Journal Asiatique
Volume 298, issue 2 2010
275 - 302 - The Zaydī Reception of Ibn Khallād's Kitāb al-Uṣūl
The Ta'līq of Abū Ṭāhir b. 'Alī al-Ṣaffār
ANSARI, Hassan, SCHMIDTKE, Sabine
Abstract :
Iranian libraries hold only few manuscripts that testify to the extended and intensive Mu'tazilite past in the various centres of Zaydī scholarship in the Caspian region, in Khurāsān and in Rayy. Among the few Mu'tazilī Zaydī works preserved in Iranian libraries is a collective manuscript (written between 673/1274-5 and 676/1277) containing theological works by Zaydī theologians both from Iran and from Yemen. Most of the codex consists of a ta'līq that had been composed or transcribed by one Abū Ṭāhir b. 'Alī al-Ṣaffār. The article provides a detailed description of the codex and shows that this ta'līq was based on the Kitāb al-Uṣūl of the early Mu'tazilite author Ibn Khallād with an unknown number of commentary layers in between.
303 - 343 - Secrecy in Ismā'īlī Tradition and in the Mystical Thought of Ibn al-'Arabī
EBSTEIN, Michael
Abstract :
The article surveys some of the main features and functions of secrecy in Shī'ism, primarily in the Ismā'īlī tradition. It discusses the terms taqiyya and kitmān and elucidates their two aspects: that of survival and that of esotericism. In addition, the article describes the role of secrecy in the thought of the famous Andalusian Sunnite mystic Muḥyī al-Dīn Ibn al-'Arabī, with the aim of underscoring links and affinities between Shī'ite-Ismā'īlī esotericism and the esotericism of Ibn al-'Arabī. The theory propounded by the author is that in addition to early mutual influences between the Shī'ite world and Sunnite mysticism, Ismā'īlī thought (imported into Egypt and North-Africa by the Fāṭimid empire) had an impact on the development of Andalusian philosophy and mysticism.
345 - 387 - Le Maḥbûb al-Qulûb de Quṭb al-Dîn Ashkevarî
Une oeuvre méconnue dans l'histoire de l'histoire de la sagesse en islam
TERRIER, Mathieu
Abstract :
The paper offers a reading of the Collected Dhāraṇī Scriptures (T. 901, dated 654), a Chinese collection of Buddhist spells and the rituals in which they are used. The material is for the most part translated from Indic sources and the collection’s relatively early date and richness of its content make it a valuable source for reconstructing the evolution of esoteric Buddhist ritual in India. Much of the textual evidence for the earlier stages of the development is no longer preserved in any Indic language. On the basis of an examination of this work a broad hypothesis is proposed that traces the evolution of esoteric Buddhist rituals from a simple practice of recitation of spells, of the kind documented in Chinese collections that go back to the end of the fourth and beginning of the fifth century, to elaborate maṇḍala initiation ceremonies, including those that make extensive use of visualization practices in influential scriptures that were translated into Chinese in the first half of the eighth century.
389 - 420 - The All-Gathering Maṇḍala Initiation Ceremony in Atikūṭa's Collected Dhāraṇī Scriptures econstructing the Evolution of Esoteric Buddhist Ritual
SHINOHARA, Koichi
Abstract :
This article examines how two Kashmiri Śaiva non-dualist philosophers, Utpaladeva (fl. c. 925-975) and Abhinavagupta (fl. c. 975-1025), have appropriated the epistemological theory of non-being (abhāva) elaborated by the great Buddhist logician Dharmakīrti and his commentator Dharmottara. This examination, which rests on the complete translation of Abhinavagupta’s Īśvarapratyabhijñāvimarśinī ad Īśvarapratyabhijñākārikā I, 7, 6-13, aims at showing how the Pratyabhijñā philosophers, while integrating this aspect of Buddhist epistemology to the dynamic ontology that they have inherited from Śaiva non-dualistic scriptures, exploit the Dharmakīrtian explanation of our awareness of non-being so as to refute another thesis defended by Dharmakīrti, namely the contention that consciousness is a mere series of momentary cognitions.
