ADRIAAN RELAND ON ISLAMIC SEALS

Jan Just Witkam(Leiden University Institute of Area Studies, LIAS)

www.janjustwitkam.nl

COLLOQUIUM ADRIANUS RELANDUS (17 JULY 1676 - 5 FEBRUARY 1718),

PROFESSOR ORIENTAL LANGUAGES, UNIVERSITY OF UTRECHT 1701-1718 UTRECHT, 5 February 2018

Introduction

Reland’s short treatise on Islamic seals (1708), which seems to be the first of its kind, can be read from two perspectives.

First there is the small corpus of Islamic seals that Reland presents and deciphers. He uses the texts of a number of ‘his’ seals to show that there are ideas in Islam that are not so very different from Christianism, especially a notion of monotheism. This is a recurrent theme in Reland’s writings, especially in his much larger work on the ‘Muhammadan’ religion (first edition 1705, second edition 1717). This is how we know Reland, as a proponent of a ‘more balanced and tolerant view of Muhammad and his religion’ (Jonathan Israel), as a protagonist of early Dutch Enlightenment.

A sub-theme in the treatise on seals is Reland’s criticism of the Arabic typography of his time.

The second perspective concerns the social context. As there were, when Reland wrote, only private collections of exotic objects such as Islamic seals in the Netherlands, an attempt is made to find out who these ‘collectionneurs’ with an interest in seals were, what was their relationship with Reland and how the relevance of their collections can be understood in their own time.

Reland on Islamic seals

A short essay on Islamic seals (21 pages in all, including illustrations and blanks) by Adriaan Reland(1676-1718), published in the collected essays, vol. 3 (Utrecht 1708), pp. 231-251.

It shows and treats seven objects, that Reland calls ‘Islamic seals’. These had somehow come to his knowledge and possession.

Source: H. Reland, Dissertatio de Gemmis Arabicis. Utrecht (Broedelet) 1708, title-page and beginning. (collection Witkam)

Reland’s introductory remarks

‘§ 1. On the use of Arabic sealsI am very much aware of the fact that there are quite a number of people who are eager to acquire certain precious seals, and that they prefer among these to look for seals with Arabic or Persian inscriptions. So, for the pleasure of those who are desirous to read and understand the Oriental pieces, and to solve the complex and intricate difficulties of the script, I will show several seals to which I will add my interpretation. […] Even if the small specimen that we herewith present is in no way sufficient to overcome all difficulties, it will nevertheless lead to something. […]Nor will this work to those who are not knowledgeable about these secrets be totally ungrateful, unless I flatter myself with a totally empty imagination. Who then is not taken in by the looking at scripts so elegant and artful which shows ornate interconnected letters, with the correct application of spaces and with the distribution of diacritics that look like little stars? And all these, I confess, are the more accurately perceived by the person to whom these letters are not unknown. To the uneducated person, they even show better that these peoples from where these scripts originate are not so uncivilised and barbaric as generally speaking we are convinced of.’

Definitions and an overview

Reland calls the ‘seals’ that he describes ‘gemmae’, ‘precious stones’. A more particular meaning of the word is ‘things made of precious stones’ among which can be understood ‘a seal ring, a signet’, a ‘pearl’, and ‘the eyes in a peacock’s tail’ (Lewis & Short, s.v.).

However, none of the ‘gemmae’ that Reland describes is made of a precious stone. All illustrations are unsigned copper engravings, the original drawings of which could have been made by Reland.

Nos. 1 and 2: Collection Jacob de Bary, Amsterdam.No. 3. Collection Jacob de Wilde, Amsterdam.No. 4. Collection Henricus Hadrianus vander Marck.No. 5. Silver leaf (pendant?), collection Jacob de Bary.No. 6. Personal seal from India, provenance not indicated.No. 7. Reproduction of a Tughra, taken from a document.

Reland’s source of knowledge

The objects that Reland describes as Islamic seals have private provenances, mostly private collections in Amsterdam. Especially the collection of Jacob de Wilde was widely known and famous. It has even survived, though very fragmentarily.

The added value of encyclopaedical knowledge that Reland cites in his descriptions and analyses comes mostly from D’Herbelot’s Bibliothèque Orientale (first edition Paris 1697).

In the descriptions of his seals, Reland quotes from manuscripts in his possession. These he usually mentions in the lists at the end of his De religione Mohammedica, editions 1705 and 1717.

