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finds meat on the platter, he will at least get some gravy." "[The Caliph] 'Umar
declared," he says again, "that he who eats an egg eats a hen" (p. 18), and "Amr
b. al-'As has well said: In so far as the goods of this life are concerned, act as if
you were immortal, but as regards your existence here below, act as if you were
to die tomorrow."
Ahmad b. Rashld related: "I was once at the house of a Shaykh of Merv. One of his
young children was playing before him, and partly in jest and partly out of curiosity I
asked the bambino for a morsel of bread. 'You would not like it,' he replied; 'it is sour.'
Give me then some water of this country. 'You would not like it, it is brackish.' Each time
I asked him for something, he invariably replied, 'You would not like it, it is this or that.'
. . . Thereat his father began to laugh. 'Where are we at fault,' he said, 'who has taught
him what you have just heard?,' meaning thereby that avarice was innate with them, a
part of the nature and character of the people of Merv" (p. 27).
Dr Pellat knows his Jahi? well. He has been a keen student of the -life and
works of the celebrated Basrian for some time and has already published two considerable studies of him and his famous epistles: Pages choisies de Gahiz (Paris,
1949) and Le Milieu Basrien et la formation de Gahiz. He recognizes the difficulties

facing the translator of Jahi? even with a sound text at his disposal, which become
practically insoluble when the text has been corrupted through the negligence or
ignorance of copyists, or consists of verses of ancient poetry the text of which is
almost beyond restoration. But Dr Pellat has surmounted most of these difficulties and turned the swift, nonchalant, exuberant and picturesque prose of
Jahi? into idiomatic French of a like texture.
The introduction gives the reader the necessary information on the life of
Jahi? and the editions of the Book of Misers. Appended are a bibliography, an
index of Arab or Arabized words and another of proper names, a table of variants
and another of concordance bearing on the texts used by Dr Pellat. Altogether a
brave contribution to the study of Islamic culture.
WILLIAM THOMSON
Harvard University
AL-GHAZALI, 0 Disciple! Translated by George H. Scherer. (Collections des Grandes Oeuvres de
l'UNESCO, Arabic Series.) Beirut: Catholic Press, 1951. Pp. xxvi, 75.
AL-GHAZALI (1058-1111), most illustrious contemporary of the Seljuk emperor,
Malik Shah, and his renowned vizier, Nizam al-Mulk, of Umar Khayyam and
Pope Gregory VII, is one of the greatest figures, if not the greatest, in the history
of Muslim religious thought. Designated the "Proof of Islam" he was the shrewdest defender of its faith against the insidious speculations of traditional Arab
philosophy. In his Deliverance from Error he confuted that philosophy's physical
and metaphysical theories and in his Refutation of the Philosophers he rebutted
twenty of their theses and especially the four propositions that the world is eternal without beginning or end, that God has no knowledge of particulars and that
there is no bodily resurrection. But his most celebrated work is The Revivification
of the Religious Sciences, in which he formulates the propaedeutics of theological
study and seeks to give a rational basis for the revealed, supernatural doctrines
of Islam in the absolute freedom of divine action.

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0 Disciple! is a simple, moral treatise, which sets forth in untechnical language

