Johann Gottfried Wetzstein s manuscripts with popular stories Jan Just Witkam Leiden University Centre for the study of Islam and Society (LUCIS) www.janjustwitkam.nl Studies on Johann Gottfried Wetzstein (1815-1905). Manuscripts, Politics and Oriental Studies Berlin, Staatsbibliothek, 19-21 February 2015 Source illustration: Berlin, Staatsbibliothek, MS Or. Sim 8953, p. 1 (detail)
Johann Gottfried Wetzstein (1815-1905) has brought together at least five collections of manuscripts while working as the Prussian consul in Damascus (1848-1862). Collecting manuscripts was only one of his numerous activities. Source: Portrait in the collections of the Staatsbibliothek in Berlin Below: Wetzstein s signature (under a letter to Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje, dated Berlin, 20 May 1887). Source: MS Leiden, Or. 8952 A:1069 (3), detail.
The first Wetzstein collection came to Berlin in 1851, the second and third collections in 1858. The fourth is the Rifāʿī collection that is now kept in the University Library in Leipzig and the fifth is a collection of 173 items that Wetzstein collected at the end of his stay in Syria in 1860-1861, and that is now in Tübingen. The second and third of these collections are fully integrated in the Staatsbibliothek as Wetzsteiniana I and Wetzsteiniana II, and have been described in Ahlwardt s catalogue. Wetzsteiniana II contains texts on many more subjects, but story telling is by far the largest and most important part of it. Other collections in the Staatsbibliothek in which many popular stories and romances can be found are the two Petermann collections and the Sprenger collection. What is said here about the typology of Arabic manuscripts of popular stories is not only applicable to the Wetzstein MSS, but is equally valid for the other collections. Together, they are all described in vol. 8 of Ahlwardt s catalogue of the Berlin collection (1896).
About the collecting of popular stories Wetzstein writes in his own (unpublished) catalogue of the Wetzsteiniana II collection: This library was directly from the owners acquired in the period between 1852-1858 in the towns in the East of Syria, and in commission from the towns of Mardin, Mosul, Baghdad and Cairo. Even from Medina and Mecca there are eight books in the collection. The collection not only contains numerous works about all branches of science that have been cultivated by the Arabs, it also contains some materials that one does not encounter in other larger collections that have come from the Orient, and which deserve further mention: It was the purpose of the collection to give an as complete as possible collection of the ancient Arabic belletrism. After hard work of many years, in which no sacrifices were avoided almost everything of this literature that in the course of the past centuries had not been lost can be found in this collection: legends, stories, novellas, novels, semi-histories, both in poetry and (rhymed) prose which fills the son of the desert with enthusiasm. [ ] In Damascus hardly any manuscript copy of the longer and shorter literary compositions is left. In this respect the present collection will remain useful.
Ahlwardt is much more no-nonsense about the Wetzstein collection. In a short introduction he mentions the main romances, stresses the importance and uniqueness of the Sīrat ʿAntar manuscripts, and refers to descriptions by Wetzstein. Whatever one may think of this type of literature, so Ahlwardt writes, the huge amount of this source, now in the Berlin library, cannot be ignored. Ahlwardt calls the Sirat Banī Hilāl the most valuable sub-collection in the Staatsbibliothek. This huge cycle is almost exclusively present in the Wetzsteiniana II collection (Ahlwardt Nos. 9188-9361 = vol. 8 (1896), pp. 155-462). The proportion of popular stories within the Wetzsteiniana II collection is not represented in the internet presentation of the Oriental collections in the Staatsbibliothek. Of the circa sixty Wetzstein manuscripts that are presently accessible online, a few volumes only with popular stories are made available, volumes that seem to have been selected in an entirely haphazard way. Enough to do in the near future, and researchers in the Middle East will particularly welcome this.
