydis for a century and a half to two centuries, in the course of which its text was studied and transmitted. If there is insufficient data to establish how Beneyton acquired this manuscript, the red stamp with the name of Giuseppe Caprotti on the volume of Al-laʾālī al-muḍīʾa fī aḫbār aʾimmat al-Zaydiyya provides the start of a track. A. Milan, the manuscripts of Al-laʾālī al-muḍīʾa fī aḫbār aʾimmat alZaydiyya The Caprotti brothers’ collection amounts to more than 2,200 volumes collected in Yemen. They were acquired by three libraries, the Königliche Hof- und Staatsbibliothek zu München (Munich, Germany), the Ambrosian Library of Milan (Italy) and the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana145, but it is the collection of the Ambrosian Library that is by far the most important. It includes several manuscripts under the title Al-laʾālī almuḍīʾa and its variants:  vol. 1 of Al-laʾālī al-muḍiʾa (al-multaqaṭa min al-Lawāḥiq an-nadiyya) fī aḫbār aʾimmat al-Zaydiyya wa-muʿtaḍidī al-ʿitra al-zakiyya (wa-man ʿāraḍahum min mutaġallibī al-firaq al-ġawiyya wa-nukat min aḫbār mulūk al-ǧāhiliyya wa-ġayrihim) mimman ʿaraḍa ḏikruhum min sāʾir al-bariyya, No. 755, D 499; 205 ff., 30 × 21 cm; undated copy, ff. 2–205 commentary on v. 1–97 of Al-bassāma al-ṣuġra.  vol. 2 of Al-laʾālī al-muḍiʾa [fī aḫbār aʾimmat al-Zaydiyya], No. 791, II (ff. 34–196), D 535; 29 × 21 cm; copied 1100/1688; acephalous, commentary on Al-bassāma al-ṣuġra from v. 178;  vol. 3 of Al-laʾālī al-muḍiʾa fī aḫbār aʾimmat al-Zaydiyya wa-muʿtaḍidī alʿitra al-zakiyya wa-man ʿāraḍahum min sāʾir al-bariyya, No. 357, C 101, 350 ff., 29.5 × 21 cm, copied 1062/1652; commentary on Mulḥaq al-Bassāma of Dāʾūd b. Aḥmad b. Mahdī b. ʿIzz al-Dīn b. Ḥasan b. al-Muʾayyad bi-Allāh (980–1035) and of Mulḥaq al-Bassāma of al-Šarafī (28 v.), covering the years 917–1053; For a history of the collection, P. F. Fumagalli, “Raccolte significative di manoscritti: Mosè Lattes, fondo Trotti, Giuseppe Caprotti”, 2001, pp. 194–206; S. Schmidtke, “Preserving, Studying, and Democratizing Access to the World Heritage of Islamic Manuscripts: The Zaydī Tradition”, 2017, pp. 106–107. 145 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 218 A. Regourd The Beneyton collection  vol. 3 of Al-laʾālī al-muḍiʾa etc., No. 801, II (ff. 3–223), D 545; 30 × 20 cm; copy by ʿAlī b. Aḥmad b. Ḥasan b. Šaraf al-Dīn b. ʿIzz al-Dīn b. ʿAlī b. Muṭahhar, n. d.; no indication on the commented verses, reference to No. 357 of the Catalogue, see above. (O. Löfgren & R. Traini, Catalogue of the Arabic manuscripts in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, vol. 2, 1981, respectively, pp. 378, 400, 172, 407).  central part (“torso”) of vol. 2 of <Al-laʾālī al-muḍiʾa fī aḫbār aʾimmat alZaydiyya>, No. 1627, H 5; 135 ff., 30 × 20 cm; undated copy; commentary on v. 167–181 of Al-bassāma al-ṣuġra.  vol. 2 of Al-laʾālī al-muḍiʾa fī aḫbār aʾimmat al-Zaydiyya wa-muʿtaḍidī alʿitra al-zakiyya wa-man ʿāraḍahum min sāʾir al-bariyya, No. 1658, H 36; 231 ff., 24 × 18 cm; undated copy; ff. 3–230, commentary on v. 123–163 of Albassāma al-ṣuġra. (R. Traini, Catalogue of the Arabic manuscripts in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, vol. 4, 2011, respectively, pp. 209–210, 225)146. The Catalogue reviews the contents of the manuscripts, which not only include the commentary of al-Šarafī, but also that of Nūr al-Dīn Muḥammad b. ʿAlī b. Yūnis alZuḥḥayf al-Ṣaʿdī (d. 916/1510), already encountered in the manuscript of the SG, and the known manuscript of Dāʾūd b. Hādī b. Aḥmad b. Mahdī b. ʿIzz al-Dīn b. Ḥasan b. al-Muʾayyad bi-Allāh (980–1035147). In the notice of the ms., D 499, there is the following remark in square brackets, signed with the initials of Renato Traini: “[According to the introduction to vol. II (No. 1658), vol. I contains ḏikr sīrat al-Hādī (Yaḥyā b. Ḥusain) wa-man qablahu min alaʾimma. But, as vol. II starts