Der heilige Krieg (Gihad) aus der Sicht der Malikitischen Rechtsschule (Ibn Abi Zayd al-Qayrawani).

• Author: Brockopp, Jonathan E.

Behind this title is an edition of the chapter on jihad from Kitab al-Nawadir wa-l-Ziyadat ala ma fi l-Mudawwana by Ibn Abi Zayd al-Qayrawani (d. 386/996), with a lengthy editorial preface. The book's purpose is neither to analyze the Maliki doctrine on jihad, nor to solve the problems of transmission of texts among the early Malikis, though it might eventually make a substantial contribution to both of these areas. Rather, von Bredow sets out to present the first critical edition of one chapter from this major Maliki text. For the most part, this task is carried off with fine judgment and a meticulous attention to detail.

In a sense, two books are bound together here. The Arabic edition (separately numbered) begins from the right cover and the German study from the left, with both meeting in the middle. As for the study, it is disappointingly short on analysis and information. Ibn Abi Zayd al-Qayrawani's life and works are dealt with in a mere eleven pages, with the reader referred to previous studies by Miklos Muranyi (Materialien zur malikitischen Rechtsliteratur [Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1984]) and H. R. Idris ("Deux juristes Kairouanais de l'epoque Ziride," Annales de l'Institut d'etudes orientales, 12 [1954]: 124-72). The subject of jihad is analyzed not at all, and no attempt is made to place al-Qayrawani's discussion in its political or social context.

The lengthy discussion of the three manuscripts which form the basis of the edition, however, is excellent (a fourth manuscript, not used in the edition, is described separately in an addendum). Von Bredow establishes the stemma in exemplary fashion, carefully analyzing the characteristic errors which separate the manuscripts into two distinct branches. His discussion is thorough and his arguments are convincing; this section should prove invaluable to those working on the edition of al-Qayrawani's complete text. Von Bredow also includes a defense and explanation of his critical apparatus and references to the parallel literature.

Finally, von Bredow provides a summary of al-Qayrawani's chapter on the jihad, translating the titles of al-Qayrawani's 147 subsections, followed by brief phrases which summarize the main arguments. Neither an analysis nor a translation, this section is of limited interest, although the first pages of this summary (pp. 63-66) are useful, since they organize the material into legal categories. Far more valuable are the many indices for the Arabic text...