書評：迷失方向的邂逅： 摩洛哥学者 1845-1846 年在法国的旅行》；《穆罕默德-阿什-沙法尔的旅行》。 SUSAN GILSON MILLER 翻译和编辑。 伯克利： 伯克利：加利福尼亚大学出版社，1992 年。 xx + 244 页。 40 美元（布）。

它的類型是旅行/歷史。從馬格里布穆斯林的角度閱讀摩洛哥與法國的比較很有趣。

迷失方向的邂逅： 摩洛哥学者 1845-1846 年在法国的旅行》；《穆罕默德-阿什-沙法尔的旅行》。 SUSAN GILSON MILLER 翻译和编辑。 伯克利： 伯克利：加利福尼亚大学出版社，1992 年。 xx + 244 页。 40 美元（布）。

摩洛哥学者穆罕默德-阿斯-沙法尔（卒于 1881 年）于 1846 年完成了他对法国的访问记述，但他的手稿在拉巴特的皇家档案馆中保存了多年；直到 1973 年，苏珊-吉尔森-米勒才开始将其翻译成英文，直到 1992 年，他的作品才最终出版。
该书与埃及学者里法-拉菲-塔赫瓦（Rifa'a Rafi' at-Tahțāwī）更早、更广为人知的《Takhliş al-ibrazīz fi talkhīs Bārīz》相对应，后者于 1834 年在巴黎首次出版，米勒从阿斯-萨法尔自己的叙述中看到了这部作品对他的影响。
两人都是历史悠久的伊斯兰学术传统的产物，受各自政府派遣，随官方使团前往巴黎，担任观察员和牧师。

米勒的译本可读性很强，并附有 69 页的介绍，面向普通读者和中东地区专家。
加上她对正文的解释性注释，非专业读者也能读懂阿什-沙法尔的作品。
她的导言将这部作品置于历史背景中，描述了 1845-46 年阿卜杜勒-卡迪尔-阿什（Abd al-Qadir Ash'ash）大使的使团，阿什-沙法尔是该使团的成员，并叙述了阿什-沙法尔已知的生平。
导言最后简要探讨了阿斯-萨法尔叙述的意义和含义，为读者指出了各种有趣的方向（1976 年完成实地考察后的重要理论著作也包括在内）。
对阿斯-萨法尔的时间和空间割裂体验的研究很有意思（这也是该书标题的由来），但对维克多-特纳（Victor Turner）关于 "图像"（pil- grimage）的问题理论中的神圣空间和亵渎空间概念的应用可能不那么有启发性。

As-Saffar 和 at-Tahtāwī 的作品与大量西方旅行者对穆斯林世界的描述相对应。
这些描述本身就是有趣的文化文献，有时比描述的内容更能让我们了解产生这些描述的文化。
作为资料来源，它们往往是无价之宝，因为它们记录了来自相关文化的作家们认为理所当然以至于似乎不值得评论的事情；
同时，必须谨慎处理它们，因为文化误解或纯粹的无知可能会导致对现实的惊人歪曲。
正如某些西方旅行作家的持续共和地位所表明的那样，这些叙述作为一种文学体裁，无论对学者是否有用，都具有相当大的吸引力。

从整体上看，阿斯-沙法尔的书并不特别具有娱乐性。
这至少部分归功于阿斯-萨法尔作为观察者的功劳：
对铁轨或刀叉使用方式的刻骨铭心的描述，只有在观察者严重出错的情况下才会让人觉得有趣，而阿斯-萨法尔只有一点（对非法入侵的严厉惩罚）明显出错。
不过，他的作品作为有关十九世纪法国的资料毫无价值，因为关于动物园和剧院的描述已经很多了，而且阿斯-萨法尔也没有提供有关法国社会的惊人见解。

这并不奇怪，因为他不会说法语，而且在巴黎只待了 50 天，作为一个代表团的成员，他尽可能呆在室内，以保持对法国人的尊重，因为 "谁最有胆量与狮子相处，谁就能看到狮子最多的一面"。
这部作品也无助于我们了解法国-摩洛哥外交史；关于摩洛哥代表团的起源、进展和影响，我们必须回到米勒的导言。

