REVIEWS and an index are supplied. The glossary says the mibrab is at the east end of the. mosque, whereas its position varies with the geography. The bibljp- graphy might have included The Arab Awakening by George Antonius. A few errors may be noted. The most important of the six collections of Tradition is said to be that of Ahmad b. Hanbal (p. 85); but it is not even one of the six. The bald statement is made that in Uthman's version of the Qur'an "there was much tampering of the text" (p. 108). Muawiya is wrongly accused (p. 114) of stabbing Muhammad b. Abu Bakr and dressing his dead body in an ass's skin, Muhammad having been killed in battle in . Babik appears as Barbak (pp. 178 f.) and the geographer al-Bakri as al-Baqri (p. 308). Although reference is made to Baha Allah, only the Babist movement is mentioned, nothing being said of Bahaism (p. 301)." The Prophet's name is spelt Muhammad, so the spelling Mubamadan is Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/jss/article/5/3/319/1727575 by guest on 27 September 2021 strange. But this word is better not used whatever the spelling; one should say Muslim. The blurb calls Khalid, "The Sword of God", conqueror of Spain, an error for which the author is not responsible. This is one of the occupational risks of an author. ' JAMES ROBSON

STEPHAN and NANDY RONART, Concise Encyclopaedia of Civilisation: The Arab East. 1959. Pp. 2 + 590, including 20 maps.. (Djambatan, Amster- dam. Price: FL 30.) The authors explain that in confining themselves to the Arab East they felt it necessary to draw a dividing line to keep the book from becoming unwieldy, but they say, "If all goes according to plan, a second part treating the Arab West—Morocco, Algeria, Tunis, Lybia (sic) and the Sudan—will follow in the not too distant future". In preparing this encyclopaedia they have studied standard works and many periodicals and reports, and have also drawn on their own experience for, as they state, " We have lived for quite a number of years in some of the Arab countries, and have travelled about a great deal in others". Their purpose being to help those who wish to understand "the convictions, attitudes and reactions of the Arab people", they have included material dealing with the from the earliest times up to the present day. The separate articles have no bibliography, except very occasionally, but this has been purposely done to avoid overburdening the text Under the heading "Reading Suggestions" a list of forty-seven books and seventeen periodicals is supplied at the end as a guide to the general reader. It may be mentioned in passing that Tor Andrae's name appears in the curious form Tor A., and that Brockelmann is spelt with only one n. While the work is meant to apply particularly to the Arab East some articles are included which apply more particularly to the West For example, there are articles on Musa b. Nusayr and Tariq b. Ziyad who conquered Spain. The inclusion of Musi may be justified because he came from the East, but Tariq has no such claim for inclusion. Ibn 'Arab!, the mystical writer, although of Spanish origin, eventually settled in Damascus, and so his inclusion can be justified; but one may question the inclusion of an article on Hayy b. Yaq%ant the philosophical "novel" by Ibn Tufayl who was bom near Granada and died in Morocco. Incidentally, a cross-reference is given to an article on Ibn Tufayl, but no such article is included.

310, ai-a REVIEWS The encyclopaedia covers a wide range of subjects, and so deserves its title in spite of the disclaimer made at the beginning of the Preface. There are many articles on Islam in all its aspects, but while there are separate articles on the four usulthe than'a does not get one. Arabic literature receives considerable attention from pre-Islamic times up to the present day, and history holds a prominent place. There are articles on pre-Islamic peoples in Arabia. The longest articles are on the countries included in the area covered, most of them illustrated by maps. Aden Colony and Protectorate gets A,\ pages; Egypt 8; 10; Jordan 7; Kuwait 4; Muscat and 'Uman 5; Saudi Arabia 8; Syria 9; and Trucial 'Uman $i- The United Arab Republic which is mentioned at the end of the articles on Egypt and Syria gets a brief notice of 16 lines. The gets 7 pages. There are articles on modern political movements and parties. Attention is also paid to indigenous Chris- tian communities. The article "Christians" occupies 5 pages, and there are Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/jss/article/5/3/319/1727575 by guest on 27 September 2021 substantial articles on Jacobites, Maronites and Nestorians. An interesting article entitled "Middle Class" traces the development of society and deals especially with the results of Western contacts begun last century. There are many articles on prominent people, ancient and modern. There are also numerous articles on all aspects of the life of the people. The general reader who wishes to acquire information about the Arabs, their countries in the eastern part of their world, their beliefs and customs, is thus provided with a remarkably comprehensive mass of information. In addition to the maps of modem Arab states there are others showing the expansion of Islam under Muhammad and the first four Caliphs; the ' in the ninth century; the in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries; communications; oilfields; and the Middle East political situation in 1958. There are also diagrams illustrating Mecca and the Hajj route. One may draw attention to a few inaccuracies. It is not correct to say (p. 12) that 'Abdallah b. al-'Abbas may be called simply al-'Abbas. In the article on al-Bukhad (p. 102) the incorrect statement is made that he selected 7275 texts; this is the total number of his traditions including repetitions. It is incorrect to say that his Sahib contains 160 books; the number is 97. 'ajwab is said (p. 134) to denote in literary Arabic only the stone of the date. This word was applied to the best kinds of date in Medina. Hud (p. 223) is called an early Islamic prophet, rather a misleading description. On p. 226 'Abdallah b. al-Zubayr is three times called al-Zubayr. Kuthayr ibn-, 'Abd al-Rahman abu-Sahr is given as the name of the poet (p. 303). This contains three mistakes. When someone is known as Ibn so and so, the practice is to entitle the article "So and so ibn-". Here the authors have gone astray. The poet's name was Kuthayyir b. 'Abd al-Rahman abu-Sakhr. In translitera- tion the authors have decided quite reasonably not to use the dots which distinguish certain letters, feeling that they would not convey much to the general reader; I have, therefore, not used the spelling Rahman and Sakhr which are more accurate. The article refers to the poet in one place as Kuthayr and in another as ibn-Kuthayr. Khadijah's rather Khuwailid appears on p. 382 as Kuwalid. Tus is said on p. 538 to be in Persia, and on p. 539, correctly, to be in Khurasan. On p. 550 the statement is made that when 'Uthman's version of the Qur'an was completed "all other copies in

