Local scholars in a global work : Andalusi biographical dictionaries in

As part of a project to assess why, how and when works from the Islamic West (al-Andalus and the Maghrib, understood here as covering the whole of North Africa west of Egypt) found a way out of their place of origin and arose interest in other regions of the Islamic world, in this paper I focus on the ṭabaqāt genre. The spread of works belonging to this genre outside the area for which they were written implies an interest for the world of scholarship that produced them. In this article I establish which Andalusi biographical dictionaries were included in one of the most famous Islamic bibliographical repertoires, Kātib Çelebī’s (d. 1067/1657) Kashf al-ẓunūn with the aim of shedding light not only on the specific Western Islamic case but also in order to discuss more generally ‘local/global’ dynamics of knowledge transfer in the pre-modern Islamic world.


Introduction
Kashf al-ẓunūn 'an asāmī al-kutub wa-l-funūn 3 ("The Unconvering of Ideas: On the Titles of Books and the Names of Sciences" or "The Removal of Doubt from the Names of Books and the Sciences") was, and still is, one of the most important bibliographical works originating in the Islamic world, part of a rich literary tradition (fahāris, barāmij, etc.) documenting the books that were written and transmitted by Muslim authors in different periods and regions.Written by Muṣṭafā b. 'Abd Allāh, better known as Ḥajjī Khalīfa or Kātib Çelebī (1017/-1609/1057-1657) 4 during at least half of his life, 5 it provides information about 15.000 Arabic, Turkish and Persian works of various disciplines. 6n his 1997 study of Kashf al-ẓunūn and Sullam al-wuṣūl ilā ṭabaqāt al-fuṣūl ("The Ladder leading to the Biographies of Great Men"), Eleazar Birnbaum states that this information was compiled by Kātib Çelebi from other sources, especially from historical works and biographical dictionaries, and also by reading and examining directly different manuscripts and works that he could consult in the libraries of Istanbul and other towns, as he travelled frequently throughout the Ottoman Empire thanks to his position in the army.Also, coming from a family with means, at least on his mother's side, he could afford to acquire himself the books he needed.This can be deduced from the preface of this work 7 and more widely from his Mīzān al-Ḥaqq:

6
Birnbaum points out that he also mentioned some Greek and "Frankish" works that he knew by its Arabic translations.Birnbaum, "Kātib Chelebi (1609-1657) and alphabetization", 237.The bibliographical material which I had so far collected from histories and biographical dictionaries, I set it in proper order, and moreover the names of many thousands of volumes in the libraries I had personally examined, and the books which for twenty years the booksellers had been bringing to me in a steady stream -all were recorded in their appropriate place… and I added over three hundred articles on the various branches of knowledge, taken from the textbooks on the axioms of the science, all in alphabetical order (…). 8 In Kashf al-ẓunūn Ḥajjī Khalīfa strove to provide each entry with as much information as possible, giving the title of the work, the author and his death date (if he knew it), the date of the work's completion and the language in case it was not written in Arabic.Thanks to the nisbas present in the onomastic chains of the authors, it is almost always possible to determine the geographical provenance of the authors.Thanks to this fact, it has been possible to identify the Andalusi and Maghrebi authors mentioned by Ḥajjī Khalīfa.Such identification was carried out within the project HATA (= History of Authors and Transmitters of al-Andalus). 9ne of its aims is to map which works produced in the pre-modern Islamic West were known in other regions of the Islamic world, which influence -if any -they had in the development of global Islamic intellectual trends and to what extent they became part of the general curriculum for students living outside the Maghreb and al-Andalus.
I will focus on this article on the biographical dictionaries written in the premodern Islamic West that are quoted by Ḥajjī Khalīfa.By biographical dictionaries I intend works that record biographical and bibliographical data about different types of persons, works that in Arabic are often called ṭabaqāt because of the chronological structure by generations they often had but which can bear also other titles and the information contained in them can also be structured in other ways. 10he type of persons usually included in such dictionaries were predominantly scholars dealing with different types of intellectual disciplines but most usually related to religious knowledge ('ilm).A sub-genre is autobiographical works of which we shall see an example.
These works were fundamental pieces in the dynamics of knowledge transfer 11 as they provided data on 'who was who' and therefore allowed to identify _____________ individual scholars and to know their reputation and relative standing in the world of scholarship.In other words, they provided a sort of 'identity card' for scholars and therefore were crucial in allowing scholars living -for example -in Transoxiana to get an idea of who the important authors in Ifrīqiya and al-Andalus were, and viceversa.Andalusi local biographical dictionaries such as for example Ibn Bashkuwāl's (d.578/1183) Kitāb al-ṣila would not normally travel to Transoxiana (although it is well represented in Turkish libraries as we shall see), but part of the information they contained would be incorporated by authors of 'generalist' biographical dictionaries such as those by Ibn Khallikān (d.681/1282), the Wafayāt al-a'yān, or al-Dhahabī (d.784/1348 or 753/1352-3) and his Siyar alnubalā'. 12This in any case means that such 'generalist' authors knew of the existence of such local biographical dictionaries and thus they looked for them in order to extract the information contained in them.Ḥajjī Khalīfa's bibliographical compilation allows us to establish which biographical dictionaries produced in the Islamic West were known to exist in the eleventh/seventeenth century.

