az-Zīna Kitāb az-Zīna fi 'l-kalimāt al-islāmīya al-ʿarabīya (Untertitel der Hamdani-Edition,
der auch von Samarra'i übernommen wurde; vermutlich der Veröffentlichung im Nasser-Ägypten
geschuldet)
al-Zīnah Kitāb al-Zīnah fī al-kalimāt al-islāmīyah al-ʿarabīyah (additional title of the Hamdani
edition and copied by Samarra'i, probably caused by its publication in Nasserist Egypt)
الزينة كتاب الزينةكتاب الزينة في الكلمات الإسلامية العربية
Large encyclopaedia of both religious and other terms with explanations of and commentary
on their etymology and meaning, also a heresiological section with the names and identities
of the religious groupings and sects active until the early fourth / tenth century. With 322/933–934 generally given as the year of al-Rāzīʾs death Brockelmanʾs information
that he finished the encyclopaedia shortly after 322/933–934 dedicating it to the
second Fatimide caliph al-Qāʾim (d. Shawwāl 334/May 946; EI2 IV/458–461) after his
inthronisation in 322/933–934 is more than unlikely. The MS consists of the transcriptions of three different coyists: ff. 1a–9b: first
copyist, ff. 10a–165b: second copyist and ff. 166a–171a: third copyist. The first
copyist has several geographical chapters from the K. al-Zīnah but shows lacunae at
the (damaged and lost) beginning and at the end.
The second copyist introduces his part (on f. 10a) with: "from the second part of
the K. al-Zīnah". However, he does not seem to refer to the usual bipartite division
of the book found in other manuscripts (cf. Baghdad No 1306, pp. 185–186, with a referring
wording; and IIS London Ms. 1410, p. 210) where the disjunction is placed between
the chapters "al-shirk" and "al-ilḥād" (in this MS not until f. 62a). This second copyist repeats the last (and fragmentary) theological chapter of the
first copyist: "al-rūḥ wa-l-nafs wa-l-rīḥ wa-l-nafas". His section makes up the longest
part of the MS but features transposed quires. According to the text, the correct
order would be fols. 10–18; 34–46 and 19–33. Adjacent to this, i. e. before fol. 47,
there is a lacuna of approx. two quires length (c. 8–10 folia), reaching from the
middle of the chapter on al-umma until the middle of the chapter on al-dhimma, with
three more chapters missing in between. The second hand also includes the complete
heresiology found in al-Sāmarrāʾīs edition (from aṣḥāb al-aḥwāʾ wa-al-madhāhib up
to aṣḥāb ar-rajʿah) followed by the entry an-nabīʾ up to the entry al-qususīyīn wa-al-ruhbān
on f. 165b where it breaks off. As it reads fol. 10a that this second hand's section
comprised 188 folia of which only 156 remain today (fols. 10–156) and as the lacuna
before fol. 47 had a length of approx. 16–20 folia, there must have been another quire
after fol. 165.
The text by the third copyist on ff. 166a–171a, dealing with the definition of neoplatonic
terms and grammar, does probably not belong to the Kitāb al-Zīnah. It contains a colophon
on f. 167a giving the following information: copyist: Aḥmad ibn Abī Saʿd al-Bayhaqī date of copy: 14 Rabīʿ I 544/22nd of July 1149 place of copy: Jayyān in the administrative district (rustāq) of Rayy.
London, Institute of Ismaili Studies, Ms. 1410, 1411 etc., for a list of all known
copies cf. C. Berthold: "The Leipzig Manuscript", pp. 28ff.
