Fakes Or Fancies? Some 'Problematic'
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mc NO 10 2017 mc NO 10 2017 manuscript cultures manuscript Hamburg | Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures ISSN 1867–9617 cultures ISSN 1867–9617 © SFB 950 “Manuskriptkulturen in Asien, Afrika und Europa” Universität Hamburg Warburgstraße 26 www.manuscript-cultures.uni-hamburg.de D-20354 Hamburg N O 10 PUBLISHING INFORMATION | MANUSCRIPT CULTURES Publishing Information Forthcoming 10 - Dividing Texts: Visual Text-Organization in North Indian and Nepalese Manuscripts by Bidur Bhattarai The number of manuscripts produced in the Indian sub- Editors Editorial Office continent is astounding and is the result of a massive Prof Dr Michael Friedrich Dr Irina Wandrey enterprise that was carried out over a vast geographical area Universität Hamburg Universität Hamburg and over a vast stretch of time. Focusing on areas of Northern Asien-Afrika-Institut Sonderforschungsbereich 950 India and Nepal between 800 to 1300 ce and on manuscripts Edmund-Siemers-Allee 1/ Flügel Ost ‘Manuskriptkulturen in Asien, Afrika und Europa’ containing Sanskrit texts, the present study investigates a D-20146 Hamburg Warburgstraße 26 fundamental and so far rarely studied aspect of manuscript Tel. No.: +49 (0)40 42838 7127 D-20354 Hamburg production: visual organization. Scribes adopted a variety Fax No.: +49 (0)40 42838 4899 Tel. No.: +49 (0)40 42838 9420 of visual strategies to distinguish one text from another [email protected] Fax No.: +49 (0)40 42838 4899 and to differentiate the various sections within a single [email protected] text (chapters, sub-chapters, etc.). Their repertoire includes Prof Dr Jörg Quenzer the use of space(s) on the folio, the adoption of different Universität Hamburg Layout writing styles, the inclusion of symbols of various kind, Asien-Afrika-Institut Astrid Kajsa Nylander the application of colors (rubrication), or a combination of Edmund-Siemers-Allee 1/ Flügel Ost all these. This study includes a description of these various D-20146 Hamburg Cover strategies and an analysis of their different implementations r Tel. No.: +49 40 42838 - 7203 Photo: Codex Azcatitlan, Ms. Mexicain 59-64, fol. 5 (detail) across the selected geographical areas. It sheds light on how Fax No.: +49 40 42838 - 6200 showing traces of Mesoamerican footprints. © Paris, Biblio- manuscripts were produced, as well as on some aspects of [email protected] thèque nationale de France. their employment in ritual contexts, in different areas of India and Nepal. Translations and Copy-editing Carl Carter, Amper Translation Service www.ampertrans.de Mitch Cohen, Berlin Forthcoming 15 - Studies on Greek and Coptic Majuscule Scripts Print and Books by Pasquale Orsini AZ Druck und Datentechnik GmbH, Kempten The volume contains a critical review of data, results and Printed in Germany open problems concerning the principal Greek and Coptic majuscule bookhands, based on previous research of the author, revised and updated to offer an overview of the different graphic phenomena. Although the various chapters address the history of different types of scripts (i.e. biblical majuscule, sloping poitend majuscule, liturgical majuscule, epigraphic and monumental scripts), their juxtaposition allows us to identify common issues of the comparative method of palaeography. From an overall critical assessment of these aspects the impossibility of applying a unique historical paradigm to interpret the formal expressions and ISSN 1867–9617 the history of the different bookhands comes up, due to the fact that each script follows different paths. Particular © 2017 attention is also devoted to the use of Greek majuscules in www.manuscript-cultures.uni-hamburg.de SFB 950 ‘Manuskriptkulturen in Asien, Afrika und Europa’ the writing of ancient Christian books. A modern and critical Universität Hamburg awareness of palaeographic method may help to place the Warburgstraße 26 individual witnesses in the context of the main graphic D-20354 Hamburg trends, in the social and cultural environments in which they developed, and in a more accurate chronological framework. O manuscript cultures mc N 10 CoNTENTS | MANUSCRIPT CULTURES 1 CONTENTS 1 FORUM 3 | A Case for the Study of Modern Literary Manuscripts by Christian Benne ARTICLES 15 | The ‘Marriage Charter’ of Theophanu: A Product of Ottonian Manuscript Culture by Bruno Reudenbach 31 | Medial Ambiguity: Liturgical Books of the Latin Church and their Changing Status in Mediaeval Tradition by Felix Heinzer 51 | Travelling the Time Line: The Visual Organisation of New Spanish Manuscripts about the Mexica by Anna Boroffka 73 | How Arabic Manuscripts Moved to German Libraries by Tilman Seidensticker 83 | A Manifold Heritage: Glimpses of a Family Collection of Arabic