Review of "Al-Aḥādīth al-Ḥisān fī Faḍl al-Ṭaylasān", ed. by Prof. Albert Arazi (original) (raw)
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Journal of Qur'anic Studies, 2022
The volume has been well edited, and includes a comprehensive index (pp. 215-227), but no collected bibliography, nor is there a bibliography at the end of each chapter (which is slightly inconvenient). Having finished the volume, one might question the extent to which the volume describes 'new approaches', but that does little to detract from its overall quality. However, it should be noted that this collection is almost entirely Sunni in focus, with very little engagement with Shii ḥ adīth, and even the one chapter which deals with aspects of Shiism (i.e. Dann's) does so in relation to debates about Sunni works. It is high time that ḥ adīth studies started to operate more broadly and to encompass both Sunni and Shii discussions of ḥ adīth. Likewise, the volume does not engage with other forms of literature that utilise ḥ adīth (e.g., adab, tafsīr, taʾrīkh, etc.). The emphasis is also generally on the early period of ḥ adīth until the fourth/tenth century, or the modern period, thereby missing out a significant period of ḥ adīth scholarship. The chapters on contemporary approaches in the Muslim world (al-Khatib, Snober, Kızıl, and to a certain extent Dann) are incredibly important and valuable for the field. On the whole this volume is a welcome contribution to the field, containing excellent, detailed, and thorough research.
Ilahiyat Studies, 2011
First paragraph: Scholars of Islamic studies have increasingly come to recognize the importance of the Ibāḍiyya as a group that preserves a unique perspective on Islam: as the only surviving sectarian relatives of the Khārijites, the Ibāḍiyya offer important non-Sunnī and non-Shīʿī views on early Islamic history, theology and law. Contemporary Ibāḍīs of North Africa and Oman possess a remarkable corpus of texts, some of which date back to the early medieval period of Islamic history. Large collections of Ibāḍī manuscripts can also be found in Egypt and Tanzania (specifically in Zanzibar). Many important Ibāḍī works have become available to researchers in recent decades, due in part to the efforts of individual Ibāḍī and non-Ibāḍī scholars, but especially to the Omani Ministry of National Heritage and Culture (Wizārat al-turāth al-qawmī wa-l-thaqāfa). Nevertheless, and despite these welcome strides forward, much Ibāḍī material remains in manuscript form. In the work under review, Drs. Madelung and al-Salimi present in critical Arabic edition three heretofore unpublished early Ibāḍī works by Abū l-Mundhir Bashīr ibn Muḥammad ibn Maḥbūb (d. ca. 290/908): the Kitāb al-raṣf fī l-tawḥīd (Book of Paving about Divine Unity), Kitāb al-muḥāraba (Book of Warfare) and the Sīra (Epistle). In addition, the authors supply a short five page introduction, in English, discussing the author, the texts and manuscripts consulted for the edition, as well as a list of works cited (in Arabic).
Tahkik İslami İlimler Araştırma ve Neşir Dergisi, 2021
Shamsaddin Mohammad b. Badraddin al-Hazraji al-Baalbani's (d. 1083/1672) work entitled "al-Favaid al-Hisaan fi al-idghaam li al-Horoof al-Sawaakin wa al-Bayaan" is a treatise of scientific value. The importance of the work stems from the author's handling of the "section of disclosure izhar and idgham (liaison or fusion) of immobile (still/thakin) letters", which is one of the main subjects of the knowledge of recitation and which is related to the majority of the tajweed rules in the Qur'an, and from his easy explanation of where the qira'at leaders (imams) differ in the method. Despite the fact that the work deals with an important issue in the realm of recitation and the author's vast knowledge in the realm, the fact that this valuable work has not been scrutinised scientifically has pushed us to investigate it. With this, we aimed to contribute to the emergence of our ancient heritage. In our study, firstly the life of Shamsaddin Mohammad b. Badraddin al-Hazraji al-Baalbani; his name, identity disc or imprint and ancestry are given. Then, the moral personality of the author, his education-teaching life, who his teachers and students were, and his death are dealt with. In the second part of the instruction section, the content of the work is discussed and the preferences about idgham and izhar of the imams of qiraat-ı ‘ashara (the ten recitations) are listed. The author made this ranking depending largely on Kasim b. Firroh al-Shatibi’s (d. 590/1194) work captioned "Hirzu al-amaani wa Vajhu al-Tahaani". At the same time, while the author dealt with the subjects of idgham Moteqaaribayn and idghaam motajaanisayn in a concise and understandable way with examples, he did not deal with the subject of still noon (noon thakin) and provisions of tanween, but he remarked that he dealt with it in another article captioned “Boghyat al-Mostafid fe ilmi al-Tajweed”. In the second section, the sources used by the author in the work are enumerated. The works of Abo ‘Amr Othman b. Sa'aed al-Daani (d. 444/1053) named "al-Tayseer fe al-Qira'at al-Sab' " and "Jami'u al-Bayaan fe al-Qirâ'at al-Sab' ", Abo Shama Abdorrahman b. Isma’el b. Ibrahem's (d. 665/1267) "İbraz al-Ma'ani min Hirzi al-Amani" and the work of Abo al-Khayr Shamsaddin Mohammad b. Mohammad b. al-Jazari (d. 833/1429) entitled "al-Nashr fe al-Qira'ati al-ashr" is one of the main sources used by the author. Finally, although it is an old tradition for the author to state why he compiled a work, the author did not point out the reason for compiling this work that we scrutinised.
Book Review - Mustafa Tuna, Journal of Islamic Studies
actively called for the modernization of their province. Thus, while the state certainly forced them to co-finance the water scheme, it was also locals who had called for this and other infrastructural measures and who were at times volunteering funds provided the state complemented their efforts. The last part returns to the question of mobility, discussing passports, tickets (thus taking up again the earlier theme of how to organize and limit mobility), as well as the conflicts with the Bedouin caused by imperial communications such as the telegraph and rail. The epilogue traces the development of the Aajj after the end of the Ottoman empire, and the long process it took to completely disentangle Aajj organization from Western imperial influences. Here, as elsewhere in this elegantly written and eminently readable study, the author connects infrastructural questions with new fields in the wider study of history, such as environmental history or technopolitics. He thus opens welcome conversations across regional borders. However, these conceptualizations do not always add much in terms of new perspectives or substance with regard to the history at hand. This is partly linked to the fact-not of the author's making-that he is moving in a very crowded field, as I have tried to show by mentioning just the most recent scholarship on some of the major topics. Probably as a consequence, Low at times seems to paraphrase rather closely some of the extant scholarship in Turkish, perhaps because he follows the same sources. 7 Oftentimes, it does not become clear in the text if sources are quoted from the original, from other studies or other sources which report on conversations (e.g. pp. 214f., 217f.). While he makes sure properly to show his sources, some of his debates resemble shadow-boxing. Low repeatedly argues that unnamed 'historians' claim certain matters which he then contradicts (e.g., pp. 87, 111, 308). Finally, and this is a comment on the publisher rather than the author, the lack of a bibliography means that all references are hidden in the footnotes. This makes it unnecessarily cumbersome to gain an overview of the literature used (which seems to exclude most scholarship in French and languages other than English or Turkish). These criticisms should not deter readers who will find this a very useful and analytically argued book. It makes a well-written and welcome addition to the multilingual field of studies considering the Arabian Peninsula in a global perspective.