Translations
Persian and Arabic: Girāyishhā wa-madhāhib-i islāmī. Qom 1382sh/2003, vol. 1
Editions/Literature
Editions: Abū Ḥātim al-Rāzī, Aḥmad b. Ḥamdān: "Kitāb al-Zīna", Ed. al-Hamdānī, Ḥusayn b. Fayḍallāh
under the title "Kitāb al-Zīna fi l-Kalimāt al-islāmiyya al-ʿarabiyya", 1st Edition,
Markaz al-Dirāsāt wa-l-Buḥūṯ al-Yamanī, Ṣanʿāʾ, 1415/1994 (originally published in two volumes: Dār al-Kitāb al-ʿArabī bi-Miṣr, Cairo 1956–1958)
Abū Ḥātim al-Rāzī, Aḥmad b. Ḥamdān: "Kitāb al-Zīna", under the title "Kitāb al-Zīna
fi l-Kalimāt al-islāmiyya al-ʿarabiyya", third part (al-qism al-ṯāliṯ), in: al-Sāmarrāʾī,
ʿAbdallāh Sallūm: "Al-Ġulūw wa-l-Firaq al-ġāliya fi-l-Ḥaḍāra al-islāmiyya", Dār al-Ḥurriyya,
1392/1972 (pp. 225–347)
The ambiguous titles of the current editions have caused some confusion. Al-Hamdānīs
two-volume edition contains the first topics of the book. The combined edition of
1994, however, mentions the two previous volumes as representing parts one and two
of the Kitāb al-Zīna itself. Additionally, in his 1972 edition, al-Sāmarrāʾīs sub-title
"al-qism al-thālith" suggests that this would directly connect to the first two-volume
edition of the book by al-Hamdānī. In fact several at his time unedited chapters are
contained between these two editions, left aside the subsequent text. This confusion
is also reflected in Farhad Daftary's "Ismaili Literature: A Bibliography of Sources
and Studies" (London, 2004, p. 148) where it is assumed that the three parts of the
Kitāb al-Zīna (which do not exist as such in the MSS) have already been edited. Cf.
C. Berthold: "The Leipzig Manuscript", pp. 27f.
Bibliography: Ali, Jamal: „Language and Heresy in Ismaili Thought. The Kitab al-Zina of Abu Hatim
al-Razi“, New Jersey 2008.
Klemm, Verena. “Obvious and Obscure Contexts. The Leipzig Manuscript of the Kitāb
al-Zīna by Abū Ḥātim al-Rāzī (d. 322/934)”, in: Journal of Semitic Studies, Supplement
26 (2009), pp. 55–67.
Berthold, Cornelius: "The Leipzig Manuscript of the Kitāb al-Zīna by the Ismaili Author
Abū Ḥātim al-Rāzī (d. 322/933–934)", in: Journal of Islamic Manuscripts, Vol. 5, No.
1, Leiden 2014 (pp. 19–42).
Berthold, Cornelius: "Differenz und Subversion. Die Häresiografie im Kitāb az-Zīna
des Abū Ḥātim ar-Rāzī (engl. "Difference and Subversion, The heresiogaphy in the Kitāb
al-Zīna of Abū Ḥātim al-Rāzī") , unpublished PhD thesis, Leipzig 2016.
ff. 1a-9b: ordinary handwriting: medium-sized; angular; vocalized; densely written; headings
larger and in red; text sections punctuated by different circular forms in red or
white with black outlines ff. 10a-165b: in a second hand; medium-sized; ordinary handwriting; stiff, erect, more round but
still of an angular shape; vocalized; headings larger and in red; text sections punctuated
by different circular forms in red or white with black outlines ff. 166a-171a in a third hand, handwriting tiny, written more fluent ink colour on f. 1a, 171b heavily come off
History of the object
Entstehung
Date
↳ copy
Third Hand (f. 167a): 14th of Rabīʿ I 544/22nd of July 1149; second hand dated via
radiocarbon dating, copied ca. early 11th
Place of MS
↳ copy
Third Hand (ff. 166a–171b): Ǧayyān in the administrative district (rustāq) of Rayy
Scribe
↳ other name form(s)
Third Hand (f. 167a): Aḥmad b. Abī Saʿd al-Baihaqī
Provenienz
Provenienz
1996
Amman
Buyer Purchaser: UBL
Seller: private property
none
Provenience information
Other: f. 10a: basmalah and ḥamdalah Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn title of the work, authorʾs name number of pages: 188.
(With the second copyist's hand starting at f. 10a and breaking off on f. 165b, this
means that 32 folios are missing. However, there is a lacuna of approximately this
length between f. 46b and 47a – after a comparison with IIS London MS. 1410 and Baghdad
No 1306. If the text was originally complete in this section, the second writer's
hand would have ended shortly after f. 165b notwithstanding.)
number of quires: 15 Hibat Allāh ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Aḥmad ibn Ibrāhīm entry stating that the MS was sold by Zayd al-Raḥbī/Raḥbatī in Muḥarram 684/March-April
1285 entry painted over with ink copyist verse? in the margin: text corrections, collation remarks and notes on the text (by at least three correctors,
cf. fol. 106b–107a) at the bottom of the pages: collation remarks European foliation going from the last page at the end of the MS to the first page
at the beginning of the MS
