Experience Seamless Full Ebook Downloads for Every Genre at textbookfull.

com

History of the Arabic Written Tradition Volume 1

Carl Brockelmann

https://textbookfull.com/product/history-of-the-arabic-
written-tradition-volume-1-carl-brockelmann/

OR CLICK BUTTON

DOWNLOAD NOW

Explore and download more ebook at https://textbookfull.com

 Recommended digital products (PDF, EPUB, MOBI) that
you can download immediately if you are interested.

The early Arabic historical tradition a source critical

study 2nd Edition Albrecht Noth

https://textbookfull.com/product/the-early-arabic-historical-
tradition-a-source-critical-study-2nd-edition-albrecht-noth/

textboxfull.com

Mastering Arabic 1 Jane Wightwick

https://textbookfull.com/product/mastering-arabic-1-jane-wightwick/

textboxfull.com

A History of the Ozarks Volume 1 The Old Ozarks Brooks

Blevins

https://textbookfull.com/product/a-history-of-the-ozarks-volume-1-the-
old-ozarks-brooks-blevins/

textboxfull.com

History of universities. Volume XXIX/1 1st Edition

Feingold

https://textbookfull.com/product/history-of-universities-volume-
xxix-1-1st-edition-feingold/

textboxfull.com
Written in History Letters That Changed the World Simon
Sebag Montefiore

https://textbookfull.com/product/written-in-history-letters-that-
changed-the-world-simon-sebag-montefiore/

textboxfull.com

Stars Collide (Written in the Stars #1) 1st Edition Mia

Monroe

https://textbookfull.com/product/stars-collide-written-in-the-
stars-1-1st-edition-mia-monroe/

textboxfull.com

The Unfinished Nation A Concise History of the American

People Volume 1 Alan Brinkley

https://textbookfull.com/product/the-unfinished-nation-a-concise-
history-of-the-american-people-volume-1-alan-brinkley/

textboxfull.com

The Cambridge History of Science. Volume 1: Ancient

Science 1st Edition Alexander Jones

https://textbookfull.com/product/the-cambridge-history-of-science-
volume-1-ancient-science-1st-edition-alexander-jones/

textboxfull.com

A History of East African Theatre, Volume 1 : Horn of

Africa Jane Plastow

https://textbookfull.com/product/a-history-of-east-african-theatre-
volume-1-horn-of-africa-jane-plastow/

textboxfull.com
History of the Arabic Written Tradition

Volume 1
Handbook of Oriental Studies
Handbuch der Orientalistik

section one
The Near and Middle East

Edited by

Maribel Fierro (Madrid)

M. Şükrü Hanioğlu (Princeton)
Renata Holod (University of Pennsylvania)
Florian Schwarz (Vienna)

VOLUME 117/1

The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/ho1

History of the Arabic
Written Tradition
Volume 1

By

Carl Brockelmann

Translated by

Joep Lameer

with a Preface by

Jan Just Witkam

LEIDEN | BOSTON
Originally published as Geschichte der Arabischen Litteratur in 1898 and 1902.
Subsequent editions by Brill between 1937 and 1943, and in 1996.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Brockelmann, Carl, 1868-1956, author. | Lameer, Joep, translator. |

Witkam, J. J., writer of preface.
Title: History of the Arabic written tradition / by Carl Brockelmann ;
translated by Joep Lameer ; with a preface by Jan Just Witkam.
Other titles: Geschichte der arabischen Litteratur. English | Handbook of
Oriental studies. Section one, Near and Middle East (2014) ; vol. 117.
Description: Leiden ; Boston : Brill, 2016. | Series: Handbook of Oriental
studies. Section one, The Near and Middle East ; volume 117 | Originally
published as Geschichte der Arabischen Litteratur in 1898 and 1902 —
Title page verso of volume 1. | Includes bibliographical references.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016032425 (print) | LCCN 2016041105 (ebook) | ISBN
9789004323308 (hardback : alk. paper) | ISBN 9789004326262 (E-book) | ISBN
9789004323308 (hardback) | ISBN 9789004326316 (hardback) | ISBN
9789004334618 (hardback) | ISBN 9789004335806 (hardback) | ISBN
9789004335813 (hardback)
Subjects: LCSH: Arabic literature—History and criticism.
Classification: LCC PJ7510 .B713 2016 (print) | LCC PJ7510 (ebook) | DDC
892.7/09—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016032425

Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: “Brill”. See and download: brill.com/brill-typeface.

issn 0169-9423
isbn 978-90-04-32330-8 (hardback)
isbn 978-90-04-32626-2 (e-book)

Copyright 2016 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.

Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Rodopi and
Hotei Publishing.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise,
without prior written permission from the publisher.
Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided
that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive,
Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change.

This book is printed on acid-free paper and produced in a sustainable manner.

Brockelmann’s Geschichte Revisited Once More
By Jan Just Witkam

Brockelmann’s GAL

In 1898 and 1902, the publishing house of E. Felber produced two volumes enti-
tled Geschichte der Arabischen Litteratur (GAL). The author Carl Brockelmann
(1868–1956) was a young German university teacher from Breslau (now
Wroczlaw in Poland). His objective was to outline the external history of
Arabic literature, excluding all internal developments. He had estimated
then that it would take at least a further century of hard philological work
before even the most important landmarks of Arabic literature would be known
and accessible (I, p. iii). It is a sobering thought that a century has indeed
passed without Brockelmann’s expectations being realized. Brockelmann
restricted his Geschichte to the surviving works of authors. Had he added the
titles of those works that are only known from references and quotations, the
size of his GAL would easily have doubled.
The basic idea of GAL was to provide a framework which divided Arabic lit-
erature into periods and subjects and then to add to this structure using infor-
mation extracted from manuscript catalogues and bibliographies concerning
extant texts, and subsequently to add supplementary information on the
authors from the biographical dictionaries.
The first volume of GAL treated the classical period up to 1258 (the fall of
Baghdad to the Mongol armies), while the second volume contained an
account of Arabic literature produced in what Brockelmann styled as the age
of decline. This age Brockelmann divided into three periods, firstly up to the
Ottoman conquest of Egypt (1517), then up to the Napoleonic conquest (1798)
and, finally, up to the present day (then 1902). Within each section there is usu-
ally a geographical division first, which is then subdivided according to sub-
ject. This division was used for the second edition, published forty years later,
as well.
In using the term ‘Litteratur’ Brockelmann understood literature in the
broadest sense, that is, all verbal utterances of the human mind, and refused
to limit the scope of this subject to just ‘belles lettres’ His main justification
was that Arabic has been the vehicle of thought over a long period of time and
has covered an enormous territory, all of which he wished to include in his
GAL. The German language has another word for literature in that broad sense,
vi Brockelmann ’ s Geschichte Revisited once more

Schrifttum, meaning anything that is recorded in writing. There were two

fields, however, which Brockelmann mainly excluded from his survey, namely,
the Christian and Jewish Arabic literatures, as these did not address the wider
Islamic audience, but only addressed their own limited denominational circles.
GAL is very much the work of a confident youth. Nowadays no individual
would dare to start such a project since the number of sources to be surveyed
is simply too large for one lifetime. But a hundred years ago the number of
sources was limited. Then there were a mere thirty-four manuscript catalogues
which Brockelmann had to peruse and make extracts from. These catalogues
described the major collections in Europe, North-Africa and Istanbul. The
European catalogues in particular offered a wealth of information both on
the contents of the texts and on their authors. The best of these catalogues—
which remains unsurpassed—was just being completed by a compatriot of
Brockelmann. It is the ten-volume monumental catalogue of the Berlin collec-
tion by Wilhelm Ahlwardt. When one sees the detail of information on texts
and authors in Ahlwardt’s work, one understands why this work was the per-
fect basis for Brockelmann to found his GAL. But the Berlin catalogue was by
no means an isolated effort. The detailed catalogues of such vast collections
as the British Museum and the Bibliothèque Nationale, and the medium-sized
collections of the Escorial, Oxford, Cambridge, Gotha, Leiden, Algiers, etc.,
together provided the material for Brockelmann to use in his GAL.

A Word about the Author

Carl Brockelmann was born into a middle-class commercial milieu in Rostock,

Germany, on 17 September 1868 as the fourth child in a family of six. At sec-
ondary school he was keen to devote himself to foreign studies. It was the
period of the great discoveries and the carving-up of the world by the colo-
nial powers, with which the newly-founded German empire had joined ranks.
The geographical journals and accounts of discoveries in far-away regions of
Asia and Africa were the source of young Brockelmann’s romantic fantasies
of the Orient. The German language has one compact word for this, Fernweh,
the longing for distant places. The fact that quite a number of Rostockians,
including his family’s friends and acquaintances, had spread over the world
only served to widen the youngster’s cultural horizon. The young Carl must
have been quite a prodigy. As a pupil of the secondary school he devised gram-
mars for the Bantu language of Angola and the biblical Aramaic language. As
a youth he hesitated between the careers of missionary, medical doctor and
dragoman professions which had the common advantage of bringing him into
Brockelmann ’ s Geschichte Revisited once more vii

direct contact with exotic peoples. But they proved to be daydreams, nor were
his grammars ever published, of course, and Brockelmann was later grateful
that he never pursued these options.
Brockelmann’s university career, first as student and later as a profes-
sor, was unimpressive. It was rather his wide scholarly interests, his incred-
ible memory and the enormous energy with which he pursued his goals, that
have made him an outstanding figure even today. In 1886 he enrolled as a stu-
dent of Oriental studies and classical philology and history at the University
of Rostock. In spring 1887 he moved to the University of Breslau, and a year
later he moved again, this time to Strasbourg in order to complete his stud-
ies with the most famous German Orientalist of his time, Theodor Nöldeke
(1836–1930). In the course of these scholarly wanderings, young Brockelmann
vigorously studied classical philology (Latin and Greek), Akkadian, Arabic,
Ethiopian, Hebrew, Turkish, Persian, Sanskrit, Armenian, Egyptian and Indo-
Germanic studies—and the list is probably far from complete. He engaged in
classical philology as a sort of life insurance, should he be unable to find a job
in Oriental studies. But apart from a short period (1890–1892) as an assistant-
teacher in the Protestant Gymnasium in Strasbourg, Brockelmann was always
employed in academic positions. In 1890 he had defended his inaugural doc-
toral thesis in Strasbourg on the relationship between Ibn al-Athīr’s Kāmil and
al-Tabarī’s Taʾrīkh. In the German university system it was, and is, normal to
write two doctoral theses, the inaugural thesis, completing a course of study,
and the habilitation thesis, which opens the road to a professorship. In 1892 he
returned to Breslau as a private university teacher. This was basically an unpaid
position, but Brockelmann’s participation in projects such as E. Sachau’s edi-
tion of Ibn Saʿd’s Tabaqāt, and other activities, mainly teaching, earned him
a living. In 1893 he defended his habilitation thesis which contained a study
on Ibn al-Jawzi’s Talqīh fuhūm ahl al-Āthār fī Mukhtasar al-siyar wa-al-akhbār.
In 1895–1896 he made a journey to Istanbul, stopping in London and Paris.
In 1900 he was appointed to the Institute of Oriental Languages in Berlin, but
not for long. From 1900-1903 he occupied the extra-ordinariate chair in Breslau,
and in 1903 he was appointed as ordinarius in Königsberg, now Kaliningrad
in Russia, where he stayed until 1910. Next, he was appointed in Halle an der
Saale where he stayed until 1922. It was there, as rector of the university, that
he experienced the chaotic aftermath of the Great War and saw the German
empire disintegrate and change into an unstable republic with the seeds of
disaster already visible. It was also the pinnacle of his scholarly activities. In
at least four specialized fields, Syriac studies, Arabic studies, Semitic linguis-
tics and Turkish studies, his name had become famous throughout the world.
But as author of GAL he was to earn eternal fame. From 1922–1923 he took
viii Brockelmann ’ s Geschichte Revisited once more