The content of the eighth volume of Ahlwardt s catalogue has not been adopted in general histories of Arabic literature. Brockelmann s GAL is purely period- and author based. These popular stories are mostly preserved in 18th- and 19th-century manuscripts, but their content is almost timeless, and authors are hardly ever given. For Brockelmann this was a reason to leave this popular literature out of his consideration. No place has been allotted to this considerable segment of Arabic literature in the general literary histories. That is the more strange because Brockelmann in 1899 took Ahlwardt s catalogue as the starting point for his seminal History of Arabic Literature. This curious fact should be an extra incentive for the study of the Arabic popular stories, that have been described by Ahlwardt in such great detail.
Tentative typology of Arabic manuscripts of popular stories. Arabic manuscripts with popular stories have much in common with other Arabic manuscripts. However, by their content they fall outside the established literary and scholarly canon, and this has an effect on their outward and physical appearance. A general impression is that they are simple manuscripts. This can be seen in several features: Title-page: contains sometimes a title, a cycle indication, ownership as part of the title, readers notes. Owner often takes the place the author. Script: ordinary Naskh, never (it would seem) calligraphic script, illumination, illustrations, etc. No nasta liq, no ruq a scripts. Lay-out: simple book culture, ordinary, catchwords, hardly ever use of misṭara, no illustrations. Colophons: usual information, but different formulaic expressions about completeness and accuracy. Age: usually late 18th century / first half 19th century (Wetzstein collected in 1852-1858), so: usually recent recordings on paper of material that content-wise is very ancient.
Ownership: social status of scribes and owners: numerous indications of professions. Possibly connections with the guilds. Readership: numerous readers notes in inexpert hands. Language: many irregular orthographic features, which show that this manuscript literature is made outside the usual channels. No faqīh, ʿallāma, adīb, nāsikh, etc. would write in this way. Taken together this literature is a reservoir of non-normalized, non-fuṣḥā versions of Arabic. General features of difference: Formulaic peculiarities that do not seem to exist in other types of manuscripts.
Manuscripts with popular stories often contain readers and owners notes with indications of professions. This could indicate a social context in which the manuscripts were used: possibly connections with the guilds, and not a learned or literary context within which the texts were transmitted. Some of the professions encountered in the Wetzsteiniana II collection are: Al-ʿAqqād, seller of cords (We. 641, f. 41b) Al-Furnaǧī, the baker (We. 741, inside front cover), probably not al-firanǧī, the Frank Al-Ǧabbān, the cheese merchant (We. 1020, f. 66a) Al-Ḥaffār, the stone mason (We. 522, title-page; We. 678, f. 117a). Al-Ḥakawātī, the story teller (We. 741, f. 88b, copyist), see also al-ḥammāmī Al-Ḥallāq, the barber (We. 803, f. 22a, copyist) Al-Ḥammāmī al-ḥakawātī, the owner of a bath house, the storyteller (We. 1034, f. 138a, copyist) Al-Ḥashshāsh, the seller of ḥashīsh (We. 741, f. 88b) Al-Khayyāṭ, the tailor (We. 171, vol. 2, f. 1a) Muʾaddib wa-muʿallim al-aṭfāl, the educator and teacher of children [in Alexandria] (We. 1085a, f. 184b) Al-Rabbāṭ, the binder (of what?) (We. 1082, f. 1a) Shaykh al-qaṭṭāna, the head of the cotton sellers (We. 702, f. 69b) Al-Tarrās, the shield maker (We. 171, vol. 5, f. 1a) Al-Qaṣṣāṣ, the shearer (We. 702, f. 13b)
Example of Wetzstein s catalogue of his own collection: We. 316 We. 316, f. 1a. (left); Ibid., Or. sim. 8943, p. 5 (right).
Wetzstein s catalogue and Ahlwardt s catalogue concerning We. 316. Sources: MS Berlin, Staatsbibliothek, Or. sim 8943, p. 5. (left). Ahlwardt, Verzeichniss, volume 9 (1897), p. 26 (No. 9403).
