REVIEWS 603

und Fischfang, religiose Begriffe; words kind; the importance of the introduction is,
belonging to these categories are included in as I have indicated, that it tells the reader
the general glossary, but only with a cross- how to use the glossary. It is, incidentally,
reference to this Worterverzeichnis nach difficult to see the rationale behind the
Sachgruppen. Here they receive much more indicating by a postscript plus sign of entries
detailed treatment than the items in the containing all the occurrences of a word; it
general glossary, and a translation of the might seem more logical to indicate thus
corresponding terms or expressions in both entries that do not contain all such occurrences.
Greek and Arabic is provided. All occurrences There is not a great deal more that can be
of these items are listed, whereas, in the said about a book of this kind. It is, and
general glossary, the maximum number of should be, entirely functional, and it is
occurrences listed is three. extremely well done. Dr. Schmitt can be most
This system seems quite satisfactory. It is satisfied with her work.
true that it can be tiresome continually to find J . N . MATTOCK
cross-references to another part of the book
and often to have to concentrate quite hard in
order to remember exactly what one is being FRANZ ROSENTHAL : Knowledge trium-
referred to—Arabic numerals are used through- phant: the concept of knowledge in
out, to refer to the Greek text, the Arabic medieval Islam, ix, 356 pp. Leiden :
text, and pages in the book itself—but the E. J. Brill, 1970. Guilders 64.
glossary is not difficult to use. Nevertheless,
an attentive reading of the instructions given In this work the author is primarily con-
in the introduction (p. 8) is strongly to be cerned with the importance of knowledge in
recommended. Islamic society. In the forefront he places the
The fact that Dr. Schmitt says nothing about curious fact that '4-m is one of the most
the use of a computer in the compilation of frequent roots in the Qur'an. It occurs 750
this glossary leads one to suppose that she did times as against 1,300 for k-w-n, ' to be ', and
not use one. If this is the case, one's admiration 1,700 for q-w-l, ' to say ', and 2,800 for Allah,
for her achievement must be the greater. The and 950 for rabb. The root '-m-n is slightly
compilation of glossaries to even a fairly small more frequent than '-l-m, but has more than
text is a laborious business and offers con- one meaning. Most other roots are much less
siderable scope for error; Dr. Schmitt must frequent. Despite the occurrence of a high
have expended an enormous amount of time valuation of knowledge in pre-Islamic poetry,
and effort on this, and, as far as can be seen, the author thinks that the prominence of
errors have been avoided. It might, however, knowledge in the Qur'an is due mainly to
be thought that in the preparation of a glossary the influence of Christian gnosticism (or,
to a work of this size the use of a computer less probably, Jewish gnosticism or else
would be both justifiable and helpful. Mandaeanism).
The typist, whether Dr. Schmitt or another, After a chapter in which he collects and
is to be congratulated on the handsome layout classifies over 100 definitions of knowledge
and the skilful way in which the Arabic, from later Islamic literature, he spends the
Greek, and German have been aligned. The bulk of the work illustrating the prominence
typing of brackets round the diacritical points of the idea in various fields of Islamic life.
that are omitted in the MS is, however, Under the headings ' Knowledge is Islam ',
perhaps painting the lily; it is very com- ' Knowledge is light',' Knowledge is thought',
mendable, but surely a work of supererogation. and ' Knowledge is society', he shows how
The definition of the reproduction, which is much explicit attention was paid to knowledge
reduced in size from the typescript, is excellent. in thefieldsof' theology and religious science ',
The offset was presumably done from a ' Sflfism ', ' philosophy ', and ' education '.
photographic negative; this must have Finally in a brief conclusion he restates his
considerably increased the cost of production. thesis ' that in Islam the concept of knowledge
The section of the short introduction that enjoyed an importance unparalleled in other
deals with Hunayn b. Ishaq and with the civilizations' (p. 334), and indicates how
attribution of the translation is not particularly Islamic civilization differs from others in this
valuable. It merely repeats, without critical point.
examination, the authoritarian judgements of Franz Rosenthal is to be warmly congratu-
earlier authorities, who derived these, again lated firstly for noticing the unique position of
without critical examination, from the un- knowledge in Islam and secondly for collecting
substantiated statements of the Arab biblio- so much material to support his contention
graphers. It would, however, be unreasonable and show all the ramifications of the matter.
