Volume 92, Issue 2

Résumé: Le corpus ancien du Hadith imamite contient un certain nombre de traditions sur les « cinq esprits » de l’imam. A quelques variantes près, ceux-ci sont les suivants: l’esprit saint, l’esprit de la foi, l’esprit de la puissance, l’esprit du désir et l’esprit du mouvement. « L’esprit saint » est présent dans toutes les versions. Ces traditions, concernant les membres intellectifs de l’homme divin, ne semblent pas avoir des fondements proprement islamiques ou arabes. En revanche, des traditions religieuses et spirituelles antiques et tardo-antiques peuvent nous fournir de nombreux parallèles saisissants. Dans une première partie, la « préhistoire » de la notion est étudiée. De nombreuses exégèses gnostiques et manichéennes d’Isaïe 11, 2–3 sont examinées (en particulier le logion 19 de l’Evangile selon Thomas, le Psautier copte et le traité chinois appelé « Traité Chavannes-Pelliot »). Elles concernent toutes les cinq membres de l’homme parfait surtout dans le manichéisme. La deuxième partie de l’article est consacrée aux prolongements de ces traditions (leur ancienneté dans les cercles ésotériques shiʿites imamites et ismaéliens, chez al-Ḥakīm al-Tirmidhī, dans le Umm al-kitāb et jusque dans l’apocryphe énigmatique tardif d’origine morisque appelé l’Evangile de Barnabé ). L’implication majeure de ces traditions sur le plan doctrinal c’est la capacité de l’imam et de son initié de recevoir les révélations divines grâce aux facultés de « l’esprit saint » ou « l’esprit de la sainteté » ( rūḥ al-quds ).

Abstract: A small fragment of papyrus contains a tradition ascribed to ʿUmar b. al-Khaṭṭāb (d. 23/644) also known from literary sources, albeit with some variations in the text and transmission history. Written on the re-used back of an official text, it will be used to discuss how such traditions might have functioned in the written culture of the early Abbasid Empire.

Abstract: Up until now, one of the flat miḥrāb -s in the Mosque of Ibn Ṭūlūn in Cairo has kept its mystery. Of its damaged decoration, in all likelihood dating back to the Ṭūlūnid period, only the central motif remains, consisting of a circled star hanging from a chain. This article examines the original significance of this miḥrāb . First, the foundation stele of the mosque provides an epigraphic context characterized by the predominance of an eschatological discourse. From there, I explore several hypotheses by engaging with textual and archaeological traditions relating to the themes of the star and the chain. The star could represent the “pearly star” evoking the infinite light of paradise in the Qurʾān. The chain may in turn refer to the chain of the Banū Isrāʾīl, a symbol of the absolute justice that God supposedly granted to Prophet David. Considering Ibn Tūlūn’s attempts to appear as a just ruler, one might see in this miḥrāb an evocation of the Last Judgment, which Ibn Ṭūlūn could have used to highlight his own justice.

Abstract: Arabic letters from the Maghrib and the Andalus show a peculiar, tripartite layout that does not conform to Arabic letter layouts known from the mashriq. The edition of three fragments of diplomatic letters from Naṣrid Granada and Ḥafṣid Bougie to Aragonese kings, now preserved in the Archivo de la Corona de Aragón/Barcelona, serves as starting point for a detailed analysis of this hitherto insufficiently researched aspect of letter writing. By a comparison with contemporaneous diplomatic letters of Mamlūk sultans to the Aragonese kings, exemplary layouts of Andalusī-Maghribī, Ifrīqīyan and Egyptian diplomatic letters in the early thirteenth century can be described. By considering older Arabic and Judaeo-Arabic letters it may be suggested that they all stem from the same origins. The extensive differences between Western and Eastern layouts prove different ideal conceptions of diplomacy and relation with foreign rulers in these regions.

Abstract: This article is an investigation into the extant works on Medina’s history by the late Mamluk-era historian ʿAlī b. ʿAbd Allāh al-Samhūdī (d. 911/1506), the most prolific pre-modern historian of that town. Although the study of Arabic historiography during the Mamluk period has progressed rapidly over recent years, most published research focuses on historical works composed in Egypt and Syria. By offering an analysis of al-Samhūdī’s various books on Medina’s history, this article will demonstrate how the study of historical works written in the Mamluk Ḥijāz has much to add to wider research into Mamluk historiography more broadly.

Abstract: There is no word for the ‘supernatural’ in classical Ottoman, and one could argue that even the very notion is absent, as the notion of ‘nature’ is very near to that of ‘God’, and (as the latter is omnipotent) there is no extraordinary event that cannot be potentially true. The Ottomans would rather speak of the ‘marvelous’ or the ‘extraordinary’, which as mental categories played a major role in the medieval imagination both in East and West. As defined by al-Qazwīnī (1203–1283), author of a very well-known collection of mirabilia , there are ‘ordinary marvels’ ( ʿajāʾib ) and ‘extraordinary’ ones ( gharāʾib ); the first category has mainly to do with strange places, monuments, flora or fauna, while the second includes both the miracles of Prophets and saints and the works of demons, as well as magic, divination and other man-driven occult phenomena. The transition from more ‘medieval’-style authors, such as Yazıcıoğlu Ahmed Bîcan (d. after 1466), Aşık Mehmed (d. after 1598) or Cinânî (d. 1595) to more ‘scientific’ scholars like Kâtip Çelebi brings about a widening of the sources used with the addition of Western European works, considered more authoritative, rather than an abolishment of the supernatural element per se .