É. Apor , I. Ormos (ed.): Goldziher Memorial Conference, June 21–22, 2000, Budapest.
ESS, Josef van: Goldziher as a Contemporary of Islamic Reform
JOSEF VAN ESS met with a respectful reception; in Egypt they were translated into Arabic, though with critical remarks and additions, his Richtungen der islamischen Koranauslegung first 3, and then the Vorlesungen 4, in a way also the second volume of the Muhammedanische Studien. The person who was most instrumental in this was "AIT Hasan cAbdalqädir who taught at the Azhar in the thirties and forties; he seems to have been mainly responsible for the translations 5, and in his lecture courses he is said to have quoted Goldziher's views about Hadith. The clash is a posterior development which then was projected back into this period. One of cAbdalqädir's students who had attended his courses in 1939, Mustafa al-SibäT, later on claimed to have convinced his teacher of Goldziher's errors by way of a speech which he gave in a students' club. The report seems somewhat exaggerated, for when one year later, in 1940, cAbdalqädir published his "Historical Survey of Islamic Law" (Nazra 'ämma fi ta'rikh al-fiqh al-islämi) he still included a lot of the incriminated passages, albeit without mentioning Goldziher's name. 6 Nor did he see any reason for interrupting his work on the two translations which came out in 1944 and 1946. SibäT's furore may have been inspired by the rather harsh discussion about somebody else who, a few years before, had tried to disseminate Goldziher's ideas: IsmäTl Ahmad Sälim; the book Sälim had published 7 was quickly withdrawn from the market, and the author accused of being an atheist. 5 SibäT himself, however, was just 24 years old; his attack cannot have produced a resounding echo. He then elaborated his critique in his thesis which he submitted to al-Azhar in 1949, but his work was not published until 1961 when it appeared under the title "The Role of Prophetic Tradition in Islamic Jurisprudence" (Al-Sunna wamakänatuhäfi 1-tashrT al-islämi). It is in the preface of this book that the story crops up for the first time. 9 Th. Nöldeke in a letter dated 24th October 1890 (R. Simon, Ignác Goldziher. His Life and Scholarship as Reflected in his Works and Correspondence , Leiden 1986, 171 ff.j. 1 Partial translation Cairo 1944 under the title Al-Madhähib al-islämiyya fi tafsir al-Qur'än: complete translation by 'AbdalhalTm al-Najjär, Madhähib al-tafsir al-islämi , Cairo 1955. 4 Al-'Aqida wa-l-sharFa fi l-Isläm, Cairo 1946; 2Cairo-Baghdad 1378/1959. The translation was made on the basis of the French version by F. Arin, Le dogme et la loi en Islam , Paris 1920. 5 He did the partial translation of the Richtungen which was accompanied, in an appendix, by a few critical remarks directed against orientalists in general (cf. L. Gardet, G. Anawati, Introduction ä la théologie musulmane , Paris 1948, 26, n. 2). The translation of the Vorlesungen was done by him together with Muhammad Yüsuf Müsä and 'AbdaFaziz 'Abdalhaqq; here the critical remarks were added by Muhammad Yüsuf Müsä as can be judged from the preface. 6 Cf. G. H. A. Juynboll, The authenticity of the Tradition literature. Discussions in modern Egypt. Leiden 1969, 36. 7 Min masädir al-ta'rikh al-islämi. Cairo 1936. 8 Cf. Juynboll, Tsmä'Tl Ahmad Adham (1911-1940), the Atheist', JAL 3 (1972), 54 ff. 9 P. 29 ff.; cf. Juynboll, Authenticity 35. 38
