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Histoire de l'Organisation Judiciaire en Pays d'Islam by E. TyanReview by: A. S. TrittonJournal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, No. 1 (Apr., 1947), pp. 125-126Published by: Cambridge University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25222171 .
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REVIEWS OF BOOKS 125
" Ghuslkhana ". In October the object of the embassy in the
shape of the desired firmans was at last attained. After a stay of
eighty-two days at Delhi the return journey was assumed on
1st November and travelling through Malva and by way of
Burhanpur the ambassador reached Surat on 13th December.
It is interesting to compare the narrative of Van Adrichem's
embassy with that of the journey accomplished half a century later and with a similar purpose by Ketelaar, who as an ambassador
of the Dutch East India Company went all the way to Lahore
where Aurangzeb's successor, Shah 'Alam Bahadur Shah, was then
encamped. Van Adrichem, travelling as a simple merchant,
performed his journey, both along the Western and the Eastern
route, without suffering any serious molestation. Ketelaar, though
provided with a bodyguard and even with artillery, had considerably to deviate from the royal road for greater safety. Notwithstanding this precaution he was attacked all along the way between Surat
and Delhi by every species of robbers who at that time invested
the highways of India, and it was a marvel that he finally reached
the coast. Half a century of misrule and warfare had reduced
the realm to a desperate state of disorganization, disorder, and
lawlessness. J. Ph. Vogel.
Islam
Histoire de ^/Organisation Judiciaire en Pays d'Islam. By E. Tvan. (Annales de 1'univcrsite de Lyon.) pp. 501. 1943.
There are several misprints in this book and wrong references, and proper names arc often misspelt. From one point of view
the first part of this volume has nothing to do with the subject. A character in a novel was made to say,
" Give him the job ; he
is a lawyer and knows everything." Muslims were of this opinion, and employed kadis in many tasks duly recorded here. The kadis
of Tripoli became independent rulers of the town, to take an
extreme case. Alongside the jurisdiction of the kadi, the right of
direct appeal to the monarch existed ; it was called technically mazalim. Here equity might be followed rather than the letter
of the law. This procedure might be an appeal from the kadi's
decision, but it was not necessarily so. The methods of mazalim
varied from place to place and age to age ; practice in Spain being different from that in the east. The writer sees in this a proof that
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126 REVIEWS OF BOOKS
mazalim is derived from Sassanian practice; he does not allow
enough weight to the customs of the bedouin Arabs. The last
two chapters are given up to the police and the muhtasib and their
relations to the kadi. Professor Tyan has collected his facts from
a wide field, set them out clearly, and has not forced the evidence.
If some questions receive halting answers, the fault is not his.
A. S. Tritton.
Art> Archaeology, Anthropology
Figures of Speech or Figures of Thought. By Ananda K.
Coomaraswamy. London: Messrs. Luzac and Co. 10s. 6d.
Each of these seventeen Collected Essays touches on some
aspect of the traditional theory of art. Dr. Coomaraswamy denounces
European scholarship when it seeks to divorce the purely aesthetic
quality of a work of art from its spiritual origin and content. The
understanding of Buddhist art is quite beyond the competence of the rationalist mind that regards the aesthetic surface appeal as
valid in itself. Dr. Coomaraswamy deplores the divorce of use
and ornament. Art should seek to establish values of use before
those of ornament. The purely aesthetic qualities, "
adequate relations of masses and so forth," are merely
" art-forms ", whoso
inner meaning has dried out of them and left them empty shells.
The proper nature and purpose of "
art-forms "
or "
images "
is
nowhere better defined than in Plato's Republic (Jowett, 510 D.E.): "... do you not know . . . that although they make use of the
visible forms . . . they are thinking not of these, but of the ideals
which they resemble ; not of the figures which they draw . . . but
they are really seeking to behold the things themselves, which can
only be seen with the eye of the mind ? "
; which, indeed, expresses the same idea as St. Basil's formula :
" The respect that is paid to
the image passes over-to its archetype" (De Sancta Spirita). How did the Buddha come to be represented in an anthropo
morphic form ? Dr. Coomaraswamy answers, because the
Enlightened One had "
to reveal himself in accordance with the
nature of those who perceive him ". Early Indian art had employed
only geometrical, vegetable, or theriomorphic symbols as "
supports of contemplation ", not from inability to represent the human
figure ; for the human figure had been carved very skilfully in
the third millennium B.C. But the Buddha was represented only
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