from the commentary on v. 122 of al-Bassāma aṣ-ṣuġrā (above 198:xiii), on which the whole work is based, and the last verse commented on here is v. 97, it is evident that an extended portion at the end of vol. I, corresponding to v. 98–121, is missing here. – R.T.]”148. This would mean that the first part is actually in two volumes. Above all, R. Traini’s note, dealing essentially with the content of the text, draws attention to a part missing from the commentary as it is in the two manuscripts D. 499 and H. 36. Could the missing part of the text of the Caprotti collection in the Ambrosian be the one preserved at the BnF? An anonymous commentary on the Bassāma appears as shelfmark 1435, I in R. Traini, Catalogue of the Arabic manuscripts in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, vol. 4, 2011, pp. 64–65. 147 Al-Šawkānī, Al-badr al-ṭāliʿ, n. d., vol. 1, no. 167, pp. 246–248; A. F. Sayyid, Sources de l’histoire du Yémen à l’époque musulmane, 1974, p. 227, no. 9. 148 O. Löfgren & R. Traini, Catalogue of the Arabic manuscripts in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, vol. 2, 1981, No. 755, p. 378. 146 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 219 A. Regourd The Beneyton collection B. Ms. Milan 1627, H 5 Of the Milan manuscripts, it is with ms. 1627, H 5, that the Beyneton manuscript can most easily be associated. R. Traini describes it as “a torso of vol. II”, which contains the commentary to v. 167–181 on Al-bassāma al-suġrā of Ibn al-Wazīr. It is therefore a volume that does not correspond to a section of the text. Composed of 135 numbered folios, the ms. H 5 marks its sequence to the following volume by giving the first words, placed, like a catchword, at the end of the commentary, on f. 133v, lower left: these words correspond to the beginning of the manuscript of the SG. Preceding them, in line with the right margin: l. 19 “taqyīd”; l. 20 “qāla al-Sayyid raḥimahu Allāh taʿālā”, which is the formula used to introduce a verse from Al-bassāma al-suġrā, followed by its commentary—the volume of the BnF indeed opens on a verse; a space. From the characteristics of the copy, the Milan manuscript is also comparable to that of the BnF up to f. 123. The line of transmission, the hand and the habits of the copyist correspond on the following points: - paleography: shape of rāʾs and zāʾs; central and final rāʾs looking like dāls with the lower part stretched over the writing line; tail of mīms short. - not everything is diacritised, ihmāl irregular: dāls, rāʾs, sīns, ṣāds, ṭāʾs, ʿayns; šaddas; maddas; - 32 l./p.; - dimensions of the written surface: 23.5 × 14.3 cm; - rubrication: the commented poem, in red ink, is introduced by the formula: qāla al-Sayyid raḥimahu Allāh; multi-level rubrication system; words overwritten in red; - way of placing the abbreviation of taʿālā and writing it: the attack is placed above Allāh, then the line descends obliquely in a slight slope, draws a triangle and finally descends vertically; slightly oblique Allāh forms a whole with the abbreviation of taʿālā, clearly visible in the text; sign that serves to close the verses and to mark the hemistich. - ways to negotiate the left margin to avoid hyphens; - presence of blanks in the text. As R. Traini notes, beginning on f. 123, “a similar, but different hand, in a smaller, rather coarse script” is at work. A third hand appears on ff. 128v and 129r for a few lines: therefore it cannot be excluded that copyist 2 left blanks for completion. The dimensions of manuscript H 5 are 30.2 × 20 cm. The paper is the same as that of the BnF manuscript, with, sometimes, smaller leaves (leaves listed by R. Traini). The quires are also quinions149. The manuscript has only few marginal texts. 