|
The Shi'ite scholar Ibn al-Nadim (Abu al-Faraj Muhammad ibn Ishaq ibn Muhammad ibn Ishaq, died September 17, 995 or 998) was the author of the Kitab al-Fihrist, a bibliographic index of Arabic books, which he says he completed in 987-8CE. Of his life so little is known that it is not even known to whom his bye-name al-nadim (the "companion" of a high personage or even of the caliph) refers.
He was a bookseller, a calligrapher who copied manuscripts for sale, as his father was before him, and lived in Baghdad, and sometimes he mentions a sojourn in Mosul. Of his teachers he mentions al-Sirafi (died 978-9), 'Ali b. Harun b. al-Munadhdhim (died 963) and the philosopher Abu Sulayman al-Mantiqi. He belonged to the circle of
a son of 'Ali b. 'Isa the 'Good Vizier' of the Banu 'l-Dharrah, whom he praises for his profound knowledge of the logic and the sciences of the Greeks, Persians and Indians. Ibn al-Nadim also met in his house the Christian philosopher Ibn al-khammar. With these men, none of whom was an orthodox Sunni, he shared an admiration for philosophy and especially for Aristotle , and the Greek and hindu sciences of Antiquity (before Islam). He admired their breadth of outklook and their air of toleration.
His great book, the Fihrist, according to its brief preface, is meant to be an index of all books written
in Arabic, whether by Arabs or non-Arabs. There existed already books (tabaqat) dealing with the
biographies of poets. It was published in 938; it exists in two manuscript traditions, or "editions:" the more complete edition contains ten 'discourses' (maqalat). The first six of them are detailed bibliographies of books on Islamic subjects: 1. the Holy Scriptures of Muslims, Jews, and Christians, with
emphasis on the Qur'an and hadith; 2. works on grammar and philology; 3. history, biography,
genealogy and the like; 4. poetry; 5. scholarly theology (kalam); 6. law (fiqh) and
tradition. The last four discourses deal with non-Islamic subjects: 7. philosophy and the
'ancient sciences'; 8. legends, fables, magic, conjuring etc.; 9. the doctrines (maqalat) of the
non-monotheistic creeds (Manicheans, Hindus, Buddhists and
Chinese); 10. alchemy. He gives the titles only of those books which he had seen himself or whose existence was vouchsafed by a trustworthy person.
The shorter edition contains (besides the preface and the first section of
the first discourse on the scripts and the different alphabets) only the last four discourses, in other
words, the Arabic translations from Greek, Syriac and other languages, together with Arabic
books composed on the model of these translations. Perhaps it was the first draft and the longer edition (which is the one that is generally printed) was an extension.
Ibn al-Nadim often mentions the size of a book and the number of pages, so that buyers would not be cheated by copyists passing off shorter versions. Compare the Stichometry of Nicephorus He refers often to copies written by famous calligraphers, to bibliophiles and libraries, and speaks of a book auction and of the trade in books. In the opening section he deals with the alphabets of 14 peoples and their manner of writing and also with the writing-pen, paper and its different varieties. His discourses contain sections on the origins of philosophy, on the lives of Plato and Aristotle, the origin of The Book of One Thousand and One Nights, thoughts on the pyramids, his opinions on magic, sorcery, superstition, and alchemy etc.
External link
|
