1S56.] Notice on the oldest work on Bufism. 135 



until they get so much drunk that they lose all control over them- 

 selves and exclaim " Praise to me, is there any greater being than 

 myself," or "lam the Verum (das Wahre in the sense of Hegel, i. e. 

 God. The word in the original is (jjf^H ). There is no God by I." 



This idea on the origin and progress of the pantheistic system of 

 theology and philosophy is wild, but it is much more sensible than 

 that of European writers. 'Abd al-Karym Jyly goes farther and 

 attempts to show that Paganism, Magism, Judaism and Christian- 

 ity were successive steps in the development of our ideas regarding 

 God which came to perfection in the Islam or rather in the system 

 of the Sufis. 'Abd al-ghanny Nabolsy has written a monography on 

 this subject which has the title oLj^^II j\j*#\ ^ o^lj uft*££/|. 



The MSS. of which I intend to give a notice belongs to the 

 Syrian Society at Beyroot, No. 601, 8vo. 600 pp. of 26 lines. It 

 is one of the oldest I have seen, having been copied at Alexandria 

 in 486. At the end is the following note c^s^ ^x)\ +$\ yL\ ^ Jli 

 ^1*3 <xJJ| «ju^j \jy, ^i Lsri ^j j*^b Aaj^ JbyS JLs Igjoo v^UiL/i aivA 



The title of the work is Lr &d\ *+& ^>y^> j ^sJ\ \d\j* &U, 

 *JM j and it contains instructions of a Pyr to his disciple, who 

 it appears took them down and whose name is AAmad b. 'Acim 

 Antaky (i. e. of Antioch). The book, in a great measure is in the 

 shape of a dialogue which is very well managed. The name of the 

 Pyr is mentioned in several places, viz : Abu 'abd Allah and in the 

 postscript, the date of the demise of MoMsaby is recorded, viz. 243- 

 For the traditions which occur in the book, invariably the isnad is 

 given in full, and it appears from it that one of the teachers of Abu 

 'abd Allah is Mokmmad al-Cabah, who according to the Kamal died 

 in 227. All his other teachers, whose dates I ascertained, flourished 

 about the year 200 of theHijrah. We may therefore be justified in 

 identifying Abu 'abd Allah the author of this work with Abu 'abd 

 Allah al-iZarith b. Asad Mo7jasaby, of whom we find the following 

 account in Asnawy's Shafi'y Biographies : 

 a^i &~s6 AxwLs" 3 'ij&) lXJjj <_£*-*> ^^xvoLs-^i j,**| ^ c.j=}\ aJJf <^y.\ 



