Al-fihrist li Ibn al-Nadīm by Ibn al-Nadīm; Shāri Muhammad AlīReview by: George SartonIsis, Vol. 20, No. 1 (Nov., 1933), pp. 283-285Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of The History of Science SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/224895 .

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REVIEWS 283

d'elles. AL-FARABI commence son grand livre a la maniere hellenistique:

(C Tu as exprime le d6sir de connattre l'art de la Musique tel que le concevaient les anciens. Tu m'as invitd a dcrire pour toi un livre traitant de ce sujet, facile a comprendre et a la portde de tous. J'ai tarde a executer tes ordres jusqu'a ce que j'aie lu attentivement les ouvrages des savants de l'Antiquitd qui sont parvenus jusqu'a nous, ainsi que ceux de leurs successeurs et ceux de nos contemporains. J'avais espere decouvrir dans ces 6crits ce que tu desirais savoir; j'aurais dtd ainsi dispense de composer un ouvrage sur un sujet ddjh trait6... D (p. i). (c Dans les ouvrages que j'ai lus, j'ai trouv6 que certaines parties de cet art etaient laissdes de cote, que les dires de leurs auteurs manquaient de cohesion et de clartd, surtout dans ce qui touche a la thdorie. On ne saurait imputer ces defauts a l'incapacite des auteurs anciens, ni laisser supposer qu'ils n'ont pas pu donner a cette science sa perfection. Ces savants 6taient nombreux, pleins de talent; ils n'avaient d'autre ideal que le progres de la Science. Ces gens d'une intelligence subtile se sont succ,dd; chacun 6tudiait les dires de ses prdddcesseurs pour augmenter, a son tour, les connaissances qu'il avait reques. D (p. 2).

L'idee de progres est ici tres clairement exprimee, et cela est fort remarquable, car cette idee est non seulement, comme le dit M. D'ER- LANGER, une chose assez rare chez les auteurs anciens - elle y est absente. Je ne connais qu'une exception, tres nette d'ailleurs, celle de SANkQUE (3).

GEORGE SARTON.

Al-fihrist 1i Ibn al-Nadim (Arabic edition of the Fihrist of IBN AL- NADIM, with an Arabic introduction by one of the professors of the Egyptian University). 6+528+8 p. Al-muktabah al-tajariyah al-kubra, SHARI' MUH. AMMAD 'ALI, Cairo, 1348 (1929-30).

This new edition of the Fihrist does not deserve to be reviewed in Isis for its merits, but it is worthwhile to speak of it as an example and a warning to others. I bought it because it was announced as containing an additional part of the text never published before which was found in the library of the late TAIMOR pasha. (i) This statement repeated on the title page is false,-but not entirely so. The facts of the caqe are as follows.

GUSTAV FLUJGEL'S edition of the Fihrist was posthumously published in Leipzig in I871-72 (see my Introduction, I, 662). This edition was based upon a number of MSS. none of which is complete and perfect. An important part missing at the beginning of the fifth book and dealing with the origin of kaIlm and the biographies of its founders was edited

(3) Voir mon Introduction, I, 248; II, 484. (i) This great Egyptian bibliophile and scholar has been many times quoted

in Isis (e.g., IO, 249; I5, 405). See biography by A. SCHAADE: AHMED TAIMUR pasha (I87I-I930) und die arabische Renaissance (OLZ, 33, 854-59, I930).

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284 ISIS, XX, I

in I890 by M. TH. HOUTSMA (Vienna Oriental Journal (2), vOl. 4, 217-35, I890). Either a reprint of HOUTSMA'S paper or more probably a MS. copy of the additional text edited by him was inserted by TAIMETR pasha in his copy of the Fihrist (presumably FLOCEL'S edition of it).

The new editor, " one of the professors of the Egyptian University," got wind of that apparently when his own edition was almost completed, for otherwise why did he not publish the additional text at its proper place (p. 245) ? He published it at the end of his volume with a new pagination, explaining that it was first printed in " Die Kunde des Mor- genlandes " of I889 and that he had found it in TAIMUR'S COpy.

