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HISTORIOGRAPHY OF AL-QUSHAYRI'S HERITAGE
O.A. Lapitskaya
Department of History of Philosophy Faculty of Humanitarian and social sciences Peoples' Friendship University of Russia Mikluho-Maklaya str., 10a, Moscow, Russia, 117198
This paper is to name and characterize the most notable works devoted or even just mentioning a famous sufi author of the 11th century al-Qushayri, the author of well-known treatise "Risala". Despite of his significance in the history of Sufism, not much attention he did capture from the European (as well as the Eastern) researchers of Sufism, and almost all what he was honored by in the modern Orientalism is his "Epistle on Sufizm".
Key words: Sufism, al-Qushayri, historiography, Epistle on Sufizm, mysticism, theology, manuscripts.
A historiography research should be a key to any serious historical work in philosophy antedating it, as it gives the most important information for the successful start. The following article is to throw some light on the most notable works devoted to the famous sufi scholar of the 11th century, author of the well-known treatise "Ar-risala ft 'ilm at-tasawwuf" (Al-Qushayri's Epistle on Sufizm) (1), Abu 'l-Qasim al-Qushyri. This work is not aimed to touch the encyclopedia's articles mentioning al-Qushayri, but is to name and characterize papers and monographs devoted (even partly) to this sufi author and his heritage giving an opportunity to show the measure of investigation of this theme in the Western Orientalism.
First of all it should be mentioned, that almost all basic historical researches on Sufism contain general information on al-Qushayri (2). As for the Arabic and Persian sources touching al-Qushayri's study and life, among the most significant are the following works: Tag ad-Din as-Subqi "Tabaqat as-safi'iya al-kubra" [22], al-'Asnawi Gamal ad-Din "Tabaqat as-safi'iya" [7], 'Abu Bakr al-Bagdadi "Tarih Bagdad au madinati-s-salam" [5], Gami Nur ad-Din 'Abd ar-Rahman "Nafahat al-'uns min hadarat al-quds" [16], 'All 'Ibn 'Utman al-Hugwiri. "Kasf al-mahgub li 'arbab al-qulub" [8], 'Atar Farid ad-Din NiSaburi "Tazkiratu-l-'awliya'" [12].
The only monograph on al-Qushayri was written by Ibrahim Basyuni, named "'Imam al-Qusyri" containing his biography and the main points of his works and studies as well as analysis of his sufi way [18]. Another Egypt philologist al-Gundi provides his edition of al-Qushayri's treatise "A Grammar of the Heart" with a significant commentary on this remarkable work and its author's studies in general [9].
As for the translations of al-Qushayri's works to the European languages the most scientific and full translation of his famous "Risala" was made by the professor of the University of Michigan A.D. Knysh to English. This work could be characterized as a highly scientific as it contains, besides the accurate and complete translation, the commentaries of the most hard for understanding sufi terms used by the author as well as
the detailed biographical information on Islamic scholars and thinkers mentioned in the treatise. The index of proper names, toponyms and concepts contains 32 pages [6. P. 429—460]. Also this edition includes a short biographic material devoted to al-Qushayri's life and scholarship.
Another European researcher R. Hartmann (Germany) also made a significant contribution to elaboration on this problem. Thus he translated an important part of "Risala" in German [17]. This translation contains the parts devoted to the spiritual "stages", mystical "conditions" and some other sufi terms. R. Hartmann translated just the most important, in his opinion, parts of the treatise having provided it with the great amount of historic and philosophic commentaries. This significant part of his work represents a deep research of the history and theoretical basis of Sufism.
He divided his translation in several parts which are the following:
— foundation of Sufism;
— sufi practice;
— theory of Islamic mysticism;
— spiritual way;
— sufi psychology.
The treatise "Risala" also was translated to German by the Swiss orientalist R. Gramlich who used the copies of the manuscripts of the treatise, what makes his translation extremely valuable for the later researches [4].
To Persian language this treatise was translated in 1967 by Iranian researcher Badi az-Zaman Faruzanfar who used in his work earlier translations which he previously had corrected and systematized.
The great part of "Risala" also was translated to English by B.R. Von Schliegell [10]. She devoted much attention to the most important sufi terms — stages and conditions. But this translation doesn't contain any serious commentary, although includes some useful information on al-Qushayri's biography.