Source: Naples, National Library, LVII H 11, title-page.

Some of Reland’s preferred knowledge of Islam

Two Islamic texts occur time and again on seals, amulets, rings, inscriptions and the like. These are Ayat al-Kursi, the Throne verse (Qur’an 2:255) and Surat al-Ikhlas (Qur’an 112). In his treatise on seals, Reland treats them as well. The Throne verse (top, left) is a seal from the collection of Jacob de Bary.Surat al-Ikhlas is the text on a seal from the cabinet of curiosities of Jacob de Wilde.

Reland has a particular predilection for these texts as they so eloquently resume the unity of God. On Sura 112 he writes to Jacob de Wilde about the latter’s seal: ‘The Muhammadans hold this Sūra in great honour, in such a way that several of them place it on the level of one third of the entire Qur’an. That shows the better what was the use of this seal, and why these words were chosen for the inscription on it.’

Source images: Reland, De gemmis arabicis, pp. 239, 241.

Reland’s excursion on God’s eternity 1

Surat al-Ikhlas (Qur’an 112) is not a simple monotheistic creed, according to Reland. To his translation of the short Qur’anic chapter he comes up with a comprehensive account of against which other doctrines Sura 112 is conceived, notable the idea of al-Samad, ‘eternal, everlasting’, one of God’s epithets:

- A Byzantine mistranslation into ʿolosphuron, ‘spherical’, and have said with intolerable calumny that the Muhammadans have made their God corporal, lithon è xulon ʾanaisthèton, ‘made out of stone or wood’.- Against the Jews, confirming that Ezra (ʿUzayr) is not the son of God (Qur’an 9:30).- Against the Christians, in particular with a quotation from Johannes Damascenus: legei ʿena theon ʾeinai poiètèn tōn ʿolōn, mète gennèthenta mète gegennèota ‘he says that He is one God, the Maker of everything, Who has no offspring and Who is no offspring’. (“Book of Heresies).- Finally, against the Magi, the dualists.

Source image and quotations: Reland, De gemmis arabicis, pp. 240-241.

حمن ا حيم بسم هللا الر لر أحد قل هو للا

مد الص للا

د لم يلد ولم يول

وا أحد ولم يكن له كف

Reland’s excursion on God’s eternity 2

The interior part of the seal contains the prayer said by Jonah, when he was inside the whale. Qur’an 21:87 mentions Dhu al-Nun, ‘the man of the fish’, not Jonah.It gives the first half of the Muslim creed (the second half is not yet relevant in Jonah’s time) followed by a confession of sins. Basing himself on Kessaeus’ Historia Sacra, which is mentioned as MS No. 9 in Reland’s list of sources in De Religione Mohammedica(1705, Bb 2, verso) and in the second edition (1717) it is MS No. 10 [In fact, Reland quoted not directly from this Historia Sacra, but from the extracts made by J.H. Hottinger (1620-1667) from it], Reland writes: ‘… and that he (Jonah), in order to avoid the punishment that had been announced to them by the god, had fled away in a state of doubt and anger. When thereupon a tempest had arisen and lots were cast to see who should be thrown into the sea, the lot fell on Jonah. However, he was caught by a fish, in which he dwelt during forty days, till he was able to placate the irate god by these prayers, or rather by this confession, and he was given back to our open air.’Source image and quotations: Reland, De gemmis arabicis, pp. 241-243.

ي بحانك إن ل إله إل أنت س

كنت من الظالمين

The twelve Shi’ite Imams

The fourth seal treated by Reland contains the names of the twelve imams of the Shi’ites. With the help of one of his manuscript he reads and makes explicit the twelve names that are hidden in this seal, the original of which was in the collection of Henricus Hadrianus vander Marck, a Catholic prelate and a private collector known for his huge numismatical collection (auctioned off in The Hague in 1727 by Petrus de Hondt).

Reland: ‘The twelve leaders […] whom the Persians believe to be the legitimate successors of Muhammad. As there are four among them who were called ʿAlī, the engraver of this seal has drawn the letter ي at the end of the word ʿAlī in backward direction, in such a way that it, written four times, divides the surface into four areas, each of which are filled with the names of three leaders. Of these leaders or princes only the names are available in this seal.’ Reland’s additional information comes from ‘his’ MS 10 in De religione1705, MS 11 in the 1717 edition, and in fact he quotes from Hottinger’sextracts. Source image and quotations: Reland, De gemmis arabicis, pp. 245-247.

