Ibn Rushd's Metaphysics: A Translation with Introduction of Ibn Rushd's Commentary on

Aristotle's Metaphysics, Book Lām by Charles Genequand

Review by: Richard Taylor
Middle East Journal, Vol. 41, No. 2 (Spring, 1987), pp. 310-311
Published by: Middle East Institute
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that she is observing, finds a workable dis-
tance from the serious pitfallof confrontinga
sacred text as a sacred text.
The author first provides some essential
backgroundon the history, the nature, the
context, and the content of the Quran. The
technicality of tajwid and the polemic of
sama' are discussed in two chapters dealing
with the "Ideal Recitationof the Qur'an"and
"The Sound of Qur'anic Recitation." She
introduceshuzn (sorrow) as the ultimateex-
perientialfeatureof this art and murattaland
mujawwad as the "two distinct styles of
Qur'anic recitation ... [the former being]
characteristically relaxed, quiet, speech-
bound, and, above all, is generally used to
communicatethe content of the Qur'an ...
[while the latter is] intended to produce an
emotionaland religiouseffect on listeners;its
contexts are public and performative" (p.
102). Finally, Nelson resumes her initial ref-
erence to the paradoxicalrelation between
the art of Quranicrecitationand music in the
last chapter, and concludes with a final note
on the participationof Muslims-reciters of
and listeners to the Quran-in the actual
momentof Revelation.
Nelson is fully awareof her novel, or what
she calls "nontraditional"(p. xvii) approach
to the study of the sacred text. She walks a
thin and perilous line in tryingto distinguish
between the art of Quranic recitation and
music as such. Two rationales are volun-
teered for her approach: first, that Labib
al-Said(a Muslim)did a similarstudy of "the
acceptabilityof melodic recitation"and sec-
ond, that there was "enthusiastic response
and . . . cooperation ... from Egyptianreli-
gious scholars in the course of . . . research
for this book" (p. xvii). It is very difficult,
however, even assumingthat it is possible or
advisable, to try to meet simultaneouslythe
two sets of more-than-oftencontradictory
criteria of Islamic doctrines and Western
scholarship.
This work is insightfuland significantfor
the Western academic discipline of ethno-
musicology, but Nelson's explicit attemptto
try to approximateher approach with the
traditionallymandated Islamic interdictions
310
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concerning music is both out of place and
futile. This is particularlyevident in her at-
temptto assimilatethe diverse dimensionsof
Quranicstudies to merelyits "performative"
aspect. Her assertionthat "the Qur'anis not
the Qur'anunless it is heard" may be plausi-
ble froma dramaturgical perspective,but it is
totally incorrect,if not blasphemous,from an
Islamic point of view. Generationsof Mus-
lims saints and scholarshave read their holy
text in complete silence. Nor are the three
essential Quranic sciences, tawjid, qira'at,
and tafsir, exclusively a prerogativeof reci-
tation. Of the two systems of Quranicrecita-
tion, murattaland mujawwad,only the latter
has to do with recitationfor public purposes
per se. The compexityof a sacred text in the
context of its culture is too pervasive and
multi-variantto be reduced to just one as-
pect, which happens to coincide with the
academic discipline within which the author
operates.
HamidDabashi, Departmentof Sociology,
Universityof Pennsylvania.
Ibn Rushd'sMetaphysics:A Translationwith
Introductionof Ibn Rushd's Commentaryon
Aristotle's Metaphysics, Book Lim, by
Charles Genequand. Leiden: E. J. Brill,
1984. Islamic Philosophy and Theology.
Studies and Texts, vol. 1. vii + 210 pages.
Bibl. to p. 213. Indices to p. 219. Gldr70.00.
Reviewedby Richard Taylor
This work is the inauguralofferingof a new
series of philosophicaland theological texts
and studies being published by E. J. Brill
under the general editorship of H. Daiber.
The expressed purpose of the series is to
make available to specialized students and
scholarsof philosophy,theology and intellec-
tual history editions and studies of important
works by Islamic thinkers of the early and
classical periods. This purpose is well ful-
filledby this lucid translationof Book Lam of
the Great Commentaryon the Metaphysics
of Aristotle by Ibn Rushd (Averroes).
