Islam in the History of Religions
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Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Alessandro Bausani, Islam in the History of Religions, bahai-library.com.
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ALESSANDRO BAUSANI
Naples

ISLAM IN THE HISTORY OF RELIGIONS

1. With this paper I do not so much intend to make a "scientific
communication"; I rather wish it to be a methodological reflexion in
answer to the question: how and how much do I, as an islamist, give
my contribution to "history of religions" in studying Islam? In other
words, in how much does the study of socalled "superior" religions
fit into History of Religions as a unitary discipline? I shall not base
the development of this paper on mere theoretical considerations; but
rather on some concrete examples of research method within the
Islamic field. It is my opinion, though, that similar concrete examples
might be found in a parallel way, in other fields of research (such as
History of Christianity, Buddhism etc.). As we are here assembled to
commemorate our late regretted and common master Raffaele Pettaz­
zoni, this talk of mine could perhaps be considered as a sort of con­
tinuation of the seminaries that he used to keep, a few years before
he died. These seminaries usually dealt with specific arguments (for
instance, "God's omniscience", or "the meaning of culture" etc.) and
Pettazzoni used to invite to them several specialists of various cultural
areas that would be interested in History of Religions.

2. First we must see if we may (and if we may, in how far) talk
about "superior religions" the way I did before. Even if we-obviously
enough-do not imply by the word "superior" any intrinsic evaluation,
it still remains ambiguous and vague. The word "superior" could make
sense in a purely exterior typology, where distinction could be made
between religions whose documents are not written hence they may
be studied using ethnological methods, and religions which possess a
rich written documentation and are thus liable to a philological study.
If this were to be true, those who refuse any unitary value to the
History of Religions would have a right to say that such a discipline
dissolves into single sections of various religious philologies and into
ethnology.
A distinction between "natural" religions and "founded" religions
might sound different and perhaps more historical. But this too is
56                             ALESSANDRO BAUSANI

acceptable only by half; the role of personaLities, that are perhaps
nowadays hidden behind legend, in the creation of religions that might
seem "natural" at first sight, should be checked thoroughly and studied
well. We would be faced then with a major or minor importance of
their "founders": Buddha would be different from Kṛṣṇa (presumed
founder of Hinduism according to certain Indian tendencies) only
because study could be based on historical documents, for the former,
and perhaps also because his personal foundation-work would have
been more intense or effective. The same could be said about other
cultural areas.
I believe that it would be a better typology to distinguish between
two fundamental types of religion (each with its various subdivisions,
of course): the archaic religions and the monotheistic ones. This is also
Pettazzoni's opinion, expressed in his studies about monotheism, which
are too well known here for me to resume them 1 ) . I only want to
stress the point that, according to the regretted Master, a clear typolo­
gical distinction should be made between the concept of a "Great God"
or Supreme Being, present in various archaic religions, and that of a
One and Only God, to be found in monotheism. The former comes
from a mythical perception of the sky, the latter is the outcome of
the polemic, revolutionary, anti-polytheistic labour of a prophetic-his­
torical founder, who might even use any god of the archaic pantheon
(in Islam, for instance, Allah-Hubal) after having changed its func­
tional value completely. In this specific sense, according to Pettazzoni,
monotheism is a very rare phenomenon in History of Religions; during
a certain period of his studies he even used to think that this pheno­
menon was unique (Israelitic monotheism, that would have influenced
even Zoroastrianism) 2 ) .
M. Eliade makes a quite similar typological distinction, although
from a different point of view, especially in his Mythe de l' hernel
Retour where the distinction between archaic religions and monotheistic
religions is based on their different conceptions about the religious
meaning of "Time" 3 ) . In fact, the distinction between the two types
does not only invest the idea of God, but the entire religious pheno-