and concrete image the final conviction of religious experience, that "the substance of knowledge," namely, "is to learn the meaning of obedience and worship"
(p. 11, xiv) and that "Knowledge is the tree and works the fruit, and you may
study a hundred years and collect a thousand books, but will not be prepared for
the mercy of God except by good works" (p. 4, iv).
The present translation of this work is to all intents a reissue of the author's
doctoral dissertation, Al-Ghazdli's Ayyuha'l-Walad (0 Youth?), submitted to
the Graduate Faculty of the University of Chicago in 1930 and published by the
American Press, Beirut, Syria, in 1933. The Introduction is composed of the introduction to that thesis and two of its appendices, I, C, and II, each in a more
or less abridged form. The first two sections of Part I of the thesis, "List of Manuscripts and Printed Texts Consulted" and "Characteristics of the Manuscripts"
have been omitted, and the Arabic text of the third section has been reproduced
without the "Collation of Typical Variant Readings." Appendix I, A and B of
the thesis ("Al-Ghazali's 'The Vitalizing of the Sciences of Religion and 'The
Wonders of the Heart',") and Appendices III (Abbreviations), IV (a Cross
Reference Key to text and translation), and V (Bibliography), have also been
deleted. But an Arabic translation of the present introduction by Umar Farrukh
has been appended for the benefit of Arab-speaking peoples.
The translation follows that of the thesis closely with occasional emendations
and omissions, which unfortunately are not always changes for the better. "Grief"
(p. 53, 19), for example, is a more precise rendering of the Arabic word, kasra
(fol. 93 a, 4), than "suffering" (p. 3, 12), and "regret" would be still better.
"What is with you vanishes, but what is with God abides" (p. 64, 28), almost
catches the sense of the Arabic saying read "passes away" for "vanishes"
but "what you have is spent, but what God has endures" (p. 14,22) almost conceals it. The translation of the thesis is quite often, indeed, superior to that of the
present work in both accuracy and diction. The thesis, for example, gives "When
he arrives" (p. 56, 7), which is correct, where the present work has "even if he
does" (p. 67); it gives "O Youth, let energy be [better "set zeal"] in the spirit, defeat in the soul, and death in the body; for your abode is in the grave" (p. 58,
25), where the present work has "O Disciple, cultivate your spirit, defeat evil in
your soul, and mortify your body; for you are travelling to the grave" (p. 8, 20),
which misinterprets the first two clauses and mistranslates the last; and it renders the last two lines of the poem on page 61, 19: "I think I am lovesick, excessively lovelorn. For my Lord, but I weep not, though animals weep," where the
present work has, "I claim that I love, and I love my Lord, But this dove weeps,
while I still weep" (p. 11,9). The two lines run (fol. 94b, last). "I feign to be an
ardent, passionate lover, when, by my Lord, I weep not, while beasts weep."
But sometimes the present work just repeats an error of the thesis. "Reached"
(p. 3, 13; p. 53, 20; fol. 93a, 4) should be "passed"; "The science (sciences) of
future things" (p. 13,4; p. 63,14; fol. 95a, 18), should obviously be read as "other
sciences"; "before" (p. 21, 24; p. 71, 20; fol. 97b. 12) should be "against; sure
(security)" (p. 23, 16; p. 72, 21; fol. 98a, 6) should be "sound"; and "condition

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(also fault)" (pp. 22, 23, and 24,6; pp. 72,13 and 73,17; fol. 98a, 2 and 4) should
be either "habit, charactistic, practice, or wont." It has also missed out quite a
few words, phrases and even whole clauses, which stand in the text and are rendered in the thesis. Some of these omissions are of little or no consequence, but
others either weaken the argument, or destroy its development. "For he considers," runs the present translation (p. 3,1.22), "that knowledge alone is sufficient,
and he can dispense with deeds." The text reads (fol. 93a, 8) "For he considers
that knowledge alone is a sufficient means to win favour and will be his salvation
and redemption, so that he can dispense with works." The thesis has in part
". . . that knowledge alone is a means in which will be his safety and his salvation
etc." (p. 54, 6). Again the present work runs (p. 13, 20) "He (Hatim al-Asamm)
answered, "I have gained eight benefits [from his thirty years association with the
famous mystic al-Balkbi], and they are sufficient, because I trust in thein for my
salvation and safety." The thesis has here (p. 64, 3), "I have gained eight benefits from science, and they suffice me with it, because I hope in them, etc." If
instead of "from science" here we read "in respect of knowledge," the correct
translation becomes obvious, namely, "I have gained eight advantageous pieces
of knowledge, and that suffices me in regard to it (his association with al-Balkhl)"
(fol. 95b, 7). Page 32,4 of the present work reads, "To . . . cause them (mankind)
to see the defects of their soul, so that the heat of these fires (of Hell) touches the
congregation, and the thought of these afflictions makes them regret the days
passed in other than obedience to God." The text has (fol. 98a, 10), ". . . so that
the heat of these fires may smite the people of the assembly, and these afflictions
cause them anxiety, so that they realize (the nature of) their past life according
to their ability and regret the days passed in disobedience to God" (cf. thesis, p.
73,6).
But these errors of commission and omission, however regrettable, do not constitute the chief shortcoming of Dr Scherer's translation. In Part I, Section II,
of the thesis we are informed that the intralinear glosses are "for the most part
not corrections of errors," but "are added to simplify difficult constructions, to
complete partial quotations, or to make elliptical phrases less concise" (p. 30, 9),
that the marginal emendations 'in many cases supply phrases or sentences included in the text in certain other manuscripts (p. 30, 13) and that both glosses
and emendations are not by the hand of the original scribe. But "in the text of this
manuscript, without the glosses and marginal emendations we have," it is claimed
"a very early and accurate Arabic text of this treatise" (p. 31,3).
In the present translation, however, Dr Scherer makes use of at least nineteen
intralinear glosses and marginal emendations (to folios 93b, 5, 12 (bis), 16; 94a,
19; 94b, 4, 8; 95a, 4, 5; 95b, 10; 96a, 6; 96b, 10, 12, 15; 97a, 1; 97b, 5, 8; 98a, 5,
15);wonly two of which are acknowledged, the half of the first being bracketed
(p. 9, 16; fol. 94b, 4) and the whole of the second, which has also appended to it
the magic word "margin" (p. 15.12; fol. 96a.6). In the thesis fourteen of these
glosses and emendations are bracketed and six more added without brackets from
a total of about twenty-one other glosses and emendations. The principle of acceptance, or rejection, of glosses and emendations is rather obscure, especially as

