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Contents of an Apologetic Nature in Ms Contents of an Apologetic Nature in Ms . Raqqada 2003/2 (formerly Great Mosque of Kairouan 120/829)' BY Mayte PENELAS Escuela de Estudios Árabes - CSIC (Granada, Spain) Introduction Among the fiindamental contributions of Giorgio Levi Delta Vida to the awareness of the literary output of the Christians from al-Andalus, he left an article concerning the "Mozarabic text of universal history" inserted into codex 120/829 of the Great Mosque of Kairouan. t In that work, published at the beginning of the 1960's, the Italian Orientalist described concisely the contents of this sununary of world history and provided some broad notes on its sources . Some years later a rough edition of the manuscript was posthumously published in the volume that brings together several articles by Levi Della Vida devoted to the Arabic literature of al-Andalus.? Subsequently, both Levi Della Vida's article and the Christian chronicle dealt with in it received virtually no scholarly attention. Things changed in 2004, when two articles were written on the manuscript now preserved in the Ragqáda Museum of the Arts of Islamic Civilization,' catalogue number 2003/2 : one by Philippe Roisse,`r and the other by myself.' This paper has benefited from the learning of Prof. Samir Khalil SAMIR, Prof. Luis MOLINA, and Prof. Juan Pedro MONFERRER -SALA, to whom I owe every gratitude for their generous and inestimable help . "Un texte mozarabe d'histoire universelle", in Études d'orientalisme dédiées à la mémoire de Lévi-Provençal (Paris: G.-P. Maisonneuve et Larose, 1962), 1, pp. 175-183 . "Un texte mozarabe d'histoire universelle", in Note di storia letteraria arabo-ispanica, a cura di Maria Nallino, PublO 65 (Roma: Istituto per l'Oriente, 1971), pp. 123-192 . The collection of manuscripts of the Great Mosque was moved in the eighties to Ragqáda, a small village close to Kairouan . "Redécouverte d'un important manuscrit `arabe chrétien' occidental : le ms. Ragqáda 2003/2 (olirn Kairouan 120/829)", CCO 1 (2004), pp. 279-285 . 276 M((yte Penelas Contents of an Apologetic Nature in Ms. Raqqada 2003/2 277 Intending to prepare a new edition of this peculiar universal history, "universal history",9 and offering some examples taken from the most I have specifically written two articles in which I aim to show its legible fragments, which may provide some clue to the ascription of the position within Andalusi historiography . The present paper, however, non-identified parts . will not deal with this work, which occupies twenty-seven of the fifty the folios that comprise the codex, but rather will focus on rest of the 1. Dialogue between al-katitligi and al-a `rdbi material of an apologetic nature. codex, namely, the Six folios to, at least, undoubtedly belong to the dialogue between al- Levi Delta Vida already pointed out that, apart from the "universal katittligi (`the Catholic', `the catholicos' [? < Greek kathofk5s])" and history", the codex contains two different Christian apologies: one of al-a'rdbi (lit. `the Arab', `the Bedouin'), since all include mention of them is a version of the dialogue between the Nestorian patriarch one or both interlocutors . And little more can be said on these folios I and the Abbasid caliph al-Mahdi; the other one is a Timothy with complete certainty. Most of them are in a terrible state of al-a'rdbi. folios do controversy between al-kati-digi and Most indeed extent that sometimes one cannot tell for sure whose conservation, to such an belong to one of these apologies, but there are some origin I talking. It therefore, almost impossible to reconstruct any part may be part of one of the who is is, have not been able to detennine: they two the text in order to identify the controversy, if it were a known one . Levi Della Vida; or perhaps we are dealing with of works singled out by a Only about four pages are slightly more legible and allow us to third work. reconstruct the text minimally, providing some information, albeit very Whether they are two or three Christian apologies, the fact is that little, on the contents of the dialogue. In short, any conclusion must be quite distant from my main line of research, but I their subject-matter is put forward -and by the same token accepted- with caution. same codex as the Christian became interested in them as part of the Among a number of questions, the conversation seems to deal with a examining them in depth -which was rather difficult chronicle . After problem central in the theological debate between Christians and 8 I must admit that I have given the deplorable state of the manuscript-, Muslims, namely whether the spirit of God is uncreated, that is, eternal out a great deal about the apologetic contents