REVIEWS OF BOOKS 79

rather awkward translations and misprints. On the positive side, there are excellent indexes
of Qur'anic references, proper names, and technical terms, a full bibliography, and full
references to editions used.
D. P. BREWSTER.

KITAB ADAB AL-MURIDIN, ABU AL-NAJIB 'ABD AL-QAHIR AL-SUHRAWARDl

(D. 563 H.) Edited by MENAHEM MILSON. (Max Schloessinger Memorial Series, Texts, 2.)
pp. [5], 43, 112, [6]. Jerusalem, Institute of Asian and African Studies, Hebrew University,
1978. $8.

An English summary of this text, together with an introduction of a non-technical nature,

was published under the title A Sufi rule for novices by the editor in 1975 (Cambridge,
Mass., Harvard University Press, Harvard Middle Eastern Studies, 17). The present work is
the complete Arabic text together with a foreword in Arabic, the latter containing a detailed
discussion of the manuscript sources. The two publications have the same paragraph
numbering so that reference from one to the other is facilitated. The author of the work was
the first of three mystics to bear the same place-name and uncle to Abii Hafs who, together
with him, established the Sufi order that bears their name. He was born about 490/1097,
during the lifetime of the famous al-Ghazali, like him studied at the Nizamiyya in Baghdad
and after an interval established a convent on the western side of the Tigris. His further
career as a teacher was disturbed by the unsettled politics of his time. He was evidently an
expert in fiqh and hadlth, besides being a notable Sufi teacher and spiritual counsellor.
His guide for novices begins with an interesting creedal statement which is severe in its
simplicity. There are no dialectical arguments, for the novice is required to accept what he
is taught. In the three main parts which follow the author develops a moderate form of
discipleship which is suitable for a lay confraternity loosely associated with a stricter order
and whose members are encouraged to mix with more worldly Muslims and influence them.
As with similar works, the argument is fully supported at each turn with citations from the
Qur'an and hadlth, citations which are clearly identified in this edition together with those
from Sufi authors that preceded him. Indeed it is the value of the editor's achievement here
that we are able to see clearly how far the author has made use of al-Sarraj, al-Qushayn,
and the others. While it is helpful for the reader without Arabic to have a summary, the full
texture of the argument can only be appreciated with the Arabic text. This has been edited
in an exemplary manner by Milson with a good apparatus criticus, an index of references to
the Qur'an so that verses appealing to Sufis can be readily located, an index of persons, and
an index of further sources. The study of Sufism, and of the founders of the Orders in
particular, needs many more such critical editions of the "sober" tradition established by
al-Junayd so that its history may be written and its deep spirituality appreciated.

D. P. BREWSTER.

MUSTAFA 'ALPS COUNSEL FOR SULTANS OF 1581. PARTI. Edition, translation,

notes by ANDREAS TIETZE. (Osterreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften. Philosophisch-
historische Klasse, Denkschriften, 137. Bd.; Forschungen zur Islamischen Philologie und
Kulturgeschichte, Bd. VI.) pp. 188, 72 pi. Wien, Verlag der Osterreichischen Akademie der
Wissenschaften, 1979. DM 74.

The question of when the decline of the Ottoman Empire began - or, at least, when it
was seen to have begun - has exercised many minds. Here is a new literary terminus a quo
for the problem, a candid criticism of the Ottoman administration written in 1581, the
seventh year of Murad Ill's reign, by Mustafa 'All, while he was serving in the modest
office of Registrar of Fiefs in Aleppo. ThisNushat (or Nasihat) al-salafin heads the Ottoman
literature of reform, which is now slowly coming to light, having for long been led by
the works of QochiBeg (1630) and Katib Chelebi (1656), although the recently edited