149 The last quire is probably originally a quaternion. There are currently 5 leaves, the 1st is loose, the 2nd and 3rd have been moved up to the 5th, and the 4th and 5th form the central bifolio. The 2 loose leaves at the end were not originally part of this quire because their dimensions do not correspond to the first Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 220 A. Regourd The Beneyton collection The SG manuscript follows manuscript No. 1627, H 5, and therefore does not correspond to the text reported missing by R. Traini, which precedes ms. No. 1658, H 36. On the other hand, examination of the Milan manuscript No. 1658, H 36, allows us to hypothesise that it is the one preceding ms. No. 1627, H 5. C. Ms. Milan No. 1658, H 36 The ms. No. 1658, H 36 opens with the section mark: “al-ǧuzʾ al-ṯānī min Al-laʾālī almuḍīʾa fī aḫbār aʾimmat al-Zaydiyya etc.”. On f. 3v there is a purchase mark in the presence of witnesses on the date of the month of muḥarram al-ḥaram 1149/May–June 1736. It is from ff. 201r–230v (= 29 ff.) that the same hand appears as that of the SG manuscript and manuscript 1627, H 5. All the characteristics of the copy which have just been described are present. As with the copyists who operated before ff. 201r–230v, the text of the poem is also introduced by the formula: “qāla al-Sayyid raḥimahu Allāh”, but it is not written in red ink. The last lines of the manuscript are formed by the last line commented in the volume as we have it, and by the beginning of the commentary: ‫قال الس يد رمحه هلل تعىل‬ ‫ويف ابن زيد الهل الكفر معترب ملا تسم براس الطور من شعري‬ ‫هو عيل بن زيد ابراهمي املُلَ ايِح ابن الامام املنتىض ابهلل محمد بن الامام اخملتار‬ The catchword seems to indicate that the text is incomplete: in black ink, from the same hand as the previous ones, the first two words of the last line are repeated: ‫هو‬ ‫عيل‬. However, another hand has written another catchword : ‫ ? ويف اردير‬In an unfortunately trimmed marginal note, a reader makes a remark on the closing verse and on the cutout (taǧziya) of the copy. The extra page at the end of the volume, with poetry on its front and back, serves to consolidate the last notebook: it has been installed on the first page of the notebook. In addition, the paper is laid paper, different from the rest of the volume. It is simply an addition. The ms. 1627, H 5, beginning at v. 167, the gap in ms. No. 1658, H 36, ending at v. 163, corresponds to the commentary of three verses150. folios of the quire of which they should be the left part, if we start from the hypothesis that they are bifolios. According to the catchwords, the text is not incomplete. 150 Ff. 201sq.: this is where the hand that looks like the hand of the BnF ms. begins. There is a gap here: the catchword for folio 200v does not correspond to the first word of folio 201r. Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 221 A. Regourd The Beneyton collection According to our measurements, the dimensions of the sheets are 29 × 18 to 18.5 cm151, revealing a difference with ms. 1627, H 5, 30.2 × 20 cm. In addition to the evidence of trimming of the lower margin provided by the marginal note on the last page of the manuscript, we see on f. 1 (title page), 181, 212, that the lateral margins have also been trimmed. It’s the same paper as the ms one. BnF and ms. 1627, H 5, also formed in quinions. At the end of this analysis, we propose a series of three volumes belonging to the same manuscript of Al-laʾālī al-muḍīʾa fī aḫbār aʾimmat al-Zaydiyya: No. 1658, H 36; No. 1627, H 5; finally the ms. BnF Sg Ms. in-4° 67 (1252). However, these three volumes do not contain the text of the commentary of al-bassāma al-ṣuġrā by al-Šarafī in its entirety, some volumes are still missing. D. Milan: the other manuscripts of Al-laʾālī al-muḍīʾa fī aḫbār aʾimmat alZaydiyya The other Milan manuscripts do not belong to lot H, but to lots C and D, shipped from Yemen earlier. They are also more recent, dating from the 17th century. The ms. No. 357, C 101, was copied in 1062/1652, the ms. No. 791, II, D 