Wetzstein (?) at work in Qissat Ahmad al-danif, the Story of Ahmad al-danif. Marginal notes in Arabic and German. We. 702, f. 108b.
A typical Wetzstein manuscript with romances as it is presently preserved. Originally a paper or carton cover, with a label showing a short title. Ahlwardt (Nos. 9103 and 9104) does not yet mention the leather binding. The rebinding of volumes in the Wetzstein collection may have caused the loss all sorts of information. We. 662, front board.
A typical Wetzstein manuscript with romances as it is presently preserved. Originally a paper or carton cover, with a label showing a short title. Part 20 of a section of the Arabian Nights, Sirat Alf Layla wa-layla. We. 1082, front cover
Part 20 of a section of the Arabian Nights, Sirat Alf Layla wa-layla (Hikayat Hasan al- Gawhari), inside front board. A reader s note is partly visible: al-sayyid Umar Ahmad al- Q with date [12]63 (1847). The expression Nazara fihi wa- Ta ammala Ma anihi is formulaic. Also: numerous unrelated notes of administrative nature. Such notes, and parts of unrelated documents can frequently be found as fly-leaves to the story telling manuscripts. We. 1082, inside front cover
A typical title-page of volume with romances in the Wetzstein collection. 1. Suggestive title 2. Correction of the title 3. Owner s name, here erased 4. Number of leaves in the volume, determining the price. 5. Empty space used for notes, in this case lines of poetry. We. 662, f. 1a.
Title-page of a series of Sindbad stories about the hunter, the long-necked bottle, the singing fish, the king, the son of the merchant and the talisman Often the owner of the book is mentioned in colophon or on a title-page. Here: al-hagg Ahmad ibn Reader s note: Sayyid Yunus (who also signs at the end of the volume) Also reading noot by Hasan Efendi, dated 18 Rabi II 1239 (1823). We. 707, f. 1a.
Title-page of Part 20 (number corrected) of a section of the Arabian Nights, Sirat Alf Layla wa- Layla. Owner in title: al-hagg Ahmad al- Rabbat al-halabi, and (added:) Umar, Hasan and Darwish al-fiyali Other owner: Mustafa al-mawsili of 1263/1847. Repeated reader s note (also inside the volume): Muhammad Firdaws(i) al-ga fari 1262 (1845-6) Other reader: Muhammad b. Abdallah b. Hamza The expression Nazara fihi wa- Ta ammala Ma anihi is formulaic. We. 1082, f. 1a.
Title-page of the Story of the Judge and the Thief. Formulae commonly used on titlepages and in colophons of story telling texts: - bil-tamam wal-kamal, - al-ziyada wal-nuqsan Also on this title-page names (of owners?): Nayila, Labiba, Abd al- Karim, Title repeated by an owner or reader (pen probe?) We. 702, f. 1a.
Title-page of the story of al- Khalifa the fisherman and al- Khalifa Harun al-rashidi, plus the story of al-haggag and the young man. Two readers notes with the usual words: Nazara fihi wata ammala Ma anihi. - Shaykh Hasan b. al-hagg Hamza b. Ma tuq - Shaykh Hasan b. Ma tuq We. 702, f. 23a.
Title-page of Qissat Ahmad al- Danif, the Story of Ahmad al- Danif. An owner or reader has profited of the almost blank page to write the Shahada, the Creed, and a Hadith about Intentions (Niyyat). Example of pen probes. We. 702, f. 107a.
Title-page of Qissat Tawaddud wa-ma gara laha min al Ulama al-kiram, the Story of the learned slave woman Tawaddud and the scholars. It is a famous story, well-known and often analyzed. It is also part of the Arabian Nights. The manuscript has an organized lay-out, as typically simple book, but it is outside the style of popular stories manuscripts. The use of a mistara is visible. We. 702, f. 177a.
Transition from the frame story to the story of the first night (out of twenty nights), in which the Vizier comes to tell stories to the King. In the margin an indication to use red ink for the indication of the night (representant). We. 662, f. 20a.
