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 'Zauberelemente im islamischen Gebet'. There he mentions this hadith as well. 32 Goldziher regarded the holy men of Islam as hereditaries of pre-Islamic kähins, and considered this hadith as a means to sanction the surviving pre-Islamic popular beliefs. Goldziher's interest in the contemporary explanation of this hadith may well have been his motive in writing to al-Bibläwi. The latter gave him a Süfi explanation which seems to have been current in Egypt in mystic circles at that time. This is especially evident in the use of the word daläl, since this expression is extremely rare to describe friendship and love of God in classical Süfi literature. 3 3 That alBibläwT gave a Süfi explanation of this hadith is not surprising if we take into account that this hadith belongs to those which are most frequently quoted in classical Süfi manuals. 3 4 The use of this hadith in Süfi circles is also apparent from van Berchem's data since he found the relevant inscription on the wall of a khänqäh. The handling of this hadith by the three scholars shows a climate favourable to scholarly discussion, and may serve as an enviable example of the exchange of ideas and providing information at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries. 3 2 Goldziher (1906), 307. 3 3 The word datál, synonym of dália, seems to be used only by al-Halläj (d. 309/922) ( Tawäsln , ed. Massignon 16, ed. cAbbäs 168 and 300, the latter is absent from Massignon's edition), while another derivative of this stem, tadallul, appears in the work of al-Kaläbädhi (d. ca 380/990) (Ta carruf ed. Mahmüd 107, Arberry (1966), 109-110). The word daläl, however, is listed among the Classical Arabic words used in the modem vernacular of the region see Abu Sa'd (1990), 169. 3 4 Cf., for example, al-Sarraj (d. 378/988), Luma c 34, No. 7; al-Qushayrl (d. 465/1072), Risäla 351, No. 1673. "The Prophet said: 'How many a one there is with matted hair, covered with dust, with two old garments to his name, unnoticed by all who, if he adjured God, would be answered, and it would make no difference to God what he had asked Him for.'" English translation from Harris (2002), 432. For a German translation and further references of this hadith, see Grämlich (1989), 491, No. 52.20. As has been mentioned above (fn 10) this hadith occurs in all the major collections. It is, however, al-Tirmidhl's recension (Sunan, Manäqib, 54) which has been taken over by the Süfis, and it is also this one to which the words 'aslfath and aghbar' refer on the wall of the Shaykhüniyya. 32