535, in 1100/1688. The No. 801, II, D 545, does have a colophon dated of salḫ šaʿabān 1071/April 1661 (f. 223r)152, a date that is not inconsistent with two sales marks and an ownership mark (tamlīk) on the title page dated, respectively, muḥarram 1144/July–August 1731, 1200/1785–1786 and raǧab 1253/October 1837. Finally, the paper of No. 755, D 499, relates it to the 17th century, and rather to the last quarter of it. E. History of the BnF manuscript The question that arises is how the BnF volume bearing a “G. Caprotti” stamp came into the hands of Alfred Beneyton. The Italian businessman Giuseppe Caprotti, who landed in Yemen in 1885 to join his brother Luigi, who died shortly afterwards in 1889, was still there when the engineer Beneyton was carrying out his surveys for the construction of a railway, since he did not move until shortly before his death in 1919153. None of the writings in the Beyneton archives consulted to date contains any mention of their meeting, including the text of his long Lecture given to the Société de Géographie, which relates more than one of them. As for G. Caprotti, too many documents, especially his correspondence, remain unpublished for us to go looking for an answer there. It is, in the end, a third party who enlightens us, the English traveller A. J. B. Wavell, who had stayed in Yemen during the 1911 campaign and was a guest of 151 There is indeed an error in the dimensions in R. Traini’s record. Strangely, the Catalogue of the Caprotti collection records the name of the copyist, but not the date of the colophon. 153 E. De Leone, “I fratelli Caprotti”, 1963; id., “L’assedio”, 1956. 152 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 222 A. Regourd The Beneyton collection Caprotti in Sanaa: the three French engineers, he reports, had been briefed in detail on the terrain by Caprotti (“Caprotti had told them how the land lay”154). Moreover, Wavell notes: “Few European travellers to Sanaa during the last thirty years have not had occasion in recounting their experiences to pay a tribute to his (i. e. Caprotti’s) kindness and hospitality”155. More interesting still: “There were thus no less than five nonOttoman subjects in Sanaa at one time”156, i. e. apart from himself, Caprotti and the three French railway engineers, with whom the English traveller was in contact. The volume of the BnF raises an interesting problem, that of the dispersion of the Caprotti collection, in this case of different volumes of the same text, even if we start from a single case: none of the volumes of the Ambrosiana consulted bears any trace of the stamp in red ink “G. Caprotti”. It is his correspondence that confirms his use of stamps in red ink: the model is different, but includes the concordant blocks of name and place, “SANAA (YEMEN-ARABIA)” [Fig. 5]157. Fig. 5. Letter addressed to Mr. Dr. Max Ginsberg, Berlin N. W., Brucken Allee 1; stamp in red ink “GIUSEPPE CAPROTTI—17 GEN 1915—SANAA (YEMEN-ARABIA)”. The hypothesis that Beneyton borrowed the book from Caprotti, marked with the seal as his property, but never returned it, cannot therefore be excluded. However, 154 A. J. B. Wavell, A modern pilgrim in Mecca and a siege in Sanaa, 1913, p. 285. A. J. B. Wavell, A modern pilgrim in Mecca and a siege in Sanaa, 1913, pp. 235–236. 156 A. J. B. Wavell, A modern pilgrim in Mecca and a siege in Sanaa, 1913, p. 285. 157 Arianna d’Ottone did not notice this stamp in the many manuscripts she had cause to consult in the course of her research, but observed it on his correspondence. I thank her for agreeing to share this photograph. 