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Innovation oder Plagiat? Kompilationstechniken in der Vormoderne

Mit dem Narrative Turn der 1980er Jahre änderte sich auch der Blick auf vormoderne Geschichtsschreibung. Sogar in der eher konservativen Islamwissenschaft kam es zu einer vorsichtigen Neubewertung historiographischer Schriften aus dem Mittelalter und der (frühen) Neuzeit. Nicht länger waren die Verwertbarkeit, subjektive Glaubwürdigkeit und Originalität der in den betreffenden Werken gegebenen „historischen Tatsachen“ einzige Kriterien zur Bewertung der Quelle. Historiographien wurden nun wie andere Textgattungen als literarische Produkte von Individuen bewertet. Muslimische Geschichtsschreiber orientierten sich an ihren Vorgängern, wobei ihnen bereits existierende, vorbildliche Werke als Grundlagen dienten, die sie dann selbst umgestalteten und modifizierten. Aus den ihnen zur Verfügung stehenden Quellen zu kompilieren, war eine gängige Methode, um neue Texte zu generieren. Obgleich somit eines der herausragenden Charakteristika mittelalterlicher arabischer Geschichtsschreibung, genießt Kompilation immer noch einen schlechten Ruf und wird oft in die Nähe des Plagiats gerückt. Aber handelt es sich beim Kompilieren tatsächlich nur um reines Abschreiben und ist der Vorwurf gerechtfertigt? Wie sieht der Prozess des Kompilierens bei einzelnen Historikern aus? Wie hoch ist bei der Kompilationstätigkeit das schöpferische Moment des Autors? In dem vorliegenden Band soll es darum gehen, anhand von fünf Beispielen exemplarisch zu zeigen, dass im Zuge des Kompilationsprozesses letztlich ein selbständiger Text zustande kommt, der die Eigenleistung des Verfassers deutlich reflektiert.

The work Al-Kawkab al-mušrik belongs to the books of ʿIlm aš-Šurūṭ, which are part of the islamic legal literature and are primarily concerned with documents. Al-Ǧarawānī was one of the scholars who concentrated on the ʿIlm aš-Šurūṭ and whose works focuses on this scope. In Al-Kawkab al-mušrik he broaches the issue of 47 topics like purchase, sale, marriage, divorce, waqf, testament and so forth. His documents are detailed and completely formulated.

Al-Ǧarawānī tried to encourage the judiciary (judges, notaries and clerks) to draft more precise texts. As a scholar of ʿIlm aš-Šurūṭ he was is obliged to specify his choise of expressions as well as the construction of his sentences to avoid violating law of Šarīʿa.

Dr. Souad Saghbini was born in Lebanon and graduated with a degree in law at the University of Sidon/Saida. Then she studied Islamic Studies, General Linguistics and International Law at Christian-Albrecht-University in Kiel. She worked as a scientific assistant at the Department of Arabic Studies of Göttingen University from 2003 to 2005. Presently she works as part of a DFG-Project at Bonn University 

Concerning the exploitation of historical events and personalities we are reliant on the study of old sources. The sole textual analysis is insufficient or rather induces to wrong conclusions as texts are embedded in the respective social and historical context. A source provides throughout an intended direction. On this basis the writer, depending on his social status and his point of view of the described, tries to focus the reader’s glimpse on.

While taking this difficulty into consideration this paper deals with the biography of Ṣalāḥ ad-Dīn, written by the historiograph Ibn Ḫallikān in the second half of the 13th century. The basis of this analysis is the translation of the Arabic text into German which is contained in this publication. To overcome the difficulties of historiography by means of modern methods of literary studies the inner and outer structure of the text will be dissected as well as analysed. The focus is thereby on the questions of which narratological devices Ibn Ḫallikān makes use of and not least on the question of which effect certain means in certain passages have on their readers. To identify the position of the the narrator is of great importance. Finally the present work takes a stock based on the worked on text, which elements of narratology could lead to gainful results for modern research on medieval texts.
 

Arua Husaini studied Asian Studies at Bonn University and gained her Master degree in History and Culture of West and South Asia in 2010. In spring 2012 she began her work as a graduate assistant at the Annemarie Schimmel Kolleg "History and Society during the Mamluk Era (1250-1517)" in Bonn. Currently she is employed at the DAAD in Bonn.