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 Louis Cheikho (1859-1927) and LA1T Päshä Mubarak (1823-1893), to name just a few of the leading intellectuals who corresponded with him.

5 One thing, however, is common to all these letters, and that is the tone of great respect and esteem in which their authors address Goldziher, the widely acknowledged scholar. On the other hand, as it also appears from the letter below, Goldziher was well aware of the unsurpassable and intimate knowledge of sources Arab scholars possessed and often inquired about the possible explanations of specific problems. Sometimes these letters are purely personal and do not touch upon any problem that might have occupied Goldziher's thoughts. At other times, however, the letters may provide an insight into Goldziher's thoughts and his working methods. To this second type belong the letters presented in this paper. In Box No. 5 of Goldziher's correspondence, there is one letter written by a certain al-Bibläwi. The author, Muhammad ibn CA1! ibn Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Bibläwi (1863-1954) was the deputy director (wakil

) of the Kutubkhäna in Cairo. He also served as khatib in the al-Husayn mosque and inherited the title of naqib al-ashräf after the death of his father, CA1I ibn Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Bibläwi (1835-1906), the sheikh of al-Azhar (1903-1906).

6 His main publications are indices (Fihrist alcTläm) to the works of Ibn lyäs (

Badä 'í al-zuhür

) and Ibn Duqmäq (Kitäb al-intisär).

7 He sent the following letter to Goldziher (Fig. 1 ):

8 3 See also Goldziher's meeting and correspondence with cAbd al-Baha' cAbbas Effendi (1844-1920), the foremost authority of the Bahä'i religion, as described by Léderer (1988). 6 For their biography, see al-Zirikll (1954-1959), VII, 198 and V, 171-172. On the history of the Kutubkhäna

, see Sayyid (1996). 7 Mention can also be made of the important bibliographical compilation: Iktifä

' al-qanff bi-mä huwa matbü ' min ashhar al-ta 'älif al- 'arabiyya fl l-matäbi

' al-sharqiyya wa-lgharbiyya by E. H. Van Dyke and Muhammad al-Bibläwi. Cairo 1897. 8 The orthographic characteristics of the letter are as follows: initial hamza and tä

' marbüta are not marked except for a few instances. There is no punctuation. Besides paragraphs, spaces are sometimes used to delimit sentences. The layout and the orthographic characteristics of the original letter are not followed in the transcript. Punctuation marks have not been inserted into the transcript and the original division into lines is kept. 22