Islamic eschatology

The discussion on the twelve imams of the Shi’ites brings Reland to mentioning the Mahdi, the hidden imam:

‘The Persians transmit about the last-mentioned one on these, al-Mahdī, who was born in the year 255 of the Muhammadan era, many curious facts, and they believe that shortly before the end of the world he will come back victoriously among mankind, and that he will join Jesus the Messiah, so that one religion will come into being from the two religions, the Christian and the Muhammadan ones. Among the Muhammadans there are quite a lot of people who have falsely impersonated him.’

The original object is a silver leaf inscribed on either side with text in Arabic, coming from the Cabinet of Jacob de Bary in Amsterdam. The text is a paraphrase of the Muslim creed, with mention of the Mahdi added to it.

Source image and quotations: Reland, De gemmis arabicis, pp. 248-249.

| المر كله هلل | ل اله ال هللا

ل قوة ال باهلل

| محمد رسولنا | هللا ربنا المهدي امامنا

A private seal from further East

Reland does not indicate the provenance of his 6th object, a private seal that may have come from India or beyond. He describes the text as follows:

‘Narshū Pandit, son of Kisnū Pandit, which is followed by the year 1077 of the Muhammadan era, that is 1666 in our era. It was, therefore, the seal of that Narshū. The word Pandit ڤنديت means in Malay ‘literate, copyist, doctor’. Narshū and Kisnū are the names of rivers of India, or rather of the spirits that are believed to reign over them. In more or less this way all seals (sigilla) of the Persians and Arabs are organized, and the words should for the greater part be read upwards from below.’

Source image and quotations: Reland, De gemmis arabicis, p. 249.

نرسو ڤندت ابن كشنو١٠٧٧ڤندت

The Tughra of Sultan Murad IV (reigned 1032-1049/1623-1640)

Reland concludes his treatise on Islamic seals with an illustration of the Tughra, the calligraphically intricate signature of the Ottoman Sultan (Wehr):

‘… I do own the seal of the Turkish emperor Murad IV (herewith illustrated) taken from a letter of the year 1632, that was addressed to the illustrious and powerful States of Holland, and that is in manuscript. [..] The name of the emperor is written in the same way on coins, that I could add here (since I own them), if I were not of the opinion that the writing of the letters in this larger seal [ex majori hoc sigillo] is much clearer.’Apparently this original document had somehow come into the possession of Reland, and we now know also that Reland had a numismatic collection.Source image and quotations: Reland, De gemmis arabicis, pp. 249-250.

مراد خان المظفر دائما

Some preliminary conclusions

- Reland discusses ‘his’ seals within a religious and historical context.- Reland first calls his seals gemmae, ‘precious stones’ but at the end of his treatise he also uses the word sigillum ‘seal’.- Reland uses the texts of his letters to the respective owners of original seals as paragraphs in his treatise. This is a procedure that he also follows in other shorter texts. It gives us an idea of his social network. - Reland conducts his research, not only that on seals, in isolation of the large Islamic collections in the Leiden library. Not only through their printed catalogues, but also because of his stay of two years in Leiden he must have been aware of the library’s collections of Islamic manuscripts. Avoiding these must have been a conscious choice. One wonders why.Sources: http://www.dbnl.org/auteurs/auteur.php?id=rela001

A sub-theme: the aesthetics of hand writing and of typography

At left: an Islamic seal from the cabinet of rarities of Jacob de Bary, Amsterdam, reproduced by Reland in copper engraving. Present whereabouts of original unknown.

Below: the text (Qur’an 2:255) on a seal in the Cabinet of Rarities of Jacob de Bary, Amsterdam, as transcribed by H. Reland and reproduced by typography.

In his essay on Arabic seals of 1708 Reland repeatedly mentions the beauty of his originals and the aesthetically inadequate rendering of Arabic texts by typography.

Source: H. Reland, Dissertatio de Gemmis Arabicis. Utrecht (Broedelet) 1708, pp. 235, 236 (details). (collection Witkam)

Islamic seals as collectibles

Portrait by Pieter van den Berge (1659-1737) of the art collector Jacob de Wilde (1645-1721), a high official (‘ontvanger-generaal’) in the Admiralty of Amsterdam.