1) See his essay Dio: Formazione e sviluppo del monoteismo, Bologna, 1922; see
further various articles in Saggi di storia delle religioni   e   milologia, Roma, 1946,
and Onniscie.>wl di Dio, Torino, 1955.
2)   Cfr. La religione di Zarathustrct, Bologna, 1920, p. 79 ff. Obviously the idea is
now obsolete, but it is interesting to show Pettazzoni's approach to the definition of
monotheism.
3) M. Eliade, Le Mythe de l'P.temel Retom, Paris, 1949, p. 152 ff. and passim.
ISLAM IN THE HISTORY OF RELIGIONS                             57

menology as well. Even if the external features of single phenomena
in archaic and monotheistic religions might at times seem similar, their
way of functioning is really different. One very plain example: Incar­
nation has similar phenomenological aspects but "works" in a very
distinct way there where we have an incarnation of a Unique God
into a man-god, from there where it is meant that one or more men
incarnate a "neutral" divine principle (to theion) or a single aspect of
divineness. Although phenomenologically they might seem similar,
there is a deep functional difference between Christ and one of Vi�l).u's
avatars. Thus I believe that in this sense a wisely built typology might
help to reinforce the historical method. And to this purpose, the concept
of "functioning" in a given typological context is of main importance.
And here I repeat a definition of G. Widengren, whom we could
not suspect of absolute historicism. This author used very aptly the
following words in a note on his study on Mu]:Iammad 4 ) (and better
credit should be given to these words, if we consider that not always
does the Author himself keep his own suggestion in mind): " . . . Any
conception whatsoever must not be isolated, but treated in its natural
environment of related ideas, with which it is intimately bound up.
Only in this manner are we able to trace the real origin of a religious
idea. The atomistic method here leads us quite astray".
In the ambit of monotheistic religions we may-the way I have tried
to do it in two articles of mine that I am not to repeat here 5)-make
a further typological distinction between primary monotheisms (He­
braism, Islam) and secondary (Christianity, new religions that had their
origin in Islam, especially Baha' ism) whose characteristics have rather
different structures and functions.
Here too I will avail myself of the example of "Incarnation" which
some phenomenologists keep considering in too superficial a manner.
Talking about a phenomenon that is frequent in various so-called
"extreme" sects of Islam, even authoritative islamists (which in this
case prove to be bad historians of religion as well as bad philologists),
uphold that to some extreme Shicites cAll is an incarnation of God,
or prophet X or Y are incarnations of God. But the term used for

4) G. Widengren, N.u � ammad the Apostle of God, and His Ascension, Uppsala/
Wiesbaden, 1955, p. 56·57, n. 4.
5) A. Bausani, "Note per una tipologia del monotcismo", in SMSR, XXVIII, 1957,
pp. 67-88. A. Bausani, "Can Monotheism be taught? (further considerations on the
typology of Monotheism)", in Numen X, 3, 1963, pp. 167-201. Naturally another
subdivision, by types, may be made for "archaic" religions, but this is of no interest
here.
58                         ALESSANDRO BAUSANI

"incarnation" in Islamic texts, where they polemically want to define
the typical incarnation of secondary monotheisms, and especially the
one accepted in Christianism, is (;ttlul, which is always kept very mar­
kedly distinct from any other form of manifestation of the divinity
in man, and especially from the typologically and functionally very
different form of    mcr:;har, which means "manifestation".      Nowhere,
absolutely nowhere in the most extremistic sects of Islam, can we find
(;rtliil. Even when a person is said to be God, this be is always explained,
not as an incarnation, but rather as a ma::;har i.e. a manifestation, with
terms that have been borrowed from the Near-Eastern and Gnostic
metaphysics of light.
The unique God and his inaccessible essence remain up high; the
man-god is nothing but a very pure mirror in which            God reflects
himself.   Whoever passes in front of a mirror wherein the sun is
reflected (these are words which I heard personally from authoritative
representatives of some "extreme Islamic sects") may justly say: "this
is the sun", even though the sun remains in its inaccessible position in
the sky, and the mirror is still nothing but a mirror in itself. So the
Christian who says: "Christ is God", and the Khurramdini who says:
"cAll is God", both give to the word is a very different meaning, which
is something the historians of religions should keep in mind. At page
45 of his already mentioned book Widengren says instead: .. . "Of a
still higher degree is of course the Imam according to the dogma that
he is not only a god but God, Allah who is incarnate in the successive
chain of the Imams who are the Apostles . .. ". But we can see from
the quotation of al-Dailami, mentioned by the very Author himself to
support his theory, that    incarnate is nothing but an extrapolation.
"And the people say of Ali: He was God who appeared in Adam and
the Apostles and Imams . . . ". In our colleague's sentence there is the
word 'dogma' which should also be further discussed; it throws a
better light on the typology of monotheism. In some way acceptable,
at times even fundamental where secondary monotheism are concerned,
this term surely may not be accepted for primary monotheisms. In the
case of Islam and the Islamic-Christian polemics,  dogma is usually
translated with ?ann (opinion) or even with the word xmafat (super­
stitions, imaginary ideas, fantasies). Thus there could not be any typo­
logical justification for using "dogma" in Islam.
Thus we have seen that a first important range of historical-religious
studies on Islam is a general one about the typology of Islam and of its
sects. To achieve this, p hilolo gy might be of precious help (and
ISLAM IN THE HISTORY OF RELIGIONS                            59

