6 Alina Kokoschka and Birgit Krawietz
However, several (shortened) translations (of more spiritually-ori-
ented writings) have been published since the last decade of the 20th
century. Noting the content of these works, however, causes one to
question their analytical capacity. The most frequently discussed topic
is prophetic medicine (al-ṭibb al-nabawī), an issue dealt with by Ibn
al-Qayyim especially in his Zād al-maʿād.^10 Almost as popular are ren-
derings of Ibn al-Qayyim’s monograph on the soul, his Kitāb al-Rūḥ;^11
another focus is moral psychology with a Sufi flavour.^12 Obviously, it
can be easily determined that the initiative to translate Ibn al-Qayyim
into European languages comes from within Muslim circles or institu-
tions. Nevertheless, despite their primary appeal to Muslim audiences,
such translations will also influence Western academia in the long run.
There is only one translation project in which no Muslim background
is discernable, namely Dieter Johannes Bellmann’s German version
of Ibn Qayyim al-Ǧauziyya: Über die Frauen. Liebeshistorien und
Liebeserfahrung aus dem arabischen Mittelalter.^13 This loosely assem-
bles “reports about women” (akhbār al-nisāʾ), i. e. (pseudo-)historical
narrations on the characteristics of women, with a special emphasis
on their jealousy, their infidelity and prostitution. Bellmann mentions
that the ascription of the monograph to Ibn al-Qayyim is dubious
and discusses remarks identifying Ibn al-Jawzī (d. 1201) as the correct
author^14 ; yet, in his bizarre epilogue he cannot help but indulge in an
On Nurbain’s contribution, see Krawietz, Birgit: Transgressive Creativity in the
Making. Ibn Qayyim al-Ǧawziyyah’s Reframing within Ḥanbalī Legal Meth-
odology, in: Bori and Holtzman, A Scholar in the Shadow, pp. 43–62.
10 Translated by Muhammad Al-Akili as Natural Healing with Tibb Medicine.
Medicine of the Prophet, Philadelphia 1993; translated by Penelope Johnstone
as Medicine of the Prophet, which was published in Cambridge, UK by – nota-
bly – The Islamic Texts Society, 1998; yet another edition has been offered by
Raymond J. Manderola under the title Healing with the Medicine of the Proph-
et, Riyadh 1999.
11 Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya: The Soul’s Journey After Death. An Abridgement of
Ibn al-Qayyim’s Kitab ar-Ruh with a Commentary of Layla Mabrouk, London
1987; idem: Le paradis. Hadi el arwah ila bilad el afrah; résumé par Fdal Haja
and trad. Hébri Bousserouel, Paris 1995.
12 Patience and Gratitude. An Abridged Translation of ʿUddat as-sabirin wa
dhakhirat as-shakirin, edited by ʿAbdassamad Clarke and Nasiruddin al-Khat-
tab, London 1997, reprint 1998.
13 Munich 1986.
14 [Pseudo-] Ibn Qayyim al-Ǧauziyya, Taqī al-Dīn: Über die Frauen, Munich
1986, p. 463. Holtzman, Livnat: Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah, in: Joseph E. Lowry
and Devin J. Stewart (eds.): Essays in Arabic Literary Biography, Wiesbaden
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