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based on the number of manuscripts of them that survive in the modern Islamic world. We can
also establish which Andalusi works circulated outside al-Andalus at certain periods, thanks to
data from private libraries 127 and others such as those of Aleppo in the seventh/thirteenth
centuries, a time of intense emigration of Andalusis to the East. 128 Copies of the following works
were available in that city: Abū ᶜA. al-Qālī, al-Ibil and al-Bāriᶜ fī l-lugha; Abū ᶜAmr al-Dānī, al-
Iqtiṣād fī l-qirā’āt and al-Taysīr; Abū Ghālib Tammām b. Ghālib Ibn al-Tayyān, Talqīḥ al-ᶜayn fī
l-lugha; Abū l-Ḥ. al-Ḥuṣrī, Zahr al-adab; Abū l-Q. Maslama b. Aḥ. b. Riḍā’ al-Qurṭubī, Ta’rīkh
falāsifat al-ᶜarab; Abū l-Ṣalt, al-Adwiya al-mufrada, Dīwān rasā’il, Dīwān shiᶜr, al-Ḥadīqa fī
mukhṭār min ashᶜār al-muḥaddathīn, Risāla miṣriyya, and Taqwīm al-dhihn; Aḥ. b. M. b. Aḥ. b.
Burd, al-Taḥṣīl fī tafsīr al-Qur’ān; Aḥ. b. Rashīq al-Andalusī, Rasā’il; Aḥ. b. al-Ṣaffār, al-ᶜAmal
bi-l-asṭurlāb; al-Bājī, Firaq al-fuqahā’, Iḥkām al-fuṣūl, al-Nāsikh wa-l-mansūkh and al-Tashdīd
ilā maᶜrifat al-tawḥīd; al-Ḥus. b. M. b. al-Ḥus. b. Ḥayy al-Tujībī al-Qurṭubī, Zīj; al-Ḥumaydī,
Jadwat al-muqtabis and Damm al-namīma; Ibn Khāqān, Maṭmaḥ and Qalā’id; Ibn al-Quṭiyya,
Sharḥ Adab al-kuttāb, Ta’rīkh al-Andalus and Tasārif al-afᶜāl; Ibn Sharaf al-Qayrawānī, R. al-
intiqāḍ; Ism. b. Khalaf al-Ṣiqillī, al-Iktifā’ fī l-qirā’āt and al-ᶜUyūn fī l-qirā’āt; Makkī b. Abī
Ṭālib, Ikhtilāf al-ᶜulamā’ fī l-nafs wa-l-rūḥ; M. b. Yaḥ. b. Saᶜāda al-Mursī, Fihrist asmā’al-
shuyūkh; Q. b. Asbagh, al-Nāsikh wa-l-mansūkh; Ṣafwān b. Idrīs, al-ᶜUjāla wa-l-nathr; al-
Zubaydī, Ṭabaqāt al-naḥwiyyīn. This list provides food for thought about – among many other
things – how knowledge was spread, its relationship to the mobility of the ᶜulamā’, the
integration of Andalusi ᶜulamā’ into new environments (whether permanently or temporarily),
and the requirements of education.
In sum, the work that the reader is holding – or rather, that is within reach of a computer
mouse – was conceived in order to save modern scholars time and effort, and to offer in the most
complete way possible the sources’ information on intellectual output and activity in al-Andalus.
Because true exhaustivity is a goal always sought and never reached, our project’s motto has
been that “the best is the enemy of the good”; there were moments when it seemed impossible to
Transmission, and Reception of the Major Works of Aḥmad al-Būnī,” Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies 12
(2012), pp. 81-143.
127 Like that studied by E. Kohlberg, A Medieval Muslim Scholar at Work. Ibn Ṭāwūs and His Library (Leiden:
Brill, 1992); in my review of that book in AQ 16 (1995), pp. 191-92, I noted the Andalusi works which that Shiite
ᶜālim had owned.
