A Book on Idols ( Arabic تاب الأصنام - Kitaab al-Asnām) - a book written by Arab scholar Hisham al-Kalbi (737-819), describes gods and rituals of the Arab religion. The text criticizes the pre-Islamic religion and condemns the state of religious corruption. The book played an important role in revealing shirks (the sin of polytheism ) with “idolatry from pre-Islamic Arabs ” [1] .
Ahmad Zaki Pasha, an Egyptian philologist , discovered the text: he bought the only surviving manuscript at an auction in Damascus, and this manuscript, one of many in his vast collection, was donated to the state after his death in 1934. Pasha announced his discovery at the XIV-th International Congress of Orientalists [2] .
Content
Translations
- Faris, Nabih Amin. I-Tisham Ibn-Al-Kalbi, The Book of Idols or The Kitab al-Asnam. - Princeton: Princeton University Press , 1952.
- Polosin Vl. B. (trans.) Hisham ibn Muhammad al-Kalbi. A book about idols (Kitab al-asnam) / Trans. with Arabic., foreword. and note. Vl. V. Polosin. - M. , 1984.
Notes
- Ting Hawting, Gerald R. The idea of idolatry and the emergence of Islam: from polemic to history . - Cambridge University Press , 1999. - p. 68, 88–95.
- ↑ Simsar, Mehmed A. Rev. Ibn-Al-Kalbi, The Book of Idols or The Kitdb al-Asnam (Eng.) // Speculum: journal. - 1953. - Vol. 28 , no. 1 . - P. 166-169 .
Literature
- HS Nyberg. “Bemerkungen zum Buch der Götzenbilder von Ibn al-Kalbi.” Lund: Svenska Institut i Rom. Ser. 2, Bd. 1, 1939. pp. 346-66.