an appointment in Berlin, but this proved to be a bad move. He came into

conflict with the minister of culture, the Islamologist C.H. Becker, who was to
take the Berlin professorship to provide himself with an emergency exit from
politics. Brockelmann never forgave him, and called him in the preface of his
GAL, among other things, the minister against German culture. Brockelmann
was lucky to be able to return to the university of Breslau, where he stayed
until his retirement in 1935. In 1932 he had become rector of the university,
but he was obliged to step down because of the vehement attacks on his views
on academic liberty by the Nazi press. In 1937 he moved back to Halle, where
he was able to use the library of the German Oriental Society (DMG) for the
completion of the new edition he wished to publish of his GAL. Between 1937–
1942 the three supplementary volumes came out, and these were followed in
1943–1949 by the publication of an updated version of the original two vol-
umes. In 1945 he was destitute and he took up the librarianship of the DMG.
In this job he was able to return most of the ‘evacuated’ books to their rightful
place. In 1947 he was appointed honorary professor for Turkish studies in Halle
(which was now in the Russian zone, later the German Democratic Republic),
and in 1953 he retired once more, at the age of 85. He died in his sleep on
6 May 1956 in Halle.
Brockelmann has left us an autobiographical account, which he wrote in the
course of 1947 for his son Carl, after the latter was reported to have survived
Soviet captivity at Stalingrad in 1943. Johann Fück has used this account for
his two In Memoriams, and large parts of it have been published by Rudolf
Sellheim—but the text, valuable as it is, was for private use only and clearly not
intended for publication. When one first reads Brockelmann’s invariably dis-
gusted remarks on the Jewish scholars he had met and experienced, it is as if a
hard-core Nazi is speaking. But Brockelmann was far too intelligent to indulge
in simple anti-Semitic bragging. Being primarily an academic, he would have
defended academic liberties against attack from any quarter, fascist and com-
munist alike. However, when the Nazis took power in Germany in 1933, he
was in the comfortable position of being already 65 years old and was soon to
retire. He survived the war as a private scholar, and was never compromised in
any official capacity before, during or after the war.

The Aims of Arabic Bibliography

Arabic literature by its very nature presents a problem of bibliographical

control. It is as yet impossible to make even a rough estimate of how many
works were written in Arabic by so many prolific authors over a period of
Brockelmann ’ s Geschichte Revisited once more ix

some fourteen centuries in an area ranging from China to deepest Africa and
from Morocco to the Philippines, let alone to fully establish the links between
those works. The vast scope of Islamic manuscript literature was only recently
bibliographically defined for the first time ever. The World Survey of Islamic
Manuscripts (Leiden 1992–1994) has provided us with an insight into the
enormous potential of Islamic literatures, of which Arabic is the major com-
ponent. The development of our learning is also clearly visible. By the middle
of the seventeenth century the Turkish bibliographer Hājjī Khalīfa (d. 1657)
gave an account of his knowledge of Arabic literature. His Kashf al-Zunūn con-
tains some 15,000 titles by about 9,500 authors. This is approximately the same
proportion that one encounters in Brockelmann’s GAL: the index in the third
supplementary volume, which was published in 1942, contains some 25,000
titles and 18,000 authors. If the data contained in the bibliographical sources
mentioned in World Survey were to be added to GAL, there would be an increase
of many times the original number of titles and authors and there would be
many additions of manuscripts to the references already known. Unique man-
uscripts would prove to be not so unique after all, and texts which fifty years
ago were thought to be preserved in relatively few manuscripts would prove
to exist in abundance. But the most considerable result of reviewing the data
of World Survey would be our increased knowledge of Arabic literature as pro-
duced on the periphery of the Arab world and, even more important, that from
Islamic countries outside the Arab world.
In the third supplementary volume to GAL, Brockelmann made a quite suc-
cessful attempt to describe the modern literatures of the Arab world. An up-
date of this covering the past fifty years would result in a reference work of
unheard of dimensions. In fact, such an endeavor has not been attempted for
any of the larger literatures of the modern age.
When Brockelmann compiled the final version of GAL, the manuscript trea-
sures of peripheral areas such as Mauritania, Morocco and the Yemen, had
barely been explored. The extent of Arabic literature in Sub-Saharan Africa,
East Turkestan, the rest of China, South-East Asia’s mainland and Indonesia
is, even today, almost a closed book. The Indian subcontinent has had its own
contribution to Arabic literature, but that branch of Arabic literature too is
relatively little known. An additional complication is that the Arabic literature
of these areas can only be put into true perspective if their complementary
indigenous literary tradition is taken into account as well. For the bibliogra-
pher this poses additional, linguistic, problems.
Arabic traditional literature is probably the largest body of literature in
the world. Incorporating all new bio-bibliographical information in one large
database would be of prime importance. It has been tried, but so far it has
x Brockelmann ’ s Geschichte Revisited once more

failed. It could never be the work of one man, but at best a dedicated institu-
tion with large and long-term funds might be able to perform that task.
Brockelmann’s GAL, now more than half a century old, still stands out as the
only successful comprehensive attempt at bibliographical control of the vast
body of Arabic literature. Arabic bibliography must move forward, and this
is happening, as can be witnessed by the numerous bibliographical surveys
on specific subjects and areas and by the veritable boom of manuscript cata-
logues. GAL is still a safe point of departure for most of the bibliographical work
that lies ahead.
One recent instance of creative use of GAL should be mentioned here. Some
1690 titles taken from the title-index of the third supplementary volume of
GAL were the source material for A.A. Ambros for an enlightening analysis of
the composition and function of rhyming titles in classical Arabic literature. It
shows that GAL, apart from its obvious use as a bibliographical reference work,
has more in store than probably even the author himself was aware of.
In many libraries all over the world copies of GAL are in use that contain
numerous handwritten additions of generations of learned librarians and
other users. Brockelmann’s own interleaved copy, which he constantly updated
until shortly before his death, lies in the library of the DMG in Halle. This is
certainly not the only copy with extensive glosses; there must be at least a hun-
dred copies of similar importance. It would be interesting to make a survey of
those copies including the remarks and corrections of learned librarians, and
to make an attempt to incorporate that cumulated bibliographical knowledge
into a modern database.

Updating and Reprinting GAL

Carl Brockelmann had always wanted to publish an updated reprint of the first
edition of GAL. Alongside his numerous other activities he had recorded addi-
tions and corrections in his interleaved copy of the edition of 1898–1902. That
first edition was published by E. Felber, a small publisher in Weimar and later in
Berlin. He had agreed to publish Brockelmann’s edition of Ibn Qutayba’s ʿUyūn
al-Akhbār on the condition that he would have the right to publish another
work by Brockelmann which would yield him more profit than Ibn Qutayba.
Brockelmann agreed and offered him his GAL, a project about which he had
already been thinking for quite a while. This decision would have far-reaching
consequences for generations of students of Arabic literature. Felber proved to
be a crook and Brockelmann was not his first and only victim. When the type-
Brockelmann ’ s Geschichte Revisited once more xi

setting and printing of half of the first volume of Ibn Qutayba’s text had been
completed, the work was stopped and Felber disappeared. Sometime later he
re-emerged and fulfilled his engagements albeit in a reduced form, restricting
the publication to four volumes, whereas Brockelmann had had ten volumes
in mind. Brockelmann was forced to pay if he wanted the work to proceed,
a classic trick. To appease Brockelmann’s anger for a while Felber gave him
a typewriter, his first. Brockelmann grudgingly accepted it. GAL, which in the
contract with Felber was Brockelmann’s subsidy to finance the Ibn Qutayba
edition, was printed more or less simultaneously with the Ibn Qutayba edi-
tion, but instead of the one thousand copies which he was allowed to produce,
Felber had three thousand copies printed, thereby cashing in for himself on a
possible second and third edition. Three thousand copies is quite exceptional
for any Orientalist publication where print runs usually do not exceed a few
hundred copies. But there was more mishap to come. During several invol-
untary peregrinations, Felber (who was always on the run from his creditors
and authors) had lost part of his stock, the printed sheets of about half of the
second volume of GAL. Complete copies of GAL became a rare item and it took
a long time before Felber made a photographic reprint of those lost sheets.
GAL thereby became a work that, for many years, one could only procure
through the antiquarian book trade, if at all. Later on, it was also Felber who
hindered the publication of a new edition, since he had so much old stock
left. Recourse to juridical action by Brockelmann was to no avail. The German
copyright law apparently could not be applied. The book was considered a
commodity that, once sold, transferred ownership. The author, who in such
a situation was considered to be the former owner, could never again exercise a
right to his work. The only way to regain the rights on the book was if someone
was to buy the entire remaining stock. During Felber’s lifetime this proved to
be impossible, and also after Felber’s death the successors to his estate asked
such an extravagant price for the remaining copies of GAL that this possibility
proved to be impractical.
Brockelmann then found the director of Brill’s of Leiden, Mr. Th. Folkers,
ready to publish the additional data in three supplementary volumes, which
appeared between 1937–1942. In order to maintain the connection between
the original two volumes and the three supplements, the page-numbers of the
original edition were constantly referred to. At the end of each supplementary
volume, additions and corrections to the original edition were included. The
indexes in the third supplement had references to both the original two vol-
umes of 1898–1902 and the three newly published supplements.
xii Brockelmann ’ s Geschichte Revisited once more

