The Yatimat al-dahr fi mahasin ahl al-'asr and its sequel Tatimma al-Yatima of Abu Mansur al-Tha'alibi (350-429/961-1039) are perhaps the oldest surviving books in Arabic that deal with literature based on geographical divisions and contemporary literature. In order to understand the history, significance, and the culture in which these texts were born, it is important to examine and compare the sources of each of their regions. Shawkat Toorawa, Walter Werkmeister, Manfred Fleischhammer, Fuat Sezgin, and Sebastian Günther stress the importance of written and aural sources in adab compilations from the third/ninth and fourth/tenth centuries by examining the sources of three major udaba': Ibn Abi Tahir Tayfur (d. 280/893), Ibn 'Abd Rabbihi (d. 328/940), and Abu l-Faraj al-Isbahani (d. 356/967). Al-Tha'alibi’s Yatima and Tatimma present a different case, as they feature a strong return to orality and reliance on different techniques of transmission governing each of their sections. The continuous travel of littérateurs of the 4th/10th century in search for patronage brought about an increase in the use of oral transmission despite the wide geographical regions. This reliance on orality did not, however, mean the complete abandonment of written sources. The examination of al-Tha'alibi’s sources shows that he used a number of available diwans and books, but the recentness of the material, the width of the geographical area, and the competition for fame, brought into play other written material as well, namely ruq?as and epistles which various littérateurs sent to al-Tha'alibi at times, principally to be included in the successful anthology. Interestingly, the employment of the techniques described above is not homogeneous in all of the sections which shows that al-Tha??lib? relied on different types of sources in each section. Finally, this paper shows that a large amount of the Yat?ma and the Tatimma comes from a limited number of guarantors, from Iraq and further east, whom al-Tha'alibi met in Nishapur or the surrounding cities. These guarantors, I argue, form the backbone of an entire network of littérateurs active in the second half of the fourth/tenth century.

Those who are familiar with the collection of tales known as the Kalila wa Dimna, also called the Fables of Bidpai (popular in Arabic, Persian, and Turkish, among other languages), might be surprised to encounter the variant in Paris BN Latin 8504. In that translation, written in 1313, Burzuya, the traveling physician, prays to the Virgin Mary, falls asleep, dreams of Christ surrounded by angels, witnesses the Annunciation, and sees himself miraculously in the company of the Virgin and her infant Son. Illustrated Islamic manuscripts of the Kalila wa Dimna have been the subject of various scholarly works, but this finely-illuminated Latin translation, executed by the physician Raymond de Beziers for the French king, has remained relatively neglected. Only one feature of Latin 8504 has provoked much discussion, and that is its two prefatory folios, which represent the earliest “historical” depiction in France, showing the French royal family participating in the events of Pentecost in 1313. The following miniatures, approximately 140, all depict the Kalila wa Dimna. What is the connection between this representation of “history,” in which the French king’s role is highlighted, and the Kalila wa Dimna? And why, of course, does Burzuya have a vision of the Virgin Mary? The current paper argues the following: that the Kalila wa Dimna as presented in Paris Latin 8504 was intended to present new material, which was considered amusing and diverting, but also to tie that new material to familiar frameworks of religion, knowledge, and religious and secular history. The manuscript’s text and images situate the exotic fables within more familiar territory in at least three ways: the Christianization of Burzuya through prayer and the gift of Christian visions, the appearance of the rituals and historical individuals of the French court in the prefatory section, and the addition of proverbs and maxims from the grammar school tradition into the main text of the Kalila wa Dimna (these additions are so numerous that their inclusion nearly doubles the length of the manuscript). In his presentation of the Kalila wa Dimna to the French court, then, Raymond repeats the actions of Burzuya, who similarly brings the tales back to his own king: thereby Raymond inscribes himself in yet another frame story, with hopes, one imagines, of securing for his own name a similar immortality as that enjoyed by the ever-changing Kalila wa Dimna.

