Hermann the Dalmatian’s Purported Role in the Translation of the Quran into Latin

This paper, part of a forthcoming reassessment of certain claims about Hermann the Dalmatian (c. 1105/1110‒after 26 February 1154), an illustrious scholar, philosopher and translator of scientific and religious works from Arabic to Latin, addresses Hermann’s purported co-authorship of the first Latin translation of the Quran. Examination of the literature has revealed that this widely accepted claim, which has been uncritically disseminated via Croatian scholarly literature and the popular media, appears to be based on misreadings of the sources and conjectures

MUSTAFA MUHIBBI, THE CADI OF SARAJEVO\u27S POEMS ON FOOD AND DRINK (Summary)

U radu su izložene pjesme o jelu i piću koje je na osmanskom turskom jeziku sastavio sarajevski kadija Mustafa Muhibbi (umro 1854.). Tim se pjesmama pristupilo kao izvorima za poznavanje jednoga vida svakodnevice muslimana u osmanskoj Bosni - kulture hrane. Sudeći prema Muhibbijevim stihovima i nekim njegovim sporadičnim zapisima, on je najveću pozornost poklanjao obredno važnim jelima, slasticama poput halve i ašure što su ih običavali pripravljati i muškarci, te jelima posebno spravljanima za teferiče, tradicionalne proljetne izlete.The paper presents poems on food and drink compiled by the Sarajevo cadi Mustafa Muhibbi (who died in 1854) in the Osmanic Turkish language. These poems are approached as a source for understanding of an aspect of everyday life of the Islamic population of the Osmanic Bosnia - the culture of food. Judging from the Muhibbi\u27s verses and some of his sporadic notes, he had paid the greatest attention to the ritually prepared food, sweets such as halva and ašura, which were prepared by men, too, as well as to food prepared especially for teferići, the traditional spring picknicks

HERBAL AND THEURGIC MEDICINE AS RECORDED IN THE MANUSCRIPTS OF MUSTAFA MUHIBBI, QADI IN SARAJEVO (Summary)

U radu su izloženi načini liječenja koje je u prvoj polovici 19. stoljeća u svojim rukopisima zabilježio sarajevski kadija Mustafa Muhibbi. Kako pokazuju izabrani primjeri, ti su recepti i savjeti s područja onodobne znanstvene i pučke biljne medicine kao i teurgijskoga, čudotvornoga liječenja. Na temelju Muhibbijevih upisa u radu se pokušava odrediti njegov odnos prema bolesti i liječenju, te makar dijelom ocrtati složene putove prenošenja medicinskoga znanja među pismenim bosanskim muslimanima, ali i od njih prema puku i obratno.The author presents results of the research into different ways of medical treatment as recorded in the oriental manuscripts of Mustafa Muhibbi, qadi (judge of the sharia court) in Sarajevo from the first half of the 19th century. The manuscripts analysed are Ms. 113, an Ottoman medical text with Muhibbi\u27s marginal notes, mostly names of plants translated from Turkish to Muhibbi\u27s mother tongue, Bosnian; Ms. 27/1, another Ottoman medical text transcribed and extended by Muhibbi himself, and Ms. 91, his personal notebook containing, among other material, over twenty recipes. Some recipes are translated in the paper from Ottoman Turkish and Arabic languages, classified as theurgic (religious and magical) or purely herbal and commented on. Since Muhibbi wrote down those recipes together, without notes which display his awareness of the differences between them, the analysed material proved to be a source for wider conclusions concerning his comprehension of causes of illness and his approach to curing. Moreover, his notes pointing to provenance of certain recipes enable us to draw lines of transmission of medical and magical knowledge among learned Muslims in Bosnia at that time, as well as between them and the common people

Hermann the Dalmatian’s Purported Role in the Translation of the Quran into Latin

This paper, part of a forthcoming reassessment of certain claims about Hermann the Dalmatian (c. 1105/1110‒after 26 February 1154), an illustrious scholar, philosopher and translator of scientific and religious works from Arabic to Latin, addresses Hermann’s purported co-authorship of the first Latin translation of the Quran. Examination of the literature has revealed that this widely accepted claim, which has been uncritically disseminated via Croatian scholarly literature and the popular media, appears to be based on misreadings of the sources and conjectures

Inscriptions on the “Zagreb yataghan”