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 80 REVIEWS OF BOOKS

anonymous Kitab-i mustetab (c. 1620) and_ the memorial of Hasan Kafi al-Aqhisari (1596)
have extended the date backwards. That 'All's large literary output has been for the most
part neglected by his own countrymen — for example, his great universal history, Kunh
aUakhbar, has been published only up to the reign of Mehemmed II - is not surprising.
'All is fearlessly perspicacious and exposes the decadence he sees around him with biting
sarcasm. Opening this translation we see these verses of 'All's on the first page:
"In every country they are looking for the best.
In the Land of Rum (i.e. the Ottoman Empire) they are looking for ignorants:
They are looking for brazen-faced low-class people
Who are able to extort money and to pay".
As we read on we find that nothing is sacred enough, no office is too elevated, to escape the
lash of 'All's censure and mockery. After four centuries of obscurity, Professor Tietze has
earned our gratitude by publishing two important works by 'All; in 1975 his Description of
Cairo, and now the first part, that is the preface and first two of the four chapters, of his
Counsel for Sultans, hitherto unpublished. In a splendidly produced volume he has provided
us with plates of folios 1—72 of Istanbul, Suleymaniye Library, MS Hiisrev Pas^t 311 (one
of nine known MSS of the work), a transliteration of the text, based on MS Hiisrev Pasa 311
and Topkapi Sarayi Museum Library MS Revan 406, in an arrangement intended to make
visible the use of rhymed prose, and a translation into English of that text, with an intro-
duction and explanatory notes. We await eagerly Part II which will include the last two
chapters, an analytical table of contents, and an index of the whole work; especially the
index, to turn quickly to 'All's strictures on the great and famous. Now the lid is off, the
beans are spilt; a little late, perhaps, but how the old rogue must be chuckling in the other
world!
S. A. SKILLITER.

ARABISCHE INSCHRIFTEN AUS SYRIEN. By HEINZ GAUBE. (Beiruter Texte und

Studien, Bd. XVII.) pp. xxi, 201, 19 pi. Beirut, Orient-Institut der Deutschen Morgen-
landischen Gesellschaft in Kommission bei Franz Steiner Verlag, Wiesbaden, 1978. DM 48.

While large numbers of Arabic inscriptions from Syria have been published, most of the
work of collection was undertaken more than 20 years ago and much goes back to the
early years of the century. Notable among the pioneers in the field was Max van Berchem
with his Matiriaux pour un Corpus inscriptionum arabicarum (CIA), while another major
work was the Repertoire chronologique d'epigraphie arabe (RC&A). Heinz Gaube fully
acknowledges his debt to both these works as well as to that of his other predecessors in the
area, such as Moritz Sobernheim who published the Arabic inscriptions from Baalbek,
Jean Sauvaget for his widespread work in Syria, particularly in Aleppo and Damascus, and
Ernst Herzfeld, who also published inscriptions from Aleppo.
Heinz Gaube's work is a useful addition to all these, as he concentrates on Mamluk and
Ottoman inscriptions, most of which have not previously attracted attention. The inscrip-
tions were collected mainly between April and June 1973, during an expedition in Syria
undertaken by the Mamluk Survey of the Deutsche Archaologische Institut, Cairo. Three
months is a short period for such a tour and the result, a collection of over 250 inscriptions,
spanning the 13 th to early 20th centuries, is indeed remarkable.
The vast majority of the inscriptions are from Aleppo and Damascus, whereas other
places in Syria, e.g. Busra, Hama, Hims, Ladhiqiyya (Latakia), and Jabala are represented
by a very few. Heinz Gaube remarks that this is because by far the largest number of
inscriptions of this period are to be found in the two major cities and some from other parts
of Syria have already been published, e.g. those from Busra by S. Ory. However, some of
those published here from the smaller places are of considerable interest, such as the
inscriptions from the Hammam and Mosque of the early Sufi Ibrahim b. Adham in Jabala.
All kinds of buildings are included in the collection: mosques, madrasas, bridges, hammams,
khans, zawiyas, and holy tombs. Many inscriptions speak of restorations and alterations of
earlier buildings, but others record original Mamluk and Ottoman contributions to Syrian
architecture.
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