Example of the removal of elements of the frame story of the Arabian Nights. Here, as in the rest of this text, the sentence of Shahrazad seeing that the morning had come is struck out. Sometimes it is simply left out. Maybe in order not to be read aloud. Maybe in order to be left out in a copy that was to be made from this MS. It also shows how detachable the frame in fact is of the substories. We. 662, f. 26b.
Stories of the Arabian Nights, with the frame story removed. Here, in the transition between Night 3 and Night 4, the sentence of Shahrazad seeing that the morning had come has been omitted (elsewhere in the manuscript is was struck out). In the margin is a representant, indicating that the Night-title should be written in red ink. The representant was supposed to be cut off later by the binder. Evident division of labour between copyist and rubricator. We. 662, f. 30a.
Shahid Kalam, authentic animal fables. Marginal gloss about an element of the text (al-sharha). Substitution in the margin of an omitted line of text, with a reference sign after the word al- Mata. We. 662, f. 72b.
Shahid Kalam A section of eight pages with authentic anecdotes about stingy people. We. 662, f. 81b.
Shahid Kalam, authentic story about a blind man and a oneeyed man. Adorned heading, a rare feature in manuscripts with popular stories. We. 662, f. 86a.
Change of copyist or lay-out is a frequent feature in manuscripts of popular stories. We. 662, ff. 106b-107a.
Continuation of Shahid stories ( authentic stories ), for which the final blank pages of a volume are used. No formal lay-out rules are employed. We. 662, f. 121a.
The series of Sindbad stories about the hunter, the longnecked bottle, the singing fish, the king, the son of the merchant and the talisman. Look at the catchword on the recto page. This is unusual. Maybe it was written after the example in older printed Christian books from the area, but it can also be just a coincidence. We. 707, f. 2a.
The series of Sindbad stories about the hunter, the longnecked bottle, the singing fish, the king, the son of the merchant and the talisman. Text lost in the outer margin (due to cropping) has been substituted by a reader as the last word of the preceding line. The partially damaged words have been struck out in order to avoid double reading or similar confusion. We. 707, f. 33b.
Part 20 of a section of the Arabian Nights, Sirat Alf Layla wa-layla: Hikayat Hasan al-gawhari. Reader note by Muhammad Firdaws(i) al-ga fari, with the year 1262 (1845-6) in the upper margin. We. 1082, f. 4a.
Part 20 of a section of the Arabian Nights, Sirat Alf Layla wa-layla: Hikayat Hasan al-gawhari. Reader s note in the outer margin by Faris b. Hasan Fiyal (?) We. 1082, f. 29a.
Part 20 of a section of the Arabian Nights, Sirat Alf Layla wa-layla: Hikayat Hasan al-gawhari. Margins used for unrelated pen probes. We. 1082, ff. 35b-36a.
Last available page of Part 20 of a section of the Arabian Nights, Sirat Alf Layla wa-layla: abrupt end of Hikayat Hasan al- Gawhari, with two readers notes. Reader s note by al-sayyid Muhammad Abd al-bari (?). Another reader s note, by al- Sayyid Abd al-qadir b. (?) and dated 7 Ragab 1261 (1845) We. 1082, f. 44b.
Traces of ownership and readership It frequently happens that a reader or owner copies a (first) line from the text in the margin. Here that is done in the story of al-haggag and the young man. Example of a pen probe. We. 702, f. 41a.
A professional indication in a note of readership: A lengthy reader s note in the margin of a short story, by al-sayyid Darwish b. al-sayyid Abd al-rahman, the Shaykh al-qattana, the head of the cotton sellers, dated 29 Muharram 1253 (1836). We. 702, f. 69b.
The opening page of Qissat al- Miqdad, the Story of al-miqdad. Written in a free lay-out, without the use of a mistara, ruler. We. 702, f. 121b.