It was only after the publication of the third supplementary volume that it
became possible for Brill to acquire the rights to the original work. Then noth-
ing stood in the way of an updated second edition of the two original volumes.
With ample reference to the supplementary volumes these were published in
1943–1949.
The pagination of the first edition of GAL had been the source of reference
for the supplementary volumes and they had been included in the indexes of
the supplements. Now, in the new edition of the two original volumes, it was to
be that same, old, pagination that would be used. This is why the new edition
of the two original volumes has the page-numbers of the first edition retained
in the margins. And it is to those marginal page numbers that the indexes
of the entire new set refer. It is all perfectly logical if one takes the printing
history of the book into account, but for the newly initiated bibliographer
it is a source of bewilderment and confusion. The use of the marginal page-
numbers is, therefore, not just an innocent peculiarity in which Carl
Brockelmann indulged, but a complication imposed upon each and every user
of the book, now and in the future. With the English edition, which also retains
references to the old page numbers, this problem does not exist anymore.
Whereas Brockelmann dared to undertake the compilation of his GAL
single-handedly a hundred years ago, it is out of the question that anyone
would do this now, not even Brockelmann himself. This is proven by the very
fact that no one has indeed dared to make even an updated version. Attempts
of a more limited nature have been made, of course. The most notable of these
is Fuat Sezgin’s Geschichte des Arabischen Schrifttums (GAS), which is still in
progress (nine volumes published between 1967–1984, plus an index volume
published in 1995). But although Sezgin treats all subjects and sciences, he has
limited his work for the time being to the early history of Arabic literature, up
to approximately the year 430 of the hegira, that is, mainly texts from the first
millennium (plus later commentaries on these). If the literature of the second
millennium were to be treated in the same way, the size of such a survey would
amount to a great number of volumes.
Another attempt to further bibliographic control which deserves to be
mentioned is the serial publication Arabic Literature of Africa, edited by J.O.
Hunwick and R.S. O’Fahey. The first volume came out in 1994, and in the mean-
time volume 5, by Charles C. Steward, was published in 2015. The entire series
is projected in six volumes. Here the regional element is the selective factor,
and although Islam in Africa has a long history, the bulk of its literature dates
from a relatively recent time. Even this limited approach required a team of
authors, rather than relying on a soloist like Brockelmann.
Brockelmann ’ s Geschichte Revisited once more xiii

Has Arabic bibliography come to a standstill? On the contrary, it is pre-

cisely because of the fast-growing and ever increasing output of manuscript
catalogues over the past fifty years that the production of a new GAL has been
hampered. The paradox is rather that the success of Arabic bibliography hin-
ders the creation of a GAL-like synthesis. This has gone beyond the capabilities
of a single scholar, but no project based on teamwork has ever yet been orga-
nized to address the problem in its entirety. New techniques of presentation,
production and distribution will have to be decided upon if ever such a project
for an updated ‘History of Arabic Literature’ should come into being. Perhaps
the present English translation, which will make Brockelmann’s still invaluable
work more accessible world-wide, will stimulate the start of a project to cre-
ate a new reference work which aims to comprehensively describe the Arabic
manuscript culture.

Literature Quoted in the Introduction

A.A. Ambros, ‘Beobachtungen zu Aufbau und Funktionen der gereimten klas-

sisch-arabischen Buchtitel’, in: WZKM 80 (1990), 13–57.
Arabic Literature of Africa, edited by J.O. Hunwick and R.S. O’Fahey.
Vol. 1. The Writings of Eastern Sudanic Africa to c. 1900, compiled by R.S. O’Fahey,
Leiden 1994.
Vol. 2. The Writings of Central Sudanic Africa, compiled by John O. Hunwick
with the assistance of Razaq Abubakre, Hamidu Bobboyi, Roman Loimeier,
Stefan Reichmuth and Muhammad Sani Umar, Leiden 1995.
Vol. 3a. The Writings of the Peoples of Northeastern Africa, compiled by
R.S. O’Fahey with the assistance of Hussein Ahmed, Lidwien Kapteijns,
Mohamed M. Kassim, Jonathan Miran, Scott S. Reese and Ewald Wagner,
Leiden 2003.
Vol. 4. The Writings of Western Sudanic Africa, compiled by John O. Hunwick
with the assistance of Ousmane Kane, Bernard Salvaing, Rüdiger Seesemann,
Mark Sey and Ivor Wilks, Leiden 2003.
Vol. 5. The Writings of Mauritania and the Western Sahara (2 vols.), compiled by
Charles C. Stewart with Sidi Ahmed ould Ahmed Salim and the assistance of
Mohamed Nouhi, Babacar Mbengue, Abdel Wedoud ould Cheikh and Bruce
S. Hall, Leiden 2015.
A.F.L. Beeston, Arabic Nomenclature. A Summary Guide for Beginners, Oxford 1971.
Carl Brockelmann, Geschichte der Arabischen Litteratur. I (Weimar 1898) xii,
528 pp; II (Berlin 1902) xi, 714 pp.
xiv Brockelmann ’ s Geschichte Revisited once more

Johann Fück, ‘Carl Brockelmann als Orientalist’, Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift

der Martin-Luther-Universitat Halle-Wittenberg VII/4 (July 1958), pp.
857–875 (with portrait), (pp. 863–875: ‘Verzeichnis der Schriften Carl
Brockelmanns’).
Johann Fück, ‘Carl Brockelmann (1868–1956)’, in: ZDMG 108 (1958), 1–13.
Geoffrey Roper (ed.), World Survey of Islamic Manuscripts, 4 volumes, London
(Al-Furqan Foundation), 1992–1994.
Rudolf Sellheim, ‘Autobiographische Aufzeichnungen und Erinnerungen von
Carl Brockelmann, als Manuskript herausgegeben’ (with portrait), Oriens
27–28 (1981), 1–65.
Fuat Sezgin, Geschichte des Arabischen Schrifttums, Vols. 1–9, Leiden 1967–1984;
vols. 10–15. Frankfurt am Main, 2000–2010.
Translator’s Note

The present translation reproduces the original German of Carl Brockelmann’s

Geschichte der Arabischen Litteratur (GAL) as accurately as possible. Never­
theless, some minor changes were made:
Perhaps the most important change is the unabbreviated reproduction of all
Arabic names, with the exception of ‘b.’ for ‘ibn’, ‘Ibn’ only being written in full
at the beginning of a name, e.g. ‘Ibn Rushd.’ As an example, one may cite ‘Abu
’l-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. ʿAlī b. Mattūya al-Wāḥidī al-Nīsābūrī,’
which renders Brockelmann’s ‘Abu ’l-Ḥ. ʿA. b. A. b. M. b. ʿA. b. Mattūya al-Wāḥidī
al-Nīsābūrī’ (GAL I 524, no. 3). In connection with the names of Ottoman sul-
tans, Turkish spelling has been used.
Brockelmann’s transliteration of Arabic and Persian words was adapted to
comply with the system of transliteration of Brill’s Encyclopaedia Islamica, the
changes being: ‘j’ for ‫( ج‬Br. ‘ǧ’), ‘ch’ for ‫( چ‬Br. č), ‘kh’ for ‫( خ‬Br. ‘ḫ’), ‘th’ for ‫ث‬
(Br. ‘ṯ’), ‘dh’ for ‫( ذ‬Br. ‘ḏ’), ‘zh’ for ‫( ژ‬Br. ‘ž’), ‘sh’ for ‫( ش‬Br. ‘š’), and ‘gh’ for ‫( غ‬Br.
‘ġ’); no sun letters (e.g. al-salām instead of as-salām). The following table lists
all the characters with their transliterations as used in this work.
In transliterations of names, GAL’s ‘o’ and ‘ō’ were changed to ‘u’ and ‘ū’ (e.g.
‘Ṭaybughā’ for ‘Ṭayboġā,’ and ‘Rūzbihān’ for ‘Rōzbihān’), but ‘Mollā’ was left
unchanged; ‘ē’ becomes ‘ī’ (e.g. ‘Jamshīd’ for ‘Ǧamšēd’), while ‘e’ becomes ‘a’
(e.g. ‘Zangī’ for ‘Zengī’, ‘al-Kardarī’ for ‘al-Kerderī’); when ‘i’ refers to an unvo-
calized consonant, it is changed to ‘y’ (e.g. ‘Taymūr’ instead of ‘Taimūr’, and
‘shiʿriyya’ instead of ‘šiʿrīya’); sometimes ‘i’ is changed to ‘a’, as in ‘Tabrīzī’
instead of ‘Tibrīzī’; finally, transliterations of the names of manuscript collec-
tions in Turkish libraries and Hebrew booktitles were left unchanged.
Whenever the name of a place or region has a modern spelling in English
that is commonly known, this spelling will be used rather than GAL’s translit-
erations (with the exception of occurrences in people’s names or booktitles or
for reasons of emphasis), examples: ‘Damascus’ (Br. ‘Dimašq’), ‘Kairouan’ (Br.
‘Qayrawān’), ‘Maghreb’ (Br. ‘Maġrib’).
The article ‘al-’ is written as follows: 1) ‘Al-’ : a) at the beginning of a sen-
tence, and b) whenever the name of an author mentioned at the beginning
of a lemma dedicated to him/her starts with the article; 2) ‘al-’ : in all other
cases, also in listings, whether these start with: ‘1. al-’, or with ‘I. al-’, or some-
thing similar, e.g. ‘a. al-’, and all items following starting with ‘al-’; 3) ‘’l’: in all
cases where the article is read in conjunction with a vowel preceding it: u, i, a
xvi Translator ’ s Note

(e.g. Abu ’l-ʿAbbās, Muḥyi ’l-Dīn, Dhakhīrat man jarradahu ’l-ḥubb ʿani ’l-khawf),
but when connected to the conjunction ‘wa’ and the prepositions ‘li’ and ‘bi’
the article is rendered as ‘l’ and joined directly to ‘wa’, ‘bi’, or ‘li’ preceding it
(e.g. Kitāb al-ashbāh wal-naẓāʾir, al-Wāfī bil-wafayāt, and al-Shāfiya lil-amrāḍ
al-fāshiya).
Against modern usage, Brockelmann’s ‘al-Ghazzālī’ has been retained
throughout. In GAL I, 535, note 1, and especially in GAL Supplement I, 744,
note 1, the author explains this reading at length and, at the same time, he also
rejects the other, now common, reading of ‘al-Ghazālī’ with a series of concrete
arguments.
GAL often uses Arabic terms where English equivalents could have been
used instead, such as ‘qāḍī ’ instead of ‘judge’ or ‘wazīr’ instead of ‘vizier’ or
‘minister’; Arabic terms like these have been retained while the term ‘Tradition’
was often translated with the contextually less ambiguous ‘ḥadīth’.
Page numbers in blue in the margins of volumes 1 and 2 refer to GAL’s first
edition. In GAL’s second edition, the placement of these numbers is often
approximate, but sufficient to find one’s way; in this translation, this situation
has not changed. Page numbers in red in the margins of volumes 1 through
5 refer to GAL’s second, enlarged and supplemented edition.
Finally, the present work being a translation, no effort has been made to
re-edit or revise any part of the text.