128 P. Sbath, Choix de livres qui se trouvait dans les Bibliothèques d’Alep (au XIIIe siècle), Mémoires Présentés à
l’Institut d’Égypte, 49 (Cairo, 1946).
based on the number of manuscripts of them that survive in the modern Islamic world. We can
also establish which Andalusi works circulated outside al-Andalus at certain periods, thanks to
data from private libraries 127 and others such as those of Aleppo in the seventh/thirteenth
centuries, a time of intense emigration of Andalusis to the East. 128 Copies of the following works
were available in that city: Abū ᶜA. al-Qālī, al-Ibil and al-Bāriᶜ fī l-lugha; Abū ᶜAmr al-Dānī, al-
Iqtiṣād fī l-qirā’āt and al-Taysīr; Abū Ghālib Tammām b. Ghālib Ibn al-Tayyān, Talqīḥ al-ᶜayn fī
l-lugha; Abū l-Ḥ. al-Ḥuṣrī, Zahr al-adab; Abū l-Q. Maslama b. Aḥ. b. Riḍā’ al-Qurṭubī, Ta’rīkh
falāsifat al-ᶜarab; Abū l-Ṣalt, al-Adwiya al-mufrada, Dīwān rasā’il, Dīwān shiᶜr, al-Ḥadīqa fī
mukhṭār min ashᶜār al-muḥaddathīn, Risāla miṣriyya, and Taqwīm al-dhihn; Aḥ. b. M. b. Aḥ. b.
Burd, al-Taḥṣīl fī tafsīr al-Qur’ān; Aḥ. b. Rashīq al-Andalusī, Rasā’il; Aḥ. b. al-Ṣaffār, al-ᶜAmal
bi-l-asṭurlāb; al-Bājī, Firaq al-fuqahā’, Iḥkām al-fuṣūl, al-Nāsikh wa-l-mansūkh and al-Tashdīd
ilā maᶜrifat al-tawḥīd; al-Ḥus. b. M. b. al-Ḥus. b. Ḥayy al-Tujībī al-Qurṭubī, Zīj; al-Ḥumaydī,
Jadwat al-muqtabis and Damm al-namīma; Ibn Khāqān, Maṭmaḥ and Qalā’id; Ibn al-Quṭiyya,
Sharḥ Adab al-kuttāb, Ta’rīkh al-Andalus and Tasārif al-afᶜāl; Ibn Sharaf al-Qayrawānī, R. al-
intiqāḍ; Ism. b. Khalaf al-Ṣiqillī, al-Iktifā’ fī l-qirā’āt and al-ᶜUyūn fī l-qirā’āt; Makkī b. Abī
Ṭālib, Ikhtilāf al-ᶜulamā’ fī l-nafs wa-l-rūḥ; M. b. Yaḥ. b. Saᶜāda al-Mursī, Fihrist asmā’al-
shuyūkh; Q. b. Asbagh, al-Nāsikh wa-l-mansūkh; Ṣafwān b. Idrīs, al-ᶜUjāla wa-l-nathr; al-
Zubaydī, Ṭabaqāt al-naḥwiyyīn. This list provides food for thought about – among many other
things – how knowledge was spread, its relationship to the mobility of the ᶜulamā’, the
integration of Andalusi ᶜulamā’ into new environments (whether permanently or temporarily),
and the requirements of education.
In sum, the work that the reader is holding – or rather, that is within reach of a computer
mouse – was conceived in order to save modern scholars time and effort, and to offer in the most
complete way possible the sources’ information on intellectual output and activity in al-Andalus.
Because true exhaustivity is a goal always sought and never reached, our project’s motto has
been that “the best is the enemy of the good”; there were moments when it seemed impossible to
Transmission, and Reception of the Major Works of Aḥmad al-Būnī,” Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies 12
(2012), pp. 81-143.
127 Like that studied by E. Kohlberg, A Medieval Muslim Scholar at Work. Ibn Ṭāwūs and His Library (Leiden:
Brill, 1992); in my review of that book in AQ 16 (1995), pp. 191-92, I noted the Andalusi works which that Shiite
ᶜālim had owned.
128 P. Sbath, Choix de livres qui se trouvait dans les Bibliothèques d’Alep (au XIIIe siècle), Mémoires Présentés à
l’Institut d’Égypte, 49 (Cairo, 1946).
