The psalms of Islam: al-Saḥīfat al-Kāmilat al-Sajjādiyya (review)

148 Reviews dispossessed poor and found the 'fourth sort' to be negligent office-holders, as well as far too interested in dangerous Presbyterianism. As such, he straddled the fence Hughes tries to construct and was therefore perhaps as typical of educated Englishmen in the 1640s as he was in the 1570s. Glyn Parry Department of History Victoria University of Wellington Imam Zayn al-'Abidin, The psalms of Islam: al-Sahifat al-Kdmilat alSajjadiyya , trans. William C. Chittick, London, The Muhammadiyya Trust, 1988; pp. xlvi, 301; R.R.P. AUS$175.00 [distributed in Australia by Oxford University Press]. This is an attractively produced bilingual, Arabic-English, edition of a most highly regarded collection of Shfa Muslim supplications. The text, or rather most of it is attributed to the fourth ShTa Imam, 'All ibn al-Husayn ibn 'AIT, known as al-Sajjad and as Zayn al-'Abidln (ca. 658-713 A.D.), great grandson of the Prophet Muhammad. A proper understanding of Islamic spirituality, law, theology, and philosophy would be incomplete without some familiarity with the rich ShTa religious literature of which this text is a precious specimen. Because of its supplicatory form and intent and the nature of the tradition within which this text has been preserved, it would be out of place to dwell on questions of authenticity and textual criticism. This is a collection of private prayers that have been piously transmitted and somewhat amplified on the basis of a text that purports to go back to the fourth Imam who, together with his ancestors and descendants, is regarded with the utmost veneration and devotion in the Shfa tradition. The Arabic text particularly the bulk of it containing thefifty-fourmain supplications, reflects a coherent and weU balanced structure that would conceivablyfitinto the style of the time of Zayn al-'Abidin and his two immediate successors, his son al-Baqir and grandson Ja'far al-Sadiq, as known from therichShTa hagiographic tradition. As the translator acknowledges, the Zayn al-'Abidin of tradition may be considered by critical scholars to be different from the Zayn al-'Abidin of 'historical fact'. Apart from its value of introducing a ShTa dimension of Islamic spirituality and piety, the text can provide some insights into the thought world of ShTa spiritual leaders from the times of the early imams to the Reviews 149 present with then emphasis on the strong bond with the descendants of "Ah" and Fatima as the holy family of M u h a m m a d . B y deliberately shunning politics in the mundane sense, Zayn al-'Abidin and his descendants, particularly al-Baqir and Ja'far al-Sadiq, were able to devote their time to teaching, contemplation, and spirituality. It is in this context that the text needstobe understood. Although the spiritual and mystical dimensions of Islam have received some attention from scholars of Sufism, more work needs to be done in the area of popular spirituality and private devotion. Readers w h o are familiar with medieval Christian texts of this spiritual type, whether emanating from the Eastern Orthodox or Western Catholic tradition, for example, should be able to relate easily to this text. At another level, this book also provides a counter balance to the usual emphasis on politics, law, warfare, and economics in the encounter and parallelism between the medieval Christian and Islamic worlds. Historians of culture, anthropologists, and all those interested in the comparative study of spirituality m a y find useful insights in this and similar Islamic texts. The Arabic text would lend itself to new studies of structure, content and social semiotics, particularly if considered with other texts from the first two centuries or so of Islamic history, including early Sufi traditions. The translator provides a useful, though deliberately non-critical, introduction explaining aspects of the text and the place of supplication, as distinct from formal 'prayer', in the Islamic tradition. His translation, on the whole, keeps to the original in literary accuracy, style, rhythm, and poetic flavour. In addition to the fully vocalized and attractively executed text in Arabic calligraphy which should appeal to students of Islam, Chittick's excellent translation makes this unusual text accessible not only to the spirituaUy...