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the place of omission is generally clearly indicated by a dotted line inclined toward the marginal restoration.
Whether these intralinear and marginal restorations be the work of the original scribe or not, which is debatable, in almost every case they improve the
course of the narrative or the development of the argument or add some pertinent
detail or piece of evidence. After "and makes its (the plant's) increase perfect"
(p. 16.20) the present translation omits the right marginal restoration (fol. 96b.l),
which the thesis gives (p. 66, 21-24), and the translation of which runs as follows:
"[For God, Most High, sent to the creatures a prophet to guide [them] aright to
His way, and when that prophet departed this world, he left behind him in his
stead Caliphs to lead the creatures aright to God, Most High]. The traveller,
therefore, should have a shaykh to train and guide him, etc." This marginal restoration fits naturally into the process of Al-GhazSli's thought and is, as Dr
Scherer himself points out in a note, actually required by a reference to the "substitute for the Prophet" four lines later, which otherwise has no antecedent.
Page 20, lines 20 ff. of the translation (cf. fol. 95a. 14); p. 63.4 of the thesis,
offers a fair example of the place and function of the indicated restorations. This
passage runs: "And those (questions), which can be answered, we have mentioned
in The Revivification of the Religious Sciences and elsewhere [in what we have com-

posed with commentary. So let him seek (these questions) there left margin].
But we shall mention [and indicate in text] a few of them here. [We say in
text] [:"Seven (read "four" with MS I and as the argument of the paragraph indicates) things are necessary for the traveller of the way of truth right margin].
The first is a sincere conviction etc." The correct position of the paragraph,
which now appears on page 22, lines 8-14, of the present work, in the logical development of the argument is given by the right marginal emendation at folio
97b.4, which places it after "incurable" (p. 21.4).
It is impossible with the best of intentions to regard Dr Scherer's 0 Disciplel
as an acceptable translation of Al-Ghazalfs simple, little treatise; but a fairly
accurate text can be established by means of his MS 2 and the "Collation of
Typical Variant Readings" in his thesis, and this preliminary work once accomplished a presentable translation of that text should offer no great difficulty.
WILLIAM THOMSON
Harvard University
J. H. G. GRATTAN AND CHARLES SINGER, edd., Anglo-Saxon Magic and Medicine: Illustrated Specifically from the Semi-pagan Text "Ldcnvnga." (Publications of the Wellcome Historical Medical
Museum, No. 8.) London and New York: Oxford University Press, for the Wellcome Historial
Medical Museum, 1952. Pp. xii, 284, with 6 plates and 44figuresin the text. 28s or $6.50.

THE present welcome edition to the literature of Anglo-Saxon magic and medicine is almost two books in one. Part I (pp. 3-94), "A General Survey of MagicoMedical Practice in Anglo-Saxon England," basically by Dr Singer, surveys with
great expertise the problem in general (1, pp. 3-22) and is particularly valuable
for its extensive analysis of the extraordinarily varied sources of Anglo-Saxon
medico-magic (2, pp. 23-94). Least satisfactory here is g, "Pagan Teutonic