The Meaning of Bawāriq al-ilmāʿ

A Brief Inquiry into an oft mistranslated title.

by Elon Harvey

Bawāriq al-ilmāʿ fī l-radd ʿalā (or fī takfīr) man ḥarrama l-samāʿ bil-ijmāʿ is the title of a medieval Islamic work dedicated to attacking the views of those who prohibited the mystical musical recitals known as samāʿ. This work was ascribed to Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī's brother Aḥmad, but as Joseph Lumbard has convincingly demonstrated this ascription is very likely wrong. The identity of its author remains unknown for now. It seems that modern scholars writing about this work have had some difficulty translating its title, and especially its first two words بوارق الإلماع. I will survey some of the faulty translations, and afterwards offer my own attempt at a more accurate translation.

James Robson, who was the first to publish Bawāriq al-ilmāʿ (1938), translated its title as "The Lightning-Flashes of Indication Concerning the Refutation of Those Who Declare Audition Forbidden in General." Robson's translation is very literal but makes little sense. The individual English words reflect known definitions found in Arabic dictionaries, but these seem inappropriate here. According to Lane's Lexicon, بارق means "shining, gleaming, or glistening," and بارقة in reference to a cloud means "having, or emitting lightning."

Lane, Lexicon, s.v. بارق

Similarly إلماع does mean "indication." This meaning is derived from the basic meaning "to make a sign" [with one's hand], as Hava's Dictionary puts it.

Hava, Dictionary, s.v. ألمع

In fact, "indication" seems to be the meaning of the word إلماع in the title of another work, Qādī ʿIyāḍ's famous work on Hadith transmission al-Ilmāʿ ilā maʿrifat uṣūl al-riwāya wa-taqyīd al-samāʿ ("Indication of the Knowledge of the Basic Principles of Transmission and of Recording What Is Heard"). The title Bawāriq al-ilmāʿ is likely inspired by this work, even though, as we shall see, it uses إلماع (as well as سماع) in a different meaning.

Other modern translator's have followed in Robson's footsteps. Amnon Shiloach translates "Lightning Flashes Concerning the Refutation of those who Declare Listening to Music is Forbidden," while Lumbard translates "Glimmers of Allusion in Response to Those who Forbid Sufi Music." Kenneth S. Avery renders Bawāriq al-ilmāʿ as "Gleams of Guidance," and Carl W. Ernst and Bruce B. Lawrence, as "Gleams of Illumination." Avraham Elqayam translated it as הבזקי הנצנוצים ("the Glimmers of the Flashes").

Often, a good title should give you some indication of what the work is about. Bawāriq al-ilmāʿ is a polemical work, and this should ideally be reflected in its title. With this in mind, we may turn again to the dictionary and look for more appropriate definitions, i.e. more combative ones. We then find that بوارق can mean swords:

Lane, Lexicon, s.v. بارق

It should be noted that the meaning "sword" is absent in modern dictionaries like Hans Wehr's Dictionary. This is a good reminder for the importance of consulting good classical dictionaries when interpreting classical texts. Now if we look up the verb ألمع in a classical dictionary, we find that it can refer to the waving of a sword.

Lane, Lexicon, s.v. لمع

I therefore propose to translate the title Bawāriq al-ilmāʿ fī l-radd ʿalā man ḥarrama l-samāʿ as "the Flashing Swords Raised against Those Who Prohibit Samāʿ." Perhaps my slightly liberal translation can be improved in style, but what is important is to note that the title's first part refers to flashing swords raised for battle and not to lightning bolts, flashes, or clouds.

This title may have posed problems for others since its first part, Bawāriq al-ilmāʿ, features a somewhat difficult grammatical construct, the annexation of an infinitive to its object. A very literal and nearly nonsensical translation of this construct would be "the flashing swords of waving." However, this construct, known as iḍāfat al-mafʿūl ilā l-maṣdar, is discussed by the grammarian Ibn Jinnī. He writes:

إضافة المفعول إلى المصدر، كقولهم: هذه مطية ركوب، أي من شأنها أن تركب، وهذا سهم نضال أي من شأنه أن يناضل به

Ibn Jinnī, Sirr ṣināʿat al-iʿrāb ["The Secret of the Art of Iʿrāb"] (Damascus: Dar al-Qalam, 1993, 36)

As examples of this grammatical construct, Ibn Jinnī gives the expression مطية ركوبٍ ("a riding animal"), which is called thus because "being ridden is one of its main qualities"; and the expression سهم نضالٍ ("an arrow for fighting"), which is called thus because fighting with it is one of its main qualities. Therefore we may say that بوارق الإلماعِ ("raised flashing swords") are called thus because being raised in combat is one of their main qualities.

It is perhaps fitting to end with the words of Devin Stewart, who has urged scholars in Islamic studies to translate the titles of books:

Translate book titles. Many scholars do not think to translate the titles of books they mention in their studies, but a title often reveals something important about the work or the thought of the author

Devin Stewart, "A Modest Proposal for Islamic Studies," in Identity, Politics and the Study of Islam (Equinox, 2018), p. 198.

In the case of Bawāriq al-ilmāʿ, it is clear that it is not just a flashy title, but a statement of purpose by the author: This work is a sword that will strike down the opinions of those who are opposed to listening to music.

Published May 2020

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