É. Apor , I. Ormos (ed.): Goldziher Memorial Conference, June 21–22, 2000, Budapest.

HOPKINS, Simon: The Language Studies of Ignaz Goldziher

THE LANGUAGE STUDIES OF IGNAZ GOLDZIHER of intensive bibliographical researches, especially in the libraries of Leipzig (186871), Leiden (1871) and Vienna (1871-2), immersing himself night and day in the treasures of the Arabic manuscript collections. Of his manuscript researches in Leipzig he states: "... ich ja die Universitätsbibliothek völlig ausplünderte und in den Handschriften der Rafa'ijja ganze Nächte lang wühlte".

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6 In Leiden he was even more assiduous, copying and collating a large variety of Arabic manuscripts

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7 and working his way through quantities of printed texts. It was here, he says,

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8 that he laid the foundation of what what was later called the "staunenswerte Belesenheit Goldzihers",

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9 explaining that "freilich las ich oft bis 3 Uhr früh bei meinem Tische und nahm an keiner Zerstreuung theil, sondern steckte Tag und Nacht in Büchern, Handschriften und Sarkophagen". Such singleminded, unrelenting application to study may not have done his health any good Mrs de Goeje later remarked that Goldziher at this period was so pale that he "looked like a corpse". Goldziher read and copied vast amounts of Arabic philological texts during these few years in Germany, Holland and Austria. His diary (pp. 48, 49) speaks emotionally of the inspiration he derived at this period from reading Suyüti's Mitihir and any other "Sujutica" which he could lay his hands on. Special attention was paid to Tha'älibi's Fiqh al-luga, the edition of which Goldziher had undertaken at Fleischer's request. Having realized, however, that much of Tha'älibi's source material was to be found in lbn al-Sikklt's Kitäb al-'alfäz, Goldziher resolved to edit the latter instead. A large portion of his unpublished edition, and other materials connected with the project [ such as a great part of his copy of the work from the manuscript in the Legatum Warnerianum I. O.], are still extant in the Goldziher Nachlass in Budapest.

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1" That collection also contains, inter alia, extensive excerpts from lbn al-Anbäri's Kitäb al-'insäf, copied in Leiden, May 1871,"" while Goldziher was suffering from excruciating toothache."

1" His European Wanderjahre over, Goldziher returned to Hungary early in 1872. 2(1

7 E.g. lbn Hazm (Hanisch. Briefwechsel 326). 211

8 Tagebuch 49. 20

9 The expression quoted here anonymously by Goldziher was coined by Nöldeke in his review of the first volume of Muhammedanische Studien in WZKM 3 (1889), 95. Nöldeke was wont to stress Goldziher's "(unvergleichliche) Belesenheit", e.g. in his reviews of the two instalments of Abhandlungen in WZKM 10(1896), 345 and 13(1899), 285. 21

0 See on this Dévényi & Iványi in their translation of Goldziher's History of Grammar 6364 n. 4 and the references there; Iványi, The Arabist 23 (2001), >22; Hanisch, Briefwechsel 31-32 [and an unpublished letter to Nöldeke dated 4.11.1897. I. O.]. My thanks to I. Ornios for making available to me the copy of Kitäb al-aljaz, which bears the shelfmark MS Goldziher-gyüjtemény 2. "" As noted by Dévényi & Iványi, History of Grammar xiv n. 2. 21

2 My thanks once again to I. Ormos, who kindly communicated, inter alia, the wording of the title-page of Goldziher's notebook (MS Goldziher-gyüjtemény 60), where the medical details are recorded. 127