examples of this have been given above) to help us to correct errors to
which pure phenomenology could lead; however, philology is nothing
but a, quite indispensable, help and this is why Islam could not be
studied by a specialist in Arabic or Persian philology only; it needs a
historian of reiigions specialised in Islamic philology.

3. The monotheistic religions, whereof Islam is perhaps the most
radical "incarnation" possible, present other very interesting and typi­
cally historical-religious problems. One of them, and a fundamental
one, is the problem of the very origin of monotheism, that has not been
satisfactorily solved yet, in my opinion. A historical-religious study
about the origins of Islam in its Arabic milieu seems very useful to me.
A passage or transformation of the concept of a "God of the race", to
that of a "Unique God"? Psychological projection of the Founder?
Derivation from a "primitive" pseudo-monotheism of the Great Sky­
God? etc.
Personally I take the first solution for more valid and in an article
in "Numen" I have tried to construct its successive psychological stages
perhaps in a somewhat imaginative way: more or less in accordance
with the psychology of a primary monotheistic type, with its typically
voluntaristic and anti-ontologie theology. But the archaic religion-type,
which is much more "natural" than monotheism (and Pettazzoni' s
opinion about the rarity, the uniqueness of the "monotheistic" pheno­
menon confirms it) still remains and influences monotheism. No con­
crete, historical example gives evidence of an absolute theoretical type
of monotheism.
And here we get to the most fascinating problems that we may call
-to use a term which in my opinion is erroneous, but is also very
popular, and mentioned in the title of a famous book on Islam 6)                 ­

"pagan survivals" in monotheism, here more specifically in Islam.
In the title of the mentioned book both terms, 'pagan', generic and
worn out, and "survivals" are wrongly used. The title should be
changed, as I have proved in an article of mine 7) into a more exact
one, i.e. "Integration of archaic elements in the Islamic religion" (or
more generically, in monotheistic religions).

G) E. Westermarck, Pagau Sttrvivals i;� Mohammedan CiL·ilize�lion, london 1933.
7) A. Bausani, "Sopravvivenze pagane nell' Islam o integrazione islamica ?" in
SMSR, 37 2, 1966, pp. 189-209. It could be said that the very fact that Westermarck
talks about survivals in the "Mohammedan civilization" and not (in the title) in the
"Islamic religion'' diminishes the weigh of my assertion, but in fact "Islam" and
"Mohammedan civilization" seem identical to him (and to others).
60                          ALESSANDRO BAUSANI

