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The Urdu Edition of the Encyclopædia of Islam Author(s): M. Hamidullah Source: Die Welt des Islams, New Series, Vol. 6, Issue 3/4 (1961), pp. 244-247Published by: BRILLStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1569427Accessed: 05-09-2015 01:58 UTC

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THE URDU EDITION OF THE ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF ISLAM

BY

M. HAMIDULLAH Paris

In an introductory brochure, published some time ago, the edito- rial board of the Urdu EI (of the University of Lahore, Pakistan) have traced the history of encyclopaedias in Islamic languages, particularly in Arabic and Persian, where they exist since long date. Yet the Leiden work, product essentially of non-Muslim scholarship, has struck the imagination of Muslims all over the world, and for reason. The alphabetical arrangement, the constant references to sources as also the variety and comprehensiveness were appreciated on all hands, even if one found errors here and there. The know-

ledged pooled therein must have been a revelation even to the

promoters of Leiden enterprise. The Egyptians first began the Arabic version; the Turks followed, and both these editions are still in the course of publication. Iran published a sample brochure, and keeps since silent. There was also an announcement for Indo- nesian version as a project. As far as the Urdu language is con- cerned, the Haiderabad Academy made some preparations, then came the second World War followed by the invasion, and abo- lition there of Urdu as official language. As early as December I950, the Pakistanian university of the Panjab (at Lahore) ap- pointed the well-known Islamist Prof. Muhammad Shafi' to

supervise the task of an Urdu version of El. His staff had to translate, control the correctness of the translation, verify the references, and scrutinize if the contents could not be ameliorated in the light of latest known facts. As Urdu is written in Arabic characters, the whole work had to be translated before thinking of

publishing in the new order of alphabet. It is marvellous that in

spite of all these handicaps, the first fascicule of the Urdu EI came out in July I959; with the avarage rate of one per month,

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THE URDU EDITION OF THE E.I.

by the end of the year five fascicules, of 64 pages each, have been

published. The paper is specially manufactured in America, and it is printed on movable type with vocalization signs. As the Leiden editors have begun issuing a revised work, it has been decided to

begin the Urdu publication not with the letter alif but with ta; when A-D will be out in Leiden, this revised edition will serve for the Urdu version of those letters. The Urdu editors modestly say that they have profited by the Leiden work, but their scruples are so great that even the slightest deviation in the translation is

pointed out by the use of square brackets and addition of the word idarah (i.e. by the Urdu editor). Of course this edition is not a servile translation of the original Anglo-Franco-German work: as far as possible all the references are verified; errors of facts

corrected, new and important references added, and what is more, a large number of new articles have been specially prepared for the Urdu edition, not only on matters of Pakistani interest but of Islam in general. Already in these early fascicules, there are some

long and illustrated articles on subjects like tadhhib (gold work of decoration in books), tadjlid (book-binding), both by Ettinghausen; another article on takhallus (pen name of poets). A note shows that the new articles will cover as much as a whole volume of Leiden dimensions. The Arabic edition adds corrective notes here and there. The Turkish contribution is confined practically to new information on Turkish subjects. Urdu people have both these works before them in addition to their proper lights, which makes that the Urdu version is so far the best among the "non-official translations". The classical Arabic script (letters of alphabet and signs of vocal-

ization) does not suffice for other languages. Even as the Greek and Latin scripts had to be adapted for the requirements of other

European languages, the Arabic alphabet too has undergone a

development since long centuries. Urdu may be considered philo- logically as a child whose father was Turkish, mother Sanscrit, and foster mother Persian. It has not only the Turko-Persian p, ch, zh

(as s in pleasure) and g, but also the Indian t, d, r, e, o, nasal i and -h, which means that it has not only the Arabic t and t, but also the sanscrit t (as also the Indian d and r in addition to Arabic d and r). What is more interesting, from scientific point of view, is the fact that Urdu has evolved a system of diacritical signs (i'rab) in addition

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M. HAMIDULLAH

to the one used for the classical Arabic. A few words may be

interesting. Apart from articles and brochures of long date, to my knowledge

the first Urdu book which used the system of diacritical signs was

Qdnun-e-bain al-mamalik ke usil azwr naziri (Haiderabad 1936). Its

system was taken over by the Osmania University (for a description of which, cf. Islamic Culture, I940, p. 486-7); and we see this same

transcription employed in the Urdu translation of Nys, Origines du droit des gens (Qdnun-e-bain al-mamdlik kd dghdz) published by the same university in I945, where names or words in about a dozen

European languages have been successfully transcribed with the

help of the said system. Much of this has been taken over by the Urdu EI, whose needs are even more varied for giving dialectal variants of many an Oriental language also.

As said, Pakistani people are not translating, but only profiting by the Leiden EI. That applies particularly to articles of very mediocre value, for instance, to those of Lammens; these have been replaced by specially prepared articles by experts. The Leiden EI did not pay sufficient attention to Islamic arts and sciences, Persian and Urdu literatures, Islamic countries. They are remedying to it as far as possible in the Urdu EI. Urdu has been the medium of instruction even for all modern subjects of natural sciences in several universities. So there is no difficulty in rendering the Anglo- Franco-German EI into Urdu, and one feels at home in this edition so high is the standard of revising the translation. While translating and verifying the references, a huge quantity of mistakes has been discovered in the Leiden El. J. J. Hess had published in vols.

7 and 9 of Der Islam, a number of corrections to be made. That was an individual enterprise. The Urdu EI also intends to publish a similar "note", of course on a very much vaster scale. That will be welcome by those who do not know Urdu, and even the editors of the revised Anglo-French edition would profit by it. On opening the Urdu edition, on p. I, one sees certain corrections made in the Leiden edition regarding the question whether Numar, where Ta'abbat Sharra died, was a mountain or a valley. On p. 2 the

original bibliography mentioned the incomprehensible Ghaudat al-'arab, which after long research was found to be Rauzdat al-adab fi tabakdt shu'ard al-'arab. On the same page, the feeble article of

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THE URDU EDITION OF THE E.I. 247

Carra de Vaux on Tdbi'i has been revised by one of the best hadzth scholars of our age, through the Arabic version of the El.

That would give an idea of what the Urdu EI has done in this

early stage of its publication. No doubt it will learn further from

experience. Certain subventions have reduced greatly its costs and

consequently the price. We congratulate and wish all success and

happy completion to the great enterprise.

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