Joep Lameer
Rozendaal, May 2016
Translator ’ s Note xvii

Transliteration Table of Arabic and Persian Characters

Consonants Short vowels

‫ء‬ ʾ ‫ز‬ z ‫ك‬ k َ a

‫ب‬ b ‫ژ‬ zh ‫گ‬ g ُ u
‫پ‬ p ‫س‬ s ‫ل‬ l ِ i
‫ت‬ t ‫ش‬ sh ‫م‬ m
‫ث‬ th ‫ص‬ ṣ ‫ن‬ n Long vowels
‫ج‬ j ‫ض‬ ḍ ‫ه‬ h ‫ای‬ ā
‫چ‬ ch ‫ط‬ ṭ ‫و‬ w ‫و‬ ū
‫ح‬ ḥ ‫ظ‬ ẓ ‫ی‬ y ‫ي‬ ī
‫خ‬ kh ‫ع‬ ʿ
‫د‬ d ‫غ‬ gh Diphtongs
‫ذ‬ dh ‫ف‬ t ‫َ◌و‬ aw
‫ر‬ r ‫ق‬ q ‫َ◌ي‬ ay
‫ة‬ -a (pausa) / -at (construct state)
‫ال‬ al- (article)
Contents

Brockelmann’s Geschichte Revisited Once More v

Translator’s Note xv

Introduction 1
I The Task of Literary History 1
II Sources and Early Accounts of the Literary History of the Arabs 3
III Division of the History of Arabic Literature 7

First Book
The National Literature of the Arabs

First Section. From the Beginnings until the Appearance of

Muḥammad 11
For Chapters 1-6, see Supplement Volume I
Chapter 7. The Six Poets 13
Chapter 8. Other Poets of Pre-Islamic Times 15
Chapter 9. Jewish and Christian Poets before Islam 18
Chapter 10. The Beginnings of Arabic Prose 21

Second Section. Muḥammad and His Time 23

Chapter 1. Muḥammad the Prophet 23
Chapter 2. The Qurʾān 25
Chapter 3. Labīd and al-Aʿshā 27
Chapter 4. Ḥassān b. Thābit 29
Chapter 5. Kaʿb b. Zuhayr 30
Chapter 6. Mutammin b. Nuwayra 31
Chapter 7. Al-Khansāʾ 32
Chapter 8. Abū Miḥjan and al-Ḥuṭayʾa 33
Chapter 9. Minor Poets 34
Chapter 10. Two Forgeries 36

Third Section. The Period of the Umayyads 38

Chapter 1. General Characteristics 38
Chapter 2. ʿUmar b. Abī Rabīʿa 39
Chapter 3. Other Poets in Arabia 41
Chapter 4. Al-Akhṭal 43
xx Contents

Chapter 5. Al-Farazdaq 46
Chapter 6. Jarīr 49
Chapter 7. Dhu ’l-Rumma 51
Chapter 8. The Rajaz Poets 52
Chapter 9. Minor Poets 53
Chapter 10. Prose Writing at the Time of the Umayyads 58

Second Book
Islamic Literature in the Arabic Language

First Section. The Classical Period from ca. 750 until ca. 1000 63
Chapter 1. Introduction 63
Chapter 2. Poetry 64
A The Poets of Baghdad 64
B Poets of Iraq and the Jazīra 73
C Poets from Arabia and Syria 73
D The Circle of Sayf al-Dawla 76
E Egyptian and North African Poets 79
Chapter 3. Rhymed Prose 81
Chapter 4. Philology 85
I The School of Basra 85
II The School of Kufa 102
III The School of Baghdad 108
IV Linguistics in Persia and the East 115
V Linguistics in Egypt and Spain 120
Chapter 4. Historiography 122
1 The Life of Muḥammad 122
2 Urban History 124
3 The History of the Pre-Islamic Arabs 125
4 Imperial and World History 126
5 Cultural and Literary History 131
6 The History of Egypt and North Africa 132
7 The History of Spain 134
Chapter 5. Belles Lettres in Prose 136
Chapter 6. Ḥadīth 141
Chapter 7. Fiqh 153
1 The Ḥanafīs 153
2 The Mālikīs 160
3 The Shāfiʿīs 163
Contents xxi

4 The Lesser Schools 167

5 The Shīʿa 169
1 The Zaydīs 170
2 The Imāmīs 172
Chapter 8. Sciences of the Qurʾān 176
1 The Reading of the Qurʾān 176
2 Qurʾānic Exegesis 176
Chapter 9. Dogmatics 179
Chapter 10. Mysticism 184
Chapter 11. The Translators 191
Chapter 12. Philosophy 200
Chapter 13. Mathematics 208
Chapter 14. Astronomy and Astrology 216
Chapter 15. Geography 224
Chapter 16. Medicine 231
Chapter 17. Natural and Occult Sciences 242
Chapter 18. Encyclopaedias 246

Second Section. The Post-Classical Period of Islamic Literature from

ca. 400/1000 until ca. 656/1258 247
Chapter 1. Poetry 249
A Poets of Baghdad, Iraq, and the Jazīra 249
B Persian Poets 253
C Syrian Poets 256
D Arabian Poets 262
E Egyptian Poets 263
F North African and Sicilian Poets 273
G Spanish Poets 276
Chapter 2. Rhymed Prose and Stylistics 282
Chapter 3. Philology 288
1 Philology in Iraq 288
2 Philology in Persia and Neighbouring Countries 293
3 Philology in Syria 311
4 Philology in South Arabia 316
5 Philology in Egypt 317
6 Philology in North Africa and Sicily 325
7 Philology in Spain 327
Chapter 4. Historiography 333
1 Individual Biographies 333
2 Histories of Dynasties 340
xxii Contents

3 Histories of Individuals and Genealogy 342

4 Local History 348
A Baghdad 348
B Damascus 350
C Jerusalem 351
D Aleppo 351
E Dunaysir 352
F South Arabia 353
G Jurjān 354
H Egypt 354
I The Maghreb 355
J Spain 357
5 Histories of the Caliphs and World History 362
6 Histories of Prophets 371
Chapter 5. Belles Lettres in Prose 373
Chapter 6. Ḥadīth 377
1 Iraq, the Jazīra, Syria, and Arabia 377
2 Persia 387
3 Egypt and North Africa 393
4 Spain 394
Chapter 7. Fiqh 400
1 The Ḥanafīs 400
2 The Mālikīs 417
3 The Shāfiʿīs 420
4 The Ḥanbalīs 437
5 The Ẓāhirīs and Almohads 440
6 The Shīʿa 441
A The Zaydīs 441
B The Imāmīs 444
Chapter 8. Sciences of the Qurʾān 450
1 The Art of Reading the Qurʾān 450
2 Qurʾānic Exegesis 456
Chapter 9. Dogmatics 467
Chapter 10. Mysticism 486
Chapter 11. Philosophy and Politics 516
Chapter 12. Mathematics 540
Chapter 13. Astronomy 545
Chapter 14. Travelogues and Geographies 549
Contents xxiii

Chapter 15. Medicine 556

Chapter 16. 571
A Natural Sciences and Technology 571
B Games, Sports, and War 572
C Music 573
Chapter 17. Occult Sciences 574
Chapter 18. Encyclopaedias and Polyhistories 578
| Introduction 1

I The Task of Literary History

| In its widest sense, one may call “literature” everything that has been written, 1
or spoken and then written down, for the purpose of having it remembered. For
this reason, A. Boeckh suggested including inscriptions as part of a people’s lit-
erature. In cases where the history of a dead language is written using a limited
number of monuments one can also employ charters, letters, and the like. But
when a language has such a rich abundance of examples as does Arabic, then
one will, from among these, only regard those that address themselves from
the outset to a larger audience, with the aim of affecting its mood or enriching
its knowledge, as literature. Among the “civilised” nations these manifestations
have accumulated to such a degree that the literary historian is compelled to
limit himself purely to poetry. However, Arabic poetry did not have the same
significance for the development of human culture and knowledge as a whole
compared to the achievements of scholars writing in Arabic for the develop-
ment of the sciences. This is because the Arabic language was not limited to a
single nation, but was the bearer of all culture and education in the vast area
where Islam penetrated as a religion, from the banks of the Pontus to Zanzibar,
from Fez and Timbuktu to Kashgar and the Sunda islands, ceding this role only
belatedly to various national languages, and then only in part. | This is why the 2
historian of Arabic literature must draw all these manifestations into his orbit;
it is only for the outputs of the modern era, in which the world of Islam has
become | more and more aligned with European culture, that one can limit 2
oneself to poetry alone.
Given that Arabic literature will only be considered here insofar as it is a
manifestation of Islamic culture, all works by Christians and Jews that were
only directed at their co-religionists will be excluded. Furthermore, the amount
of material, which is in any case enormous, forces us to focus mainly on those
works that do survive, and, from the vast multitude of works that are no lon-
ger extant but known to us through later citations, to only draw attention to
those that had an important impact and influence on the later development
of literature.
The study of literature in the elevated sense of the word1 is a means by
which modern scholars try to understand both the literary heritage of a people

1 B. Ten Brink, Über die Aufgabe der Litteraturgeschichte (rectorial address), Strasburg 1891. E.
Elster, Die Aufgaben der Litteraturgeschichte (academic acceptance speech), Halle 1894, the

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���6 | doi ��.��63/9789004326262_002

 2 Introduction

in terms of it being part of its culture as a whole, and how the circumstances of
its composition and personalities of authors are reflected in individual works.
This is why, at present, it is only possible to deal with individual areas of Arabic
literature, employing the same methodology that was used by Goldziher in
3 the field of ḥadīth. | Anyone hoping to give an account of the field as a whole
will have to limit themselves, at least for the time being, to the outward phe-
nomena of any literature as reflected in the lives and times of its authors and
their works, thereby preparing the ground for future study of its origins and
development.

works mentioned in Supp. I, 3, n. 1 and 934, and Horst Oppel, Die Literaturwissenschaft in der
Gegenwart, Methodologie und Wissenschaftslehre, Stuttgart 1939.
Introduction 3

II Sources and Early Accounts of the Literary History of the Arabs

With the exception of those monographs that will be mentioned in their

proper places throughout these volumes, the most important biographical and
bibliographical sources for the field as a whole are as follows:

| 1. Biographical works 3

Ibn Khall. = Ibn Khallikān (p. 326), Wafayāt al-aʿyān, Būlāq 12991; Vitae illus-
trium virorum, ed. F. Wüstenfeld, Göttingen 1835–40; Ibn Khallikan’s biographi-
cal dictionary translated from the Arabic, by MacGuckin de Slane, 4 vols.,
Paris-London 1843–71.
Fawāt = Muḥammad b. Shākir al-Kutubī (II, 48), Fawāt al-wafayāt, 2 vols.,
Būlāq 1299.

2. Bibliographical works

Fihr. = Kitāb al-Fihrist, hsgb. von G. Flügel, nach dessen Tode besorgt von
J. Rödiger und A. Müller, 2 vols., Leipzig 1871/2.
ḤKh = Lexicon bibliographicum et encyclopaedicum a Mustapha ben Abdallah
Katib Jelebi dicto et nomine Haji Khalfa celebrato compositum, ed. latine vertit et
commentario indicibusque instruxit G. Flügel, 7 vols, Leipzig-London 1835–58;
Keşf el-Zunun, Birinci Cilt, Katib Çelebi elde mevcut yazma ve basma nüshalari
ve zeyilleri gözden geçirilerek, müellifin elyazisiyle olan nüshaya göre fazlalari
çikarilmak, eksikleri tamamlanmak suretiyle Maarif Vekilliğin karari üzerine
Istanbul Universitesinde Ord. Prof. Şerefettin Yaltkaya ile Lektör Kilisli Rifat Bilge
tarafindan hazirlanmiştir, Maarif Matbaasi 1941.
Ellis, A.G., Catalogue of Arabic books in the British Museum, London I 1894, II
1901, III (indices by A.S. Fulton) 1938.

