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

STROHMAIER, Gotthard: Ulüm al-awa il and Orthodoxy: a Famous Monograph of Goldziher Revisited

GOTTHARD STROHMAIER clerics and physicians and, discovering the latters' intellectual superiority, felt the need to possess and to read the same literature as these people. We have an interesting report by the great Khwarezmian scholar al-BTrünl (973-1048) about how these contacts could take place. He tells in his Kitäb tahdld nihäyat al-amäkin litashih masäfät al-masäkin [Book on the Determination of the Ends of the Places in Order to Verify the Distances of the Cities] how at a learned session, a so-called maglis, the Christian Syrian translator Abü Bisr Mattä ibn Yünus ridiculed al-Gubbä'T, the leader of the mu'tazila, who would not believe that the water of the oceans takes the shape of a ball round the earth.

1 This happened in Baghdad at the beginning of the tenth century A.D., and we may assume that such meetings were regular also in former times. In this way the tradition of the Alexandrian school was handed over to Muslims who were willing to accept some knowledge that existed before the Koranic revelation. They spoke simply of the '

ulüm al-awä'il [the sciences of the ancients] regarding it thus as something autochthonous like oriental Christendom. The famous translator Hunayn ibn Ishäq collected his Greek manuscripts in Syria, Palestine and Egypt.

4 It was only in the opinion of later generations that the reception of Greek knowledge was to be regarded as an import from outside which should better have been avoided. The Egyptian historian al-Maqrizi (1364-1442) in his Kitäb an-nizä

' wa-l-tahäsum fi mä bayna Bam Umayya wa-Bani Häsim [Book of Contention and Strife Concerning the Relations Between the Banü Umayya and the Banü Häshim] mentions the caliph al-Ma'mün in the following way: "This fellow ... left one of the worst possible reputations in the whole history of Islam. This arose from the fact that he had books on philosophy translated into Arabic, to such a pitch that heretics and deviationists used them to pervert Islam and to trick the Muslims."

5 That al-Ma'mün played such a crucial role is clearly an exaggeration, although such a view is shared by many Muslims and modern orientalists. Goldziher exposes a broad range of various attempts to cope with the injurious influence of the Greek heritage. Simple-minded people, obviously of the so-called traditionalists or ahl al-hadlt, shunned even the foreign names ending in s as sounding barbarous in their ears.

6 Another more sophisticated attitude is found with Ed. P. G. Bulgakov, in Revue de l'Institut des Manuscrits Arabes 8 (1962), 185-186. German translation and annotations by G. Strohmaier in: Al-BIrünl, In den Garten der Wissenschaft. Ausgewählte Texte aus den Werken des muslimischen Universalgelehrten, 2nd ed., Leipzig 1991 (Reclam-Bibliothek 1228), 144-145 (no. 52). 4 Cf. G. Strohmaier, 'Der syrische und der arabische Galen', in: Aufstieg und Niedergang der Römischen Welt, ed. W. Haase, H. Temporini, Part II, vol. 37,2, Berlin-New York 1994, 1992-1997 (reprint in: Id., Hellas im Islam. Wiesbaden 2003, 88-91). Transl. C. E. Bosworth, Manchester, n.d. (Journal of Semitic Studies. Monograph no. 3), 101; cf. Tag ad-Din as-Subkl, Tabaqät as-säfi'iyya al-kubrä, Cairo 1906, vol. I, 218, line 2, quoted by Goldziher, ibid., 11. 0 Goldziher, ibid., 17, note 1; cf. al-BTrüni, ibid., 35 (no. 3), 44-45 (no. 6). 252