A Treasury of Virtues is a volume containing the Dustūr maʿālim al-ḥikam wa-ma'thūr makārim al-shiyam, a selection of sayings, proverbs, sermons and prayers attributed to ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib (d. 40/661), cousin and son-in-law of Muḥammad, and collected by the Fāṭimid Shāfiʿī jurist Muḥammad b. Salāma al-Quḍāʿī (d. 454/1062). The Dustūr is followed by the Miʾat kalimah, a selection of proverbs by ʿAlī attributed to the pre-eminent Abbasid belletrist al-Jāḥiẓ (d. 255/869).
The two texts have met with great interest and have been published several times before, largely because of the unique place ʿAlī occupies in the Muslim tradition and the importance of the subject matter “presented in several distinct genres and forms” (p. xxi) reflecting the wisdom and eloquence of the material attributed to ʿAlī. However, Tahera Qutbuddin's edition proves to be definitive since, unlike the previous versions, she relies on all accessible manuscripts and published editions. Qutbuddin also clearly demonstrates mastery and understanding of the difficult language of ʿAlī's prose and poetry, leading to a smooth presentation of the Arabic texts and a first-rate English translation, which succeeds in finding a middle ground between a faithful representation of the original Arabic and an idiomatic English text that relates to the modern reader.
Al-Quḍāʿī's collection is divided into nine chapters, each devoted to ʿAlī's “wise sayings” on diverse matters (p. 8), “censure of this world and exhortations to reject worldliness” (p. 42), “counsel” (p. 66), “prescriptions and proscriptions” (p. 74), “ʿAlī's questions with answers and his answers to questions” (p. 108), “sayings with unusual words” (p. 138), “unique sayings and pithy words” (p. 148), and “prayers and supplications” (p. 176). The last chapter is devoted to his poetry (p. 198). The Dustūr belongs to a long tradition of compilations of ʿAlī's sayings, of which al-Sharīf al-Raḍī's Nahj al-balāgha (The Path of Eloquence) is the most famous. The Miʾat kalimah consists of one-hundred proverbs allegedly extracted by al-Jāḥiẓ from his own works (p. 223). Qutbuddin shares Charles Pellat's scepticism about the attribution of the one-hundred proverbs to al-Jāḥiẓ, since only five of them appear in his published works (p. xxiii).
Several of the sayings included in the Dustūr and the Miʾat kalimah are found elsewhere with the same wording or in alternative versions. Some are even attributed to other historical figures, reflecting the problems faced with the oral transmission of the ʿAlī-material. Qutbuddin mentions the issue briefly in her concise introduction which aims to introduce the texts and the literary genre without getting into a technical discussion about the authenticity of the ʿAlī material and its literary value.
A Treasury of Virtues is one of the first volumes to appear in the Library of Arabic Literature, which promises to be the Arabic equivalent to the Loeb Classical Library. As such, the prime goal of the series is to make the classics of Arabic literature available to a wider audience through an Arabic edition presented face-to-face with a modern English translation. The editor/translator is therefore expected to produce a concise and serviceable introduction keeping the technical material to a bare minimum, which explains why Qutbuddin does not devote much space to a discussion of the authenticity of the ʿAlī material and its literary value: one has to look to her other scholarly publications to read about these issues.
Tahera Qutbuddin and the editorial team of the Library of Arabic Literature deserve to be congratulated for producing this exemplary volume. However, the Arabic font used leaves much to be desired. The text is set in DecoType Naskh, a font based on Ottoman lithographic practices (p. 271). The word and line spacing are uneven and some letters, such as the kāf, overlap with the shadda over the previous letter (tattakil, p. 82) while some vocalization marks almost touch those on the lines above or below. The alif maqṣūra and tāʾ marbūṭa appear throughout the text in two different shapes with no apparent logic; the format commonly used in standard Arabic and the nastaʿlīq format known in Urdu as the baṛi ye and the choṭī ye, respectively. The font used in the footnotes, DecoType Emiri, based on the Egyptian Quran of 1920, is more modern-looking and easier on the eye. The decision to use this archaic font escapes me when there are numerous beautiful and simple fonts available.
This relatively minor comment should not undermine the high quality of Qutbuddin's excellent edition and translation. The editors of the Library of Arabic Literature have set the standard quite high for the future volumes in the series.