155 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 223 A. Regourd The Beneyton collection the history of the collection is not simple. The manuscripts were shipped from Yemen to Italy in batches, of which the Ambrosiana shelfmarks preserve traces: A to F between 1903 and 1906, then G and H, raising the possibility of systematisation, and sorting. One thousand six hundred and ten manuscripts from the Caprotti collection entered the Ambrosiana in 1909158, then 180 other volumes in 1914159, all deposited by Giuseppe with Eugenio Griffini in Milan160. Whereas the last manuscripts, those given post-mortem to the Vatican in April 1922, came from Giuseppe’s house in Magenta161. It would therefore be interesting to compare the collections. With regard to Al-laʾālī almuḍīʾa, a copy of the part of the text covering the years of reign from 1000 to 1087H does exist in the Vatican Library, the manuscript Vat. ar. 11093, ff. 15v–67v; the copy, completed on 12 ǧumadā II 1098, is in any case later than the series BnF/Ambrosiana H162. VI. Conclusion Alfred Beneyton was a man of his time, approaching his job as a railway engineer with the soul of an explorer163. As far as Yemen is concerned, a passion for biblical studies spurred a general interest in the location of the sites mentioned in the Bible. Among the souls keen on “geographical exploration”, one can count a little earlier, Arthur Rimbaud (1854–1891) who, during the last eleven years of his life spent between Aden and the Harar, had the ambition to submit a book to the Société de Géographie, with maps to support it164. His employers in Aden, the merchants, Alfred and Pierre Bardey (born in Besançon in 1856 and died in Pontoise in 1938), distinguished themselves “by their activity in relation to the learned world”. Alfred is the author of an autobiography and publications on Yemen in the Bulletin de géographie historique et descriptive, while Pierre, a member of the Comité des travaux historiques et scientifiques du ministère de l’Instruction publique from 1907 to 1919, was the main donor of the Louvre Museum’s collection of Sudarabic objects, as well as the donor of the manuscripts acquired 158 Speech by Eugenio Griffini (1878–1925) on the occasion of the third Centenary of the inauguration of the Ambrosiana, December 8, 1809, in which he announced ca. 5,600 works contained in 1,610 volumes, P. F. Fumagalli, “Raccolte significative di manoscritti: Mosè Lattes, fondo Trotti, Giuseppe Caprotti”, 2001, p. 201. 159 S. Schmidtke, “Preserving, Studying, and Democratizing Access to the World Heritage of Islamic Manuscripts: The Zaydī Tradition”, 2017, p. 106. 160 See the contribution of P. F. Fumagalli, “Giuseppe Caprotti (Pobiga di Besana Brianza, 1862-Magenta 1919). Quelques notes biographiques”, July 2019. 161 See the contribution of P. F. Fumagalli, “Giuseppe Caprotti (Pobiga di Besana Brianza, 1862-Magenta 1919). Quelques notes biographiques”, July 2019. We are deliberately leaving aside the very first lot, bought by Munich. 162 Shelfmark Vat. ar. 946-1206, 1357-1375. G. Levi Della Vida, Elenco dei manoscritti arabic islamici della Biblioteca Vaticana, 1935, p. viiisq.; Vat. ar. 1109, pp. 148–149. 163 The Pierre Loti sale describes him as “explorer”, an overused word in Beneyton’s time. 164 A. Hetzel, “Arthur Rimbaud : poétique des lettres d’Aden et du Harar”, p. 38. Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 224 A. Regourd The Beneyton collection during his stay in Yemen to the Bibliothèque nationale, the current BnF165. He contributed epigraphic texts to the Revue d’archéologie166. Giuseppe Caprotti, also a merchant by profession, collected and transmitted inscriptions, works of art and archaeological finds to scholars, thus betraying activity as an explorer, beyond the manuscript books he collected for purposes of trade. He served as a supplier to his “double”, Giuseppe Caprotti of Monte Albiate (1837–1895), a collector of Greek, Roman and Italian coins, by sending him, from Yemen, coins and various objects of ethnographic interest, as well as antiquities167. This present and first account offered here of the small collection of manuscripts brought back from Yemen by Alfred Beneyton, centred on the codices, highlights the richness of their marginalia and their contribution to our knowledge of Yemeni material culture. And the question of the dispersal of the Caprotti collection that is raised by the stamps in the margins of one of the manuscripts is just as great. In the second part of this article, the publication of the letters of the Imam Yaḥyā, concerning the railway construction project, will plunge us more directly into the geopolitical situation in the region. …/… Bibliography Alfred Beneyton: author; about him Beneyton, Alfred. 