New Books In Review مقدمة ومراجعة

Minorsky, "to disentangle the history of the Shadda• dids but with one exception, little progress has been made. 59 HIS is the fourteenth volume of Prince• ton University Oriental Studies and is a translation of Ibn-al-Kalbi's (d. H. ) Arabic work on Idols which contains names and descriptions of 25 idols and shrines which were worshipped by different tribes of Pre-Islamic Arabia. In the light of Archaeological excavation recently discovered, we could pass better judgement if we had access to the other works of Ibn-al-Kalbi on pre• Islamic history just as his contemporaries had his works before them and thus were able to pass on their views about him to their descendants. But while every name and place has been annotated, the Statement quoted by Ibn-al-Kalbi in his Kiiab-al-Asnam on p. If archaeological reports of South Arabian inscriptions concerning Pre-Islamic Gods had also been consulted, the doubtful state• ments of Ibn-al-Kalbi about the pre-Islamic idols would have been verified. Al-Hamdani's Iklil which deals with the history of South Arabia· and the records of early historians like Ibn-al• Kalbi, Ibn- Ishaq, Tabari and others and the ancient chronicles of the Northern Arabs, were · suspected as being- incredulous and were considered unreliable so far as pre• Islamic history was concerned. The work under reference is the second volume of the series and deals with the poli• tical, religious and cultural aspects of pre-: Islamic Arabian life. The Academy of Iraq deserves our congratula• tions for entrusting Dr. Jawad Ali with the compilation of pre-Islamic history based chiefly on inscriptional information.