Manuscripts in Ilọrin (Nigeria) and Its Transregional Links by Stefan Reichmuth 101 | Fakes or Fancies? Some ‘Problematic’ Islamic Manuscripts from South East Asia by Annabel Teh Gallop 129 | What a Multiple-text Manuscript Can Tell Us about the Tamil Scholarly Tradition: The Case of UVSL 589 by Jonas Buchholz and Giovanni Ciotti 145 | The Novgorod Birch-bark Manuscripts by Imke Mendoza 160 | How to Make an Archival Inventory in Early Modern Europe: Carrying Documents, Gluing Paper and Transforming Archival Chaos into Well-ordered Knowledge by Markus Friedrich 174 | Contributors 176 | Announcement O mc N 10 manuscript cultures GALLOP | SOME ‘PROBLEmaTIC’ ISLamIC MANUSCRIPTS FROM SOUTH EAST ASIA 101 Article Fakes or Fancies? Some ‘Problematic’ Islamic Manuscripts from South East Asia Annabel Teh Gallop | London Introduction* One of the exhibits in the 1990 British Museum exhibition with writing traditions. Although a few isolated manuscripts Fake? The Art of Deception was an Old Babylonian stone written on perishable materials are known to survive from inscription, purporting to be of the reign of Manishtushu, the fourteenth through to the sixteenth centuries, in general King of Akkad (c. 2276–2261 BCE), but in fact probably manuscripts from insular South East Asia only date from created several hundred years later in the first half of the the seventeenth century onwards, with the great majority second millenium BCE by priests in order to strengthen deriving from the nineteenth century. No indigenous scripts their temple's claim to privileges and revenue.1 This was are known from South East Asia, and all extant inscriptions the earliest of over three hundred items on display in the and manuscripts from the region are written either in scripts exhibition, spanning some four thousand years, illustrating of Indic origin or in extended forms of the Arabic alphabet, that the history of fakes and forgeries in art is almost as old with some languages such as Javanese and Bugis yielding as the written history of mankind. The exhibition catalogue manuscript traditions in both script families. Amongst the by Jones provides an excellent overview of the subject, and most important languages with manuscripts written in scripts shows that there is an enormous variety of motivations for of Indic origin are Javanese, Sundanese, Madurese, Balinese, producing fakes, not always financial; that great experts have Bugis, Makassar, Lampung and the Batak family, while regularly been fooled; that fakes can be successful both when those in Arabicderived scripts include Malay, Acehnese, presented as typical examples of a genre and as exceptions to Minangkabau, Javanese, Madurese, Wolio, Tausug and the rule; and that there are many objects that continue to defy Maguindanao. But one of the most significant languages categorisation. In this article I will not pursue the theoretical, in terms of numbers of manuscripts produced in this now philosophical and ethical issues surrounding fakes and predominantly Muslim region is Arabic, while the very small forgeries, but will simply aim to identify and describe a numbers of Sanskrit manuscripts found today perhaps attest number of ‘problematic’ manuscripts written in Arabic script to a similar role for that canonical language in an earlier era. from the Malay world of South East Asia, in the hope that This article focuses solely on ‘Islamic’ manuscripts from a codicological and contextual analysis will help to allow South East Asia, namely those manuscripts written in Arabic them to be appreciated for what they are, and not for what script, containing texts in Arabic and Malay, and occasionally they are not. in Javanese. The indelible association between Islam and The maritime world of South East Asia is home to hun the Arabic script – the vehicle for the word of God in the dreds of languages, but only a small number are associated Qur’an – lends itself to a widespread and convenient market perception of all manuscripts written in forms of the Arabic script as inherently ‘Islamic’, irrespective of their contents. * This is a revised and extended version of a paper entitled ‘Fakes or fan Thus a manuscript of the Hikayat Perang Pandawa Jaya – cies? some “problematic” Malayworld manuscripts’, presented at the the story of the final fight of the Pandawa brothers from the ASEASUK Conference, Asian Studies Centre, St. Antony's College, Ox ford, 1517 September 2006. I believe it has benefitted greatly from the long Mahabharata – written on paper, in Malay in the extended period of gestation between initial presentation and publication, a period of form of Arabic script known as Jawi, might easily appear intense market activity in the world of Islamic manuscripts. I acknowledge with thanks permission to reproduce images from the respective