320 REVIEWS existence were destroyed". On p. 299, however, there is a recognition that all the copies were not destroyed. On p. 569 the name Ayhaba occurs. This is for the so-called prophet who rose in the Yemen in Muhammad's lifetime. The name should be 'Ayhala or 'Abhala. He is generally known as al-Aswad. The leader of the rebellion is stated to have been called al-Burqc (p. 576). This should be al-Burqu'I. There are very many printer's errors of which many will be easily recog- nizable by anyone; but the general reader who does not know Arabic will be frequently misled as to Arabic words or names. For example, 'Abd al- Muttalib appears on pp. 281 and 565 as 'Abd al-Mutallib. The article headed Mamelukes begins on p. 340, followed by the correct transliteration mamluk. The anglicized form Mameluke is kept up throughout the article, a perfectly justifiable practice if consistently used; but on p. 341 the form MAMLUK is used in the title of a map, and on p. 348 one finds Mameluk. It has already Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/jss/article/5/3/319/1727575 by guest on 27 September 2021 been mentioned that dots are not used to distinguish letters. The dash is used over vowels to indicate long vowels, but sometimes it is omitted, and some- times it is inserted when the vowel is short Kafis represented by k and qdf by q, but this has not always been observed; for example, on p. 430 Qahlan appears for Kahlan, and on p. 548 wutbkab for wutbqab. 'qyn and bam^a are distinguished in the usual manner by' and' respectively, but occasionally there are errors; for example, Qaynuqa' for Qaynuqa' (p. 293) and al-Ma'mun for al-Ma'mun (p. 325). One other matter may be added. There are no articles on Mecca and Medina, but there is an article of about 2 pp. on the ka'bab. The two towns are mentioned under the article HARAM, but it is very unlikely that the general reader would know of this word or its significance. We find there al-baram al-Makkab and al-baram al-MaJinab. The article al- should not appear before bar am, and it should certainly not appear before Makkab. But why use the spelling Makkah and Madlnah instead of the generally used Mecca and Medina? The fact that it has seemed necessary to draw attention to so many points is not meant to convey the idea that the work is unreliable. It is an excellent piece of work, and it should admirably fulfil its purpose. In comparatively small space a wealth of information has been collected in convenient form, and readers should derive great benefit from it JAMES ROBSON

SIR OLAF CAROE, The Patbans: 550 B.C.-A.D. 1957. 1958. Pp. xxii + 522 + 12 plates+6 maps. (Macmillan, London. Price: 60/.) There will perhaps never again be an Englishman so well equipped as Sir Olaf Caroe to write a history of the Pathans. For over twenty years, as an official on the North-west Frontier, he was able to study at dose quarters the people who call themselves PaStun or Pahtun and whom the and Indians call Afghans and Pathans respectively. That the history of this people begins in 5 50 B.C. is based on the assumption that the PaStun are identical with the Fl&avEs of Herodotus. Against such an assumption is to be set, as Sir Olaf freely admits, the authority of two such scholars as Morgenstieme and Bailey. We have in feet no certain record of the Afghans or Pathans until the sixth century A.D., and it is not until the

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