The structure of Ḥajjī Khalīfa's bibliographical dictionary
In order to arrange all the information compiled from other sources, Kātib Çelebī followed a strictly alphabetical order (rattabtu-hu 'alà l-ḥurūfi al-mu'jamati) 13 so as to avoid any repetition or ambiguity.Despite that, there are some works that are mentioned in two different parts, such as Akhbār al-Qurṭubiyyīn, mentioned in volumes I and II, or al-Tabyīn 'an manāqib man 'urifa bi-Qurṭuba min al-tābi'īn wa l-ulamā' al-ṣāliḥīn, mentioned in volume I once, and in volume II in two different pages.
As he affirms in the preface, this order was made by taking into account the first four letters of the title of the works (wa rā'aytu fī ḥurūf al-asmā' ilā al-thālith wa lrābi' tartīban) 14 .Thus, Kitāb tartīb al-madārik appears in the section devoted to the letter tā', al-Iḥāṭa fī akhbār Gharnāṭa in the chapter of the letter alif, or al-Sirr al-maṣūn fī ma ukrima bi-hi al-mukhliṣūn in the chapter of the letter sīn.
In most cases, each work has a principal entry, which is distinguished, in Flügel's edition of the Kashf al-ẓunūn, by a number.As mentioned in the introduction, in these entries Ḥajjī Khalīfa included information about the author, the date of the composition and every detail he knew that had relation with the work, as the titles of the commentaries and glosses and their authors.It is also frequent that one work is mentioned in a secondary way, that is to say, it appears within the entry devoted to another work that has some relation with it.This is the case of Ibn Bashkuwāl's Al-Ṣila fī akhbār a'immat al-Andalus that is mentioned in the entry devoted to Ta'rīkh al that by Ibn al-Faraḍī, or Kitāb takmilat al-ṣila and Ṣilat al-ṣila which are mentioned in the entry of Ibn Bashkuwāl's biographical dictionary, Kitāb al-ṣila, as they complement it in their turn.
Ḥajjī Khalīfa devoted a large part of the preface 15 of his work to explain the meaning of the word 'ilm and its divisions according to the definition and classifications proposed by classical Arabic authors such as al-Ghazālī (d.505/1111) or Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī (d.606/1209).Ḥajjī Khalīfa introduced reference to the 'ulūm in his Kashf al-ẓunūn interspersing it with the titles of specific works, with an arrangement that took into consideration the alphabetical order of the name of the science dealt with.Thus, 'ilm al-fiqh is classified within the chapter of the letter fā', 'ilm al-ta'dīl in the letter tā' and so on.Under the rubric in question, Ḥajjī Khalīfa provides a brief explanation of the respective science followed by a list of related works.
The title of a work frequently summarized its content, as is the case of Ta'rīkh 'ulamā' al-Andalus or Ṭabaqāt al-aṭibbā', and this helped to identify the discipline they belonged to.Thus, the first work mentioned above is placed after the entry of 'ilm al-ta'rīkh.In the last case, its mention appears after the entry of 'ilm alṭabaqāt.In fact, of the thirty-three Andalusi biographical works that are mentioned in Kashf al-ẓunūn, twenty (that is, 61%) could be arranged within a disciplinary classification, with 'ilm al-ṭabaqāt as the science in which more works are listed, followed by 'ilm al-ta'rīkh.

