126 Y. Tzvi Langermann
ways.”^2 It was first printed in Hyderabad, by the Dāʾirat al-maʿārif
al-niẓāmiyya, in 1318/1900–1901, then again by that same institution
in 1324/1906/07 and 1357/1938–1939. For the purposes of this study
I have used the most recent version, put out by Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān
al-Makkī, and published by Maktabat Nazār Muṣṭafā al-Bāz, Mecca,
1425/2004. I have also consulted the second and third Hyderabad
printings, the Cairo printing (Maktabat Naṣīr, 1979), and most of the
manuscripts as well.^3
As far as I know, only two studies on this important book have been
published. The very rich article of D. B. Macdonald on the notion of
“spirit” in Islam, published in 1931 and cited by Carl Brockelmann in
his entry on Kitāb al-Rūḥ, devotes a considerable amount of space to
the book of Ibn al-Qayyim.^4 Four years later, Francis T. Cooke pub-
lished a paper devoted entirely to Kitāb al-Rūḥ.^5 The two studies differ
considerably. Macdonald exploits a great number of sources, ranging
from pre-Islamic literature to the Egyptian press of the early twentieth
century; his article supplies rich annotations to the secondary literature
available at the time. Cooke, by contrast, limits his focus exclusively to
Kitāb al-Rūḥ, and his study has no footnotes.
On the other hand, both articles share an important common fea-
ture: both authors choose to concentrate upon Ibn al-Qayyim because
the views he expresses have become dominant in Islam. In other words,
whoever wishes to understand what Muslims think about “spirit” had
better know what Ibn al-Qayyim says in Kitāb al-Rūḥ. Macdonald
observes,
A good statement and study of the position of the corporeal school,
which is undoubtedly the fundamental position of orthodox Islam, is to2 Krawietz, Birgit: Ibn Qayyim al-Jawzīyah. His Life and Works, in: Mamlūk
Studies Review 10 (2006), pp. 19–64, here p. 34. Langermann, Y. Tzvi: The Natu-
ralization of Science in Ibn Qayyim al-Ǧawziyyah’s Kitāb al-Rūḥ, in: Caterina
Bori and Livnat Holtzman (eds.): A Scholar in the Shadow. Essays in the Legal
and Theological Thought of Ibn Qayyim al-Ǧawziyyah, Oriente Moderno 15
(2010), pp. 163–180.
3 Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad: Kitāb al-Rūḥ, ed. by Abū
ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Makkī, Mecca 1425/2004.
4 Macdonald, Duncan B.: The Development of the Idea of Spirit in Islam, in: Acta
Orientalia 9 (1931), pp. 307–351. As the author himself (E. E. Calverley) avers,
the entry on nafs in the second edition of the EI (which incorporates the discus-
sion of rūḥ as well) is heavily dependent upon Macdonald.
5 Cooke, Francis T.: Ibn al-Qaiyim’s Kitāb al-Rūḥ, in: Moslem World 25 (1935),
pp. 129–144.
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