Pimpinelli, Body & Soul / Schwarb, Trans-Denominational Friendship

For the Care of Body & Soul: The Greek Bible and an Arab-Islamic Botanical Text in a 10th-Century Palimpsest Fragment

Virtual Forum: Jews, Christians, and Muslims as Colleagues and Collaborators in the Abbasid Near East

16:00 CET Research Paper Discussion by Matteo Pimpinelli (Sapienza University of Rome)

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Respondents: Matthew Monger (Norwegian School of Theology, Religion and Society), Konrad Hirschler (Freie Universität Berlin)

This paper is focused on the study of an unpublished palimpsest fragment from the Qubbat al-khazna in Damascus, which presents a very interesting structure. The Greek scriptio inferior, already identified as a biblical text, coexists with the Arabic scriptio superior − referred to an Islamic text − which has not been properly studied in its textual and paleographical features so far. The Arabic text is an excerpt belonging to the medical-botanical work entitled Mukhtaṣar fī-l-ṭibb (“Compendium of Medicine”) − known from only one manuscript witness so far − written by the Andalusian jurist ‛Abd al-Malik b. Ḥabīb (d. 238 AH/AD 853).

The textual examination of the Arabic text will be conducted along with the paleographical and codicological analysis of the fragment, in order to suggest some hypotheses about its dating and provenance. Such a multidisciplinary research represents a starting point from which some thoughts, referred to the Arabic scriptio superior in the first place, has been carried out. For example, the study of the Arabic text − which testifies a high degree of knowledge in the fields of botany and medicine − along with the palimpsest order of the fragment, has suggested a monastic environment as its probable place of origin. Furthermore, the fragment represents a documentary witness which highlights the relevance of the body care, as attributed in such environment, in addition to the peculiar process of the discard of a religious text − the Bible in Greek − apparently sensed as no more useful, in a context arguably yet arabized. More interestingly, it is a clear evidence of the fact that such a vision of life was pursued acquiring ideas and concepts, also derived from different cultures − even if it would have implied the study and the use of an Islamic text, written in the Arabic script.

Matteo Pimpinelli is currently a PhD student and a master's graduate from “Sapienza” University of Rome, with a thesis entitled: “Two unpublished fragments from the Mukhtaṣar fī-l-ṭibb by ‘Abd al Malik b. Ḥabīb (d. 238 AH/AD 853) from the Qubbat al-khazna in Damascus” (supervisor: Prof. A. D’Ottone Rambach). The study of the Arabic language and culture represents the main topic of his interest. Thanks to a scholarship for the Erasmus exchange program, he studied at the University of Alicante. His PhD project is focused on the study of a 13th century treatise on ophthalmology.

A Trans-Denominational Friendship in Late 14th-Century Aleppo

Virtual Forum: Jews, Christians, and Muslims as Colleagues and Collaborators in the Abbasid Near East

17:00 CET Research Paper Discussion by Gregor Schwarb (Israel Institute for Adavanced Studies)

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Respondents: Judith Olszowy-Schlanger (University of Oxford)

An Arabic commentary on Maimonides’ Mishneh Torah, Sefer ha-Maddaʿ, Hilkhot Yesodei ha-Torah I–IV, attributed to a Ḥanafī muwaqqit in late 14th century Aleppo, has attracted the attention of many distinguished scholars over the last century and a half. The research history of this significant document is almost as intriguing as the text itself and attests to the difficulty of 19th- and 20th-century scholarship to come to terms with the peculiar setting of a Muslim scholar commenting on a Jewish halakhic treatise.

In my presentation, I will briefly summarise the research history to illustrate how historiography is prone to be (mis-)guided by cultural predispositions and shaped by issues, concerns, and blind spots rooted in the historian’s realm of experience.

The commentary by ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Ṭaybughā was the result of a longstanding friendship with Rabbi David ben Yehoshuʿa, the grandson of Maimonides’ great-grandson. The impact of this friendship comes to the fore on several occasions in David’s own commentary on the Mishneh Torah. In David’s view, this friendship represented far more than a mere social acquaintance with a Muslim soulmate. Like his illustrious ancestor, he conceived of the Foundational Laws of the Torah as a straightforward, ‘exoteric’ digest of all theoretical sciences, in such a way that a well-conceived commentary upon these chapters should build upon the most advanced scientific knowledge available at a given time. The perfect commentator should therefore be a leading scientist of his time, irrespective of his religious affiliation.

Gregor Schwarb (SOAS University of London) is currently a fellow at the Israel Institute for Advanced Studies in Jerusalem and works on several research projects related to manuscripts from the Second Firkovič Collection at the National Library of Russia in St. Petersburg. He studied theology, philosophy and Jewish studies in Freiburg (CH), Jerusalem and Damascus. His research focuses on trans-denominational intellectual thought in the pre-modern Islamicate world (https://soas.academia.edu/GregorSchwarb). Between 2004 and 2013 he promoted a series of research projects at the Institute of Islamic Studies of the Freie Universität Berlin leading up to the formation of the Research Unit Intellectual History of the Islamicate World (2011-13). After 2016 he acted as editor-in-chief of Index Islamicus and visiting scholar at SOAS, University of London.