1913. Annales de géographie 23 (1914), p. 329. _____ . [Review by Raymond Dugay]. 1913. “Trois années en Arabie Heureuse”, Bulletin de la Société de Géographie 27/6, pp. 495–497. Accessible on Gallica, https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k37762r/f606.image sq. _____ . 1913. “Trois années en Arabie Heureuse”, Al-urwa 27, pp. 495–497. [Bombay, not consulted]. _____ . 1913–1914. “Trois années en Arabie Heureuse”, Bulletin de la Société de Géographie du Cher 6/1, pp. 85–101. [Not consulted]. _____ . 1913. “Mission d’études au Yémen”, La Géographie. Bulletin de la Société de Géographie 28/4, pp. 201–219. Accessible on Gallica, https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k377633/f247.image sq. For all the references, see: M.-G. Guesdon, “Dix-sept manuscrits arabes rassemblés au Yémen et donnés à la Bibliothèque nationale de France par Pierre Bardey”, 2006; id., “Manuscrits de provenance yéménite donnés à la Bibliothèque nationale par Pierre Bardey en 1930”, 2006. 166 H. Derenbourg, “Nouvelles archéologiques et correspondance”, Jan.–June 1903. Thanks to Pierre Bardey for having sent the rubbing of a text in the Minean dialect, as well as a description of the monuments, p. 407. It is clear that this is not a first shipment and the reference to the Journal asiatique is worth noting. 167 A. d’Ottone, “Giuseppe Caprotti et son double – Entre manuscrits et monnaies yéménites”, July 2019. 165 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 225 A. Regourd The Beneyton collection _____ . [Interview by J. Toiton]. 14 September 1913. “À travers l’Arabie heureuse. Trois ans d’exploration dans l’Yémen”, Journal des voyages et des aventures de terre et de mer Deuxième Série 876, pp. 275–276, ill. _____ . January 1914. “Railway surveys in the Yemen” (with plate), The Geographical Journal 43/1, pp. 66–68168. _____ , A. M. J. January–February 1926. “Les chemins de fer du Dahomey et du Togo (1922-23)”, followed by “La chaux et le ciment au Dahomey et au Togo”, La Géographie. Bulletin de la Société de Géographie 45/1–2, pp. 63–66. On line, http://visualiseur.bnf.fr/CadresFenetre?O=NUMM-37781&I=74&M=tdm sq. _____ . 6 April 1934. “Découverte archéologique par avion. Nous avons reçu la lettre suivante”, Le Temps 26516, p. 2. Other authors, archives Archives de l’Allier, État-Civil, http://archives.allier.fr Al-ʿAnsī, Yaḥyā b. Yaḥyā. 1998. Al-maʿālim al zirāʿiyya fī al-Yaman, Sanaa, Centre français d’études yéménites/Institut américain d’études yéménites. Bennis, Aziz. 03.06.2011. “André Malraux explorateur à la recherche de la capitale de la reine de Saba. De l’archéologie aérienne au reportage littéraire”, Présence d’André Malraux sur la Toile, untitled literary and electronic review, www.malraux.org, art. 101, 17 p. On line, https://malraux.org/bennis2/ Charle, Christophe. 1972. Émile Mâle dans sa génération universitaire, “Collection de l’École française de Rome”, Rome, École française de Rome. De Leone, Enrico. 1963. “I fratelli Caprotti di Magenta nel Yemen”, Atti Del Convegno Di Studi Su la Lombardia E L’Oriente, Milano, 11–15 Giugno 1962, Milan, Istituto Lombardo, Accademia di Scienze e Lettere, pp. 129–132. Derenbourg, Hartwig. January–June 1903. “Nouvelles archéologiques et correspondance”, Archéologique Fourth Series 1, pp. 407–434. Devaux, Jean-Luc & Sylvie Dagot. 