1 Since this edition is by preference cited according to the numbering of the vitae, the fol-
lowing short concordance with Wüstenfeld may be helpful: W 1–75 = K 1–75. Missing in K:
W 76, 78, 133, 147, 149, 150, 154, 186–199, 201, 202 (= Fawāt I, 145), 213, 214 (= Fawāt I, 149),
217, 277, 278 (= Fawāt I, 171), 288, 291, 292, 293, 294, 303, 317, 318, 337–347, 364, 380, 381, 528;
mostly just captions, but here and there they also have the date of death. On the other hand,
297 K is missing in W; 357 was misnumbered in W; 405 W as an appendix to 404 = 367 K is
not counted separately. In the following vitae K is more elaborate than W: 220 K = 233 W;
223 K = 236 W; 230 K = 243 W; 233 K = 246 W; 248 K = 261 W; on the other hand, only 242
W is more elaborate than 229 K. As a result of a transposition, 181 K = 186 W. Because the
order hāʾ-wāw of K is reversed in W, the correspondence is now W 778–90 = K 745–57 and
W 791–96 = K 739–44.
 4 Introduction

4 Euting, J., Katalog der Kaiserlichen Universitäts- und | Landesbibliothek in

Strassburg, Arabische Literatur, Strasburg 1877.
BO = J. Th. Zenker, Bibliotheca orientalis, Manuel de bibliographie orientale,
2 vols., Leipzig 1846, 1861.
Herrm. = Herrmann C.H., Bibliotheca orientalis et linguistica, Verzeichnis
der vom Jahre 1850 bis incl. 1868 in Deutschland erschienenen Bücher, Schriften
und Abhandlungen orientalischer und sprachvergleichender Literatur, Halle a.
S 1870.
Fried. = Friederici K., Bibliotheca orientalis oder vollständige Liste aller 1876–
83 in Deutschland, Frankreich, England und den Kolonien erschienenen Bücher
usw, Leipzig 1877–84.
L. Bl. = Literaturblatt für orientalische Philologie, hsgb. von E. Kuhn, Leipzig
1883/8.
4 | OB. = Orientalische Bibliographie, begründet von A. Müller, hsgb. von
L. Scherman, Berlin 1887ff.

Manuscript catalogues represent the most important source of information

and are mentioned here according to the alphabetical order of their sigla:

Algiers: Catalogue général des mss. des bibliothèques publiques de France,

Départements, Tome XVIII, Alger par E. Fagnan, Paris 1893.
AS: Defteri Kütübḫāneʾī Aya Sofia, Istanbul 1304.
Berl.: W. Ahlwardt, Verzeichnis der arabischen Hdss. der Königl. Bibliothek zu
Berlin, vols. I–X, Berlin 1887ff.2
Bodl.: Bibliothecae Bodleianae codd. mss. or. Catalogus, pars I a J. Uri, Oxford
1787. Pars II, vol. I, ab Alex. Nicoll, Oxford 1821, vol. II ab E.B. Pusey, Oxford 1835.
Br. Mus.: Catalogus codd. mss. qui in Musaeo Britannico asservantur, Pars II,
codd. arab. amplectens, 3 vols., London 1846–79.
Br. Mus. Suppl.: Ch. Rieu, Supplement to the Catalogue of the Arabic
Manuscripts in the British Museum, London 1894.
Brill-H.: Houtsma M. Th., Catalogue dʼune collection de mss. arabes et turcs
appartenant à la maison E.J. Brill à Leide, Leiden 1886, 18892 (now in Princeton,
Garrett Collection).
5 | Cairo, Fihrist al-kutub al-ʿarabiyya al-maḥfūẓa bil-kutubkhāne al-Khidīwiyya
al-Miṣriyya, vols. I–VII, Cairo 1306/9.

2 In the listings at the end of each entry the reference is: Ahlw. no. New acquisitions that have
not yet been catalogued are cited according to the number of the manuscript.
Introduction 5

Cambr.: Palmer, E., Descriptive Catalogue of the Arabic, Persian and Turkish
Manuscripts in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge 1870.
Copenhagen: Codices arabici Bibliothecae Regiae Hafniensis, enumer. et descr.
a F. Mehren, Copenhagen 1851.
Daḥdāḥ M―y Bīṭār: Daḥdāḥ Rocheid, Catalogue dʼune collection de mss. ar.
précieux et de livres rares, Paris 1912, now in Berlin, cited here as Berl. Brill M.
Dresd.: Fleischer, H.L., Catalogus codd. mss. or. Bibl. Reg. Dresdensis, Leipzig
1831.
Escur.:1 Bibliotheca Arabico-Hispana Escurialensis opera, M. Casiri, 2 vols.,
Madrid 1760–70.
Escur.:2 Derenbourg, H., Les manuscrits arabes de l’Escurial, I, Paris 1884; II,
fs. I. Morale et Politique, Paris 1903.
Gotha: Pertsch, W., Die arabischen Hdss. der Herzoglichen Bibliothek zu
Gotha, vols. I–V, Gotha 1877–92.
Ind. Off.: Loth, O., Catalogue of the Ar. Mss. in the Library of the India Office,
London 1877.
Jong: P. de Jong, Catalogus codd. or. bibl. acad. scient., Leiden 1862.
| Köpr.: Köprülüzāde Meḥmed Pāšā Kütübḫānesinde maḥfūẓ kütübi 5
mevǧūdenin defteri, Istanbul n.d.
Krafft H.: Die arab. pers. und türk. Hdss. der k.k. Orientalischen Akademie zu
Wien, Vienna 1842.
Leid.: Catalogus codd. or. bibl. acad. Lugd. Bat. ed. Dozy, de Jong, de Goeje
et Houtsma, vols. I–VI, Leiden 1851–77. Catalogus codd. arab. ed. II auctoribus
M.J. de Goeje et M. Th. Houtsma, vol. I, Leiden. 1888, vol. II pars I, auct.
M.J. de Goeje et W. Th. Juynboll, Leiden 1907.
Leipz.: Catalogus librorum mss. bibl. senatus Lipsiensis ed. A.G.R. Neumann.
Cod. or. ling. descr. H.O. Fleischer et F. Delitzsch, Grimma 1838.
Madr.: (Robles, F.G.) Catálogo de los manuscritos árabes exist. en la Biblioteca
Nacional de Madrid, Madrid 1889.
Med.: Bibliothecae Mediceae Laurentianae et Palatinae codd. mss. or. cata-
logus, St. Evodius Assemani recensuit, Florence 1742.
Munich: Aumer J., Die arab. und pers. Hdss. der Hof-und Staatsbibliothek in
München, Munich 1866.
Nan.: Catalogo dei Codd. Mss. or. della Bibliotheca Naniana comp. dallʾ Ab.
S. Assemani. p. I, II, Padua 1792.
| NO: Nūru Osmānīye kütübḫānesinde maḥfūẓ kütübi mevǧūdenin defteri, 6
Istanbul n.d.
Paris: Bibliothèque Nationale, Département des manuscrits. Catalogue des
mss. arabes par de Slane, Paris 1883–95.
Other documents randomly have
different content
tumblerful of home-brewed ale or a glass or two of wine daily; but, as
I before remarked, in the generality of cases, either toast and water,
or barley-water and milk, for the first week after a confinement, is
the best beverage.
607. After a week, either a tumblerful of mild home-brewed ale or
of London or Dublin porter, where it agrees, should be taken at
dinner; but if ale or porter be given, wine ought not to be allowed. It
would be well to keep either to ale or to porter, as may best agree
with the patient, and not to mix them, nor to take porter at one meal
and ale at another.
608. Barreled, in this case, is superior to bottled porter, as it
contains less fixed air. On the whole, however, I should prefer home-
brewed ale to porter. Either old, or very new, or very strong ale,
ought not, at this time, to be given.
609. Great care is required in the summer, as the warm weather is
apt to turn the beer acid. Such beer would not only disagree with the
mother, but would disorder the milk, and thus the infant. A nursing
mother sometimes endeavors to correct sour porter or beer by
putting soda in it. This plan is objectionable, as the constant taking
of soda is weakening to the stomach and impoverishing to the blood.
Moreover, it is impossible, by any artificial expedient, to make either
tart beer or porter sound and wholesome, and fit for a nursing
mother. If beer or porter be sour, it is not fit to drink, and ought
either to be thrown away or should be given to the pigs.
610. Sometimes neither wine nor malt liquor agrees; then, either
new milk and water, or equal parts of fresh milk and barley-water,
will generally be found the best beverage. If milk should also
disagree, either barley-water, or toast and water, ought to be
substituted.

CHANGE OF ROOM.

611. The period at which a lying-in woman should leave her room
will, of course, depend upon the season, and upon the state of her
health. She may, after the first fourteen days, usually change the
chamber for the drawing-room, provided it be close at hand; if it be
not, she ought, during the day, to remove—be either wheeled or
carried in a chair—from one bedroom to another, as change of
apartment will then be desirable. The windows, during her absence
from the room, ought to be thrown wide open; and the bedclothes, in
order that they may be well ventilated, should be thrown back. She
should, at the end of three weeks, take her meals with the family; but
even then she ought occasionally, during the day, to lie on the sofa to
rest her back.

EXERCISE IN THE OPEN AIR.

612. The period at which a lady, after her confinement, ought to

take exercise in the open air, will, of course, depend upon the season,
and upon the state of the wind and weather. In the winter, not until
the expiration of a month, and not even then unless the weather be
fine for the season. Carriage exercise will at first be the most suitable.
In the summer she may, at the end of three weeks, take an airing in a
carriage, provided the weather be fine, and the wind be neither in an
easterly nor in a northeasterly direction. At the expiration of the
month she may, provided the season and weather will allow, go out
of doors regularly, and gradually resume her household duties and
employments.
 PART IV.
SUCKLING.

