142 Y. Tzvi Langermann
The masāʾil fall quite neatly into three groups, and, in fact, they are
organized into three parts (ajzāʾ) in the earliest manuscript, Escorial
- Part one, comprising masāʾil 1–16, treats of the spirits of the dead,
their status and fate, and, in particular, the legitimacy of practices at
the graveyard after interment. Part two (masāʾil 17–18) delves into the
nature of spirit and soul. Part three is made up of the final three masāʾil.
We have already suggested that the nineteenth masʾala, the most “phil-
osophical” of them all, was originally written as an independent trea-
tise. The final masʾala is for the most part a treatise on morals. How-
ever, it also contains some emphatic passages of religious insight on
epistemology, illumination, and, towards the end, some statements on
theology as well.
Each masʾala is well-organized. Some of the longer ones display a
clear internal structure. On the other hand, the masāʾil do not cohere
well as chapters in a book. In particular, there seems to be a fair amount
of repetition.
Appendix: Ibn al-Qayyim’s Preface
I have found thus far two nearly identical prefaces, but the differences
between them are significant enough of them that I have chosen to
publish them separately, rather than producing a single “edition” of the
two texts.^42 Only in the Escorial version does the preface begin with
qāla al-shaykh [...] Shams al-Dīn [...] Ibn al-Qayyim al- Jawziyya,
thus indicating unambiguously that the Ibn al-Qayyim is the author.
However, the substantive part of the preface, that is, the section describ-
ing the formation of man that I have discussed earlier, is much cleaner
in the Leiden manuscript. The Leiden manuscript also hints that the
Ibn al-Qayyim answered these queries in response to questions that
were posed to him; but this may be a calque on the famous verse of
the Koran. Finally, note that the Leiden manuscript alone states clearly
that there are 21 queries in the book.
42 The preface is found in Escorial 699 as well, but it is badly damaged, and I have
not taken it into account here.
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