The opening page of Qissat al- Imam Ali ala Abd Hubar b. Zangir, the Story of the Imam Ali and Abd Hubar b. Zangir. Written in a free lay-out, without the use of a mistara, ruler. The copyist is given in the title, which may point a copyist who considers himself owner (or teller) of the story. We. 702, f. 168a.
Qiṣṣat Zayd wa-kaḥlā, the Story of Zayd and Kahla. The manuscript has an organized layout, as typically simple book, but it is outside the genre of popular stories manuscripts. There is a reader s note by al-sayyid ʿAbd al-qādir. The paper has been cropped. We. 702, f. 193b.
The colophon of the collection of the twenty nightly stories mentions the copyist, Abd al- Razzaq b. Abd al-karim al- Misri. No date is given. The Shahid at the left of the colophon is the beginning of the next text in the volume. Shahid means here a true story. We. 662, f. 50a.
Colophon of the collection of Shahid stories. Note the formulaic sentence with which the colophon begins: wa-hadha ma intaha ilayna Suddenly also a title for the collection is given: Sirat Mufarrigat al-kurub wa- Mufarrihat al-qulub, known as al-shawahid ( true stories, which is written as a correction. Copy dated 19 Rabi I 1173 (1759) We. 662, f. 120b.
Colophon of a Shahid ( authentic story ) section, with the use of formulaic phrases. Often the owner of the book is mentioned in colophon or on a title-page. It may mean that such an owner would also consider himself as owner of the tekst. Here that owner (now erased) is the famous collector al-hagg Ahmad al-rabbat. An effort has been made to let the tekst pass for a section from the Arabian Nights (addition underneath the colophon). We. 662, f. 132a.
The series of Sindbad stories about the hunter, the longnecked bottle, the singing fish, the king, the son of the merchant and the talisman. The end of the tekst is followed by familial notes: the breast feeding of our daughter Amun by her mother in Dhu al-qa da 1213 (1799). The death of her mother in Ragab 1214 (1799), the marriage of the girl in Safar 1225 (1810). Notes on births and demises are not rare in manuscripts, but this one seems to be exceptional. We. 707, f. 44b.
Colophon of the Story of the Judge and the Thief, with date of copying 6 Gumada II 1243 (1827), copied by Bakri (?) al- Qassas ( the shearer ) Salhah (name not evident?). Formula commonly used in colophons of story telling texts: - wa-hadha ma intaha ilayna min, - bil-tamam <wal-kamal>. We. 702, f. 13b.
Colophon of Qiṣṣat Masrūrmaʿa Zayn al-muwāṣif, the story of Masrur with Zayn al-muwāṣif. Formula end of text: Hadha ma intaha ilayna min Hadithihim Dated 30 Gumada I 1236 (1821). Reader s mark with professional indication: Abdallah al-gabban, the cheese maker. We. 702, f. 95b.
The last page of Qissat al-imam Ali ala Abd Hubar b. Zangir, the Story of the Imam Ali and Abd Hubar b. Zangir. Written in a free lay-out, without Mistara, ruler. Dated 1155 (1742), with prayer for writer, reader and hearer. This may be a reference to an oral performance, but such expressions do also occur in manuscripts with other subjects than popular stories. Also on the page an exclamation of wisdom or despair, written by a reader or owner: Oh you, who asks for things that can only be understood by educated and intelligent people We. 702, f. 176a.
The closing page of Qissat al- Miqdad wa-bint Ammihi, the Story of al-miqdad and his niece. Written in a free lay-out, without Mistara, ruler. Usual formula in the colophon: Wa-hadha ma intaha ilayna min, and the hope that the story is complete (al-tamam wal- Kamal) and an invocation that it is nor overcomplete, nor defective (al-ziyada wal-nuqsan), a reference to the oral tradition of the text? Note the spelling al-miqtadi (line 1), with the ta instead of dal after the voiceless qaf. We. 702, f. 135a.