Der weise Narr Buhlūl by Ulrich MarzolphReview by: Larry MillerJournal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 109, No. 1 (Jan. - Mar., 1989), p. 163Published by: American Oriental SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/604393 .

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Brief Reviews of Books 163

But it suffers from the usual defects of the genre-frequently excited and melodramatic prose, amateur psychologizing of a very naive sort, and indiscriminate credulity with regard to sources (all English, owing to the author's linguistic limita- tions). Some of the circumstantial details are vitiated through reliance on the discredited "diaries" of the courtier Ching- shan and of the "Princess" Te-ling. And whenever the author ventures to describe matters before 1850, she invariably gets things wrong (e.g., p. 220: "[The traditional exams] had been held since A.D. 622 every two or three years in exactly the same way on exactly the same subjects."). All in all, though, the account is generally accurate enough in its main lines to be used in an undergraduate introduction to the period and also overheated enough to serve as the basis for a television mini-series.

P. W. K.

Der weise Narr Buhluil. By ULRICH MARZOLPH. Deutsche Morgenlandische Gesellschaft, Abhandlngen fur die Kunde des Morgenlandes, Band XLVI, 4. Wiesbaden: FRANZ STEINER VERLAG, 1983. Pp. viii + 88. DM 29 (paper).

In 1912, Paul Loosen published his dissertation, "Die weisen Narren des Naisabari," in ZA (27): 184-229. Build- ing on the works of Loosen and Helmut Ritter (Das Meer der Seele), Marzolph widens our knowledge about the proto- type of the "wise-fools" (cuqald' al-majfnTn) Abi Wuhaib Buhlil b. 'Amr al-Majnan al-KafT (d. ca. 807). These fools were, generally speaking, mentally disturbed people who acted abnormally: they haunted ruins and graveyards; they handled unclean materials (i.e., excrement); they ate in the streets and market-places. Although unpunished for the license of their speech, they were subject to arbitrary attacks by gangs of boys (cf. Ritter, Oriens V [1952]: 8).

The bulk of this work is devoted to translating and documenting BuhlUil stories (from Arabic, Persian, and Turkish) not treated by either Ritter or Loosen. Marzolph avails himself of Aarne and Thompson's The Types of the Folktale and Frenzel's Motive der Weltliteratur to situate the Buhlil legend in the wider context of the "wise fool" in world literature. Marzolph also presents us with an excellent overview of the 3-stage literary history of Buhlal stories starting with our earliest source, Jahiz, and continuing to the present day. In the first stage (9th-l1th c.) Buhlul is pri- marily a "wise guy" fool, ever ready with a witty response. In the second stage, some of the characteristics of the first stage are embellished; but he becomes more of a "wise" fool, to whom the Persian poets cAttar and RarmT refer as a well known companion and teacher of mystics such as Dha al-

Nuin and Junaid. The final stage begins with al-Shfishtarl (d. 1605), who emphasizes, in his Majdlis al-mu'minfn, Buhlil's Shi'ite connections, confusing him with Buhlil b. M. al- Sairafi al-Kafi, a well known traditionist and pupil of the Shi'ite imam Ja'far al-Sadiq. Here Buhlil is wise and pious, his foolishness serving to protect him (taqTya). Marzolph also gathers information about the historical Buhlal, and gives an interesting, but all too brief, consideration of mad- ness. Considering that Buhlal and his fellow fools often composed poetry, one might have expected a discussion of madness (junin) and its association with possession. This excellent study will be useful to students of Islamic literature.

LARRY MILLER

CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA

Legende und Geschichte: Der Fath Madinat Harar von Yahyd b. Nasrallah. Ed. and trans. by EWALD WAGNER.

Abhandlungen fur die Kunde des Morgenlandes, XLIV, 3. Wiesbaden: FRANZ STEINER VERLAG, 1978. Pp. 155, charts. DM 46.

The paucity of material on the history of Islam in Ethiopia has necessitated the use of problematic sources. We are therefore greatly in debt to Ewald Wagner who through his edition, translation, and commentary has made the Fath MadTrat Harar by Yahya b. Nasrallah both accessible and comprehensible. This is no easy matter since this hagiographi- cal text is replete with puzzling references and anachronisms. Indeed, it is unclear exactly when Yahya b. Nasrallah lived, and thus, impossible to distinguish anachronism from inter- polation. Wagner's hypothesis is that despite puzzling refer- ences to railroads, the Portuguese, the Italians, Nasrallah's work does describe events that actually occurred in the 13th century. Wagner argues that the battles that the text depicts as taking place between the Muslims and their Portuguese and Italian adversaries did in fact take place, although with Persian settlers. He avails himself of everything from statis- tics to native informants in order to draw out what historical facts lay buried in this morass of legend and history. In the course of furnishing carefully reasoned arguments in support of his hypothesis, Wagner also provides valuable philological and geographical information. The book contains a useful chronological overview, ruler-lists, a geneaological table, summary, and a detailed index.

L. M.

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