GRADUAL GROWTH OF THE TEXT

3. GRADUAL GROWTH OF THE TEXT

Before passing on to the translations, a word may be said about the gradual growth of the text of the Muqaddimah. From the available evidence, as presented in the preceding pages, it is possible to draw the following picture of the history of the text in Ibn Khaldun's hands.

Ibn Khaldun himself informs us that he wrote the Muqaddimah Ibn Khaldun himself informs us that he wrote the Muqaddimah

'Abbas of Tunis (1370-94). 147 It is possible that one of the manuscripts on which the Bulaq edition was based contains this oldest text. But

none of the available manuscripts or editions has it. The earliest texts at present available are those of the Bulaq edition and manuscript E, but since they already contain indications of Ibn Khaldun's stay in Egypt, they can be no earlier than 1382.

Ibn Khaldun's habit of correcting and expanding the History continued while he was in Egypt. In one particular case it is expressly

stated that Ibn Khaldun lectured on the Muqaddimah in Egypt 148 He probably devoted more time to his work when he was out of office than

when he was judge, but he never ceased trying to improve the Muqaddimah or collecting additional material for it, even when in

office. 149 He was constantly reading pertinent material and even had Egyptian Bedouins recite poetry to him (3:438 f., below), But it seems

that, primarily, the material for his additions and corrections derived from his lectures on the Muqaddimah and other subjects. This would explain why the sections dealing with traditions and jurisprudence - subjects on which he lectured ex-officio and in which his students were professionally interested-show the most numerous traces of larger and smaller revisions.

It would be wrong to consider the successive stages of the text of the Muqaddimah as "recenssions" in the proper sense of the term. For instance, Ibn Khaldun never changed the passages where he speaks of himself as still being in the Maghrib. His additions and corrections were jotted down unsystematically in a longdrawn-out process, much as a modern author might add notes in the margins of his published works.

Ibn Khaldun's corrections rectify obvious mistakes committed earlier, as, for instance, in his treatment of the division of the earth into zones (pp. 111 ff., below). Or, in the case of quotations, they supply a better text obtained with the help of some new source: an example is

Tahir's Epistle to his son. 150 Ibn Khaldun had already corrected his original quotation from Ibn al-Athir with the help of at-Tabari by the Tahir's Epistle to his son. 150 Ibn Khaldun had already corrected his original quotation from Ibn al-Athir with the help of at-Tabari by the

The table of contents at the beginning of the work, which treats the Muqaddimah as an independent work, 151 must nonetheless have

been added by the author at an early stage, for it appears already in A. Ibn Khaldun also adds quotations from works he has come across in further reading, as a sort of afterthought. Or, he expands and changes the text, because it no longer seems to express adequately or fully the ideas he has in mind. A minor instance of this kind of correction (or revision) can be found in a passage where Ibn Khaldun thought it advisable to tone down a strong expression of monistic mysticism (2:398, below). The most prominent emendations in the text of the work are of this kind, although there are not a great many of them. An outstanding example of Ibn Khaldun's concern for clear expression is the very considerable enlargement of his introductory remarks to the sixth chapter, dealing with the sciences (2:411 ff., below). The earliest text in which the expanded version occurs is manuscript C, so it must have entered the text of the Muqaddimah between 1397 and 1402. This interval may perhaps be further restricted to the period between 1397 and 1399, because Ibn Khaldun was thereafter extremely busy with official duties. However, it should not be forgotten that, even while on official business, Ibn Khaldun found time to study. In fact, the last-dated entry in the Muqaddimah refers to reading accomplished during his stay in Damascus in the spring of 802 [1400] (2:229 f., below); and he found time to insert the note bearing upon it in manuscript C.

A later stage, the latest we know of, in fact, is represented by the Bursa manuscript D of 806 [1404]. It shows that Ibn Khaldun was still working on his book two years before his death. Characteristic of this stage in the development of the text of the Muqaddimah was his replacement of a distich near the end with another very beautiful one (3:478, below). It shows that Ibn Khaldun retained his fine appreciation of poetry up to a time of life when many men, and especially men of

affairs, no longer give much thought to it. 152 That most of Ibn Khaldun's additions and corrections were in-

corporated into the body of the text in the manuscripts written during his lifetime is shown by manuscript D. This process did not always come off without mishaps, as a striking example below (pp. 365 f.) indicates.

In general, it is possible to show at what stage in the textual history of the Muqaddimah almost any addition or correction was made by Ibn Khaldun. Undoubtedly, if a manuscript of the preEgyptian "recension" of the work were to become available, still greater precision would be attained. The history of the text of the Muqaddimah offers a classical example of how an author's variant readings originate and how they influence the traditional appearance of his work.