2013. Livres Anciens et Régionaux, Saturday 9 November 2013. On line, http://www.interencheres.com/medias/h/4/3/5/8/3/b/1/c/d/0/43583b1cd0ade6fb08bf 7c5ee1248e2df79c95d1239a240208184e605ba6e8ba.pdf D’Ottone, Arianna. 2003. “Les manuscrits arabes du Yémen (VIe-IXe/XIIe-XVe siècles)”, Chroniques yéménites 11. On line, http://cy.revues.org/169 _____ . July 2007. “La reliure arabo-yéménite médiévale : un projet d’étude”, Chroniques du manuscrit au Yémen 4. On line, This is an English summary of the article by A. Beneyton, “Mission d’études au Yémen” (Survey missions in the Yemen), 1913, pp. 201–219, using the map published there, with the notable addition, for the southern area left blank by Beneyton, of the map of Arabia and the Persian Gulf, work of Captain F. F. Hunter, Survey of India, 1908. 168 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 226 A. Regourd The Beneyton collection https://journals.openedition.org/cmy/1850 —. July 2019. “Giuseppe Caprotti et son double – Entre manuscrits et monnaies yéménites”, in: Anne Regourd (ed.), “Giuseppe Caprotti de Besana Brianza (29 mars 1862–15 mai 1919) – In Memoriam/Giuseppe Caprotti of Besana Brianza (March 29, 1862–15 May 1919)—In Memoriam”, Chroniques du manuscrit au Yémen 9/28, pp. 47–56. Dozy, Reinhart. 1881. Supplément aux dictionnaires arabes, Leiden, E. J. Brill, 2 vols. Dreibholz, Ursula. 2003. “Unusual and not-so-usual decorations on Yemeni bindings”, Manuscripta Orientalia 9/4, pp. 37–44. Émile Mâle (1862-1954) : la construction de l’œuvre, Rome et l’Italie, actes de la table ronde tenue à l’École française de Rome, 17-18 juin 2002. 2005. Rome, École française de Rome, “Collection de l’École française de Rome”, 345. Fierro, Alfred. 1983. La Société de géographie, 1821-1946, Geneva, Droz, Paris, Champion, ser. “École Pratique des Hautes Études, Sciences historiques et philologiques – V, Hautes études médiévales et modernes”. Thesis on line, https://books.google.fr/books?id=Z5cO6SoIhH8C&pg=PA51&source=gbs_toc_r& cad=3#v=snippet&q=Ecole%20Pratique&f=false _____ . 1984. Inventaire imprimé des manuscrits de la Société de Géographie, Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, 1984. Friedländer, Michael. 1910. “Hermann Burchardt: Mitteilungen aus seinen letzten Briefen”, Ost und West: illustrierte Monatsschrift für das gesamte Judentum 10/2, pp. 105–110. On line, http://sammlungen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/cm/periodical/titleinfo/2594429 Frothingham, A. L. Jr. & Allan Marquand. April–June 1896. “Archaeological News. Summary of recent Discoveries and Investigations”, The American Journal of Archaeology and of the History of the Fine Arts 11/2, pp. 205–316. On line, https://www.jstor.org/stable/496554 Fumagalli, Pier Francesco. 2001. “Raccolte significative di manoscritti: Mosè Lattes, fondo Trotti, Giuseppe Caprotti”, in: Giulio Vanetti (ed.), Storia dell’Ambrosiana: L’Ottocento, Milan, IntesaBci, pp. 167–211. _____ . July 2019. “Giuseppe Caprotti (Pobiga di Besana Brianza, 1862-Magenta 1919). Quelques notes biographiques”, in: Anne Regourd (ed.), “Giuseppe Caprotti de Besana Brianza (29 mars 1862-15 mai 1919) – In Memoriam/Giuseppe Caprotti of Besana Brianza (March 29, 1862–15 May 1919)—In Memoriam”, Chroniques du manuscrit au Yémen 9/28, pp. 40–46. GAL = Brockelmann, Carl. 1937–1949. Gesellschaft der Arabischen Literatur, Leiden, E. J. Brill. Grabar, André. 1962. “Notice sur la vie et les travaux de M. Émile Mâle, membre de l’Académie”, Comptes-rendus des séances de l’Académie des Inscriptions et BellesLettres 106/2, 1962, pp. 329–344. On line, https://www.persee.fr/doc/crai_0065-0536_1962_num_106_2_11472 Nouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 227 A. Regourd The Beneyton collection Grohmann, Adolf. 1987 [photomechanical reprint]. “Al-Yaman”, EI1, pp. 1155a–1158b. Guesdon, Marie-Geneviève. 