He shows a tray from his dactyliotheca with cut gems. Dactiliothecas can consist of a system of drawers, but are sometimes also made in the form of a book.

Source portrait: Maria de Wilde, Gemmae Selectae Antiquae e Museo Jacobi de Wilde […] Amsterdam 1703. This copy: Leiden University Library, Singer 33543. The dactiliotheca, below at the left, belonged to Jacob de Wilde. The book-like one has as title on the spine ‘Amusement Astrologique, tom 1’. Both objects with their content of casts and stones are now part of the permanent exhibition of the Leiden Museum of Antiquities.

Islamic seals as collectibles

In the Orient seals were collectibles as well, and several albums have been preserved.

The image shows an album of Islamic seals (not only in Arabic) that was composed in Pera, Constantinople, in the mid-19th century. Most items are cut-outs from larger paper, possibly from real documents.

Source: Leiden University Library, Or. 17.109, ff. 18b-19a

Museum Wildianum

The Cabinet of Curiosities of Jacob de Wilde in Amsterdam, Keizersgracht 333. De Wilde sits with his distinguished visitor, Czar Peter the Great, who visited the Museum on December 13, 1697. The meeting has been visually recorded by De Wilde’s daughter Maria. The dactiliotheca with gems can be seen (?) on a shelf, left of the absis.

Source (etching, plate measures 20.5 x 33.5 cm). This copy: Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, RP-P-

1938-1300. Also published in Maria de Wilde, Signa antiqua e Museo Jacobi de Wilde veterum

poetarum carminibus illustrata. Amsterdam (Sumptibus Auctoris) 1700.

Maria de Wilde 1

Portrait by Pieter van den Berge of Maria de Wilde (1682-1729) with an em-blematic poem by David Hoogstratanus (= van Hoogstraten, 1658-1724), and a dedicatory poem by Petrus Francius (1645-1704). Maria is shown with her work, including a leaf with drawings of gems. Maybe this is part of her work Gemmae SelectaeAntiquae e Museum Jacobi de Wilde (published Amsterdam, 1703).

Maria de Wilde, Signa antiqua e Museo Jacobi de Wilde veterum poetarum carminibus

illustrata. Amsterdam (Sumptibus Auctoris) 1700. Copy The J. Paul Getty Center Library,

85 B 1736. Reland contributed to the book with a poem dedicated to Maria entitled Artifici

dexterae pulcherrimae virginis Mariae Wildia Sacrum.

Maria de Wilde 2

Maria de Wilde was, apart from an engraver and documentalist of her father’s collections, also a minor playwright. Several of her plays have been preserved, both published during her lifetime and posthumously.These sometimes contain Oriental elements, as can be seen from the engraved title Abradates en Panthea. Treurspel (Amsterdam 1710). This is not necessarily because of Reland’s influence, as Amsterdam, at the time, was a cosmopolitan city, where people from all nationalities could be seen, and exotic objects of all sorts be acquired. Oriental theater plays were fashionable.

Reland’s acquaintance with Jacob de Wilde and hisdaughter Maria shows us details of a network of elegant and rich amateurs of science, scholarship and the arts.

Source image: Google Books.

Excursus on the modern use of seals

Islamic seals have been used till recently. When I studied at the University of Tehran (spring and summer 1970) I had to sign for my weekly allowance in cash, and I did that, like all the others with whom I was queuing (cleaners, gardeners, porters, security people and the like), with the print of my seal. For that purpose I had a seal made by one of the numerous seal cutters in the courtyard of the Friday Mosque in Tehran’s Grand Bazar. It is evident that such seals had great value for their owners.

Approximately at the same time, Cairene newspapers would contain in the section of classified adds (I’lanat Mubawwaba) announcements of lost seals (Akhtam Mafquda). Often it is said there that the lost seal was not the collateral for a loan, and that it will be replaced, so that the finder (or thief) knows that it has no monetary value anymore.

Print of a private

seal reading

“Jan Just Witkam”,

Tehran 1970.

Announcement

of three lost

seals in

Alexandria. The

purpose of the

message is not

to find back the

lost seal, but to

make clear to

any third party

that the lost seal

cannot be used

as collateral or

valuable

anymore.

Source:

Al-Ahram, March

9, 1971, p.7.