Several studies have been written on this behalf, as far as Christianity
and Hebraism are concerned, as well as for Islam. Starting with the
above-mentioned typology, the problem of integrations or survivals
develops somewhat differently in the two different subtypes. In secon­
dary monotheisms (the ones that take their origin from another mono­
theism) the problem is perhaps more complicated. That phenomenon
which I called "fermentation of the divine" in one of my papers,
and which causes a prolification of angels and angel-like bodies within
the frame of a too monolithic primary monotheism, creates the im­
pression of substratum influences; but more often these pretended sub­
stratum influences are purely theological creations. To stay within
the limits of new religions born from Islam, and to avoid entering the
too burning ambit of Christianity, let us consider those intellectualistic
and theologizing items of pleromctJ, intellec!ttal agentJ, logoi, forceJ;
at times they were believed to be influenced by archaic substratum
remainders of genii and divine polytheistic divinities, whereas they are
nothing but speculations 'coming from above', that create a sort of
theological mythology that derives from an Iranian tendency to theo­
logize, as I have tried to explain elsewhere S ) . These phenomena
should be kept distinct from the real substratum influences that are
integrated in the monotheistic religion. In other words, although these
items might go under a same paragraph in a phenomenological treatise,
the "Thrones and Dominations" and the "Guardian Angel" should be
kept typologically separate and should be studied historically in a
different way.
But even in the less complex primary monotheisms (such as Islam)
integration of archaic elements should be studied with great care. In a
study of mine, about the "Sacred Madman" in Islam 9 ) , I stressed the
point that, although the Islam as a type of religion might seem less
fruitful as far as comparative historical-religious studies are concerned,
it offers a very interesting "laboratory" for the study of the historici­
zation of myths. For instance, the Sacred Madman or Trickster, who
had a specific mythical or semi-mythical aspect in archaic cultures, has
here become a historical personality: adventures that are to be found
in very ancient mythical cycles are here ascribed by "eye-witnesses"
and annalists to this or that personality that has really lived. These,
I added in my article, are Islam's real "myths" (integrations of archaic
elements in Islamic monotheism) while other myths are typical of

S) A. Bausani, Persia Religiosa, Milano, 1958, p. 73 ff. and passim.
9) A. Bausani, "Note sui 'Pazzo Sacro' nell' Islam", in SMSR, XXIX, 58, pp. 93·107.
ISLAM IN THE HISTORY OF RELIGIONS                               61

nascent secondary monotheisms more or less kept in embryonal stage
(imamite angelism of ghul11ww) and are rather an intellectual refor­
mulation of theological concepts. In the mentioned article I tried to
prove how the two types of "sacred madmen" of the Islamic culture
were an integration in it of a reflection of the two types of the image
of the "Devil" existing in archaic religiosity. That study was intended
to give a start to an examination of other aspects of Islamic culture,
which, until now, Islamists have studied whether philologically or
ideologically, or juridically, but not specifically as far as history of
religions is concerned. Unfortunately other activities and interests
have made it impossible to me to go ahead with this study.
Numerous further examples prove the possibility of historical­
religious approach to the various phenomena of the islamic culture.
Here are a few of them.

4.   Prayer, for instance. Prayer has been studied under various aspects:
juridically (due to Islam's particular structure, the Jalat, "canonical
prayer", is included in the Muslim lawbooks) , theologically, historically
within the Islamic mystics, all but for its historical-religious aspect.
Even the studies done on the religious history of Islamic prayer, for
instance Mittwoch's 10 ) , remain a rather extrinsic history. The Author
does ascribe the single "pieces" of the functioning mechanism to
Christian, Hebraic and other influences, but he fails to locate their
functioning within the frame of Islam's concrete typology. How does,
for instance, Jalat al-istisqcP, "ad impetrandam pluviam", integrate with
the Islamic religious type, it being an almost universal historical­
religious phenomenon? It is obvious that, if the various pieces and
aspects of Islamic prayer are "preislamic survivals", this must be true
for all religions, because nil sttb sole novi; but in this case, history,
deprived of the help of an intelligent functional typology, remains
nothing but pure destructive analysis. I would like to mention here
the name of Michelangelo Guidi, whom I consider my master in this
field: his way of locating the problems in his studies on Mul)ammad
and early Islam 11 ) is particulary well grounded from the historical­
religious viewpoint.

10 ) E. Mittwoch, Zur Enwehrmgsgeschichte de.r islamischen Gebet.r tmd Kultu.r in
"Abhandl. d. Preuss. Ak. der Wiss.'', 1913, n. 2, pp. 10 ff.
11) Here I wish to refer to his Religior.e dell' islam, in the 5nd volume of Tacchi
Venturi's "Storia delle Religioni" (Torino, U.T.E.T., 6th edition, 1971), and to the
posthumous Storia e cult11rct degli Arabi ji110 alia moue di !l·faometto, Firenze, 1951.
62                            ALESSANDRO BAUSANI