U vlasništvu S. V. iz Zagreba nalazi se jatagan s velikim brojem zlatom tauširanih natpisa. U ovom se radu donose sadržaji tih natpisa, koji stručnjacima za osmansko oružje mogu olakšati prepoznavanje i rekonstruiranje istovjetnih tekstova na primjercima na kojima su samo djelomično očuvani i/ili nečitki. Usto, podatak da se jedno djelo obrtnika koji je ukrasio “zagrebački” jatagan nalazi u istanbulskom Vojnom muzeju doprinos je sistematiziranju spoznaja o proizvodima pojedinih radionica hladnog oružja u Osmanskom Carstvu.Blades of the Ottoman long knives, yataghans, are frequently decorated with geometrical and floral motives, and different inscriptions. In Zagreb, as the property of S. V., there is a richly decorated yataghan produced in AH 1224. / AD 1809-1810 in Bosnia. It was made for some of the descendants of the Bosnian Vizier Mehmed Pasha Miralem, probably for his grandson Mehmed Miralem. On both sides of the blade, there is a great number of cartouches and round ornaments made with the technique of inlaying with gold wire. They contain calligraphic inscriptions in the Arabic, Ottoman Turkish and Persian languages, comprising prayers, proverbs, invocations and verses encouraging fighting against enemies, expressing confidence in God and asking the Prophet Muhammad to intercede for the owner of the yataghan in the next world. By comparison with the items described in catalogues and other literature, it appears that the “Zagreb yataghan” is exceptional both for containing extraordinarily great number of inscriptions and for having two lengthy inscriptions in Persian. As for comparison, none of the yataghans from the Zemaljski muzej [National Museum] of Sarajevo contains inscriptions in Persian, while the collections of Hrvatski povijesni muzej [Croatian Historical Museum] and Istorijski muzej Srbije [Historical Museum of Serbia] have only one such item each. In this paper, all the inscriptions are presented in Arabic script and transliteration, and translated into Croatian. They could help researchers dealing with Ottoman cold weapons to recognise and reconstruct identical sayings and verses found on other yataghans in cases when they are partially damaged and hardly legible, in the way in which I benefited from the work of Muhamed Ždralović on the yataghans of the Croatian Historical Museum. Finally, the fact that another product of the artisan named el-Hacc Mehmed-zade, who decorated the “Zagreb yataghan”, is kept at the Military Museum in Istanbul could contribute to the systematisation of data on yataghans from individual workshops in the Ottoman Empire

Moralistic and Didactic Volume of Muslihuddin from Knin from 1609: Manuscripts of Arabic Original and Ottoman Translation

Godine 1609. Muslihuddin sin Alijev iz Knina, koji je u Banjoj Luci bio derviški šejh, osnivač i profesor medrese, džamijski imam, propovjednik i muftija, sastavio je zbornik na arapskom jeziku naslovljen Poklon učiteljima i dar učenicima koji je zatim preveo na osmanski turski. To je zbirka uputa za život u skladu s islamskim naukom i poticaja na učenje i poučavanje, koja se velikim dijelom sastoji od kuranskih ajeta, hadisa i drugih islamskih predaja. Rukopisi arapskog izvornika i osmanskog prijevoda čuvaju se u Orijentalnoj zbirci Arhiva HAZU u Zagrebu. U radu se donose rezultati paleografskog i kodikološkog ispitivanja tih rukopisa, koji upućuju na zaključak da oba potječu iz prve polovine 17. stoljeća ali da se ni za jedan ne može pouzdano ustvrditi da je autograf. Ispitivanje sadržaja zbornika pokazuje da su samo uvodno autobiografsko poglavlje i zaključak Muslihuddinovi autorski tekstovi, dok središnji dio čine izvodi iz zbirki hadisa i vjerskopravnih i didaktičkih djela drugih pisaca. Rad donosi i prijevod uvoda i zaključka s arapskog na hrvatski, kao i usporedbe sadržaja i stila arapskog i osmanskog teksta.The article presents a collection of Arabic texts that were put together in 1609 by Shaykh Muslihuddīn, son of ‘Alī, also known as Muṣāfī. Muṣāfī was born in the town of Knin in the Dalmatian hinterland, acquired his education in Istanbul and other Ottoman towns, and finally settled in Banja Luka, where he founded a school, a madrasa, and a hanikah. After more than twenty years of teaching, he produced a pedagogical and moral-didactic work in Arabic entitled Tuḥfat al-mu‘allimīn wa hadiyyat al-muta‘allimīn (A Gift for Teachers and a Present for Those Who Study) and subsequently translated it into the Ottoman Turkish language under the title Munyetü ’ṭ-ṭālibīn ve ġunyetü ’r-rāġibīn (The Wish of Students and the Wealth of the Desirous). Both the manuscripts of the Arabic text and the Ottoman translation are housed in the Oriental Collection of the Archives of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts in Zagreb. Palaeographic and codicological analyses of the manuscripts indicate that that they originate from the first half of the seventeenth century, but are most probably not autographs. Examination of the Arabic text has led to the conclusion that Muṣāfī did not write it on the basis of other religious, didactic and pedagogical works, as some authors have asserted, but composed it by copying these works partially or, as is the case with al-Ġhazālī’s treatise Ayyuhā ’l-walad, in their entirety. The only original parts of his work are the introduction and conclusion. Inspection of the Ottoman version reveals that it is not a literal translation from Arabic, because Muṣāfī considerably expanded the text. In addition to the study of Muṣāfī’s work, the authors provide a translation of his autobiographical introduction and the conclusion from Arabic into Croatian