那么，阿斯-沙法尔的作品能告诉我们关于产生它的文化的什么呢？
法国人显然希望给来访的摩洛哥人留下深刻印象，他们成功了。
在观看了法国军队的检阅后，as-Saffär 写道：
"与伊斯兰教的软弱、其力量的涣散和其人民的混乱状态相比，他们是多么自信，他们的战备状态是多么令人印象深刻，他们在国家事务上是多么得心应手，他们的法律是多么坚定，他们在战争中是多么能干，在战胜敌人时是多么成功--这不是因为他们的勇气、勇敢或宗教热情，而是因为他们令人惊叹的组织、他们对事务不可思议的掌控以及他们对法律的严格遵守"。

阿斯-萨法尔在这里道出了穆斯林世界在许多方面一直以来的困境。
勇气和宗教热情在穆斯林中过去和现在都很受重视，但在组织大师面前却毫无用处。
组织性让阿斯-沙法尔屡次感到震惊，有时觉得有些荒唐（法国人执着于把树种得整整齐齐，不留一处空地，就像墙上不能不挂画一样），但总的来说还是很有效的。
法国道路的状况、法国铁路工程师的技术、桥梁融资的安排--所有这些都被描述出来，并得到了坦率的赞美。

阿斯-沙法尔对极少数事物提出了明确的批评。
除了最初在巴黎的嘈杂声中难以入睡以及食物的枯燥和重复（"迫不得已，人们可以靠它生活"）之外，他对一些外省城镇街道上的脏乱差以及男性随地小便的习惯深恶痛绝。
性别关系很少受到关注，这一点最初令人惊讶，因为在当代穆斯林世界和西方之间的负面刻板印象中，性别关系（在两个方向上）都很重要。
阿斯-沙法尔对拜访一个男人时与他的妻子交谈的后果是你在他心目中的地位会上升而不是相反表示惊讶，但他没有提出任何批评--事实上，他曾多次评论巴黎的女士是多么迷人。
同样，他还告诉读者，虽然吃饭时可以喝酒，但喝得酩酊大醉是不礼貌的。

阿斯-萨法尔几乎是一个准确、开明、中立的服务者。
他甚至愿意尝试各种事物。
法国人普遍喜欢走路而不是坐着，尤其是独自散步的习惯让他印象深刻：
"据说散步有助于反思，有助于揭示隐藏的思想，有助于发现新的做事方法；
我试了一下，确实如此"。
这与当时西方的许多描述形成了巨大反差，西方人对穆斯林世界的描述往往不够准确或开明。
然而，在报告其代表团在宫廷受到的接待时，阿斯-沙法尔却不遗余力地为摩洛哥人对法国国王说的好话开脱。
为此，他引用了五句话，其中一句是这样说的

上帝会眷顾有智慧的人，他能从容应对命运，他以善行回报朋友，将敌人搁置一旁，等待时机，他为命运披上愉悦的外衣，与家中的猴子共舞。

阿斯-沙法尔和他的代表团与猴子共舞。
法国人可能有组织，但他们没有宗教热情--事实上，相对于摩洛哥人，他们几乎没有宗教。
他们如何对待自己的女人和葡萄酒是他们自己的事，因为归根结底这并不重要。
这就是多元文化世界中宽容的一个基础。

MARK SEDGWICK 开罗美国大学

Disorienting Encounters: Travels of a Moroccan Scholar in France in 1845-1846; The Voyage of Muhammad aş-Şaffär. Translated and edited by SUSAN GILSON MILLER. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992. Pp. xx + 244. $40 (cloth).

Although the Moroccan scholar Muhammad aş-Şaffar (d. 1881) completed the account of his visit to France in 1846, his manuscript lay for many years in the royal archives at Rabat; it was not until 1973 that Susan Gilson Miller began its translation into English, and not until 1992 that his work was finally published. It is a counterpart to the earlier and better known Takhliş al-ibrazīz fi talkhīs Bārīz of the Egyptian scholar Rifa'a Rafi' at-Tahțāwī, first published in Paris in 1834, a work whose influence Miller traces in aş-Şaffär's own account. Both men were products of the long-established Islamic scholarly tradition, sent by their respective governments to accompany official missions to Paris, acting both as observers and as chaplains.