Another full translation of the same treatise to English was made by Rabia Harris and edited by Lateh Baktiar, but this work doesn't contain either information on numerous personalities mentioned in the text or any commentaries concerning sufi terminology [11]. According to A.D. Knysh this translation is "a free paraphrase of the Arabic text, which is frequently misconstrued and, consequently, mistranslated" [6].
The following chapters of "Risala" were translated to Russian by A.D. Knysh: the moment (waqt), the station (maqam), the state (hal), contraction (qabd) and expansion (bast), awe (hayba) and intimacy ('uns), ecstatic behavior (tawagud), ecstatic rapture (wagd) and ecstatic finding (wugud) [1]. The article containing this translation doesn't include commentaries although provides detailed biography information on sufies mentioned in the translated fragments.
Also we should mention here Arabic and Persian authors having made some contribution to elaboration on this problem. Thus Zakariya al-Ansari in the 16th century commented the treatise in his work named "Ihkam ad-dalala 'ala tahrTr ar-risala" (The Reliable Guide to What the Treatise Contains) which became rather popular so that another Egypt scholar Mustafa al-'Arusi wrote in the 19th century a commentary to al-
Ansari's commentary and named it "Nata'ig al-'afkar al-qudsiya ft bayan ma'anl sarh ar-risala al-qusairiya" (The Conclusions of Pure Thoughts in the Explanation of the Meanings in the Commentary to al-Qushayri's Treatise). A.D. Knysh considers that both these "critical" editions are "practically identical and do not complete each other" [6].
Also the commentary to "Risala" was written by sheikh of the Chishti order Abu al-Fath Bandenavu (died 1422) on Persian in the 15th century.
A Russian orientalist V. Drozdov also has made a notable research on al-Qushayri's heritage [2]. His work deserves to be mentioned as far as it represents a significant accurate and thorough research published in the article «Абу-л-Касим ал-Кушайри и его трактат о суфизме» (Abu-l-Qasim al-Qushayri and his treatise on Sufism), where he gives a detailed description of al-Qushayri's life as well as provides thorough characteristics of the historical situation in the Caliphate of the 11th century together with the analysis of different Islamic schools and branches that had mostly affected on shaping of al-Qushayri's views. The article also pays a particular attention to the historiography research. Thus an author mentions his predecessors which had made some contribution to this research as well as gives a complete list of al-Qushayri's works basing on the results of previous researches. Mostly he uses the materials of the Shafi'i madhab to which al-Qushayri belonged having been a leader of the Shafi'i-Asharite community of Nishapur.
"Risala" became the main object for the PhD research work by Mohammad al-Mugtaba. His work was named "The Problem of Man in al-Qushayri's study" [3]. This PhD defense took place in the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia in the 1994th. In this work author provides a short biographical material as well as characterizes a social and political situation in the Caliphate. The significant part of the text is devoted to details of the history of Sufism what slightly distracts from the main theme of the research. Also this work includes a short analysis of some sufi terms basing on the "Risala" although it doesn't go beyond a few general sentences about each term. The main accent in this analysis is made on the anthropological factor, i.e. considers a transformation of man's personality during his passing by the sufi way.
Hungarian orientalist Tamas Ivany has published the results of his research of al-Qushayri's "A Grammar of the Heart" in English in the collection of articles with the results of Colloquim on Logos, Ethos and Mythos in the Middle East and North Africa (LEM) that took place in Budapest in the 1996th. In this article he introduces European reader with al-Qushayri's short treatise "Nahw al-qulub" (A Grammar of the Heart) making an accent on the main idea of this text, i. e. dividing of the knowledge to rational and mystical. After author's introduction he provides to reader text of the "Small Grammar" (Nahw al-qulub as-sagir ) in Arabic.
To French "Small Grammar" was translated by the European researcher working in France Francesco Chiabotti [19].
Besides "Risala" and "Small Grammar", there are several other works of al-Qushayri translated from Arabic, they are the following: "Tartib as-suluk ft tarlq Allah" and "'Ahkam as-sama'" — these two works were translated to Urdu by Pir Muhammad Hasan and published in Karachi in the collection of articles "Risala al-Qushayriya" in the
1964th; "Al-fusul fï-l-'usul" and "Lum'a fi-l-'ittihad" published by R.M. Frank in the periodical «Mélanges de l'Institut Dominicain d'Études Orientales du Caire».
