Drei Schriften des Theosophen von Tirmid: Das Buch vom Leben der Gottesfreunde; Ein Antwortschreiben nach Sarahs; Ein Antworschreiben nach Rayy.

• Author: Landolt, Hermann

Edited by Bernd Radtke. Bibliotheca Islamica, Bd. 35/a. Beirut and Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1991. Pp. 78 (German) + 295 (Arabic). DM 68.

Do not be deterred, or attracted, for the wrong reason: the "theosopher" of Tirmidh is, of course, none other than the celebrated mystic of the third Islamic century, whose distinctive title has given rise to various conflicting theories about the impact of ancient wisdom or philosophy on early Sufism. Bernd Radtke had already introduced him as an "Islamic theosopher" on the title page of his Basel dissertation, Al-Hakim al-Tirmidi: Ein islamischer Theosoph des 3./9. Jahrhunderts (Freiburg: Klaus Schwarz, 1980), which remains to this day the most authoritative study of Tirmidhi's life and thought. Later, Radtke discussed hikmah and related issues more specifically in an article on "Theologen und Mystiker in Hurasan und Transoxanien" (in ZDMG 136.3 [1986]: 536-69) where he emphasized the "Islamic" component against too simplistic "Neoplatonic" theories. The present volume evidently marks a further step in this process. "Theosophy," now spelt Theosofie in German (except on the title page), is divided into two kinds, the older and the younger. By "younger theosophy," Radtke means Suhrawardi (who is distinguished by the epithet referring to his execution) and Ibn al-Arabi, whereas. the "old Islamic theosophy" is, of course, represented by Tirmidhi. It appears that what distinguishes this "old Islamic theosophy" is by no means the absence of Greek thought as a whole, but that of Aristotle. Besides, certain Iranian elements and Shiite parallels are also briefly evoked to characterize this rather complex Geistesstromung. All this is outlined on barely two pages of the German introduction (pp. 31f). For a fuller treatment of the question we are referred to the promised companion volume, which will also contain the German translation of the Arabic texts edited here.

The first among the three Arabic texts published in the volume under review appears under the title Kitab Sirat al-Awliya. It is, however, none other than the famous work which was previously published under the more traditional title Kitab Khatm al-Awliya (ed. Uthman Isma il Yahya [Beirut: Imprimerie Catholique, 1965!). To justify his choice of a title--which is not only unsupported by the manuscript evidence but goes, in fact, against the whole Sufi tradition of the last thousand years or so (Sulami already refers to the same text as Kitab...