É. Apor , I. Ormos (ed.): Goldziher Memorial Conference, June 21–22, 2000, Budapest.
SZOMBATHY, Zoltán: Some Notes on the Impact of the Shu übiyya on Arabic Genealogy
SOME NOTES ON THE IMPACT OF THE SHI/" O BIYYA 5. Nor is it easy, in fact, to differentiate clearly between the respective opinions of shu'übt scholars and their opponents concerning the status of the pre-lslamic Arabs in the universal hierarchy of peoples. 1 8 Both groups of scholars were busy gathering all kinds of data on ancient Arabian Bedouins that, they were equally convinced, represented a profoundly valuable tradition worthy of serious study. Out of these studies there arose the widely accepted mediaeval myth that the pre-lslamic Arabs had had branches of learning comparable to those of the neighbouring, more civilized and urbanized peoples (Persians, Greeks, etc.). The myth of "ancient Bedouin sciences" (fulüm al-arab ), among which genealogy was given a prominent place, was in a large measure the product of the political conflict between the old Arab aristocracy and the rising nouveau riche of the Abbasid period composed mainly of Persian converts. Since there could be no denying, by any stretch of imagination, the glorious and captivating material and intellectual culture of ancient Persia and a host of other nations known to the mediaeval Muslims, it was essential for the Arabs to come up with the myth of pre-lslamic Arabian Bedouins having been a learned and civilized people, with "sciences" comparable if not superior to those of the said nations. This is the origin of the deep-rootedness of a bizarre perception of humankind in which the pre-lslamic Arabs figure as one of the eight "learned nations" of ancient times, as opposed to a plethora of barbaric and rough peoples. 1'' The sciences that the Arabs were thought to have all but monopolized include linguistic pursuits (film lisänihä wa-ihkäm lughatihä ), poetry and rhetoric (nazm al-ash'ür wa-ta'líf al-khutab), history (film al-akhbär wa-ma cdin ma'rifat alsiyar wa-1-a'sär), as well as genealogy, meteorological and astronomical observations (ma'rifat al-anwä' wa-l-ihtidä' bi-l-nujüm ), physiognomy ( qiyäfa ), expertise in horse-breeding and the genealogies of horses (film al-khayl ), etc. 2 0 In the established system of the world's seven climes ( aqälim ), the central place given to the Arabs was practically unquestioned by all scholars, shu'übi or otherwise, and it miaht be added here that, on the other hand, even decidedly pro-Arab authors 1 8 On the universal genealogy, cf. alcAzma (1991), 75. al-AndalusI, Tabaqät 39-40. According to al-AndalusI, the peoples that cultivated sciences of their own ("tabaqa 'uniyat bi-lcilm fa-zaharat minhä durüb al-'ulüm wasadarat canhä funün al-ma' ärifj include, besides the Arabs, the Indians, the Persians, the Chaldeans, the Greeks, the Romans (or Byzantines), the Egyptians, and the Hebrews. On the other hand, the industriousness of the Chinese and the martial prowess of the Turks are attributed to purely animal instincts, and thus do not qualify as human Teaming' (fulüm), see op. cit. 44-5. 2( 1 al-AndalusI, Tabaqät 118-9; al-Dimashql, Nukhba 260-1; al-Jähiz, Rasä'il 1, 1: 70; Ibn Qutayba, Fadl 120, 127-28, 136, 139, 141-42, 146, 149-50, 204-5; al-Qarawi, Hadiqa 317. Al-ShahrastänT claimed that pre-lslamic Arabs had developed three sciences of their own, these being 'the science of genealogy, history and religions' (film al-ansäb wa-ltawärlkh wa-1-adyän), 'the science of interpreting dreams' film al-ru'yä ), and The science of meteorological observations' (literally, 'of storms', 'Um al-anwä'). See Ibn SaTd, Nashwa I, 80-81. 261
