1111

This section is not found in the earlier texts. C continues with the next section for one page, then starts on a left-hand page with this section, which is thus characterized as a later insertion. The section is incorporated in the text of D. Cf. also pp. 406 f., above.

1112

Or "hermeneutics."

1113

As a very detailed discussion of foreign scripts by a Muslim author, one may compare the opening pages of Ibn an-Nadim's Fihrist. Like the discussion of the origin and development of languages, the subject of writing may have been of some interest to jurists. Cf. also 2:378 ff, above.

1114

C and D: aqdar. This may be the more original text as compared with aqdam "most ancient," which appears in the Paris edition, but C and D have unusually many mistakes in this section.

1115

It may, however, be that Ibn Khaldun is thinking here in general terms rather than singling out the example of the "Syrian script."

1116

The MSS. C and D have a meaningless r's kabir.

1117

Cf. pp. 343 and 359, below.

1118

C and D omit "and Hebrew."

1119

For matluw, cf. 1:192 (n. 261), above.

1120

Ibn Khaldun now thinks only of Arabic and the Qur'an, paying no more attention to Hebrew and the Torah.

1121

Cf. pp. 375 ff., below.

1122

Cf. 1:476 ff., above, or 'Ibar, II, 148? C and D have a meaningless al-kitabah.

1123

According to p. 287, below, the following statement goes back to Aristotle. Parallels to it are found quoted in F. Rosenthal, The Technique and Approach of Muslim Scholarship (Analecta Orientalia, No. 24) (Rome, 1947), pp. 64 ff. It may be noted that the statement of al-'Almawi quoted there goes back to the 'Aridat al-akwadhi of Abu Bakr b. al-'Arabi, with whose work ibn Khaldun was very familiar. (Cf. 1:446, above, and p. 303, below.) Discussions of this sort can be found as early as the ninth century. Cf. al­Khuwirizmi, Algebra, ed. F. Rosen (London, 1831), p. 2; L. C. Karpinski, "Robert of Chester's Translation of the Algebra of al-Khowarizmi" in Contributions to the History of Science, p. 46. No explanation seems readily available for the ascription of the passage to Aristotle. The introductions to Aristotelian philosophy, which would seem to be the most likely source, do not discuss the subject.

1124

Cf. pp. 14 f., above.

1125

C and D: wa-jam'.

1126

Cf. pp. 335 ff, below.

1127

Abd-al-Qahir b. 'Abd-ar-Rahman [eleventh century]. Cf. GAL, I, 287; Suppl., I, 503 f. Cf. also n. 1286 to this chapter, below.

1128

Yusuf b. Abi Bakr, 555-626 [1.160-1228/29]. Cf. GAL, I, 294 fr.; Suppl., I, 516 ff. Cf. also n. 4 to Ch. I , above.

1129

The consonants of the MSS ought possibly to be read mustaqrabatan and translated as suggested above.

1130

C and D read at-tabayyun, a mistake by Ibn Khaldun. Judging by the situation below, p. 340, where at-tabyin is found in A and B, at-tabayyun in C and D, he had the correct reading first and later changed it to the wrong one (possibly misled by the mistake of some copyist).

1131

C and D: tanabbaha. Leg., perhaps, yunabbihu "he (al-Jahiz,) called the attention of people to . . . "

1132

Qur'an 17.9 (9).