to criticize Dr. Schmitt for not going deeply His researches have led him into many by-ways
into this particular question in a work of this of Islamic literature, and something is to be
VOL. xxxrv. PABT 3. 40
604 REVIEWS
learnt from the book about countless points of to be mentioned in the book) that, when
detail. Yet just because the central contention al-Ghazali tried to argue that the immediate
is original and important, and appears to be apprehension (dhawq) of the mystic was higher
fully justified, one wishes that the author had than the Him or rational knowledge of the
gone further in certain respects. Apart from scholar ('dlim), his words found no echo
arguing for his thesis, he has been content to elsewhere.
collect material. Yet the material itself It is to be hoped that the publication of this
suggests further questions. book will lead other scholars to concern
One would like to know, for example, themselves with the important questions it
whether knowledge is conceived in Islam as raises.
having some special features, which distinguish W. MONTGOMERY WATT
it from the conception in other civilizations.
The matter is touched on briefly here and
there, but there is no full discussion. Yet, as ELIYAHU ASHTOR : Histoire des prix et
soon as one asks this question, it is clear that des salaires dans VOrient rnidieval.
knowledge is conceived by Muslims as coming (]Scole Pratique des Hautes Eludes
through a relatively small number of out- [— Sorbonne]. vi e Section. Centre de
standing individuals, such as prophets and Recherches Historiques. Monnaie —
wise men. Other men enter into something of Prix — Conjoncture, vm.) 575 pp.
the knowledge of the prophets by memorizing Paris : S.E.V.P.E.N., 1969. Fr. 98.
their words and meditating on them ; but just
how the knowledge comes is not clear. From This book contributes to the study of
this conception there developed the peculiarly medieval Middle Eastern economic history on
Islamic feature of the isndd or chain of two levels. In the first place, it presents a
transmitters. Each of these is responsible for large volume of information on prices and
handing on the verbal formula without wages in Iraq, Syria, and Egypt from early
altering it in any way. Thus the isndd differs Islamic times to the fifteenth century, together
from the modern scholar's footnote. The with monetary and metrological data relevant
latter enables other scholars to go to the to the interpretation of this material. Three
sources and check for themselves the author's main types of source are used : Arabic literary
accuracy and the soundness of his inter- works, and in particular the chronicles;
pretations. It is assumed by modern scholars fragmentary Egyptian documentary materials,
that they are capable of passing opinions on the i.e. the papyri and the Cairo Geniza ; and the
sources. The Muslim traditionist, on the archives of the Italian mercantile republics.
other hand, received material from a source The result is some impressive price series for
(Muhammad) more authoritative than himself. commodities (particularly spices) in which the
It was assumed that he was not in a position Italian merchants were interested; a con-
to criticize the material, but could at most siderable amount of information on the price
criticize the transmitters of the material. We of grain in Mamluk Egypt taken mainly from
moderns expect a doctoral thesis to make a the chronicles; and a vast scatter of less
contribution to knowledge ; but for a medieval consolidated information for the rest of the
Muslim scholar to do this at a corresponding field covered. The book thus represents a
stage in his career was unthinkable. laborious combing of a great deal of source
These considerations lead one to ask what material, and the effort has undeniable utility.
sort of knowledge gave Islamic civilization its At the very least, it shows what sort of material
distinctive character. It was not the scientific is available for the study of medieval Middle
knowledge which we moderns so much admire, Eastern price history; and the material
which is essentially a knowledge to enable one collected is bound to be of use to scholars in
to manipulate and control both our physical numerous incidental connexions.
environment and other human beings, indi- On another level, Professor Ashtor provides
dually and collectively. The knowledge a commentary on the economic significance of
Muslims cultivated was rather what we call this material. The central and most interesting
' wisdom ', and served for the directing of one's feature of this commentary is the attempt to
own life and the lives of those dependent on relate price changes to population history
one, such as children or pupils. Professor (pp. 539-53, especially pp. 544-6). To
Rosenthal discusses hikma (pp. 35-40) and summarize his position rather schematically,
notes its ' practical elimination ' in the Qur'an, Professor Ashtor argues that the price history
and this is another interesting aspect of the of the medieval Middle East falls into two
problem he raises. It was Him which was held phases. The first, to approximately the turn
up for admiration in the Qur'an and which of the millennium, is one in which grain
became central in the Islamic world. It is prices rise faster than those of labour: con-
significant (though the point does not seem sequently, to apply an interpretative hypothesis