421 - 493 - Le non-être, une preuve de l'existence du Soi?
La notion d'abhāva dans la philosophie de la Pratyabhijñā
RATIÉ, Isabelle
In the East in ancient times, divination directly played a part in political life. Every decision had to be backed by the gods. To this end, diviners employed several techniques: hepatoscopy, observation of fortuitous signs, astrology, and so forth. This congeries formed a science in its own right, for which systematic treatises were composed, along with explanatory manuals. For the first millenium, especially the period of the Neo-Assyrian empire (9th to 7th centuries BCE), divination is well documented, as much by those writings as by lively correspondence between the King and his diviners. Because of the prominent rôle that diviners played in political decisions, we tend to consider them as key persons who shamelessly exercised their influence on imperial politics. But it appears that the King had in fact numerous means to control his court and that he was not defenceless in the face of oracular pronouncements. This paper aims to present these aspects of the activities of soothsayers, as well as their relations with the sovereign, by studying first the manner in which he bound them to himself by oaths, then the relations that they maintained with him, and finally by examining a specific problematic case of divination.
495 - 515 - L'empereur assyrien et ses devins
MARTI, Lionel
In the East in ancient times, divination directly played a part in political life. Every decision had to be backed by the gods. To this end, diviners employed several techniques: hepatoscopy, observation of fortuitous signs, astrology, and so forth. This congeries formed a science in its own right, for which systematic treatises were composed, along with explanatory manuals. For the first millenium, especially the period of the Neo-Assyrian empire (9th to 7th centuries BCE), divination is well documented, as much by those writings as by lively correspondence between the King and his diviners. Because of the prominent rôle that diviners played in political decisions, we tend to consider them as key persons who shamelessly exercised their influence on imperial politics. But it appears that the King had in fact numerous means to control his court and that he was not defenceless in the face of oracular pronouncements. This paper aims to present these aspects of the activities of soothsayers, as well as their relations with the sovereign, by studying first the manner in which he bound them to himself by oaths, then the relations that they maintained with him, and finally by examining a specific problematic case of divination.
517 - 533 - De Bactres à Balkh, par le Nowbahār
DE LA VASSIÈRE, Étienne
A lapsus by Foucher postponed the discovery of an important fact for the history of pre-Islamic Bactra in the Kitāb al-Buldān of Ibn al-Faqīh: this text in fact describes the ownership of the whole oasis of Bactra by the monastic community before the Arabic conquest. This helps to explain the political low-key role of the town in 7th c. Central Asia. The exact meaning of Barmak is thus better understood.
535 - 548 - On the Meaning of Old Tibetan rje-blon during the Tibetan Empire Period
BECKWITH, Christopher I., WALTER, Michael L.
Abstract :
Old Tibetan rje-blon has traditionally been interpreted as ‘the lord and his ministers’. This makes rje ‘subordinate ruler’ refer, irregularly, to the btsanpo ‘emperor’ in some Early Old Tibetan passages, and requires peculiar or ungrammatical interpretations. It is shown, based primarily on the Imperial inscriptions, that this interpretation is incorrect; rje-blon cannot include the Tibetan emperor in Early Old Tibetan texts, but refers strictly to ‘feudal lords and high ministers’.
549 - 571 - Personal Pronouns in Old Tibetan
HILL, Nathan W.
Abstract :
The pronominal systems of early forms of Tibetan remain virtually unexplored. Old Tibetan has three first person singular pronouns ṅa, bdag, and kho-bo, as well as three first person plural pronouns ṅed, bdag-cag, and ḥo-skol. The second person pronouns include two singulars khyod and khyo(n)-ḥdaḥ and a plural khyed. The current study uncovers three third person pronouns kho-na, mo-na, and khoṅ:-ta. Old Tibetan also has a reflexive pronoun raṅ. Through the examination of attested examples of each of these pronouns in Old Tibetan literature, this article attempts to distinguish the meanings among these diverse forms.
573 - 605 - Comptes rendus
Abstract :
Book reviews
607 - 622 - Comptes rendus des séances de la Société Asiatique Année 2010
623 - 627 - Comptes annuels
