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A Handbook and Reader of Ottoman Arabic

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Esther-Miriam Wagner

I. Handbook

3. On the order of the sciences for he who wants to learn them

Guy Burak

Texte intégral

  • 1 On Saçaklızade see Özcan (2005); El-Rouayheb (2015, 116–20).

1Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr Sājaqlīzādah (Saçaklızade, d. 1732/3) was an influential scholar who devoted a work to the organisation of the Islamic sciences (titled accordingly Tartīb al-ʿulūm, completed ca. 1715).1 The following passage is the section from this work in which he discusses the training of a scholar. Interestingly, Sājaqlīzādah is aware of the different linguistic backgrounds of the students across the Empire and structures the curriculum, which consisted primarily of texts in Arabic, accordingly. It is for this reason that he insists on the memorisation of the Arabic–Turkish dictionary by Ibn Malak (or Ibn Firishta).

  • 2 Birgivi (1898), and Birgivi (1876).
  • 3 ʿAjamī can mean ‘Persian’ or ‘speaker of Persian’, though in this context it seems to be a generic (...)
  • 4 ʿIzz al-Din ʿAbd al-Laṭīf ibn Malak’s (also known as Ibn Farishta or Firişteoğlu, d. After 1418) wa (...)
  • 5 Al-Qudūrī (2005).
  • 6 Al-Marghīnānī (2000).
  • 7 Al-Maqāṣid (1989); see also Özen (2011).
  • 8 Sajaqlizādah (Saçaklızade) (1988, 209–10).

Confidence that he is capable of understanding [the material] should be instilled in the novice. If he is young (ṣabiyan), he should be ordered to study the Qurʾān with a teacher whose transmission [of the Qurʾān] is sound, until he completes [the study of the entire Qurʾān]. Then he should be ordered to study the minutiae of faith, the principles of the creed of the People of the Sunna, the prescribed ability [to comprehend] the science of ethics and the science of prayer.
He who masters (mutakaffil) all those [sciences should study] Muhammad Birgivi’s Turkish Epistle,2 which is easy for novices who are not speakers of Arabic (ʿajamī).3 Then he should be ordered, if he is a non-speaker of Arabic, to study Lughat Ibn Firishta4 and memorise it. If he is mature (bāligh), after [gaining] confidence in his ability to comprehend [the materials], he should be ordered to study [Surat] al-Fātiḥa and short suras. Then he should be ordered to study that [i.e., Birgivi’s] Epistle or any [other epistle] that will be of use. Then he should be ordered to study the entire Qurʾān. Then he should be ordered to study Lughat Ibn Firishta and memorise it. After having studied Lughat Ibn Firishta, be he young or mature, he should be ordered to study the science of morphology (ṣarf), then grammar (naḥw), then [jurisprudential] practical rulings (ʿilm al-aḥkām), then logic, then disputation (munāẓara), then theology (kalām), then rhetoric (maʿānī), then the fundamentals of jurisprudence and then jurisprudence. By ‘jurisprudence’ I do not mean only the science of practical rulings (al-aḥkām al-ʿamaliyya) without evidence [for this judicial opinion], as in Mukhtaṣar al-Qudūrī,5 but the understanding of [jurisprudence] with [jurisprudential] evidence, as in al-Hidāya.6 As for Mukhtaṣar al-Qudūrī, or whatever replaces it in the science of practical rulings, he should study it after having studied the science of phonetic forms and grammar. Otherwise, his understanding will remain [at the level of] the principles (qawāʿid) of Fundamental of Jurisprudence, unlike the understanding [required for texts] like al-Hidāya. By ‘theology’ I do not mean only the theological issues (al-masāʾil al-iʿtiqādiyya), but what appears [in works] like al-Maqāṣid7 on essences (jawāhir) and attributes (aʿrāḍ) and theological issues with proofs and responses to opponents. Then, after [having studied that] he should study the principles of hadith, then hadith riwāya, and hadīth dirāya, and then Qurʾānic exegesis. As for the study of Qurʾānic recitation (tajwīd) and the Qurʾānic readings (qirāʾāt) and Qurʾānic orthography (marsūm al-maṣāḥif), the student should learn [these sciences] whenever he can, before studying Qurʾānic exegesis. As to arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and the science of metres and rhymes, he should study them whenever he can, but it is recommended to study arithmetic before the study of practical rulings and especially [before the study] of inheritance rules (farāʾiḍ).8

Bibliographie

References

Baktır, Mustafa. 1999. ‘İbn Melek’. Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı İslâm Ansiklopedisi 20: 175–76.

Birgivi, Mehmet. 1876. Risale-i Birgivi. Istanbul (?).

— ——. 1898 [1314]. Vasiyetname. Istanbul (?).

El-Rouayheb, Khaled. 2015. Islamic Intellectual History in the Seventeenth Century: Scholarly Currents in the Ottoman Empire and the Maghreb. New York: Cambridge University Press.

al-Marghīnānī, ʿAlī ibn Abī Bakr. 2000. Al-Hidāya: Sharḥ Bidāyat al-Mubtadiī. Cairo: Dār al-Salām li-l-Ṭibāʿa wa-l-Nashr.

Özen, Şükrü. 2011. ‘Tetazani’. Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı İslâm Ansiklopedisi 40: 299–308.

Özcan, Tahism. 2008. ‘Saçaklızade Mehmed Efendi’. Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı İslâm Ansiklopedisi 35: 368–70.

al-Qudūrī, Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Qudūrī. 2005. Mukhtaṣar. Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Rayyān li-l-Ṭibāʿa wa-l-Nashr wa-l-Tawzīʿ.

Sajaqlizādah (Saçaklızade), Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr al-Marʿashī. 1988. Tartīb al-ʿUlūm. Beirut: Dār al-Bashāʾir al-Islāmiyya.

Taftāzānī, Masʿūd ibn ʿUmar.’ 1989. Kitāb Sharḥ al-Maqāṣid. Beirut: ʿĀlam al-Kutub.

Notes

1 On Saçaklızade see Özcan (2005); El-Rouayheb (2015, 116–20).

2 Birgivi (1898), and Birgivi (1876).

3 ʿAjamī can mean ‘Persian’ or ‘speaker of Persian’, though in this context it seems to be a generic term referring to non-Arabic speakers.

4 ʿIzz al-Din ʿAbd al-Laṭīf ibn Malak’s (also known as Ibn Farishta or Firişteoğlu, d. After 1418) was one of the first Arabic–Turkish dictionaries; see Baktır (1999).

5 Al-Qudūrī (2005).

6 Al-Marghīnānī (2000).

7 Al-Maqāṣid (1989); see also Özen (2011).

8 Sajaqlizādah (Saçaklızade) (1988, 209–10).

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