I did not bother to compare the Arabic text of both editions, as I shall continue to use FLOGEL'S edition and advise other scholars to do the same. The only possible advantage of the new edition, assuming it to be correct and complete, is that it combines HOUTSMA'S text with FL1UGEL'S, and that it is easily available; while FLUGEL'S two volumes have become rare and expensive. In any case the Cairene edition contains only the text itself, a short introduction, and an index: while FLiUGEL'S edition includes an abundance of notes and elaborate indices, the whole of volume 2 being devoted to them (28o p., quarto, I872). In short, from the scholar's point of view, the, new edition may be considered non-existent.

The preface of the Cairene editor contains a brief account of the Fihrist and its author, showing how little the latter was known and how much his work was used by his successors. He discusses FLUGEL'S hypothesis that IBN AL-NADIM was in Constantinople in 377 (=987-8) (3), and shows that the sentence " falaqaituhu biddr al-ruim wara' al-bi'ah" does not refer to Constantinople but to a Christian quarter and church of Baghdad. This conclusion had already been reached by Baron V. ROSEN in his Russian paper " Was the author of the Fihrist in Con- stantinople in 988? " (Zapiski vost. otd. imp. russk. arch. obshck., vol. 4, for i889: P. 401-4, 1890). However it is easier to read Arabic than Russian and I was interested in the discussion. The catholicos of Baghdad had sent a monk called AL-NAJRANI to China whence the latter returned after six years. IBN AL-NADIMv met this monk in Baghdid (not in Con- stantinople) in 987-88.

I take advantage of this review to mention two important publications relative to the Fihrist, which were omitted in my Introduction (vol. I, 662). SIEGMUND FRAENKEL: Zum Fihrist (ZDMG, 46, 74I-43, 1892). JULITUS

(2) The title of this periodical in the copy used by me is actually in English as quoted.

(3) FLOGEL, vol. i, p. xiii, Arabic text, p. 349; vol. 2, I83.

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REVIEWS 285

LIPPERT: IBN AL-KUFI, einm Norginger NADIM's (Wiener Zeitschrift far die Kunde des Morgenlandes, II, I47-55, 1897). It is worthwhile to add that some members of the faculty of the American University of Beirut are now engaged in preparing an English translation of the Fihrist.

It is amusing to note that the Cairene edition of the Fihrist bears on its title page the mention " Printing rights reserved " (huqfuq al-tab' mahffuzah). Which rights ? and how did they obtain them ? I prefer not to use ugly words and therefore will leave that question unanswered.

GEORGE SARTON.

G. Tierie.-CORNELIS DREBBEL (I572-I633), H. J. PARIS, Amsterdam, I932, (in English) VII+ 124 pages. Illustrated. Price, $ I.20.

This handsomely printed book is a biography of a great inventor who failed to be a great scientist because he was not financially independent (like ROBERT BOYLE and CHRISTIAAN HUYGENS). Like other inventors and artists of his day he was largely dependent upon the favor of princes, and was obliged to do everything in his power to maintain his position at court. He was forced to wrap his inventions and demonstrations in secrecy and to say very little about his theories.

At the age of twenty-five DREBBEL was already an engraver of unusual merit, having been trained in the art by HENDRICK GOLTZIUS, his wife's brother by whom he was also instructed in alchemy. At about the same time he began his career in applied science by studying the effects of pressure and temperature on the volume of air. In I598 he took out a patent for an automatic pump and for a clock which did not need winding, both of them being operated by the variations in the volume of a confined quantity of air. In i6oo he built a fountain at Middelburg which operated on the same principle; in I605 while in England he built his perpetuum mobile for JAMES I at Eltham; and in I6io while in Bohemia he built another fountain for RUDOLF II at Prague. The perpetuum mobile in its simplest form consisted of a glass bulb attached to a spiral of glass tubing in which there was a small quantity of liquid. The gas in the bulb, expanding by day and contracting by night, produced an ebb and flow of the liquid in the spiral tube. There is some evidence which indicates that DREBBEL perhaps filled his bulb with oxygen gas procured by the heating of saltpeter. On the same principle he constructed self-registering ovens and incubators for the hatching of chicks. He was expert in the manufacture, blowing, and grinding of glass, and invented an ingenious machine for the grinding of lenses. His camera obscura attracted much attention from artists and savants. He is credited with the invention of the microscope with two convex lenses.

I9

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