of the Ragqáda not found in him, or created. Moreover, several statements appear to point to the here the results of the research, codex. Nonetheless, I shall present discussion on the eternity of God's attributes in general. Seemingly, al- outlining the contents of the twenty-two folios that are not part of the a'rabi would not accept that God's knowledge and will may be eternal. No fragment of the text is in a sufficiently good state of conservation to say so with certainty, but some of the arguments set forth by al-/catitligi suggest that he intended to convince his interlocutor that God's 5 universal)) de Qayrawán", CCO "Novedades sobre et ((Texto mozárabe de historia r attributes, some ofthem at least, are eternal. (2004), pp. 143-161 . note; the other article, entitled "El Kitlib Hurfigiivg y et From some scattered legible sentences the reasoning of al-katitligi For the first one, see the previous I' «Texto mozárabe de historia universal)) de Qayrawán : contenidos y fliaci6n de dos can be partially reconstructed. He argues, for example, that God is not cr6nicas árabes cristianas", will appear in the proceedings of the colloquium _Quelle identité mozarabe ? Histoire, langue et culture des Chrétiens d'al-Audahis (t.ae-.1lle ñ siècles), Casa de Velc'rzduez, Madrid, 16-17 juin 2003. Some important notes on the Folio 4 is so damaged that any classification -even a hypothetical one- is impossible, as foliation of the manuscript, applicable here, can be found in footnote 5 ofthis article . only about four irrelevant words can be read (e.g., wa-gdla, al-Afasiíh) . "Un texte mozarabe d'histoire universelle", in Note di storia letteraria, p. 124 . io Folios 5, 6, 8, 9, 10 and 41 (always according to the current foliation). The manuscript, in general, is in an awful state, but "b" pages, which are not necessarily ii The word katfrligi, as it appears in the manuscript, is quite rare. The spelling is the verso ofthe folio, are especially badly conserved (as explained in M. PENELAs, "El documented in the Vocabulista in Arabico with the meaning of 'Catholic' (see Federico Kitáb Hurfigiyus y et «Texto mozárabe de historia universal)) de Qayrawán", footnote 5). CORRIENTE, A Dictionary of Andahisi Arabic [Leiden : Brill, 1997], p. 456) . However, it The identification of the source of some passages has been of great help to read many may also be a variant of `katholikbs', a title given to the patriarchs of some Eastern words beyond doubt; the readings I am not completely certain of have naturally been Churches . So it was suggested to me by Prof. Samir Khalil SAIvtIR . 12 marked. Some of the sentences are reproduced in Appendix I.1. Mayte Penelas 278 Contents of an Apologetic Nature in Ms. Raqqada 2003/2 279 subject to change, addition or decrease. If knowledge specifically were al-gñtaliq -i.e ., `the katholikds'- and al-Mahdi . The entire name of the not in him eternally, then it follows that He would have admitted patriarch is given in the title, which is partly written with red ink and addition; so, of necessity, He was not perfect prior to that. Knowledge not wholly legible. It reads more or less as follows: "hddd kitñb thtigag cannot exist without the spirit, nor the spirit without knowledge, for, in and ltñgga bi-hi al-ainir al-1fahfi Thnitdii,ug al-gñtaliq" (this .is the that case, it Would be an irrational spirit (al-ritli al-bahinii, lit. `the book of the argumentation used by the katholikós Timothy to contend animal spirit') ." The spirit cannot exist without will either. Will is with the emir al-Mahdi). 18 indeed indispensable in the creative act, as al-a'rdbi himself recognizes. Timothy I was the patriarch of the Nestorian Church from 780 to his From all this, one can infer that if knowledge and will cannot exist death in 823. He had a friendly relationship with the caliph al-Mahdi without the spirit, and vice versa, and if knowledge and will are eternal 14 15 and his successors, and took part in the cultural life of the Baghdadian in him, then the spirit is also eternal . Unlike the spirit of God, that of court. Timothy allegedly wrote down one of the theological discussions angels is a created spirit with temporal knowledge (rith nrahlittq bi-'iltn he had with al-Mahdi, which was held in two sessions. This he did in zamñni) . 16 Likewise, knowledge and will are not in the essence of Satan the form of a letter addressed to an anonymous correspondent, probably and his companions, but rather they are created spirits that acquired a priest friend of his called Sergius. l9 The letter was originally written knowledge and will, hence their knowledge is temporal. in Syriac, the oldest testimony of which is a l3th-century manuscript preserved in a monastery in the north of Iraq.
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