The Andalusi biographical dictionaries mentioned in Kashf al-ẓunūn
Ḥajjī Khalīfa provides information about fifty-three ṭabaqāts in the entries that are placed immediately after the entry devoted to 'ilm al-ṭabaqāt.Ten of them were written in the Islamic West and more specifically in al-Andalus.They are: Most of them, in particular the first six, were written during the first centuries after the conquest of al-Andalus, that is to say, during the Umayyad period (756-1031) and more specifically all of them but one were written during the Cordoban Umayyad caliphate (fourth/tenth century) which was precisely the period when Arabic literature boomed in al-Andalus under the patronage of al-Ḥakam II both as a prince and as caliph.Among other modern scholars, the Egyptian expert on al-Andalus and its history, Maḥmūd 'A.Makkī, pointed out in his study dealing with the Eastern background in the development of Andalusi culture (Ensayo sobre las aportaciones orientales en la España musulmana y su influencia en la formación de la cultura hispano-árabe 26 ) that the Cordoban Umayyads fostered the emulation of the intellectual trends that were being developed in the East by the Abbasids, and this included recording the achievements of the Andalusi scholars both for internal consumption and in order to make propaganda outside by suggesting that Cordoba could rival Baghdad in terms of its intellectual production.

Andalus, Akhbār al-naḥwiyyīn wa-l-lughawiyyīn bi-l-Mashriq wa-l-Andalus
The seventh and eighth ṭabaqāt in the above list were composed during the First Taifa Period (1031-1074).The last author, Abū Ḥayyān al-Gharnāṭī, belongs to the group of Andalusis who emigrated to the Islamic East after the fall of most Andalusi towns in the hands of the Christians in the first half of the seventh/thirteenth century and in fact he wrote such work in Egypt to make it known there the rich grammatical tradition in which he had been formed. 27ajjī Khalīfa seems to have chosen in this section of his work to reflect the variety of disciplines included in the ṭabaqāt works written in al-Andalus: jurists, secretaries, traditionists, grammarians, doctors, poets, Koran reciters, scholars  involved in the study of the 'sciences of the ancients' (Ṣā'id al-Ṭulayṭulī's Ṭabaqāt al-umam), and grammarians again.Just by this selection, Ḥajjī Khalīfa is portraying al-Andalus as a land that could boast of having enjoyed a world of scholarship varied and complex.
But he did not limit himself to providing this information.He cited a great number of biographical dictionaries in other parts of his Kashf al-ẓunūn.In addition to these ten biographical dictionaries, twenty-three more are quoted with thus a total of thirty-three Out of the section devoted to ṭabaqāt works, we can find seven biographical dictionaries concentrating mostly on scholars devoted to the study of Islamic law (jurists or fuqahā'). 28These works are: 18. Akhbār quḍāt Qurṭuba, 38 written by the author above.
In the case of these eight works, the chronology is more varied than in the other sample: four works were compiled in the Umayyad period; four belong to the Almoravid period (al-Ḥumaydī's work was compiled in fact in Baghdad from memory and personal notes, again as a way to establish his credentials as a scholar outside al-Andalus; he settled in Iraq and never returned to the Iberian Peninsula), and the last two was composed between the Almoravid and Almohad period.
Apart from those works just mentioned, there are biographical dictionaries which follow an alphabetical or chronological structure and deal with scholars in general.This group includes works that count among the most important biographical works compiled in al-Andalus such as These two works were written in order to complete and complement Ibn Bashkuwāl's (d.578/1183) biographical dictionary.Wadad al-Qāḍī already pointed out the fact that Andalusi biographical dictionaries such as these were compiled in order to document an uninterrupted scholarly chain and thus an uninterrupted pedagogical process, thus establishing a closely knitted scholarly continuity with almost no parallel elsewhere. 41To this group it could be added two biographical dictionaries focused on the scholars of specific towns:  ascetics (al-zuhhād) and the pious (al-ṣulahā'), ṣūfis (al-ṣūfiyya) and the disciples of the Sufi way (fuqarā'). 44e Kashf al-ẓunūn pays also attention to ṭabaqāt devoted to those dealing with adab and poetry.Apart from the already mentioned work by 'Uthmān b.Rabī'a al-Andalusī, the following can be added 23.Majānī al-haṣr/al-'aṣr fī ādāb wa-tawārīkh li ahl al-'aṣr 45  Another type of biographical dictionaries that appear in Kashf al-ẓunūn is the hagiographical dictionaries or manāqib 50 .The three hagiographical works local Sufi brotherhood al-ṭarīqa al-sāḥiliyya", 55 and it may have included information about its members.
Finally, Andalusis were also active writing works devoted to ḥadīth criticism focusing on the transmitters ('ilm al-rijāl) such as: 31.Taqyīd al-muhmal wa-tamyīz al-mushkil (fī rijāl al-Ṣaḥīḥayn) 56  The Andalusi contribution to this science ('ilm al-rijāl, 'ilm al-ta'dīl) included some works that enjoyed certain popularity; these and other works not mentioned by Ḥajji Khalīfa indicate that also in al-Andalus -in spite of the late development of ḥadīth criticism-there were scholars concerned with the need to assess the credibility of the isnads. 59