The most detailed list of al-Qushayri's works was composed by the German researchers Brockelmann and Ritter. The first one included in this list twenty works, although it's quite possible that not all of them really were written by al-Qushayri, as Brockelmann mentioned several works knowing their names only, although they could differ for the same manuscripts due to different sources [13]. That's why his follower's, Ritter's, list of al-Qushayri's works seems to be more adequate [21]. He excluded from Brockelmann's list «At-taysïr fï 'ilm at-tafsïr" (A Help in the Science of Interpretation of the Qur'an), having proved that this treatise was written by al'Qushayri's son, Rahïm. Also Ritter excluded from Brockelmann's list the work named "Disclosure of intentions especially with regard to the names of the Most High God" as this treatise doesn't have any connection with Sufism.
Thus considering Ritter's remarks, al-Qushayri was an author of the following works:
1) Ar-risala fï 'ilm at-tasawwuf (Al-Qushayri's Epistle on Sufizm) (1046) — one of the biggest and the most popular (but maybe not the most significant) treatise of al-Qushayri. The first edition was published in Cairo in 1900th;
2) Lata'if al-Isharat bi-Tafsïr al-Qur'an — according to Ritter al-Qushayri completed this treatise by 1019th, so it became the oldest sufi commentary to Qur'an after as-Sulami's one. For the first time this work was published in Cairo by Ibrahim Basyuni and it includes six volumes, the last of them was published in 1971st;
3) Tartïb as-suluk fï tarïq Allah — a short opus written in 1045th which contains a description of the sufi practice of zikr and states that accompany it as well as explains the rules of conducts on the sufi path. This manuscript was published by the Austrian researcher F. Meyer in 1963rd [20. P. 1—39]. Also this work was included in the collection of articles "Risala al-Qushayriya" in Urdu edited by Pir Muhammad Hasan published in Karachi in 1964th;
4) At-tahrïb fï 'ilm at-tazkïr — treatise devoted to the ninety nine Divine names mentioned in Qur'an, which includes as well numerous stories about the early sufies. This work was published in Cairo by Ibrahim Basyuni in 1968th;
5) Mansur al-hitab fï mashur al-'abwab — this work is pretty similar to "Risala" though much shorter, including fourty four chapters only, the first of which is named "tawba" (repentance). This treatise was published in the 1969th and edited by Qasim as-Samarra in the collectiona named "'Arba'u rasa'il fï-t-tasawwuf" which included besides the mentioned treatise three other works (although these three might not be written by al-Qushayri, or wear the titles which are not original, as they differ from those mentioned in both Brockelmann's and Ritter's lists);
6) Nahw al-qulub (A Grammar of the Heart) — al-Hugwiri considers that this treatise is a philological treatrise devoted to Arabic grammar [2. P. 243], although this pretty short work provides an interesting comparison of two types of knowledge — mystical and scientific;
7) 'Ahkam as-sama' — this work is devoted to the description of sufy way of listening to the music. It was included, together with "Tartib as-suluk fï tarîq Allah", in the collection of articles "Risala al-Qushayriya" in Urdu edited by Pir Muhammad Hasan published in Karachi in 1964th;
8) Kitab al-Mi'rag — the work describing a qur'anic scene of the Night Journey that, according to the Islamic tradition, the prophet Muhammad took during a single night around the year 621. This episode is considered very important in the sufi tradition as far as Muhammad during this journey meats God Most Hight, what is interpreted by sufies as the highest result of the mystical trainings. In this treatise al-Qushayri gives several versions of al-Mi'rag as well as provides commentaries of some sufi sheikhs regarding this journey;
9) Lum'a fi-l-'ittihad — a short essay on Asharite study. Published by R.M. Frank in the periodical «Mélanges de l'Institut Dominicain d'Études Orientales du Caire» [14. P. 53—74];
10) Al-fusul fï-l-'usul — the work representing a short essay on the Asharite theology, as well as the previous one. It also was published by R.M. Frank in the periodical «Mélanges de l'Institut Dominicain d'Études Orientales du Caire» [15. P. 59—94];
11) 'Arba'una hadîtan — the treatise devoted to the Hadith study;
12) Al-Qasida as-sufiya;
13) Al-maqamat at-talata — a short work which Ritter doubted if it really was written by al-Qushayri.
It should be mentioned that the researchers of al-Qushayri's heritage don't mention his work "Sakiyat 'ahl Sunna" (A Complain of the People of Sunnah) as a really serious theological essay, as well as don't include it in the list above, taking into account that it's more connected with the Islamic law then with the Sufism or theology.
FOOTNOTES
(1) Such translation of the title is given by A.D. Knysh. See Abu 'l-Qasim al-Qushyri. Al-Qushayri's Epistle on Susizm.
