REVIEWS OF BOOKS 65

In the original edition the extracts from Arabic sources for the
years 857 to 969 formed an appendix to Volume II. Monsieur Canard,
whose long series of studies and translations relating to this period
have furnished him with exceptional qualifications for the task of
revising them, has added as much again. More especially, by
drawing on the geographers and the poets he has enabled the
historian to penetrate more deeply into the stuff and spirit of the
age than can be gathered from the bare reports of the chroniclers—
the former by denning more precisely what the Arabs knew and
thought about the Rum and their empire, the latter by illustrating
the psychology of the campaigns. Some of the new texts are by no
means uniformly clear, but confused and even dubious in places;
so far, however, as can be judged from a number of samples, Monsieur
Canard has succeeded in giving even in these passages an intelligible
and convincing interpretation, and his notes, though wisely sparing,
are often exceedingly valuable. Only Mutanabbi, with his varied
emphasis, subtle transitions, and overtones, sets (as always) an
almost impossible problem for the translator.
H. A. E. GIBB.

'." THE BOOK OF IDOLS. Translated from the Kitab al-Asndm o

Hisham ibn al-Kalbi by NABIH AMIN PARIS, pp. xiii + 59.
London : Geoffrey Cumberlege, for Princeton University Press,
1952. 16s.
It is difficult to discover what purpose this translation of the
Kitab al-Asndm was intended to serve. All the juice was squeezed
out of it many years ago by Wellhausen in the Reste arabischen
Heidentums, and the bare text offers little additional matter except
some verses and Islamic haggada. The editor has conscientiously
added references to other Arabic sources, and more recent studies
for every name, historical or geographical, but scarcely ever utilizes
these references to elucidate the matter and clothe the dry bones
with flesh. If the work is addressed to the general reader, they will
add little to his understanding of the text; if to the scholar, most
of them are superfluous. One cannot help regretting that the
opportunity was not taken to incorporate the results of later
research and evidence from inscriptions, so that the work might
become an up-to-date supplement to Wellhausen, all the more so
as the editor himself lays some emphasis in his preface on the
JEAS. APKIL 1953. 5
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 66 REVIEWS OF BOOKS

vindication of al-Kalbi's scholarship by modern scientific research

and archaeology.
But these faults of omission are perhaps less than the faults of
commission ; for the translation as a whole is far from satisfactory,
and of the verse passages in particular not more than a half have
been rendered with even tolerable accuracy. Thus tadhha rihdlakum
sha'amiyatun batilu is rendered " while the refreshing north winds
lash their tents " (p. 20), and the next verse is equally misin-
terpreted ; on p. 21 the vast platters of a generous host become
" wine-cups . . . like an old tank full of holes " ; for wa'l-shirlca
yaghsha wajhahu'l-izldmu we are given " And polytheism was sub-
merged in a sea of darkness " (p. 27), and on the next page for
wa-qirnin qad taraJctu' l-taira minhu ka-mu'tanizi'l-'aivdriki min
manafi, " A matchless peer. I no longer augur at its shrine but
stay away . . . "
H. A. E. GIBB.

ABCRSIOLOGICA ORIENTALIA IN MEMORIAM ERNST HERZFELD.

Edited by GEORGE C. MILES, pp. 280. J. J. Augustin, New
York, 1952.
No memorial to Ernst Herzfeld would be suitable unless it were
itself a production of art, or at least of taste, as this is ; but none
also could be worthy unless it took in a quite uncommonly wide
range of interests, as this does. Indeed, for the reader it has the
defect of this quality, for only a scholar of Herzfeld's remarkable
scope could feel at home on most of its pages, and there are but
few such as he. Nearly thirty articles, upon almost as many
subjects, are able to recall, to criticize, or to continue work which
the deceased had done or touched during a career rich in activities
as well as studies. If Persia, ancient and medieval, was always
the centre of his interests, other articles here concerning Syria,
Mesopotamia, Arabia, even North Africa and India, adumbrate the
wide world of which he was a citizen in learning. Architecture,
textiles, wood-carving, manuscripts and illustrations, seals, bronzes,
coins are among the arts, but pottery is missing; Persian (in its
earlier ages and scripts), Arabic likewise, even Sanskrit, are among
the languages which find places here because they were all, in
varying degrees, among Herzfeld's attainments and his published
works—indeed, the tale might have been extended to Akkadian
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