2006. “Dix-sept manuscrits arabes rassemblés au Yémen et donnés à la Bibliothèque nationale de France par Pierre Bardey”, Chroniques du manuscrit au Yémen 1. On line, http://journals.openedition.org/cmy/183 _____ . 2006. “Manuscrits de provenance yéménite donnés à la Bibliothèque nationale par Pierre Bardey en 1930”, Chroniques yéménites 13, pp. 59–71. On line, http://journals.openedition.org/cy/1177 Guyot, Yves & G.-Roger Sandoz (general rapporteurs), Bourgeois, Paul & Léo Claretie (adjunct general rapporteurs). 1908. Exposition Franco-Britannique de LONDRES, 1908, Rapport général, Paris, Comité français des expositions à l’étranger, vol. 3. Al-Ḥaǧarī al-Yamānī, Muḥammad b. Aḥmad. S. d. Maǧmūʿ buldān al-Yaman waqabāʾilihā, ed. Ismāʿīl ʿAlī al-Akwaʿ, Sanaa, Dār al-ḥikma al-yamāniyya li-al-ṭibāʿa wa-al-našr wa-al-tawzīʿ wa-al-iʿlān, 2 vols. Hetzel, Aurélia. July 2018. “Arthur Rimbaud : poétique des lettres d’Aden et du Harar”, Chroniques du manuscrit au Yémen New Series 7/26, pp. 35–56. On line: http://www.cdmy.org/cmy/cmy26.pdf Al-Ḫulaydī, ʿAbd al-Walī Aḥmad & ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Saʿīd al-Dubaʿī. 1230/1997. Alnabātāt al-ṭibbiyya wa-al-ʿiṭriyya fī al-Yaman. Intišāruhā. Mukawwanātuhā alfaʿʿāla. Istiḫdāmātuhā, Sanaa, Markaz ʿibādī li-al-dirāsāt wa-al-našr. Ibn Abī al-Riǧāl, Aḥmad b. Ṣāliḥ (d. 1092/1681), Maṭlaʿ al-budūr wa-maǧmaʿ al-buḥūr fī tarāǧim al-riǧāl al-Zaydiyya, ed. ʿAbd al-Raqīb Muṭahhar Muḥammad Ḥaǧar & Maǧd al-Dīn b. Muḥammad b. Manṣūr al-Muʾayyadī, Ṣaʿda, Markaz ahl al-bayt li-al-dirāsāt al-islāmiyya, 1425/2004, 4 vols. Ibrāhīm b. al-Qāsim b. al-Imām al-Muʾayyad bi-Allāh. 1421/2001. Ṭabaqāt al-Zaydiyya al-kubrā (al-qism al-ṯāliṯ) wa-yusammā Bulūġ al-murād ilā maʿrifat al-isnād, ed. ʿAbd al-Salām b. ʿAbbās al-Waǧīh, Amman, Muʾassasat al-Imām Zayd b. ʿAlī al-ṯaqāfiyya, 3 vols. Kaḥḥāla, ʿUmar Riḍā. 1376/1957. Muʿǧam al-muʾallifīn. Tarāǧim muṣannifī al-kutub alʿarabiyya, Beirut, Dār iḥyāʾ al-turāṯ al-ʿarabī li-al-ṭibāʿa wa-al-našr wa-al-tawziʿ, 15 vols. Kazimirski, Albert de Biberstein. Dictionnaire Arabe-Français, Paris, Maisonneuve, 1860, 2 vols. Levi Della Vida, Giorgio. 1935. Elenco dei manoscritti arabic islamici della Biblioteca Vaticana: Vaticani, Barberiniani, Borgiani, Rossiani, Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana. Löfgren, Oskar & Renato Traini. 1981. Catalogue of the Arabic manuscripts in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana. Vol. 2. Nuovo Fondo: Series A–D (Nos. 1–830), ser. “Fontes Ambrosiani”, 66, Vicenze, Neri Pozza Ed. Maigret, Alessandro de (†) & Christian Julien Robin. 2016. Tamnaʿ (Yemen). Gli scavi italo-francesi/Les fouilles italo-françaises/The Italian-French Excavations. RapporNouvelles CmY 10 (Janvier 2020) 228 A. Regourd The Beneyton collection to finale/Rapport final/Final report, Paris, de Boccard, ser. “Orient & Méditerranée | archéologie”, 20. Malraux, André. 10 April 1934. “Découverte archéologique par avion. M. André Malraux nous adresse la lettre suivante”, Le Temps 26520, p. 2. On line, https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k2495537/f2.item.zoom _____ . 1967. Antimémoires, Paris, Gallimard, ser. “La Bibliothèque de la Pléiade”, vol. 3. _____ ; Delpuech, Philippe (dir.). 1993. La Reine de Saba : Une aventure géographique, Paris, Gallimard, ser. “Les cahiers de la NRF”. Murtaḍā al-Zabīdī, Muḥammad b. Muḥammad al-Ḥusaynī (d. 1205/1791), Itḥāf al-sāda almuttaqīn bi-šarḥ Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīn, ed. Muḥammad ʿAlī Baydoun, Beirut, Dār alkitāb al-ʿilmiyya, 1971, vol. 5. Perrier, Jean-Claude. 2016. André Malraux et la reine de Saba, Paris, Les Éd. du Cerf, ser. “Littérature”. Piamenta, Moshe. 1990. Dictionary of Post-Classical Yemeni Arabic, Leiden/New York/Copenhagen/Cologne, E. J. Brill, vol. 1. Raveneau, Louis. 1918. “Le baron Étienne Hulot”, Annales de Géographie 27/148, pp. 390–391. 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