(2) See A.J. Arberry. Sufism: An Account of the Mystics of Islam; Nicholson R.A. The Mystics of Islam; A. Schimmel. Mystical Dimensions of Islam; Knysh A. Islamic Mysticism: A Short History.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
[1] Ал-Кушайри, Абу ал-Касим Абд ал-Карим б. Хавазин. Кушайриево послание о суфийской науке / Пер. Кныш А.Д. // Ступени. — СПб, 1992. — № 2 (5).
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[3] Мухаммад ал-Мугтаба. Проблема человека в творчестве ал-Кушайри: Диса ... канд. философ. наук. — М., 1994.
[4] Abd Al-Karim Ibn Ha Qushayri. Das Sendschreiben Al-Qusayris uber Das Sufitum. — Wiesbaden, 1989.
[5] 'Abu Bakr al-Bagdadi. Tarih Bagdad au madinati-s-salam. — Cairo, 1931.
[6] Abu 'l-Qasim al-Qushyri. Al-Qushayri's Epistle on Sufizm. Translated by Professor Alexander D. Knysh. — Reading, 2007.
[7] Al-'Asnawi Gamal ad-Din. Tabaqat as-safi'iya. — Bagdad, 1971.
[8] 'All 'Ibn 'Utman al-Hugwiri. Kasf al-mahgüb li 'arbab al-qulüb. — Moscow, 2004.
[9] Al-'Imam 'Abd al-Karim al-Qusairi. Nahw al-qulüb as-sagïr. — Libiya-Tunis, 1977.
[10] Al Qushayri Abu'l Qasim 'Abd al-Karim b. Hawazin. Principles of Sufism translated by B.R. Von Schliegell. — NY, 1990.
[11] Al-Qushayri Abu'l Qasim 'Abd al-Karim b. Hawazin. The Risalah: Principles of Sufizm, translated by Rabia Harris. — Chicago IL, 2002.
[12] 'Atar Farld ad-Din Nlsaburi. Tazkiratu-l-'wliya'. — Teheran, 1995.
[13] Brockelmann C. Geschichte der Arabischen Literatur. — Leiden, 1943.
[14] Frank, R.M. Two short dogmatic works of Abü l-Qasim al-Qushayrï. First part: Al-Qushayrï's Luma' fï l-i'tiqad // Midéo, 14, 1980.
[15] Frank, R.M. Two short dogmatic works of Abü l-Qasim al-Qushayrï. Second Part: Al-Qushayrï's al-Fuül fï l-usül // Midéo, 16, 1983.
[16] Gami Nur ad-Dln 'Abd ar-Rahman. Nafahat al-'uns min hadarat al-quds. — Teheran, 1958.
[17] Hartmann R. Al-Kuschairis Darstellung des Sufitums Mit Uebersetzungs. Beilage und Indices. — B., 1914.
[18] 'Ibrahim Basyuni. Al-'Imam al-Qusairl. — Cairo, 1972.
[19] Nahw al-qulüb al-sagïr : La «grammaire des cœurs » de Abd al-Karïm al-Qusayrï. Présentation et traduction annotée Francesco Chiabotti. URL: http://www.cairn.info/revue-bulletin-d-etudes-orientales-2009-1-page-385.htm
[20] Qusayri's Tartib as-Suluk // Oriens 16, 1963.
[21] Ritter H. Phililigika XIII: Arabische Handschriften in Anatolien und Istanbul (Fortsetzund) // Oriens. Vol.3. — Leiden, 1950.
[22] Tag ad-Din as-Subqi. Tabaqat as-safi'iya al-kubra. — Cairo, 1976.
ИСТОРИОГРАФИЯ РАБОТ ПО АЛ-КУШАЙРИ
О.А. Лапицкая
Кафедра истории философии Факультет гуманитарных и социальных наук Российский университет дружбы народов ул. Миклухо-Маклая, 6, Москва, Россия, 117198
Данная статья призвана перечислить и охарактеризовать наиболее значимые работы, посвященные знаменитому суфию XI в. ал-Кушайри, автору широко известного трактата «Послание о суфийской науке». Несмотря на значимость этой фигуры в истории суфизма, европейские (равно как и арабские и персидские) исследователи суфизма не уделили ему значительного внимания, за исключением упоминания в контексте описания его «Послания».
Ключевые слова: Суфизм, ал-Кушайри, историография, Послание о суфийской науке, мистицизм, теология, манускрипты.
