Compilation and Creation in Adab and Luga: Studies in Memory of Naphtali Kinberg (1948-1997).

AuthorCarter, M.G.
PositionReviews of Books - Book Review

Compilation and Creation in Adab and Luga: Studies in Memory of Naphtali Kinberg (1948-1997). Edited by ALBERT ARAZI, JOSEPH SADAN, AND DAVID J. WASSERSTEIN, Israel Oriental Studies, no. 19. Winona Lake, Ind.: EISENBRAUNS, 1999. Pp. 499.

It is difficult to review a collection of articles at the best of times, but more than usually so with this issue of Israel Oriental Studies, dedicated to the memory of a respected colleague who was taken from us while still in his prime. As a user of his magnificent index to al-Farra', possibly the last such work of scholarship on the grand scale before everything is digitized, the reviewer wishes to record here his own sense of loss and simple gratitude for the contribution Naphtali Kinberg made to the study of the Arabic language. The debt is increased by the recent publication of a collection of Naphtali's own writings on the topic (Studies in the Linguistic Structure of Classical Arabic, ed. Kees Versteegh [Leiden: Brill, 2001]), ensuring that his research will benefit an even wider circle of like-minded academics.

The volume in hand contains twenty-one articles, ranging from art history to manuscript catalogues, taking in mysticism, exegesis, syntax, comparative literature, and biography, to mention only a few of the subjects dealt with. This diversity alone makes it in itself an impressive demonstration of affection for the dedicatee. Rather than merely paraphrase the contents list, this review will begin in the middle of the book, where there is a sympathetic biography of Naphtali from Yoshi Peled. One sees now that the calmness and modesty of Naphtali's scholarly writings was a true reflection of his personality, as experienced by many of his colleagues in personal encounters: few, however, would have realized that he was also a karate expert if Peled had not revealed the fact!

The article by Nasir Basal demonstrates convincingly the dependence of the Karaite grammarian Abu l-Faraj Harun (fl. second half of the eleventh century) on the Usul al-Nahw of Ibn al-Sarraj (d. 929), evidence of the prestige of Arabic grammar outside the Muslim community, and which was echoed later in the Book of Lights (Kethabha dhe Semkhe) by the Christian Bar Hebraeus (d. 1286), a faithful adaptation of the Mufassal of al-Zamahsari (d. 1144). In neither case was there mere copying, but the degree of dependence is remarkable. As Basal shows, Abu l-Faraj took the trouble to provide relevant examples from Hebrew where...

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