380 REVIEWS

additional work on a book already involving the Sefer ha-razim, a new leaf from Saadya'i
a great deal of research and writing. Essa Meshali,1 etc. There are altogether some
Only one who has so immersed himself in thirty pieces, and Hopkins has sensibly
Oman as Wilkinson can do justice to this decided to transcribe all those texts for which
valuable piece of research; naturally there no printed editions are extant. The accom-
are occasionally points of query but one would panying plates offer not only the authentio
have to be far more closely acquainted with ' feel ' of the original but they also enable
the country and its distinctive culture to the reader to assess the accuracy of Hopkins's
debate the author's findings. He concludes transcriptions. The present reviewer has
with the statement that ' One of the main found it convenient to indulge in this largely
aims of the foregoing analysis of the nature supererogatory exercise only where plate and
of tribal organization has been to account transcription are placed on either the same or
for the way settlement itself is organized. This facing pages. Texts in Arabic have generally
is appropriate because Omani social structure been translated into English.
essentially reflects both the way Arab migrants On p. 1, in relation to the piyyut in T-S
have adapted to the physical requirements of A45.2, s is said to occupy the place of 8; in
their new homeland and how far they in turn fact, however, I cannot detect any instances
have imposed their own notions of social of this kind in the present poem—unless
organization in it. It is precisely because of this refers merely to line (7) where saion
the intimate man-land relationship which appears in the alphabetic sequence of s.
exists in Omani tribal structure that the geogra- On p. 6 (A45.3), I find it hard to read the
phical distinctiveness of the region is reflectedlast word in lineQ (3) as nVXD ! ft seems to me
rather "jnN3- I ' m e W np'l is, perhaps, 7pf];
in a self-balancing tribal hierarchy peculiar to it
(the Hinawi and Ghafiri moieties)'. Wilkinson's r and d are difficult to distinguish here, and
monograph is indispensable to those concerned the operative letter in this word seems to me
with the study of agriculture and irrigation in absolutely identical with the d in QiiyrPB m
Middle Eastern countries. line (9). '
B. B. SERJEANT The version of the pirqe masiah (A45.6) is
not without interest and is excellently tran-
scribed and annotated by the present editor.
SIMON HOPKINS : A miscellany of Some texts are beautifully written: A45.ll
literary pieces from the Cambridge and 12 or 15, in their different ways, are cases
Genizah collections: a catalogue and in point.
selection of texts in the Taylor— translation On p. 41, in the fine transcription and
of a hitherto unidentified Judaeo-
Schechter collection, Old Series, Box Arabic fragment, there are some differences,
A45. (Cambridge University Library textually not insignificant, between the version
Genizah series, 3.) x, 110 pp. Cam- here and that in Sanhedrin 97 b. It is in these
bridge : University Library, 1978. Judaeo-Arabic texts and their treatment that
Professor Hopkins's scholarship and learning
£16. are most clearly revealed.
It will be worth while some day to collate
Although the present volume is designated in detail the version of the Alphabet of Ben
as the third in what promises to be an im- Sira offered here (18a and 20) with existing
portant new series (to which S. Morag, E. J. editions. In A45.21, the surviving leaf repre-
Wiesenberg, S. C. Reif, and others are to sents the opening passage of the treatise
contribute), it is, I believe, in fact the first entitled Kitdb al-iJehtilajat, i.e. ' book of
to be published. Simon Hopkins, who is twitches', ascribed to Shem, son of Noah.
responsible for this first instalment, worked Professor Hopkins exposes the present re-
until recently as a member of the Cambridge viewer's unforgivable ignorance when he
Genizah team before being elected to the describes this Judaeo-Arabic text as belonging
chair of Hebrew in the University of Cape ' to the distinct and well-known [my italics]
Town. He is a very remarkable young genre of Zuckungsliteratur' (p. 67). His
Semitist, and, apart from some weighty transcription and translation of this complex
reviews published in this journal and a doctoral text are most praiseworthy.
thesis of rare maturity and merit (Studies in The Tobit texts (A45.25, 26 and 29) differ
the grammar of Early Arabic—prepared under more than a little from the version in Charles's
the supervision of J. E. Wansbrough), this is Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha I ; on the
his first major publication. other hand, a cursory examination by me of
Before I turn to the substance of the the edition of Constantinople 1519 has revealed
volume, a word of praise ought to be addressed no substantial variants (apropos of Hopkins,
to the printing department of the Cambridge p. 96, fn. 2).
University Library. The volume has been It requires no great gifts of prophecy to
excellently produced, and the clarity and foretell that the present work, with all its
indeed beauty of the Hebrew characters are felicities and its great learning, is a mere
particularly commendable. hors-d'osuvre of what Simon Hopkins will do
Box A45, despite its technical inclusion for Semitic studies in the future.
among Biblical fragments, does in fact contain
a miscellany in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Judaeo- EDWARD ULLENDORFF
Arabic, covering such disparate works as 1
piyyulim, the Apocalypse of Zerubbabel, the Cf. A. Scheiber, TARBIZ, xxxiv, April
scroll of Antiochus, the Alphabet of Ben Sira, 1965, 228-31.

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