Another example could be the Islamic concept of Satan. Again I
refer to a paper of mine, on Satan, and the way he is understood by
a modern Muslim poet 12 ) . Historical influences helped me to go
back from Mul1_ ammad Iqbal to orthodox and mystical concepts in
Islam; and further I tried to reconstruct how Islam could integrate an
archaic Satan with its positive and negative values, in a monotheistic
typology, and how such an archaic Satan had suffered a transformation
of values. Historically and typologically I consider Zwi Werblowski's
thesis, Lucifer and Prometheus, on Milton's Satan as most illumina­
ting 13 ) . The very fact that my study on the Islamic Satan has been
effected only by 1955, shows how little has been done to study Islam
on a historical-religious level.
Another field that has been studied thoroughly, but only rarely
from a historical-religious point of view, is Muslim Mysticism. Even
in scientific texts, but more still in Encyclopaedias and popularizing
treatises, we can find affirmations such as the one of our learned
colleague J. Duchesne-Guillemin, who, in the Symposium at Spa on
"Unity and Variety in Muslim Civilization", simply declared: "Sufi
mysticism ... is perhaps Christian and Gnostic in origin ... but certainly
not Muslim". And further he speaks of "the Dervish orders ... the
origin of which was perhaps Buddhist, Manichean or Shamanist, but
certainly not Muslim" 14 ) . In various articles of mine I have reacted
against this apparently historical position which means instead, -in
my opinion-to vanify history.
One can study Muslim mysticism from a concretely historical point
of view, only if one keeps the functional typology in mind. That is to
say, the single "pieces" of Muslim mysticism may be taken from this
or that source (the way it happens with any other phenomenon in any
other recent religion) but they have their proper function inside a
typically and typologically Islamic context. In ignoring this historical­
typological method one will get lost in useless and endless discussions
about pantheism or non pantheism in Muslim mystics (especially for
some of them). When typology is ignored, terms are twisted into an
artificial conceptual translation (f.i. wabdat-i v11jiid           =   pantheism);
no distinction is made between theopanism and pantheism, the Islamic

12) A. Bausaoi, "Satana nell' opera filosofico-poetica di .Mul:ammad Iqbal ( 1873-
1938)" in RSO XX, 1955, pp. 'i5-l02.
13) Z. Werblowsk)', Lucifer and Promctbet!S. A st11dy of Milton's Sa/an, London,
1952.
14)   Unity and Variety in Muslim Civilization, Chicago, 1955.
ISLAM IN THE HISTORY Of RELIGIONS                                 63

and monotheistic Unity of God gets confused with the archaic "unity
of the being "; nirviuya is identified with fancP, and so on. Here again
I would like to mention the name of a late regretted Italian orientalist,
Martino Mario Moreno. Although he was not officially considered
as a historian of religions, his work on the presumed similarities
between Indian and Muslim mystics 15 ) proved him to be it more than
are many other islamists.
Methodical errors such as these mentioned for mysticism are fre­
quent in another, somewhat analogous, field: "Sects" , or Heterodox
Muslim Communities. The problems involved with this specific argu­
ment are too many to be examined here. Presently H. Corbin's meta­
physical-iranophile school seems to take up again, in an undoubtedly
fascinating way, an already old tendency that had appeared to be out
of date: to interpret Muslim heresy as an Aryan reaction (Persian, in
particular) to a "semitic Islamism", and thus to level, in an antihistorical
way, the most different phenomena under a metaphysical common
denominator. In a recent book K. E. Muller 1 6 ) tries to demonstrate
(and this is easy if again one takes single isolated pieces away from
their functioning in a whole) the total non-islamicity of certain extreme
sects, of the yazldi and Nttfairl type. According to Muller, these would
have put on only a superficial Islamic aspect, but would really be
remainders of real preislamic religious communities, or even ethnic
groups with "agricultural old-mediterranean" beliefs. At the same time
quite a few islamists consider the Baha'i religion,-a secondary mono­
theistic religion that has its origin in Islam, the way Christianity has
its origin in Hebraism,-as a "Muslim sect", thus completely showing
to ignore any typology whatsoever 17 ) . Even as far as the very origin
of Sh:icism is concerned, only few seem to have followed the direction,
brilliantly started by Sabatino Moscati in his 195 5 article in Rivista
degli St11di Orientali 18 ) . Here the author puts the problem historically
and finally distinguishes clearly the double aspect of the first Sh:ica,
the political one and the more definite religious one.

