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

DÉVÉNYI, Kinga: Information Exchange Before the Internet: On law aqsama alá lláh la-abarrahu in Goldziher's Correspondence

KINGA DÉVÉNYI Another clue might be the person of Herz Pasha,

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7 by the intermediary of whom Goldziher's letter was sent, as we can learn it from a letter written by Herz to Goldziher, dated 3 March 1900: "Deine Commission habe ich am nächsten Tage nach Erhalt Deines Schreibens ausgeführt: Scheikh Biblaüi hat Deinen Brief erhalten". But by the time the preoccupied Herz jotted down these lines, al-Bibläwi had already sent his answer to Goldziher's inquiry about the hadith in question. The topic of the letter I

. The case of van Berchem It seems plausible that Goldziher first examined this phrase on the demand of Max van Berchem (1863-1921) who mentioned it to him in a letter and asked him to trace it for him in the hadith collections, since a sheikh had informed him that it was a reference to a tradition. Van Bcrchem's letter is not dated. The envelope is missing. All we know is that it was written in Crans par Céligny on the 2nd of October. A different hand probably that of Goldziher's son who arranged the letters after his father's death added the year 1891. Van Berchem writes (Fig. 2):" "In der Inschrift eines Klosters (Khänqäh) von 756 H. steht u.a. 0 jH AIII ^jic. jil j] •)•* .i'l Aj ^ jl Ein Chekh erklärt mir die Wort als Allusion auf die Tradition ŐJJV AÍll L

5ÍC. ja—iäi j] jlJA^ ' " IT ri ' '-^J Wissen Sie wo die Tradition steht?" Van Berchem found this phrase within an inscription on the wall of the Shaykhüniyya in Cairo which he included in his monumental work on Arabic 1

7 Goldziher's correspondence, LH AS, Box No. 16. On Herz and his correspondence with Goldziher, see the article by I. Ormos in the present volume. 1

8 Letter from Goldziher's correspondence kept at the LHAS, Box No. 4/1, folio 2r. In connection with van Berchem's letters to Goldziher, it can be generally remarked that he very frequently turned to Goldziher asking his advice in the correct interpretation of the inscriptions he worked on or the indication of sources as is the case here. 1

9 Berchem seems to have misspelled the word rubba, instead of which we find dubba in the MS. See Fig. 2. 28