THE DUTIES OF A NURSING MOTHER

613. A mother ought not, unless she intend to devote herself to her
baby, to undertake to suckle him. She must make up her mind to
forego the so-called pleasures of fashionable life. There ought, in a
case of this kind, to be no half-and-half measures; she should either
give up her helpless babe to the tender mercies of a wet-nurse, or she
must devote her whole time and energy to his welfare—to the
greatest treasure that God hath given her.
614. If a mother be blessed with health and strength, it is most
unnatural and very cruel for her not to suckle her child—
“Connubial fair! whom no fond transport warms
To lull your infant in maternal arms;
Who, blessed in vain with tumid bosoms, hear
His tender wailings with unfeeling ear;
The soothing kiss and milky rill deny
To the sweet pouting lip and glistening eye!
Ah! what avails the cradle’s damask roof,
The eider bolster, and embroidered woof!
Oft hears the gilded couch unpitied plains,
And many a tear the tasseled cushion stains!
No voice so sweet attunes his cares to rest,
So soft no pillow as his mother’s breast!—
Thus charmed to sweet repose, when twilight hours
Shed their soft influence on celestial bowers,
The cherub Innocence, with smile divine,
Shuts his white wings, and sleeps on beauty’s shrine.”[111]

615. Oh, if a mother did but know the joy that suckling her infant
imparts, she would never for one moment contemplate having a wet-
nurse to rob her of that joy—
 “The starting beverage meets the thirsty lip;
’Tis joy to yield it, and ’tis joy to sip.”[112]

616. Lamentable, indeed, must it be, if any unavoidable obstacle

should prevent a mother from nursing her own child!

THE BREAST.

617. As soon as the patient has recovered from the fatigue of the
labor—that is to say, in about four or six hours—attention ought to be
paid, more especially in a first confinement, to the bosoms.
618. In a first confinement, there is, until the third day, but very
little milk; although there is usually on that day, and for two or three
days afterward, a great deal of swelling, of hardness, of distention,
and of uneasiness of the breasts, in consequence of which, in a first
confinement, both care and attention are needed.
619. If there be milk in the breast, which may be readily
ascertained by squeezing the nipple between the finger and the
thumb, the infant should, at first, be applied—not frequently, as
some do, but at considerable intervals, say until the milk be properly
secreted—every four hours; when the milk flows, the child ought to
be applied more frequently, but still at stated times.
620. To wash away any viscid mucus from the nipple, or any stale
perspiration from the bosom, let the breasts and the nipples, before
applying the baby, be first sponged with a little warm water, and then
be dried with a warm, dry, soft napkin; for some infants are so
particular that unless the breasts and the nipples be perfectly free
from mucus and from perspiration, they will not suck. If after the
above cleansing process there be any difficulty in making him take
the bosom, smear a little cream on the nipple, and then immediately
apply him to it.
621. If the breasts be full, hard, knotty, and painful, which they
generally are two or three days after a first confinement, let them be
well but tenderly rubbed every four hours, either with the best olive
oil (a little of which should, before using it, be previously warmed, by
putting a little of the oil in a teacup on the hob by the fire) or with
equal parts of olive oil and of eau de Cologne, which should be well
shaken up in a bottle every time before it be used.
622. On the third day, more especially after a first confinement,
the breasts are apt to become very much swollen, painful, and
distended. If such be the case, it might be necessary, for a few days,
to have them drawn, once or twice daily, by a woman who makes it
her business, and who is usually called either a breast-drawer, or, in
vulgar parlance, a suck-pap. A clean, sober, healthy, respectable
woman ought to be selected. There is, in nearly every large town, one
generally to be found who is at the head of her profession. Such a one
should be chosen.
623. If the bosoms be more than usually large and painful, in
addition to assiduously using the above liniment, apply to the
breasts, in the intervals, young cabbage-leaves, which should be
renewed after each rubbing. Before applying them, the “veins” of the
leaves, with a sharp knife, must be cut smooth, level with the leaf. It
will require several, as the whole of the breast ought to be covered.
The cabbage-leaves will be found both cooling and comfortable. Each
bosom should then be nicely supported with a soft folded silk
handkerchief, going under each breast and suspending it; each
handkerchief should then be tied at the back of the neck, thus acting
as a kind of sling.
624. The patient ought not, while the breasts are full and
uncomfortable, to drink much fluid, as it would only encourage a
larger secretion of milk.
625. When the milk is at “its height,” as it is called, she ought every
morning, for a couple of mornings, to take a little cooling medicine—
a Seidlitz powder—and, every four hours, the following effervescing
mixture:
Take of—Bicarbonate of Potash, one drachm and a half;
Distilled Water, eight ounces:

To make a mixture. Two tablespoonfuls to be taken, with two tablespoonfuls of

the Acid Mixture, every four hours, while effervescing.

Take of—Citric Acid, three drachms;

Distilled Water, eight ounces:
Mix.—The Acid Mixture.
 The best way of taking the above effervescing medicine is to put
two tablespoonfuls of the first mixture into a tumbler, and two
tablespoonfuls of the acid mixture into a wineglass, then to add the
latter to the former, and it will bubble up like soda-water; she should
instantly drink it off while effervescing.
626. In two or three days, under the above management, the size
of the bosoms will decrease, all pain will cease, and the infant will
take the breast with ease and comfort.
627. Second and succeeding confinements.—If the breasts are
tolerably comfortable (which in the second and in succeeding
confinements they probably will be), let nothing be done to them
except, as soon as the milk comes, at regular intervals applying the
child alternately to each of them. Many a bosom has been made
uncomfortable, irritable, swollen, and even sometimes gathered, by
the nurse’s interference and meddling. Meddlesome midwifery is
bad, and I am quite sure that meddlesome breast-tending is equally
so. A nurse, in her wisdom, fancies that by rubbing, by pressing, by
squeezing, by fingering, by liniment, and by drawing, she does great
good, while in reality, in the majority of cases, by such interference
she does great harm.
628. The child will, in second and in succeeding confinements, as a
rule, be the best and the only doctor the bosoms require. I am quite
convinced that, in a general way, nurses interfere too much, and that
the bosoms in consequence suffer. It is, of course, the doctor’s and
not the nurse’s province in such matters, to direct the treatment;
while it is the nurse’s duty to fully carry out the doctor’s instructions.
629. There is nothing, in my opinion, that so truly tells whether a
nurse be a good one or otherwise, as the way she manages the
breasts; a good nurse is judicious, and obeys the medical man’s
orders to the very letter; while, on the other hand, a bad nurse acts
on her own judgment, and is always quacking, interfering, and
fussing with the breasts, and doing on the sly what she dare not do
openly: such conceited, meddlesome nurses are to be studiously
avoided; they often cause, from their meddlesome ways, the breasts
to gather.
630. Let the above advice be borne in mind, and much trouble,
misery, and annoyance might be averted. Nature, in the majority of
cases, manages these things much better than any nurse possibly can
do, and does not, as a rule, require helping. The breasts are sadly too
much interfered and messed with by nurses, and by nurses who are,
in other respects, tolerably good ones.

STATED TIMES FOR SUCKLING.

631. A mother ought to suckle her baby at stated times. It is a bad

habit to give him the bosom every time he cries, regardless of the
cause; for be it what it may—over-feeding, griping, “wind,” or acidity
—she is apt to consider the breast a panacea for all his sufferings. “A
mother generally suckles her infant too often—having him almost
constantly at the bosom. This practice is injurious both to parent and
to child. For the first month he should be suckled about every hour
and a half; for the second month, every two hours; gradually, as he
becomes older, increasing the distance of time between, until at
length he has the breast about every four hours. If he were suckled at
stated periods he would only look for it at those times, and be
satisfied.”[113]
632. A mother frequently allows her babe to be at the bosom a
great part of every night. Now, this plan is hurtful both to her and to
him; it weakens her, and thus enfeebles him; it robs them both of
their sleep; and generates bad habits, which it will be difficult to
break through; it often gives the mother a sore nipple and the child a
sore mouth.
633. It is surprising how soon an infant, at a very early age, may,
by judicious management, be brought into good habits; it only
requires, at first, a little determination and perseverance: therefore a
nursing mother ought at once to commence by giving the child the
breast at stated periods, and she should rigidly adhere to the times
above recommended.
634. A mother should not, directly after taking a long walk, and
while her skin is in a state of violent perspiration, give her baby the
bosom; the milk being at that time in a heated state, will disorder the
child’s bowels, or it may originate in him some skin disease, and one
which it might be difficult to cure. She ought, therefore, before she
gives him the breast, to wait until the surface of her body be
moderately cool. Let her be careful the while not to sit in draughts.
 CLOTHING.

635. A nursing mother ought to have her dress, more especially her
stays, made loose and comfortable.
636. A gathered breast sometimes arises from the bones of the
stays pressing into the bosom; I should, therefore, recommend her to
have the bones removed.
637. If a lady be not in the habit of wearing a flannel waistcoat, she
ought at least to have her bosoms covered with flannel, taking care
that there be a piece of soft linen over the nipples.
638. I should advise a nursing mother to provide herself with a
waterproof nursing apron, which may be procured either at any
baby-linen establishment or at an india-rubber warehouse.

DIETARY.

