1855.] Literary Intelligence. 45 



and the praise of poverty and abstemiousness, and they are therefore 

 also of some interest for the history of Sufism. The date of the 

 translation is not mentioned, but it must be old. It is in rhymed 

 prose, and the language is very peculiar and hardly intelligible. 



I am particularly rich in commentaries on the Qoran. Before 

 I left Calcutta I obtained eight volumes (out of ten which compose 

 the whole work) of the Tafsyr of Hakim (see -Hajy Khalyfah voce 

 Tahdzyb.) Here I found in the possession of Mr. Barnett, a Mis- 

 sionary, a book which I so often wished to have — an account on 

 which occasion the works of the Qoran have been revealed. There 

 is a work on the subject by Soyuty, for which I have made much 

 search, but in vain. But the principal book is the v)tjSd\ J^y ^Uwl 

 by Wa/ady (I believe he died in 4G8.) He gives in all instances 

 the authenticated opinion of the contemporaries of the prophet, and 

 a full account of the circumstances under which a verse was reveal 

 ed. This will enable me to make the Qoran more fully bear on the 

 biography of the prophet, than could otherwise have been done. 

 Another work of equal or even greater importance is the ^ Jj^^b* 

 jylj\ jX~J&)\. The author's name is cut away, he says that he had 

 written the u>iy*J| e)U-=^ and that he made now a new edition of 

 it in which he omitted the asnad with a view of reducing the extent 

 of the work. This book consists, exclusively, of traditions bearing on 

 the explanation of the Qoran. Even if the traditions are not all 

 genuine, we have at all events the views which were taken in the 

 first century of the Hijrah, on the meaning of the sacred code. 

 I have unfortunately only about one-fourth of the work, and it 

 fills near a thousand pages, small folio. The above two titles will 

 enable me to find the name of the author and date in I7ajy Khalyfah 

 or in Soyuty's ^abaqat al mofassiryn. I have none of these two 

 books at hand. How much more valuable such a work is — or in 

 fact any tafsyr — than the disgusting dialectical discussions of Da- 

 makhshary, and his contemptible abbreviafcor Baydhawy or of Imam 

 Eazy! 



Good tafsyrs are very large and consist generally of more than 

 twenty volumes. To find complete copies is out of the question. 

 I therefore act on the conviction that the first centuries of the 

 Islam — when complete works were to be had — will never return, and 



