Le déchiffrement et l’utilisation des inscriptions antiques par le traditionniste yéménite al-Hasan al-Hamdānī (mort après 970, 360 h)

• Autores: Christian Julien Robin
• Localización: Jerusalem studies in Arabic and Islam, ISSN 0334-4118, Nº. 51, 2021, págs. 27-132
• Idioma: francés
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• Resumen

  • According to the Yemeni traditionist al-Ḥasan al-Hamdānī (d. after 970), several scholars of his time were able to read and understand pre-Islamic inscriptions (in South Arabian script and in the Sabaʾic language). He himself takes credit for deciphering several fragments and gives some explanation ofthe writing, orthography, and language of pre-Islamic inscriptions, which hecalls musnads (a term borrowed from Sabaʾic, a language in which ms³nd means “{formal} inscription”, usually on a stone slab or bronze plate). In the musnads, the traditionists were primarily looking for personal names to insertinto the genealogies of the two great tribes of Yemen (Ḥimyar and Hamdān) in order to make these genealogies longer than those of the northern Arabs. Inthe surviving works of al-Hamdānī, it is not uncommon for the existence of acharacter to be justified by an inscription in which that character’s name is cited. But many of these musnads are forgeries or literary fictions as the use ofthe Arabic language proves. Only about twenty are certainly or probably copiesof ancient inscriptions. In this group, many texts are tiny fragments, most oftenincomprehensible, without it being known whether the lack of meaning comesfrom a defective initial copy or from the innumerable errors introduced by therecopying of manuscripts (because the copyists did not understand what theywere writing). Four or five texts, fortunately, are a little more substantial. Onefinds there the names of historical characters, sponsors of known ancientinscriptions, or formulations specific to the language of inscriptions. Theymake it possible to evaluate exactly the level of qualification that the mediaevaltraditionists had reached in South Arabian. However, it appears that this levelwas very low. The traditionists made gross reading errors and did notunderstand much of the ancient inscriptions they deciphered. They could,however, identify proper names more or less confidently, sometimes readcorrectly, but often distorted because they frequently confused certain letterswith others of similar shape. There remains the question of the source of theinnumerable pre-Islamic anthroponyms (with first name and epithet such as Abīkarib Asʿad) found in Yemeni genealogies ; many appear odd, but some are probably authentic. These anthroponyms may have come from familytraditions dating back to antiquity; it is also possible that some were read inancient inscriptions by early generations of traditionists (in the 8th century)who may have had a better knowledge of ancient script and language than al-Hamdānī and his contemporaries.