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The Master and the Disciple: An Early Islamic Spiritual Dialogue on Conversion. Kitb al-'im

wa'l-ghulm by Ja'far B. Manr al-Yaman; J. W. MorrisReview by: Robert GleaveBulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Vol. 66, No. 1(2003), pp. 87-89Published by: Cambridge University Presson behalf of School of Oriental and African StudiesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4145707.Accessed: 01/07/2012 05:04

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REVIEWS 87reformation of Sunni Islam was in large part shaped by the ideas and ethosof the Shi'a Ismaili doctrine of ta'lTm (p. 101). This ta'ltm(' teaching') stressedreliance on an authoritative teacher as the path to certain knowledge. Whileit is true that al-Ghazali's writings frequently return to the issue of certainknowledge, Mitha overstates the extent to which al-Ghazali was influenced byhis engagement with the Ismaili intellectual challenge. Other influences onal-Ghazali, notably that of Ibn Sina, demand consideration.Stepping beyond these two particular arguments, Mitha's 're-reading' ofthe text in his final chapter suggests an elaboration of his aim of expounding,'new, relatively unexplored, ways of reading' Kitab al-Mustazhiri. These newways are not readily apparent, however, the chapter consisting of observationsoften summarizes previous scholarship on the topics of orthodoxy, reasonand authority.

A number of other weaknesses obtrude. Why is there only passingreference to other texts by al-Ghazali when a longer study, exploring some ofthese connections more fully, would have been desirable? Furthermore, thereference to al-Ghazali's, 'systematic use of logic in usil al-fiqh , is inaccurate,since al-Ghazali's al-Mustasfli min 'ilm al-usil does not in fact extend itsengagement with logic beyond the famous introductory discussion of thesubject. There are also striking statements about al-Ghazali and his workswhich beg questions. Al-Ghazali's harsh criticisms of the Ismailis, contrastingwith his more measured writing, reveal 'a type of intellectual insecurity'(p. 44), while his ability 'to enter into the shoes of his opponents reflects thatvery modern, almost liberal, side of al-Ghazali's complex personality'(pp. 55-6). Mitha needs to explain how al-Ghaza-li's extant texts 'constitutean integrated fabric' (p. 1), given 'the range of his many different voices' (p. 2).Less substantial flaws also hinder the reader. Various generalizationscontribute little; for example, 'The study of history begins inevitably withretrospection' (p. 3). The prose features conceptual inaccuracies, as on p. 59,when the syllogism is described as a 'personification of reason'. Furtherediting could have removed grammatical infelicities such as 'realism connotesa Machiavellian persistence toward realpolitik' (p. 76).In sum, Mitha's discussion is useful more as a survey than as an analysisof the ideas found in Kitab al-Mustazhir-.

MARTIN WHITTINGHAM

JA'FAR B. MANSUR AL-YAMAN:The Master and the Disciple. an early Islamic spiritual dialogue onconversion. Kitdibal-'Alim wa'l-ghulam.Translatedby J. W. Morris.(IsmailiTextsand TranslationsSeries,3.) I. B. Tauris: London, 2001, xiii, 225 pp. ?25.00.The tenth-century Ismaili writer, Ja'far b. Mansuir al-Yaman, composed anumber of important works of theology and quranic exegesis, the mostfamous of which is the Kitab al-kashf, edited by Strothmann half a centuryago. The Kitab al-'ilim wa'l-ghuldim, dited and translated by Morris in thisvolume, provides us with a creative account of Ismaili theology presented inthe form of a series of dialogues weaved around a central narrative. The textconsists of conversations on subjects such as theology, the relationshipbetween formal theology (kaldm) and gnosis, cosmology and the mysticpath, interspersed with narrative commentary. The main characters are the

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88 REVIEWS'Knower' ('dlim), the 'Young Man' (or pupil, ghuldm), the Shaykh and AbuiMalik, a theologian (probably Mu'tazili). The religious discussions of thesecharacters are presented as elements in the story of how the ghuldmcomes tobe an initiate (and later an instructor) in esoteric religious knowledge. Thestory runs as follows: The 'alim, a teacher in a community of believers, setsout to spread the true message. His discussions outside of the community aregenerally fruitless until he arrives at a place far from his home. There hemeets a group of scholars who, whilst keen, are misguided. He discusses withthem and they are impressed, taking on board his teaching. One of them (theghuldm)decides to follow him and is eventually introduced to the 'alim'sownspiritual guide (the Shaykh). The Shaykh initiates the ghuldm into the waysof mystical knowledge. The 'alim, however, remains his mentor and theghulcm returns to his hometown, wherein his father and family live. His fatheris, at first, less than impressed with his son's conversion, but eventually relentsand he too becomes a seeker. The rest of the community are suspicious andquestion the theologian Abfi Malik about the beliefs of the ghuldm (nowknown as Salih) and the father (known as al-Bakhtara). Abfi Malik does notcondemn them but wishes to meet them himself. There follows a prolongeddialogue in which Salih demonstrates the limited, and limiting, nature oftheology. Abi Malik is bewildered by S~lih's argumentative powers andbecomes a seeker himself, though it takes the 'dlim's advice to make Salihrecognize the authenticity of Abfi Malik's conversion. The superiority ofesoteric over exoteric knowledge is emphasized throughout, as is the privilegedcharacter of this knowledge. The hierarchy of the Shaykh, the 'alim,Salih, hisfather and Abfi Malik is clear and replicates the hierarchy within the mysticalorder. The 'true religion' emerging from the dialogues recounted in the textis one of secret knowledge which is available to those who seek, but 'theway' is closed to those who remain wedded to the exoteric elements ofreligion. Particularly interesting is the dialogue between Salih and AbuiMalik,where the principles of Mu'tazili theology and legal theory are discussed, andshown to be contradictory and uninspiring. It is also, I feel, significant thatmuch of the information communicated in the dialogues is sectarian-neutral.Whilst the figure of an imam provides guidance for the world, there is littlediscussion of themes which are exclusively Ismaili. Without knowledge of thehistory of Ja'far b. Mansur and his place within Ismaili tradition, there wouldbe little evidence for the reader to place the text specifically within the IsmailiShii tradition.

