502 Notices of an Arabic Work, fyc. [June, 



Hammer revieewed this publication in the Jahrbucher der Literatur, 

 and shed some light on the origin of the book ; and in 1837 Mr. Nau- 

 werk published a monography on it. 



A further notice of this curious production would be uncalled for had 

 these scholars been in possession of a complete copy, or were there a 

 complete copy to be found in Europe. 



In the Tawarykh al-Hokama of Shahrzury we find the following pas- 

 sage on the origin of these memoirs : — 



^-^iuiJ wlix/l $&& JslaJlj ^liLaJl^l^aJ d>fS~»j ^jhx^j lj**£a»l 



" Abu Solayman Mali. b. Mosh'ir b. Nasby, who is known by the 

 name of Moqaddisy, and Abii al-Hasan b. Zahrim Ryhany, and Abu 

 Ahmad Nahrajury, and al-'Aufy, and Zayd b. Rofa'ah are the philoso- 

 phers who compiled the memoirs of the Ikhwan al-cafa, which have 

 been recorded by Moqaddisy." The date is not stated, but in the 

 book from which this passage is derived mostly the chronological 

 order is observed, and this note occurs immediately after the biography of 

 Faryaby who died A. H. 319, we may therefore suppose that Moqad- 

 disy flourished about the beginning of the fourth century of the Hi j rah, 

 M. Gayangos (Mohammadan dynasties in Spain I. p. 429) has shown 

 that they were imported into Spain by Majaryty who died in A. H. 

 398. It is probable that Nahrajiiry, one of the compilers, is identical 

 with Abu Ya'qub Ishaq b. Moh Nahrajury, who is mentioned in 

 Ooshayry's letter to the Gufys,* and who died at Makkah in 330. 



I have seen four copies of the Ikhwan al-cafa in India: a complete 

 copy is preserved in the Moty-mahal library of the king of Oudh ; 

 a splendid MSS. of the second half, beginning with page 336, and the 

 24th memoir, is in possession of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. It was 

 written at Fayzabad in 1184, and contains marginal corrections by 

 another hand ; unfortunately there are several lacunas in it. A third 

 and rather valuable copy containing chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11> 

 12, 13, 17, 15, 16, 30, 31, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 5, 6, 47, 48, 

 49, 50,51, conclusion, 42, 43, 44, 40,41, belongs to Mufty Sadr 



* See also Jamy's Safahat, N. 140. 



