28 Alina Kokoschka and Birgit Krawietz
writer.^104 Yet, using all sorts of manuscripts as a huge repository was in
accordance with the conventions of the time and did not detract from
his scholarly status. One cannot imagine his contemporary, expert
readers taking such blended, compiled works as mere copies; they, too,
were used to such additions and most probably were quite sensitive to
reading between the lines and paying close attention to nuances. They
could not have expected him to state his viewpoint bluntly from the
beginning. We need to know more whether, to what degree, and how
the process of “merely” copying manuscripts was distinguished from
rearranging them and fusing additions to them – in this case, we must
know exactly how work was organized and distributed in the studio
of Ibn al-Qayyim (and other scholars). Modern electronic devices now
allow for a much more diligent deciphering of such processes – a fact
that may greatly enhance research on this author and lead to a refined
appreciation of his imaginative composing skills.
4.3. Genre-Transgression and TransformationThe topical systematization of Hadith compendia provided conve-
nient corridors for the development and differentiation of new genres.
The constitution of new genres and sub-genres has been and still is
an ongoing process of Islamic – or Islamicate – writings. However,
along with the Western idea of the original genius came the demand to
follow a “pure” style adhering to a certain genre. Congruently, many
people have low regard for cultural techniques such as pastiche, col-
lage, and montage, inasmuch as they are the outcome of a “polluting”
mixing of objects from distinct categories. The act of selecting, dis-
carding, compiling and contextualizing does not count as the outcome
of a creative mind but as a “service”. Hence, as has been shown, Ibn
al-Qayyim is portrayed as a service provider on behalf of his master.
Yet, such techniques are the very basis of pious Islamic writings within
the frame of Koranic sciences proper and even beyond. As a postclas-
sical scholar with a personal inability or unwillingness to be concise,
Ibn al-Qayyim produced a considerable number of highly complex
and compact works that often do not fit into one genre alone. His later
huge compendia, especially, embody an ongoing process of synthe-
sizing different elements in multiple variations and rearrangements.
104 Holtzman, Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah, p. 205 et passim.
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