Louis Massignon Research Articles

Some Unknown Ismā'īlī Authors and their Works

When Griffini published an account of the latest acquisition of a “collection of South-Arabian MSS.” by the Ambrosian Library, Milan, the distinguished orientalist, Ignaz Goldziher, to whom oriental scholarship is indebted for his able researches on the doctrines and history of the Isma'īlīs, welcomed the news, for most of the information on the subject of the Ismā'īlīs he and his forerunners were able to communicate to us was derived either from inadequate sources or from the anti-Ismā'īlī polemical literature. Similarly, Professor Louis Massignon expressed the hope that modern scholars would throw further light on the history of the Ismā'īlīs and their doctrine by study of this literature.

International Committee of the History of Science

THE fourth annual conference of the Comité International d'Histoire des Sciences was held in Paris on May 13–16, under the presidency of Prof. Karl Sudhoff. Among those present were Mme. Hélène Metzger, Prof. P. Diepgen, Prof. F. Faddegon, Dr. E. J. Holmyard, Prof. Louis Massignon, Prof. Aldo Mieli (permanent secretary), Prof. E. Mittwoch, Prof. A. Reymond, and Prof. D'Arcy W. Thompson. The meetings were held at the Centre international de Synthese (12 Rue Colbert), and, apart from formal business, were devoted entirely to the history of the sciences in medieval Islam. The president, Prof. Sudhoff, read a paper on Constantine, the first to transmit Muslim science to the West, and described the part played in this transmission by Maurus and Urso, two early schoolmen of Salerno. Prof. Massignon, in a brilliant discourse, pointed out the contrast between Greek and Muslim conceptions of numbers, and suggested the importance of Manichæan ideas in early arithmology.

The Table-talk of Jalalu'ddin Rumi

The great poet, whose Mathnawí and Díwáni Shamsi Tabríz are well known to students of Persian mysticism, is said to be the author of a prose work entitled Fíhi má fíhi. Riḍá Qulí Khán mentions it in the preface to the Tabríz edition of the Díwán, remarking that it is addressed for the most part to Mu'ínu'ddín, the Parwána (Lord Chamberlain) of Rúm, that it is equivalent to 3,000 verses in extent, and that manuscripts are rare. I have not met with any further account of it. The only copies of which the existence has yet been announced are the two at Constantịnople referred to by M. Louis Massignon in his Bibliography of Ḥalláj, which was published last year. Since then, however, an Indian scholar, Mr. 'Abdu '1-Majíd, of Daryábád, Bara Banki, has brought to my notice three more copies, one in the Hyderabad State Library, one in the Rampur State Library, and one in Nawáb Sálár Jung's Library at Hyderabad, Deccan. Mr. 'Abdu'1-Majíd, who proposes to edit the Persian text, is having these MSS. transcribed for his own use, and a few weeks ago he was so kind as to lend me for a short period his copy of the manuscript belonging to the Hyderabad State Library. I am glad to take the opportunity of thanking him for this and other important services which he has rendered me in connexion with my work on the Mathnawí. So far as I can judge at present, the Fíhi má fíhi throws a good deal of light on the meaning of that immense and difficult poem; but the question is one that it would be premature to discuss now.

WHAT MOSLEMS EXPECT

The Muslim WorldVolume 12, Issue 1 p. 7-24 WHAT MOSLEMS EXPECT AN INTRODUCTORY STUDY OF MOSLEM DEMANDS* Louis MASSIGNON, Louis MASSIGNON Paris, June, I920.Search for more papers by this author Louis MASSIGNON, Louis MASSIGNON Paris, June, I920.Search for more papers by this author First published: January 1922 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1478-1913.1922.tb01880.x * (Translated from the French in Revue du Monde Musulmon, Vol. XXXIX, with permission of the author and editor AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Volume12, Issue1January 1922Pages 7-24 RelatedInformation