Much ink has been spilt over al-Hamadh?n? and his Maq?m?t in recent years. In contrast with studies that have been devoted to the Maq?m?t’s structure, narrative techniques, and the rhyme and rhythm of saj?, the poetry has not drawn much attention from the scholars. The focus of these studies may be the result of the fact that the poetry in the Maq?m?t has often been labeled as “mediocre” (James Monroe, 1984) or “little more than doggerel” (C. E. Bosworth, 1973). However such verdicts lead us to ask why al-Hamadh?n? would decide to place ornate saj? and “doggerel” side by side? In a language where the so-called diaglossia prevails, the disparity between a “high variety” and “low variety” is always discernable. This is similar to what we have observed in the conflict of al-Hamadh?n?’s saj? and his “doggerels.” Is literature written by those who have the most power? Does it also bear traces of the views of the common people? In Tang China, there appeared two famous collections of Buddhist-inspired verse—those of Hanshan (Cold Mountain) and Wang Fanzhi (Wang “the Brahmac?rin”). After comparing them with the poetry in the Maq?m?t, we notice very similar “unpretentious, sometimes quizzical, or edgy, or mocking, expressions.” What is more, the highly vernacular style of their poems intentionally directs Buddhist quest at the broadest audience possible. Therefore in this paper, we would venture some new readings of the “doggerels” in a comparative context, and shed some light on the importance of “doggerels” for the maq?ma genre’s genesis.

One of the medical practitioners who rubbed shoulders with the Abbasid kings was Ab? Bakr Mu?ammad Zakariyy?’ al-R?z? (864-925), later Latinized as Rhazes. In this paper, I will investigate the role that al-R?z? perceived for himself in the king’s court and how his position as personal physician was understood by other members of the king’s court. I will consult a variety of sources, including selected works by al-R?z?, accounts of bio-bibliographers, and contemporaneous accounts of adab literature on the court. Most importantly, I will be referring to a letter composed by al-Razi to one of his pupils on the occasion of his appointment as personal physician. By understanding the circumstances surrounding the composition of each text, I seek a better understanding of the role of al-Razi, as physician and courtier.

The notion of naming, or the association between a word and its meaning, has captured the interest of philosophers and linguists from time immemorial. The Greeks explored the phenomenon, most evidently in Plato's Cratylus, and postulated two views: conventionalism and naturalism. Similarly, Medieval Arab grammarians were fascinated by the phenomenon and in fact posited three views: conventionalism, naturalism, and inspirationalism. However, a careful examination of the views of Medieval Arab grammarians shows that the most authoritative grammarians, such as Sibawayh, Ibn Jinni, and Al-Batalyusi, subscribed to the conventionalism view alone. Moreover, unlike the Greek approach, which had a philosophical orientation, the approach of the Medieval Arab grammarians took a linguistic orientation due to their emphasis on the material and conceptual aspects of the "name" or word utterance and the "named" or referent. This paper focuses on the views of the Andalusian linguist, Al-Batalyusi (1052-1127 C.E.), whose treatises on language, and in particular that pertaining to "the name" and "the named," reveal an insightful analysis of the topic only paralleled in modern linguistics. The paper consists of two parts. The first part examines Al-Batalyusi's four established categories of associations between "the name" and "the named": 1) the conventional association between "the name and "the named," 2) the figurative association between "the name" and "the named," 3) the derivational association between "name and "the named," and 4) the discursive association between the "name" and "the named," depending on the intended reference and meaning of the two. The second part explores the striking resemblance of Al-Batalyusi's views with those of modern linguists and semioticians. The paper shows, for example, how Ferdinand de Saussure (1916) treated the topic through what he termed the "signifier" and the "signified" in a fundamentally similar (though not identical) way to that of Al-Batalyusi and how both terms came to be framed more recently as "utterance" and "referent" (e.g., John Lyons 1977) in much the same way it was framed by Al-Batalyusi almost a millennium ago. The paper concludes by arguing for the need to place the original contribution of Al-Batalyus--as well as to revise commonly held assumptions about Andalusian linguists in the Medieval period--not only within the Arabic grammatical tradition but also within the history of linguistics.