a special prestige under Ayyubid and Mamluke rule, it was only in the 17th and 18th centuries that it eclipsed the other madrasas (religious teaching establishments) of Cairo to become completely identified with the ulama establishment.”
Raymond makes the point that “il y avait une contradiction latente entre les liens matériels et sociaux qui unissaient les cheikhs à la caste dirigeante et le rôle de porte-parole qu’étaient censés pour les ʿulamāʾ vis-à-vis de la population égyptienne puisque ses difficultés et les abus dont elle soufrait avaient précisément pour causes principales le mauvais gouvernement ou la tyrannie des Mamelouks et de leurs gens. Aussi les ʿulamāʾ eurent-ils parfois une attitude ambiguë à l’égard des mouvements populaires et il leur arriva de ne les soutenir qu’avec une évidente réserve” (Raymond, Artisans, 2:431). It would be equally true that, despite their links to the ruling elite, the obligation of the ʿulamāʾ to support the sharia may have made them, on occasion, sympathetic (albeit always with that “certain reserve”) to the complaints of the masses.
Despite its importance, sharḥ appears to be little studied as a genre. For an orientation to the various subgenres, see Gilliot, “Sharḥ” and Rippin, “Tafsīr,” in EI2.
In this notation, S stands for a short syllable, such as da, L for a long syllable (dā or dal) or—in colloquial verse—also an overlong syllable (dāll), and X for a position in the meter that may be filled by a short or a long syllable, at the poet’s discretion.
Sigla for the other witnesses used in the 2005 edition, and hence also occasionally referred to in the apparatus to the Arabic text that follows, are: ب = Bulaq (Dār al-Ṭibāʿah al-ʿĀmirah, 1274/1858); ك = Cambridge (Cambridge University Library, Or. 1420 (Part I) and Or. 1421 (Part II)); با = Paris (Bibliothèque Nationale, MS Arabe 3267 (Part I) and 3268 (Part II); م = Mingana (Birmingham, Selly Oaks Colleges Library: Mingana Collection, Islamic 1564–65).
Humphrey Davies. Yūsuf al-Shirbīnī’s Brains Confounded, Vol. 2, English Translation. Only short passages of Brains Confounded have been translated elsewhere (in any language, to my knowledge). The story of the “Persian Savant” (§§4.5–4.9) was rendered into English by Herbert Howarth and Ibrahim Shukrallah sixty years ago (Howarth and Shukrallah, Images, 21–23) and again recently by Geert Jan van Gelder, along with the story of the peasants who visit a bathhouse (§§3.25–3.27) (van Gelder, Anthology, 339–44 and notes on 422–24). J. Finkel includes a translation of a brief passage from al-Shirbīnī’s mock sermon on foods (vol. 2, §11.25.7) in his essay on a Mamluk work of the same type (Finkel, “King Mutton,” 132–36).
Brains Confounded by the Ode of Abū Shādūf Expounded
Part One
١،٠
0.1
بسم الله الرحمٰن الرحيم
وبه العون
(الحمد لله) الذي شرّف نوع الإنسان * بنطق اللسان * وخصّه بعموم مزيد الفضل والامتنان * وهيّأه لإدراك حقائق المعرفة والبيان * وتوّجه بتاج الكرامة والبراعة والإتقان * وجعل الطبائع مختلفة والأخلاق متباينة على ممرّ الأزمان * وميّز صاحب الذوق السليم بلطافة الذات وحلاوة اللسان * وخصّ أضداده بسوء الخُلُق وكثافةالطبع كعوام الريف أراذل الجُدْران * والصلاة والسلام على سيّدنا محمّد المبعوث من أفضل جرثوم١ العرب من عدنان * المخصوص بجوامع الكَلِم ولوامع التِبْيان * وعلى آله وأصحابه الذين جعلهم الله لاقتطاف جواهر العلم أفنان * صلاةً وسلامًا دائمَيْن متلازمَيْن في كلّ وقت وأوان
١ بي: جرتوم.
In the Name of God
The Merciful, the Compassionate
To Whom We Turn for Help
Praise be to God,1 Who has honored Man with the gift of speech and singled him out for bounty and blessings of every kind, Who has equipped him to grasp the verities of knowledge and persuasive argument, Who has crowned his brow with dignity, prowess, and virtuosity, Who has made his constitutions diverse and tempers disparate as long as time shall last, and Who has distinguished the man of sound taste with refinement of person and sweetness of tongue while bestowing on his opposites—the likes of the common people of the countryside, the base loafers by the walls—wickedness of disposition and coarseness of nature! And blessings and peace upon our Lord Muḥammad, sent forth from the noblest stock of the Arabs of ʿAdnān, endowed with pithiness in speech and brilliance in exposition, and upon his kin and Companions, whom God made adept at gathering wisdom’s pearls2—for ever and ever, in every age and time!
