New data on an old manuscript: An Andalusian version of the work entitled Futūḥ al-Shām

Abstract

The anonymous manuscript XCIII of the Gayangos collection is a compilation consisting of parts of two works: Futūh al-Shām by (ps.) al-Wāqidī, and an unnamed work by Abū ‛Umar al-Ṭalamankī. A close examination of the text reveals that Ṭalamankī's «compilation» was not an original work by him, but a transmission of the controversial text by Abū Ismā‛īl al-Azdī, also entitled Futūḥ al-Shām. Azdī's work was considered by many scholars as a fraud of the Crusaders' time. Its transmission by Talamankī, who died decades before the first Crusade, settles the controversy once and for all: Azdī's work is early. Other newly discovered quotations from Azdī support this conclusion. The garbled isnāds in the anonymous manuscript were investigated. Their upper (older) links turned out to be accurately matching the isnāds in Azdī's work. The latter were investigated too, and most of the hitherto obscure links in them were identified. The manuscript text was collated with the extant, published versions of Azdī's Futūh al-Shām, revealing countless minor variations, which proves that Azdī's work was transmitted in more than one version (riwāya). The collation of the texts, coupled with an analysis of the methodologies apparent in the manuscript, unveil some processes relating to the making of texts.