639. A nursing mother ought to live plainly; her diet should be

both light and nourishing. It is a mistaken notion that at these times
she requires extra good living. She ought never to be forced to eat
more than her appetite demands; if she be, either indigestion, or
heartburn, or sickness, or costiveness, or a bowel complaint will
ensue. It is a folly at any time to force the appetite. If she be not
hungry, compelling her to eat will do her more harm than good. A
medical man, in such a case, ought to be consulted.
640. The best meats are mutton and beef; veal and pork may, for a
change, be eaten. Salted meats are hard of digestion; if boiled beef,
therefore, be eaten, it ought to be only slightly salted. It is better, in
winter, to have the boiled beef unsalted; it is then, especially if it be
the rump, deliciously tender. Salt, of course, must be eaten with the
unsalted meat. High-seasoned dishes are injurious; they inflame the
blood, and thus they disorder the milk.
641. Some persons consider that there is no care required in the
selection of the food, and that a nursing mother may eat anything, be
it ever so gross and unwholesome; but, if we appeal to reason and to
facts, we shall be borne out in saying that great care is required. It is
well known that cow’s milk very much partakes of the properties of
the food on which the animal lives. Thus, if a cow feed on swedes, the
milk and the butter will have a turnipy flavor. This, beyond a doubt,
decides that the milk does partake of the qualities of the food on
which she feeds. The same reasoning holds good in the human
species, and proves the absurdity of a nursing mother being allowed
to eat anything, be it ever so gross, indigestible, or unwholesome.
Again, either a dose of purgative medicine given to her, or greens
taken by her at dinner, will sometimes purge the baby as violently, or
even more so, than it will herself.
642. Even the milk of a healthy wet-nurse acts differently, and less
beneficially, upon the child than the mother’s own milk. The ages of
the mother and of the wet-nurse, the ages of her own and the latter’s
infant, the constitutions of the one and of the other, the adaptability
of a mother’s milk for her own particular child—all tend to make a
foster-mother not so desirable a nurse as the mother herself. Again, a
mother cannot at all times get to the antecedents of a wet-nurse; and,
if she can, they will not always bear investigation.
643. With regard to the ages of the mother and of the wet-nurse—
for instance, as a wet-nurse’s milk is generally a few weeks older than
the mother’s own milk, the wet-nurse’s milk may, and frequently
does, produce costiveness of the bowels of her foster-child; while, on
the other hand, the mother’s own milk, being in age just adapted to
her babe’s, may and generally does keep her own infant’s bowels
regular. The milk, according to the age of the child, alters in
properties and qualities to suit the age, constitution, and
acquirements of her baby—adapting itself, so to speak, to his
progressive development. Hence the importance of a mother, if
possible, suckling her own child.
644. A babe who is suckled by a mother who lives grossly is more
prone to disease, particularly to skin and to inflammatory
complaints, and to disease which is more difficult to subdue.
645. Do not let me be misunderstood: I am not advocating that a
mother should be fussily particular—by no means. Let her take a
variety of food, both animal and vegetable; let her from day to day
vary her diet; let her ring the changes on boiled and stewed, on
grilled and roast meats; on mutton and lamb and beef; on chicken
and game and fish; on vegetables, potatoes, and turnips; on broccoli
and cauliflower, on asparagus and peas (provided they are young and
well boiled), and French beans. “The maxim of the greatest
importance in reference to the materials of human food is, mixture
and variety—a maxim founded, as has been stated, upon man’s
omnivorous nature. Animal and vegetable substances, soups and
solid meat, fish, flesh, and fowl, in combination or succession, ought,
if due advantage is to be taken of the health-sustaining element in
food, to form the dietary of every household.”[114]
646. But what I object to a nursing mother taking are—gross
meats, such as goose and duck; highly-salted beef; shell-fish, such as
lobster and crab; rich dishes; highly-seasoned soup; pastry, unless it
be plain; and cabbages and greens and pickles, if found to disagree
with the baby; and any other article of food which is either rich, or
gross, or indigestible, and which, from experience, she has found to
disagree either with herself or with her child. It will be seen,
therefore, from the above catalogue, that my restrictions as to diet
are limited, and are, I hope, founded both on reason and on common
sense.
647. A moderate quantity—say a tumblerful—either of fresh mild
ale or of porter will generally be found the best beverage both for
dinner and for supper. There is much more nourishment in either ale
—home-brewed—or in porter, than in wine; therefore, for a nursing
mother, either ale or porter is far preferable to wine. Wine, if taken at
all, ought to be used very sparingly, and then not at the same meal
with the porter or ale. In the higher ranks of life, where a lady is in
the habit of drinking wine, it is necessary to continue it, although the
quantity should not be increased, and ought never to exceed a couple
of glasses—dry sherry being the best wine for the purpose.
648. A nursing mother is subject to thirst. When such be the case,
she ought not to fly either to beer or to wine to quench it; this will
only add fuel to the fire. The best beverages will be either toast and
water, milk and water, barley-water, barley-water and new milk (in
equal proportions), or black tea, either hot or cold. Cold black tea is a
good quencher of thirst.
649. A lady who is nursing is at times liable to fits of depression.
Let me strongly urge the importance of her abstaining from wine and
from all other stimulants as a remedy; they would only raise for a
time her spirits, and then would depress them in an increased ratio.
Either a drive in the country, or a short walk, or a cup of tea, or a
chat with a friend, would be the best medicine. The diet should be
good and nourishing; plenty of bread and plenty of meat should be
her staple food, in addition to which Du Barry’s Arabica Revalenta,
made either with fresh milk or with cream and water, is, in these
cases, most useful and sustaining. The best time for taking it is either
for luncheon or for supper. A lady subject to depression should bear
in mind that she requires nourishment, not stimulants,—that much
wine and spirits might cheer her for the moment, but will assuredly
depress her afterward. Depression always follows overstimulation;
wine and spirits therefore, in such a case, if taken largely, are false
and hollow friends. It is necessary to bear the above facts in mind, as
there are many advocates who strongly recommend, in a case of this
kind, a large consumption of wine and brandy. Such men are, at the
present moment, doing an immense deal of mischief; they are, in
point of fact, inducing and encouraging drunkenness.
650. Spirits—brandy, rum, gin, and whisky—are, during suckling,
injurious; I may even say that they are insidious poisons to the
parent, and, indirectly, to the child.
651. When an infant is laboring under an inflammatory complaint,
a nursing mother ought not to take stimulants, such as either ale or
wine. In a case of this kind, toast and water will, for her dinner, be
the best beverage, gruel for her supper, and black tea—not coffee, as
it would be too stimulating—both for her breakfast and tea.

FRESH AIR AND EXERCISE.

652. Out-door exercise during suckling cannot be too strongly

insisted upon; it is the finest medicine both for babe and mother.
Whenever the weather will admit, it must be taken. It is utterly
impossible for a nursing mother to make good milk, unless she do
take an abundance of exercise and breathe plenty of fresh air.
653. Whatever improves the health of the mother, of course at the
same time benefits the child: there is nothing more conducive to
health than an abundance of out-door exercise. It often happens that
a mother who is nursing seldom leaves her house; she is a regular
fixture; the consequence is, both she and her babe are usually
delicate and prone to sickness.
 654. A mother ought not, immediately after taking exercise, to
nurse her infant, but wait for half an hour. Nor should she take
violent exercise, as it would be likely to disorder the milk.
655. Carriage exercise, if the weather be hot and sultry, is
preferable to walking; if that be not practicable, she ought to have the
windows thrown wide open, and should walk about the hall, the
landings, and the rooms, as she would by such means avoid the
intense heat of the sun. Although carriage exercise during intensely
hot weather is preferable to walking exercise, yet, notwithstanding,
walking must, during some portion of the day, be practiced. There is
no substitute, as far as health is concerned, for walking. Many
ailments that ladies now labor under could be walked away; and
really it would be a pleasant physic—far more agreeable than pills
and potions!

THE POSITION OF A MOTHER DURING SUCKLING.

656. Good habits are as easily formed as bad ones. A mother, when
in bed, ought always to suckle her child while she is lying down. The
sitting up in bed, during such times, is a fruitful source of
inflammation and of gathering of the breasts. Of course, during the
day the sitting-up position is the best. Let me caution her not to
nurse her baby in a half-sitting and half-lying posture; it will spoil
her figure, disturb her repose, and weaken her back.

THE TEMPER.

657. Passion is injurious to the mother’s milk, and consequently to

the child. Sudden joy and grief frequently disorder the infant’s
bowels, producing griping, looseness, etc.; hence, a mother who has a
mild, placid temper generally makes an excellent nurse, on which
account it is a fortunate circumstance that she is frequently better-
tempered during suckling than at any other period of her life; indeed,
she usually, at such times, experiences great joy and gladness.
658. The happiest period of a woman’s existence is, as a rule, when
she first becomes a mother. “The pleasure of the young mother in her
babe is said to be more exquisite than any other earthly bliss.”[115]
659. It is an old and, I believe, a true saying, that the child inherits
the temper of his mother or of his wet-nurse. This may be owing to
the following reasons: If the mother or the wet-nurse be good-
tempered, the milk will be more likely to be wholesome, which will,
of course, make him more healthy, and consequently better-
tempered.
660. While, on the other hand, if the mother or the nurse be of an
irritable, cross temper, the milk will suffer, and will thus cause
disarrangement to his system; and hence ill health and ill temper will
be likely to ensue. We all know the influence that good or bad health
has on the temper.
661. An important reason, then, why a nursing mother is often
better-tempered than she is at other times is, she is in better health,
her stomach is in a healthier state:
“A good digestion turneth all to health.”[116]

There is an old and a true saying, “that it is the stomach that makes
the man,” and if the man, the woman:
“Your stomach makes your fabric roll,
Just as the bias rules the bowl.”[117]

662. Hear what Shakspeare says of the functions of the stomach.

The stomach is supposed to speak (and does it not frequently speak,
and in very unmistakable language, if we will but only listen to its
voice?):
“True is it, my incorporate friends, quoth he,
That I receive the general food at first
Which you do live upon: and fit it is;
Because I am the store-house and the shop
Of the whole body: But if you do remember,
I send it through the rivers of your blood,
Even to the court, the heart,—to the seat o’ the brain;
And, through the cranks and offices of man,
The strongest nerves, and small inferior veins,
From me receive that natural competency
Whereby they live: And though that all at once,
You, my good friends, though all at once cannot
 See what I do deliver out to each;
Yet I can make my audit up, that all
From me do back receive the flour of all,
And leave me but the bran.”

Coriolanus, act i. sc. 1.

OCCUPATION.

663. I strongly recommend a nursing mother to attend to her

household duties. She is never so happy, nor so well, as when her
mind is moderately occupied at something useful. She never looks so
charming as when she is attending to her household duties—
“For nothing lovelier can be found
In woman, than to study household good.”[118]

664. I do not mean by occupation the frequenting of balls, of routs,

or of parties: a nursing mother has no business to be at such places;
she ought to devote herself to her infant and to her household, and
she will then experience the greatest happiness this world can afford.
665. One reason why the poor make so much better nursing
mothers than the rich is the former having so much occupation;
while the latter, having no real work to do, the health becomes
injured, and in consequence the functions of the breasts suffer;
indeed, many a fashionable lady has no milk at all, and is therefore
compelled to delegate to a wet-nurse one of her greatest privileges
and enjoyments.
666. What would not some rich mother give for the splendid
supply of milk—of healthy, nourishing, life-giving milk—of the poor
woman who has to labor for her daily bread!
667. What is the reason that wealthy ladies so frequently require
wet-nurses? The want of occupation! And from whom do they obtain
the supply of wet-nurses? From the poor women who have no lack of
occupation, as they have to labor for their daily food, and have in
consequence the riches of health, though poor in this world’s goods—
“For health is riches to the poor.”[119]
 Bear this in mind, ye wealthy, and indolent, and pampered ladies,
and alter your plans of life, or take the consequences, and still let the
poor women have the healthy, the chubby, the rosy, the laughing
children; and you, ye rich ones, have the unhealthy, the skinny, the
sallow, the dismal little old men and women who are constantly
under the doctor’s care, and who have to struggle for their very
existence! “Employment, which Galen calls ‘nature’s physician,’ is so
essential to human happiness, that Indolence is justly considered as
the mother of Misery.”[120]
668. Occupation, then—bustling occupation, real downright work,
either in the form of out-door exercise, or of attending to her
household duties—a lady, if she desire to have a good breast of milk,
ought to take; if, in point of fact, she wishes to have healthy children.
For the Almighty is no respecter of persons. And he has ordained
that work shall be the lot of man and of woman too! It is a blessed
thing to be obliged to work. If we do not work, we have all to pay a
heavy penalty, in the form of loss of both health and happiness. “For
work is the grand cure of all the maladies and miseries that ever
beset mankind—honest work, which you intend getting done.”[121]
669. A mother who is listless and idle, lolling either the greater
part of every day in an easy-chair, or reclining on a sofa in a room
where a breath of air is not allowed to enter, usually makes a
miserable and a wretched nurse. She is nervous, dyspeptic, and
emaciated; having but little milk, and that little of a bad quality, her
baby is puny, pallid, and unhealthy, and frequently drops into an
untimely grave. Occupation, then, with fresh air and exercise, is
indispensable to a mother who is suckling.