Translating a text such as this requires a thorough grounding in theterminology of esoteric Islam, as well as a detailed understanding of Ismailitheology. Morris has done a fine job, and any difficulty the reader of thetranslation may have in grasping the meaning merely reflects the inherentambiguity of the Arabic text itself. There are occasions when I would certainlyhave used a different form of words. For example, Morris translates Ab-lMalik's plea that he needs to know the different types of 'seeker' (and ildma'rafat al-thaldtha ahwaju [?or ahiuju]Arabic text, p. 66) as 'I am in need ofcoming to know all three of them' (translation, p. 140); 'I am in greater needof knowing all three' (or simply 'I need to know all three') would perhapsreflect the Arabic more clearly. The Arabic style is highly reminiscent of theQuran-a feature brought out by Morris's copious references in thetranslation. At times, one feels he overplays this element of the work. Forexample, by using the verb lajja, or the verbal known istikthar, it is notimmediately obvious that the author is deliberately emulating Q23.75 andQ102.1 respectively (Arabic section, p. 18, translation p. 84).

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REVIEWS 89The translation and text are accompanied by an informative introduction,in which Morris explains the background to the text, as well as the generaloverview of Ismailism, Shiism and Sufism in early Islam. The text itself has a

rather broken manuscript history. Whilst being supposedly composed in thetenth century, the earliest manuscript used by Morris is from the earlyseventeenth century. This leaves seven centuries for accretions and modifica-tions (though Morris is confident this has not happened to any significantextent). The manuscripts themselves, Morris tells us, have easily recognizablesection markers (indicating who is speaking), though these, at times, appearas editorial interpretation. Finally, one might expect a text with the greatimportance and significance described by Morris in the introduction to havea more complete and stable manuscript tradition.This said, the work is expertly presented and edited, and makes a worthyaddition to the already excellent 'Ismaili Texts and Translations' series.Editions of Arabic texts make little economic sense for European publishers,but this work (and the others in the series) are major contributions to thefield. They will continue to be useful to scholars and students long after manylighter, introductory works have begun to look dated.

ROBERT GLEAVE

MARIAPERSSON:Sentential object complements in Modern Standard Arabic.(StudiaOrientaliaLundensia,Nova Series,No. 2.) viii, 146pp.Stockholm:Almqvist andWiskellInternational,2002.This is the author's doctoral dissertation submitted to the University of Lundin May 2002 (supervised by Bo Holmberg and Karina Vamling). It is a well-executed study of the form and function of sentential object complementconstructions in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), which Persson is right topoint out is new, since most studies related to this topic deal with ClassicalArabic (the best being two studies by Wolfdietrich Fischer: ' Dass-Sitzemit 'an und 'anna im Arabischen', ZDMG, 1977: 276-7, and 'Dass-Sitze mit'an und 'anna , ZAL, 1978: 24-31). According to her definition, 'complementclauses are clauses that serve as arguments of verbs, and by extension also ofother categories, such as verbal nouns, participles, etc.' (p. 7).This work is a corpus-based investigation, and all the examples discussedare taken from Arabic prose literature from between 1948 and 1967. Oneexcellent stroke of good luck was to have had available a forthcominggrammar of MSA by three talented linguists of which she made extensive usein her research (El Said Badawi, Michael G. Carter and Adrian Gully, Modernwritten Arabic.-a comprehensive grammar, London: Routledge). These threespecialists are quoted as saying, with reference to the particles 'an and 'anna'that', something which is not readily available (to my knowledge) in othergrammatical treatises, viz. qala 'to say' may sometimes be followed by 'annarather than the obligatory 'inna 'when the words of the speaker are notrelated exactly as they were spoken' (p. 2, n. 12). However, they later assert(and she also quotes this) that 'indirect speech after qala in the modernwritten language is almost invariably introduced by 'inna (p. 3, n. 12). Thus,it seems the difference in complementizer turns out to be a moot point.Indeed, the aforementioned topic of qaila 'anna would make for a fascinatingmonograph in itself.