 In this ad litteram commentaryon Book
Lambda (XII) of Aristotle's Metaphysics,
Ibn Rushdprovideshis readerswith a wealth
of philosophical commentary, citing the
translated commentaries of Alexander and
Themistius as well as the work of Islamic
thinkerssuch as Ibn Sina, whose emanation-
ist interpretationof Aristotelianmetaphysics
Ibn Rushdcriticizes in detail. This finalbook
of Ibn Rushd'sGreatCommentaryis not only
a valuablesourcefor understandingthe meta-
physical thought of this great Islamic self-
professed Aristotelian on the nature of the
deity and the world's eternal relation to its
non-creationistcause; it also provides some
key texts which are the bases for the vehe-
mence with which his psychological teach-
ings were attacked by Christianthinkers of
the medieval West. These texts and many
others which provide the readerwith a clear
view of many of Ibn Rushd's key philosoph-
ical teachingsclearlyjustify this selection for
translationfrom the massive GreatCommen-
tary edited by C. Bouygues.
Genequand'ssound translationof this oc-
casionally confusing text is preceded by a
valuable introductioncontainingdiscussions
of Aristotle's Metaphysics in Arabic, the
aims of metaphysics, the prime mover, hu-
man and divine intellect, and other topics.
The translation itself is accompanied by a
minimumnumberof notes on mattersof text
and sense and is followed by a brief bibliog-
raphy and four indices (General, Arabic
words, Greek words, suggested emenda-
tions). What is missing here, however, is a
list of errataindicatingsome of the at least 13
typographicalerrors of the introductionand
27 typographicalerrors of the translation.
These, however, are minorsources of irrita-
tion easily corrected.
By translatingthis importantsection in Ibn
Rushd's Great CommentaryGenequandhas
clearly carriedout an importantservice for a
wide rangeof scholars. It is regrettable,how-
ever, that in the same year that this transla-
tion appearedin print there also appeareda
French translationwith bibliography,exten-
sive textual notes, etc., by Aubert Martin.
(Averroes Grand Commentaire de la
This content downloaded from 129.234.252.66 on Mon, 6 Oct 2014 17:49:50 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Metaphysique d'Aristote. Paris: Societe
d'Edition "les Belles Lettres"). Such dupli-
cation of effort in this specialized field is
unfortunate, though sad to say, it is not
altogether rare. (In recent years some vol-
umes of Ibn Rushd's Middle Commentaries
on the Organon of Aristotle have appeared
almost simultaneouslyin as many as three
different editions, all relying on the same
manuscriptevidence.) One can only hope
that in the future scholars might take full
advantageof the various available organs of
scholarlycommunicationsuch as the Bulletin
de philosophie medievale in a concerted ef-
fort to avoid duplication. Multiple transla-
tions of works such as this into different
Europeanlanguagesare far from necessary,
given the specializedaudiencetowardswhich
the translationsare generallydirected.
Richard C. Taylor,Departmentof Philos-
ophy, MarquetteUniversity.
TwentyThreeYears:A Studyof the Prophetic
Careerof Mohammad,by Ali Dashti, tr. by
F. R. C. Bagley. London and Boston, MA:
George Allen and Unwin, 1985. xviii + 210
pages. Notes to p. 218. Indices to p. 228.
$17.50.
Reviewedby Hamid Algar
The late Ali Dashti (d. 1981/2), Iranian
litterateurand memberof the Shah's senate
for a quarterof a century,was knownprimar-
ily for his polished studies of the classical
poets and for a series of rather undistin-
guished novelettes portrayingthe mores of
Tehran high society. In his early youth,
Dashti received a traditionalreligiouseduca-
tion at Karbala,one of the chief centers of
Shi'i learningand pilgrimage,but in the 1930s
he beganto develop a markeddislikeof Islam
and its cultural legacy in Iran. This dislike
was kept relativelymute in his literarymono-
graphs, althoughit was unmistakablein his
study of Umar Khayyam (Dami ba Khay-
yam, Tehran: 1966; English translation by
L. P. Elwell-Sutton, In Search of Omar
311