AILMENTS, Etc.

670. The Nipple.—A good nipple is important both to the comfort

of the mother and to the well-doing of the child.
671. One, among many, of the ill effects of stays and of corsets is
the pushing-in of the nipples; sore nipples, and consequent
suffering, are the result. Moreover, a mother thus circumstanced
may be quite unable to suckle her infant; and then she will be
severely punished for her ignorance and folly; she will be compelled
to forego the pleasure of nursing her own children, and she will be
obliged to delegate to hirelings her greatest privilege! Ladies who
never wear stays have much better nipples, and more fully-developed
bosoms; hence such mothers are more likely to make better nurses to
their babies. There is no doubt that the pressure of the stays on the
bosom tends both to waste away the gland of the breast (where the
milk is secreted), and to cause the nipple either to dwindle or to be
pushed in, and thus to sadly interfere with its functions. I should
strongly advise every mother who has daughters old enough to profit
by it, to bear this fact in mind, and thus to prevent mischief when
mischief might be prevented, by not allowing them, when young, to
wear stays.
672. Treatment of very small and drawn-in nipples.—The baby
ought to suck through the intervention of an india-rubber teat
fastened on a boxwood shield, or through an india-rubber teat and
shield, made entirely of india-rubber.[122] The india-rubber teat must,
before it is used, be softened by dipping it in warm but not in hot
water. I have known many mothers able to suckle their children with
this contrivance who otherwise would have been obliged either to
have weaned them, or to have procured the assistance of a wet-nurse.
The above aid, in the generality of instances, will enable the infant to
suck with ease. After this has for a time been used, the nipples will be
so improved as to render the continuance of it unnecessary. Of
course I do not advise the use of an india-rubber teat until a fair trial
has been given by applying the babe at once to the nipple; but if he
cannot draw out the nipple, then, rather than wean him, or than
employ a wet-nurse, let the teat be tried.
673. Remember, as soon as the nipple be sufficiently drawn out,
which in all probability it will in a few days, the teat ought to be
dispensed with. In such a case, when the infant is not at the breast,
Dr. Wansbrough’s Metallic Nipple Shields should be worn. Small and
bad nipples have, by the wearing of these shields, frequently been
drawn out and made good ones; the dress will suffice to keep them in
their places.
674. Sore nipples.—If a lady, during the latter few months of her
pregnancy, were to adopt the plan recommended at page 162,
paragraph 353, sore nipples, during the period of suckling, would not
be so prevalent as they now are.
 675. A sore nipple is frequently produced by the injudicious
custom of allowing the child to have the nipple almost constantly in
his mouth. Stated periods for suckling, as recommended at
paragraph 631, ought to be strictly adopted. Another frequent cause
of a sore nipple is from the babe having the thrush. It is a folly to
attempt to cure the nipple without at the same time curing the mouth
of the infant.
676. Treatment.—One of the best remedies for a sore nipple is the
following powder:
Take of—Biborate of Soda, one drachm;
Powdered Starch, seven drachms:

Mix,—A pinch of the powder to be frequently applied to the nipple.

677. Dr. A. Todd Thomson’s—my old preceptor—remedy for sore
nipple is a very good one; it is as follows:
Take of—Finely-powdered Gum Arabic, half an ounce;
Powdered Alum, five grains:

To be well mixed together in a mortar to make a powder, of which a pinch

should either be sprinkled over the nipple, or it may be applied to the part by
means of a camel’s-hair brush every time directly after the child has done
sucking. Let the brush, covered with the dry powder, gently sweep over the
sore nipple.
As there is nothing in either of the above powders injurious to the
infant, the powder, before applying him to the breast, ought not to be
wiped off; indeed, either the one or the other of the powders (the
former one especially, as it contains borax) is likely to be of service in
preventing or in curing the sore mouth of the child.
678. If the above powders should not have the desired effect
(efficacious though they usually are), “a liniment composed of equal
parts of glycerin and of brandy” (say a vial containing two drachms of
each) ought to be tried, which must be shaken up just before using. It
should, by means of a camel’s-hair brush, every time directly after
the baby has been suckled, be painted on the nipple. A piece of either
old soft cambric or lawn, about the size of the palm of the hand,
snipped around to make it fit, ought then to be moistened in the
glycerin and the brandy, and should be applied to each of the sore
nipples, and worn (until they are cured) whenever the child is not at
the breast. These applications will be found of much service and of
great comfort, and will act as nipple shields, protecting and healing
the nipples. A soft sponge of warm water may be gently applied to
the nipple just before putting the child to the bosom.
679. If the above remedies should not succeed in curing the sore
nipple, then she ought to try Dr. Wansbrough’s Metallic Nipple
Shield (as recommended previously for small and drawn-in nipples),
and should, whenever the babe is not sucking, constantly wear it on
the nipple. It is very cooling and healing, and keeps off all pressure
from the clothes. It will frequently cure a sore nipple when other
remedies have failed. The shield may be procured of any respectable
surgical-instrument-maker.
680. Cracked and fissured nipples.—Sometimes the nipple is sore
from having either cracks or fissures upon it. These cracks or fissures
may attack any part of the nipple, but are very apt to form where the
nipple joins the breast; and, when very severe, an ignorant nurse,
who is always fond of dealing in the marvelous, declares that the
child has nearly bitten the nipple off! Treatment.—Now, the best
remedy for a cracked and fissured nipple is for the infant, until the
cracks and fissures are cured, to suck through the intervention of an
india-rubber teat and shield; and every time, directly after the babe
has been put to the nipple, to apply to the parts affected either neat
brandy or the glycerin and brandy liniment, as I have before
recommended. When the child is not at the breast, Dr. Wansbrough’s
Nipple Shields should be worn; the dress will keep them in their
places.
681. Another cause of a sore nipple is from the mother, after the
babe has been sucking, putting up the nipple wet. She, therefore,
ought always to dry the nipple—not by rubbing it, but by dabbing it
with either a soft cambric or lawn handkerchief, or with a piece of
soft linen rag (one or other of which ought always to be at hand),
every time directly after the infant has done sucking, and just before
applying either of the above powders or liniment to the nipple.
682. When the nipple is very sore, a mother, whenever the child is
put to the bosom, suffers intense pain. This being the case, she had
better suckle him through the intervention of an india-rubber teat,
properly fastened on a shield, as before recommended. See page 276,
paragraph 672. But she ought never to use an india-rubber teat
unless it be absolutely necessary—that is to say, if the nipple be only
slightly sore, she should not, on any account, apply it; but there are
cases where the nipple is so very sore that a mother would have to
give up nursing if the shield and teat were not used; these, and very
small and drawn-in-nipples, are the only cases in which an india-
rubber teat and shield is admissible.
683. A nursing mother is sometimes annoyed by the milk flowing
constantly away, making her wet and uncomfortable. All she can do
under such circumstances is to wear nipple-glasses, and to apply a
piece of flannel to the bosom, which will prevent the milk from
chilling her, and will thus do away with the danger of her catching
cold, etc.
684. The breast.—A mother ought, before applying the infant to
the bosom, to carefully ascertain if there be milk. This may readily be
done by squeezing the nipple between the finger and the thumb. If
there be no milk, she must wait until the milk be secreted, or serious
consequences both to her and to him might ensue: to the former,
inflammation and gathering of the bosom, and sore nipples; to the
latter, thrush, diarrhœa, and eruptions on the skin.[123]
685. If there be a supply of milk in the breast, and if still the child
will not suck, the medical man’s attention ought to be drawn to the
fact, in order that he may ascertain whether the child be tongue-tied;
if he be, the mystery is explained, and a trifling, painless operation
will soon make all right.
686. If the bosoms be full and uneasy, they ought, three or four
times a day, to be well although tenderly rubbed with olive oil and
eau de Cologne (equal parts of each, mixed in a vial). Some nurses
rub with their fingers only. Now, such rubbing does harm. The
proper way to apply friction is to pour a small quantity of the oil and
eau de Cologne—first shaking the bottle—into the palm of the hand,
the hand being warm, and then to well rub the breasts, taking care to
use the whole of the inside of the hand.
687. After the bosoms have been well rubbed, each ought to be
nicely supported with a large, soft, folded silk handkerchief; each
handkerchief must pass under each breast and over the shoulders,
and should be tied at the back of the neck, thus acting as a sling.
 688. If the bosoms be very uncomfortable, young cabbage-leaves
(with the “veins” of each leaf cut level to the leaf) ought, after each
application of the oil and eau de Cologne, to be applied; or a large
warm white-bread-and-milk and olive oil poultice ought to be used,
which must be renewed three or four times a day. The way to make
the poultice is as follows: A thick round of bread should be cut from a
white loaf; the crust should be removed, the crumb ought to be cut
into pieces about an inch square, upon which boiling-hot new milk
should be poured; it ought to be covered over for ten minutes; then
the milk should be drained off, and the olive oil—previously warmed
by placing a little in a teacup on the hob—should be beaten up by
means of a fork with the moistened bread until it be of the
consistence of a soft poultice. It ought to be applied to the bosom as
hot as it can comfortably be borne.
689. Gathered breast.—A gathered bosom, or “bad breast” as it is
sometimes called, is more likely to occur after a first confinement
and during the first month. Great care, therefore, ought to be taken
to avoid such a misfortune. A gathered breast is frequently owing to
the carelessness of a mother in not covering her bosoms during the
time she is suckling. Too much attention cannot be paid to keeping
the breasts comfortably warm. This, during the act of nursing,
should be done by throwing either a shawl or a square of flannel over
the neck, shoulders, and bosoms.
690. Another cause of a gathered breast arises from a mother
sitting up in bed to suckle her baby. An infant ought to be
accustomed to take the bosom while he is lying down; if this habit be
not at first instituted, it will be difficult to adopt it afterward. Good
habits may be taught a child from the very earliest period of his
existence.
691. A sore nipple is another fruitful cause of a gathered breast. A
mother, in consequence of the suffering it produces, dreads putting
the baby to it; she therefore keeps him almost entirely to the other
bosom. The result is, the breast with the sore nipple becomes
distended with milk, which, being unrelieved, ends in inflammation,
and subsequently in gathering.
692. The fruitless attempt of an infant, to procure milk when there
is very little or none secreted is another and a frequent cause of a
gathered bosom. Dr. Ballard, in his valuable little work before
Welcome to our website – the ideal destination for book lovers and
knowledge seekers. With a mission to inspire endlessly, we offer a
vast collection of books, ranging from classic literary works to
specialized publications, self-development books, and children's
literature. Each book is a new journey of discovery, expanding
knowledge and enriching the soul of the reade

Our website is not just a platform for buying books, but a bridge
connecting readers to the timeless values of culture and wisdom. With
an elegant, user-friendly interface and an intelligent search system,
we are committed to providing a quick and convenient shopping
experience. Additionally, our special promotions and home delivery
services ensure that you save time and fully enjoy the joy of reading.

Let us accompany you on the journey of exploring knowledge and

personal growth!

textbookfull.com