Ancient Arab religion

Ibn Al-Kalbi, Hisham. Le livre des idoles. (Kitab el Asnam.) Texte arabe. 2me edition.

€ 650.00

Second edition. "Texte arabe publié pour la première fois d'après le manuscrit unique de la biblithèque Zèki Pacha accompagné d'une préface en Francais et enrichi de notes critiques par Ahmed Zeki Pacha".

The "Book of Idols" (Arabic: Kitab al-Asnam), written by the Arab scholar Hisham Ibn Al-Kalbi (737-819), describes godheads and rites of ancient Arab religion. The text is critical of pre-Islamic religion and decries the state of religious corruption which the Arabs had supposedly descended to since the founding of the Kaaba. The book was instrumental in identifying "shirk" (the sin of polytheism) with the idolatry of the pre-Islamic Arabs. Ahmad Zaki Pasha, the Egyptian philologist, discovered the text; he bought the sole extant manuscript at auction in Damascus. The manuscript, one of many in his extensive collection, was donated to the state after his death in 1934.

Edge defects to French title page, otherwise insignificant edge wear; a good, untrimmed copy. From the library of the Swedish theologian (Karl Vilhelm) Helmer Ringgren (1917-2012), Professor of Old Testament exegesis at Turku and Uppsala, with his pencilled margin notes and ownership to title page. Ringgren's works include "Islam, Aslama and Muslim" (1949) and "Studies in Arabian Fatalism" (1955).