those forms of literature, but also on his Sufi experience and the spiritual inspiration provided by the holy places he visited and the pious characters he met. In this context he was one of the originators of a new form of travel literature, marking a shift from the traditional forms established by Ibn Jubayr in medieval times. Several later copies of al-Hadra al-Unsiyya fi’l-Rihlat al-Qudsiyya survive, including the Gotha manuscript of 1735 and the Paris manuscript of 1819 discussed below. A condensed version was printed at Cairo in 1902 and a full version was printed at Beirut in 1990. Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulusi began his journey with a visit to the Tomb of Ibn al-Arabi in Damascus in order to gain blessings, and departed from Damascus on either 24 March 1690 (Sirriya 1979) or 28 March (Gildermeister 1882). He travelled south-west, viewing the Jabal al-Shaykh (Mt Hermon) in the distance, the summit covered in snow. He stopped overnight in villages and towns along the way and hardly a day passed without a visit ( ziyarat ) to tombs or shrines of pious figures, sometimes visiting several in a day. He states that he felt the land was essentially sacred despite bandits and unrest in certain areas. Many of the shrines and places of pilgrimage he visited were those of well-known prophets mentioned in the Qur’an, many of whom also featured in the Gospels and Old Testament. However, he also visited many tombs of lesser-known figures from the history of Sufism. He arrived in Jerusalem on the sixteenth day of his journey and spent seventeen days in the holy city and the surrounding areas. His return journey took him along a similar route to his outward journey and he arrived back in Damascus on 10 May. According to the 19th-century German scholar Gildermeister, Abd al-Ghani spend some weeks after his return to Damascus in the summer of 1690 writing up his notes and summarizing his account, finishing this process in early September 1690. The dates mentioned in the present volume correspond exactly with this timescale, and along with many details of the content, strongly suggest that the present volume was part of his original authorial exercise, representing one of the urtexts of al-Hadra al-Unsiyya fi’l- Rihlat al-Qudsiyya . The internal evidence in the present manuscript, including the content, style, layout, dates and signatures, indicates strongly that this volume was the working copy of Abd al-Ghani’s travel journal, containing original autograph notes and accounts of his journey to Palestine. It is important not only as a primary record of the travels, experiences, meetings and spiritual thoughts that formed the formal edition of his work, but also for the numerous annotations, alterations and corrections, which provide interesting information about his creative process and editorial decisions. The great majority of the text here is the same as that found in later edited versions of al-Hadra al-Unsiyya fi’l-Rihlat al-Qudsiyya . However, there are some variations between the present text and
later versions and many passages here that have been rearranged or altered, with deletions, insertions, additions, and annotations in the same hand as the main text, indicating that they were written by the same person. Furthermore, the writer has specified which of the additional or modified passages are correct and therefore suitable to be included in the formal version by writing the word “sah” (Ar. correct, valid) next to the relevant lines of text. These are visible on many pages. The writer has also noted in the margins the number of days travelled since his departure from Damascus. For instance, on f. 12a he writes “on Monday we went to visit Shaykh Izz al-Din Abi Muhammad”. The end of the line above records that “this was the eighth day” and in the margin opposite this line he has written “the eighth”. On f. 147a he has written “Friday, the fortieth [day]”. This method of recording the days of travel and sequence of events and visits is also found in some later copies of the text. The paper on which the text is written in the present volume is watermarked with initials “AZ” (or “ZA”) with a central trefoil motif, visible with transmitted light. This watermark is of a type found on papers from northern Italian mills in the 16th and 17th centuries, much of which was exported to the Middle East and North Africa. The folios have been folded vertically three-fifths of the way across the page, a practical solution providing the writer with two spaces defined by the vertical crease: a larger main area closer to the spine and a slightly narrower marginal zone. Abd al- Ghani used the inner area for the main text and the marginal area for the annotations and additions. Folio (202 × 135 ,m); Arabic manuscript on paper, 153 folios, plus one insert, black/brown ink on Venetian paper watermarked “AZ” (or “ZA”) with a central trefoil, text written in a personal cursive handwriting, variable number of lines of text per page in one or two columns, numerous original marginal annotations and corrections, brown leather binding. ¶ Samer Akkach, Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulusi, Islam and the Enlightenment , 2007; J. Gildermeister, “Des Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulusi Reise von Damascus nach Jerusalem”, ZDMG , Vol. 36, No. 3/4, 1882, pp. 385–400; W. Khalidi, “Abd al-Ghani b. Isma‘il al-Nabulusi”, in Encyclopaedia of Islam , vol. 1, 1986, p. 60; Nabil Matar, “The Cradle of Jesus and the Oratory of Mary in Jerusalem’s Haram al-Sharif”, Jerusalem Quarterly , vol. 70, Summer 2017, p. 111–125; Paris BNF manuscript Arabe 5960. £95,000 [159601]
2
2
All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk
5
Made with FlippingBook Online newsletter maker