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Manuscript Center 5th International
Conference
(6-8 May 2008)
Lost and Embedded Manuscript Texts
(al-Makhtūtāt al-Mattwiyya)
Introduction
Our lack of knowledge in
the fields of Arabic heritage can be ascribed to a number of reasons. One major
reason is the little attention paid to the publishing and dissemination of
Arabic heritage, despite its longevity and extensiveness. Besides, what we are
aware of concerning manuscripts and manuscript collections is quite trivial to
the actual number of Arabic manuscripts scattered all over the world. A swift
look at the number of titles mentioned in Ibn al-Nadīm’s al-Fihrist and
Hajjī Khalīfa’s Kašf al-Dhunūn and al-Baghdādī’s Īdah al-Maknūn
can give us an idea about the very little that we actually know about the huge
number of titles and manuscript texts that have (been) gradually slid into
oblivion. According to this, it would be hard to deny that our current knowledge
of Arabic manuscript heritage is deplorably wanting.
Because of that, this conference is an attempt at uncovering lost and
embedded manuscript texts (al-makhtūtāt al-mattwiyya), and is a further
attempt at caulking our fractured awareness. Building and raising awareness of
Arabic manuscript heritage have been always the concern of the Manuscript Center
of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina since the Center’s very first conference –
Millenary Manuscripts (2004) through its subsequent conferences: Signed
Manuscripts (2005), Commentary Manuscripts (2006) and Translated Manuscripts
(2007).
Al-Makhtūtāt al-Mattwiyya
defined:
Al-mattwiyya as an
adjective literally means “folded”, however its actual semantic connotation in
relation to abstract objects refers to disappearance, concealment, fading into
oblivion, etc. Tayy (literally “folding”) in this sense has a number of
shades and, in the context of this conference, it also has contingent
terminological significations. This “folding” may result from the arbitrary
disappearance of a particular text; the intended concealment or excision of a
manuscript text in whole or in part; and the embedding, intended or otherwise,
of a particular text, partial or complete, in another text. The process of tayy
had had such an influence on Arabic manuscript heritage to the extent that the
majority of Arabic manuscript texts are, someway or another, mattwiyya – lost,
embedded and concealed.
Reflecting on the case of lost and embedded manuscript texts poses a
number of questions. Why have certain works been celebrated while others faded
silently into oblivion? Where are the early original scientific works that Nasīr
al-Dīn al-Tūsī edited in the 7th century of Hegira? Why did the translation of
the Holy Bible by Hunayn Ibn Ishāq disappear, despite the fact that it is a
translation by the most illustrious and accomplished translator in the history
of Islam? Why the written records in Jāhiliyya had been wiped out? What
are the techniques of excision, exclusion and eradication that resulted in the
loss of so huge a number of early and later works?
Nor is that all. A manuscript text can itself result in the loss or
concealment of another text. This may take place through the textual process of
embedding. Many personal letters, poems, early quotations have been embedded in
such grand medieval encyclopedias such as al-Amālī by Abū ‘Alī al-Qālī or
Kitāb al-Aghānī by Abū al-Faraj al-Asfahānī. A text may also result,
because of its critical purport, in vehemently banishing another text into
oblivion. A stark example on that is the influence of Kitāb al-Intisār fil
Radd ‘ala Ibn al-Rāwandī al-Mulhid by al-Khaiyyāt al-Mu‘tazalī on the works
of Ibn al-Rāwandī. We happen to know nothing of Ibn al-Rāwandī’s work except
through the quotations and al-Khaiyyāt’s scathing criticisms in Kitāb al-Intisār.
It is worth mentioning that the fickle disposition of political power and
its, often, unhealthy relation to the intelligentsia of its time had similar
effects on the loss or concealment of certain works. On the other side, there
exists a much more powerful factor represented in the consent of society and its
acceptance, or otherwise, of a particular trend of thought. Opposing mainstream
ethics or established wisdom meant that the work containing such unorthodox
thought, and probably its author, will face a destiny of oblivion and disregard.
Al-Hallāj’s al-Twāsīn is an obvious example. The total disappearance of
all the works of Abū al-‘Abbās al-Irānšahrī is another. One also should mention
as one of the manifestations of tayy the writing of a particular text
with another alphabet. For instance, writing Hebrew texts using the Arabic
alphabet, or using Hebrew to write Arabic. Jalāl al-Dīn al-Rūmī, Mūsa Ibn Maimūn
(Maimonides), and Averroes are famous for using that technique of mystification.
Sometimes things get more drastic. Whole sciences and branches of knowledge can
face the same destiny. Thanks to restraining ideologies, prohibitive mentalities
and scribal inadvertence, branches of knowledge such as alchemy and a whole host
of occult sciences, simply, perished. Only three names are dubiously known to be
affiliated with work in these fields: Jābir Ibn Hayyān, al-Tughrā’ī, and Ibn
Zunbul al-Rammāl. And as we mentioned earlier, authors, too, can face the same
fate. For instance, do we have a clue about the real identities of the authors
of Rasā’il Ikhwān al-Safā and the other hermetic texts? Why should
identifying the author of a humdrum work on Arabic morphology al-Maqsūd fi ‘Ilm
al-Sarf be such a riddle? Such questions abound and get more engaging the more
we contemplate mattwiyya manuscripts.
Recapitulation
The above discussion can be
recapitulated into the following conference topics:
• Lost works and unidentified
authors.
• Causes of concealing particular works.
• Common features of lost and embedded manuscripts.
• Textual embedding as one of the causes of tayy.
• Lost texts that can be extracted from other extant ones.
• Power and its impact on the spreading or disappearance of particular works.
• Writing texts in different alphabets.
• The importance of lost and embedded manuscripts (al-makhtūtāt al-mattwiyya)
and the role of cataloguing in identifying them.
Prof. Youssef Ziedan
Director of Manuscript Center & Museum
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