10) M. l"VL Moreno, "Mistica musulmana e mistica i ndia n a " . in Annali Latera ne nsi,
X, 19-16, pp. 103-219, a subject which he took up a gai n in "Mistica musulmana e
mistica indiana nel MagmaCu'l-Bal)rayn di Diira Sikoh" in RSO, 1949. pp. 59-66.
lG) His thesis shows already :n his title (K. E. Miiller, Kultttrhistorische Studien
2111 G"ene.re PJe11do-islamischer Sektengebilde in Vorderasien, Wiesbaden, 1967). The
sects studied include YaziJi, Ahl-i I:J:aqq, Nu�airi, Druzes, with hin ts at ot he r groups.
17) In H. laoust's excellent work, Les Schismes darJS /'Islam, Paris. 1965, pp. 363
to 370, deYoted to the study of Babism-Bahii'ism, though well informed, end              br
considering the new religion as a "Muslim sect".
lS) S. Moscati, "Per una storia dell'antica siCa", in RSO XXX, 1955, pp. 251 ff.
64                              ALESSANDRO BAUSANI

Penetration and integration in Islam (I am here stressing the term
"integration" that should correct and further explain the term "pene­
tration" of single fragments) of legends and ideological cycles, whether
Near-Eastern, Iranic and Indian, in the ocean of Muslim folk-tales,
is another very interesting working field for the historian of Islamic
religion. The taczie, for instance (Persian religious folk-dramas) have
started to be explored only lately, and offer fascinating possibilities
for research on monotheistic-islamic transformations (demythologiza­
tion, pseudo-historical integration etc.) of cycles of mythological or
semi-mythological motives, even extremely old. As a matter of fact, the
numerous studies made on the taczie used to be either mostly philolo­
gical, or, whenever they showed historical-religious attempts 19 ) , they
were conditioned by the fact that only a limited number of taczie was
on hand, and usually only taczie directly connected with the Karbala
drama. Nowadays the wealthy material which the Ambassador E.
Cerulli offered as a gift to the Vatican Library (more than 1000 book­
lets of such dramas! 20 ) allows to study various aspects of one and
the same motive and shows how the Karbala drama was used as a
pretext for treating the most different historical-religious materials 21 ) .
In studying tczCzies, one should avoid a double methodological
danger. First to fall into pure philology; second to bend to an "easy
comparativism", exemplified by Ch. Virolleaud's study, who ignores
the peculiar monotheistic typology of Islam, and of Sh!ca Islam in
particular.

5. To conclude with: Islam is still waiting for a thorough historical­
religious study. This pessimistic affirmation does not want to deny the
validity of some historical-religious studies about Islam already existing.
What I mean is that such studies are still rather exceptional and even

19)    Ch. Virolleaud, for instance, in his L� theatre pers(IJl ou le drame de Kerbela,
Paris,   1950. Virolleaud's method in this work of his is      a   rather superficial com·
paratism.
20) The catalogue of this material        (precious b ecause it is divided according to
subjects):  E. Rossi - A. Bombaci, Elenco di dmmmi religiosi persiani (fo11do mss.
t·aticani Cemlli), Citta del V a ti cano, 1961.
21) I h ave started such a kind of work with a commented edition of a few taCzie
containing biblical materials: A. Ba usani , Drammi popolari inediti persi ani sulla leg­
genda di Salomone e della regina di Saba, in "Atti del Com•. lnternaz. di Studi
Et iopici , Roma, 1960, pp. 167-209. A. Bausani, San Giot·alllli Batti;la e Za c caria in
"

Ire drammi popolari persia11i i11cdi1i della collezione Cer11lli, in "Atti del Conv.
Internaz. sul tema: !"Oriente Cristiano nella storia della Civiltil", Roma, 1964,
pp. 153-237.
ISLAM IN THE HISTORY OF RELIGIONS                         65