Manuscripts of Andalusi biographical dictionaries in Turkish libraries
Kātib Çelebī, as noted at the beginning of this paper, obtained his information on the one hand by consulting directly some books and noting down the data that he needed (what can be considered 'direct sources of information') and, on the other hand, by reading books in which information concerning other books could be found such as biographical dictionaries (what can be considered 'indirect sources of information').Is there any way to know which books of those he mentioned existed as physical objects during his times if not in his library?We can only suggest the possibility of such presence by looking at the mss. of Andalusi biographical dictionaries preserved in Turkish libraries 60 .
Only five of the biographical dictionaries here reviewed are nowadays found in manuscript form in Turkish libraries.The work with the highest number of

Concluding remarks
At the present stage it is difficult to assess if the number of Andalusi biographical dictionaries mentioned in Kashf al-ẓunūn is low or high compared to other regions of the Islamic world, as to my knowledge there are not similar studies undertaken for such other regions and with which a comparison could be carried out.However, given the rich biographical tradition that existed in al-Andalus and that was singled out by Wadad al-Qāḍī as being remarkable it perhaps could be advanced that the number of Andalusi ṭabaqāt is high (to note that of 53 ṭabaqāt mentioned in the work, ten are Andalusis, a high percentage).
Regarding the biographical dictionaries that focused on scholars devoted to the study of Islamic sciences (law, ḥadīth, Koran and so on), Ḥajjī Khalīfa was aware of those that are considered to be the most important ones: Ibn al-Faraḍī, al-Ḥumaydī, Ibn Bashkuwāl, Ibn al-Abbār, Ibn al-Zubayr and Ibn al-Khaṭīb.However, with the exception of al-Ḥumaydī's and Ibn Bashkuwāl's works which can be proved to have circulated in the Ottoman Empire, the rest he probably knew only by name.Ṣā'id al-Ṭulayṭulī's popularity -both in references and in mss.-is to be linked to the highly specific character of his biographical works that concentrated on the 'sciences of the ancients': most probably Ḥajjī Khalīfa had a copy in his hands.Finally he may have had access also to some of the Andalusi hagiographical works, given how widespread the Andalusi Sufi tradition was in Ottoman lands (Ibn Barrajān, Muḥyī l-dīn Ibn 'Arabī) which surely awoke the interest in knowing more about the mystics and saints of the land where they came from.
by Abū Ḥayyān al-Gharnāṭī (d.745/ 1344) is an incomplete and disappear work that deals with poets.24.Haddār al-kināyāt fī tarājim al-`udabā' bi-l-Maghrib 46 by Ibn al-Khaṭīb (d.776/1374) is a peculiar case because we know of its existence only through the mention in Kashf al-ẓunūn, where it is included in the chapter of letter hā' (bāb al-hā'). 47The fact that this work is not included in any other biographical source can suggest that Ḥajjī Khalīfa could have read a copy.(Ṭabaqāt) khāṣṣat al-shu'arā' bi-l-Andalus, also known as Kitāb fī akhbār shu'arā' al-Andalus by Abū l-Walīd b. al-Faraḍī (d.403/1013), 48 has its principal entry in the chapter devoted to the letter shin but also appears in a secondary way mentioned in the list of works that follow the entries of 'ilm al-ta'rīkh and 'ilm al-ṭabaqāt.26.al-Nuḍār/al-Niḍār fī l-maslāth 'an Nuḍār 49 by Abū Ḥayyān al-Gharnāṭī (d.745/1344).This work, which is lost, is an autobiographical work, as referred by al-Suyūṭī, in which the author related his first experiences as a disciple in al-Andalus to his beloved daughter, Nuḍār, who died young.In addition to autobiographical information, the author provides data on his teachers.