these studies have remainders            of old-fashioned philological com­
paratism. In my opinion the most valuable study of the kind is my
friend and colleague G. Widengren's, whose credit it is, among others,
to have taken up the problem again of the Manichean influences on
early Islam, in a more precise and richer way. If I may allow myself
to find some defects in this work, I would locate them especially in
the very fact that the author bases himself too much on "lexical ele­
ments", at times isolated from their context, using an "atomistic
method" very much in contrast with the aurea maxima that Widengren
himself mentions in his work and which I have quoted before. To
give but two examples of this: the purely lexical parallelism between
ar-rit/p al-amln and ar-rasiil al-amln does not seem enough to me to
justify the important historical-religious conclusions (over and above
their being true) he is making. And further, the mere fact that Ka'b ben
Zuhair's panegyric to the Prophet (wherein the author follows the
literary conventions of the preislamic epoch) says as follows: ". . . the
Apostle is a light by which we are enlightened" is but a very feeble
pretext to a possible identification of the Prophet with the qur'anic
"light of God".
In spite of this, G. Widengren's book is a very important milestone
in the way to a historical-religious study of Islam 22 ) . A study which,
and I repeat this as a conclusion, should be based on a h i s t o r i c a 1
f u n c t i o n a 1 t y p o 1 o g y. If we ignore one of the aspects indicated
by one of these three words; that is, if we fall into a typology that
ignores the function of the single elements in a whole, or if we make
a history that ignores the typological structure, we shall continue pro­
ducing islamological works, perhaps of high value, but which will not
fit, stricto sensu, into the History of Religions. And this would justify
the suspicion of our colleagues "historians of religion" towards the
specialists of the single "superior religions", whom they, at times duly,
accuse of wanting to let their quite interesting philological or historical
studies go for historical-religious works, when they are not.

DISCUSSION
BORRMANS       (Rome). - Professeur, j'ai ete td:s interesse par votre
conference. Dans la perspective de ce que disait le Pr Bianchi et de
son souhait de voir etablir une typologie, j' aimerais que !'on se pose,
'
22) Also in other works G. Wideng r en rightly empasizes the importance of Islam
for a phenomenological approach to the Histoqr of Religions. See for in s tance G.
Wi d en gren , Some Remarks on the Afethods of the Phenomenology of Religion, in
"Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis", 17, pp. 250-260; see especially p. 260.

NUMEN, Suppl. XIX
66                        ALESSANDRO BAUSANI

toujours dans le cadre de ces recherches de typologie, le probleme des
relations structurales entre nne religion et une langue. Dans le cas de
l'Islam et de la langue arabe, il y a, en effet, une relation presque intrin­
seque, relation qui, dans le developpement theologiqne meme de la
pensee musulmane, a produit parfois un retrecissement de la reflexion,
dans la voie dite orthodoxe, alors que peut-etre, dans les antres voies,
il n'en a pas ete de meme. Une autre typologie devrait d'ailleurs
s'interesser ace classement en orthodoxie et heterodoxie, entre membres
d'une meme religion. Pour en revenir a la relation etroite qu'il y a
entre la langue arabe et la pensee religieuse musulmane, il convient de
souligner combien le vocabulaire "religieux" (musulman en !'occur­
rence) de certaines nations africaines, du Maghreb par exemple ou
le berbere est demeure la langue de certaines regions montagnardes,
est typiquement arabe, au point que l'on recherche difficilement le
vocabulaire religieux "de base" que possedait cette langue (le berbere)
avant son islamisation. II convient done de prevoir un "type" special
pour ces religions ou langue cleterminee et foi ont en quelque sorte
partie liee.

BAUSANI.     -   Apres avoir rappele son interet pour ces questions
linguistiques, le Prof. Bausani se dit parfaitement d'accord sur le
lien tres fort qui existe entre l a religion et la langue de l'Islam, ce
qui est vrai aussi pour ces territoires islamiques qui sont encore plus
marginaux que ceux qn' il avait mentionnes (p. ex. l'Indonesie). II y a
eu en Indonesie une renaissance des etudes arabes, tandis qu' autour des
siecles XVIe et XVIIe la predominance etait plutOt du Persan. Depuis
le XVIIIe siecle le pelerinage et les contacts avec le monde arabe
ont ete un element unitaire important, comme on voit pour ce qui est
de 1' etude de 1' arabe dans un monde si eloigne comme celui de la
Malesie et de l'Indonesie. Mais on aurait aajouter beaucoup pour ce qui
est des rapports intrinseques entre Islam et langue.
-- Islam in the History of Religions (Used by permission of the curator)