Miller's very readable translation is accompanied by sixty-nine pages of introduction, aimed somewhere between the general reader and the Middle East area specialist. Together with her explanatory notes to the main text, this makes aş-Şaffar's work accessible to the nonspecialist reader. Her introduction places the work in its historical context, de- scribes the 1845-46 mission of Ambassador 'Abd al-Qadir Ash'ash to which aş-Şaffar was attached, and recounts what is known of aş-Şaffär's life. The introduction ends with a brief examination of the significance and meaning of as-Saffar's account, pointing the reader in a variety of interesting directions (significant theoretical works since fieldwork was completed in 1976 are also included). The examination of as-Saffar's experience of disjunctions of time and space is interesting (and gives rise to the book's title), but the application of concepts of sacred and profane space drawn from Victor Turner's problematic theory of pil- grimage is perhaps less illuminating.

As-Saffar's and at-Tahtāwī's works are the counterparts to the great mass of accounts of the Muslim world produced by a variety of Western travelers. Such accounts are interesting cultural documents in their own right, sometimes telling us more about the culture that pro- duced the accounts than about what they portray. As sources, they are often invaluable because they document matters that writers from the culture in question took so much for granted that they seemed unworthy of comment; at the same time, they must be handled with care, since cultural misunderstandings or plain ignorance can produce startling misrepresentations of reality. As the continued republica- tion of certain Western travel writers shows, these accounts have a considerable appeal as a literary genre irrespective of their usefulness for scholars.

Aş-Şaffār's book, taken as a whole, is not especially entertain- ing. This is at least partly to as-Saffar's credit as an observer: a pain- staking description of a rail track or of the manner of using a knife and fork would only amuse if the observer got something seriously wrong, and aş-Şaffar is clearly wrong on only one point (draconian penalties for trespass). His work, however, is of no value as a source on nine- teenth-century France, since there are already many descriptions of zoological gardens and theaters, and as-Saffär provides no stunning insights into French society. This is hardly surprising, since he spoke no French and spent only fifty days in Paris, as a member of a delega- tion that stayed indoors as much as possible to preserve French respect, on the basis that "the boldest one with the lion is he who sees him the most." The work also contributes nothing to our understanding of Franco-Moroccan diplomatic history; for the origins, progress, and effects of the Moroccan delegation, one must turn back to Miller's introduction.

What, then, can aş-Şaffar's work tell us about the culture that pro- duced it? The French clearly wished to impress the visiting Moroccans, and in this they succeeded. After watching a review of French troops, as-Saffär wrote: "In comparison with the weakness of Islam, the dissi- pation of its strength, and the disrupted condition of its people, how confident they are, how impressive their state of readiness, how com- petent they are in matters of state, how firm their laws, how capable in war and successful in vanquishing their enemies-not because of their courage, bravery or religious zeal, but because of their marvelous orga- nization, their uncanny mastery over affairs, and their strict adherence to the law."

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As-Saffär here states what has in many ways remained the dilemma of the Muslim world ever since. Courage and religious zeal were and are much valued among Muslims, but all to no avail against the masters of organization. Organization is what repeatedly struck aş-Şaffär sometimes as somewhat absurd (the French obsession with planting trees in precise rows and leaving no part of the landscape uncovered, just as no wall could be left unadorned by pictures), but on the whole as effective. The state of French roads, the skill of French railway engi- neers, the arrangements for financing bridges-all of these are described and frankly admired.

Aş-Şaffär is explicitly critical of very few things. Apart from the initial difficulty of sleeping in the noise of Paris and the dull and repet- itive nature of the food ("of necessity, one can live on it"), he abhors only the filth in the streets of some provincial towns and the male habit of urinating in the street. Gender relations attract little com- ment, which is initially surprising given the importance they assume (in both directions) in contemporary negative stereotypes between the Muslim world and the West. Aş-Şaffär expresses astonishment that the consequences of speaking to a man's wife when visiting him is that you will rise in his estimation rather than the reverse, but he makes no criticism-indeed, he comments several times on how attractive Pari- sian ladies are. Similarly, he informs his readers that although wine is drunk with meals, it is not considered polite to become grossly drunk, and leaves it at that.

As-Saffär almost appears as an accurate, open-minded, neutral ob- server. He is even willing to try things out. He was struck by the gen- eral French propensity for walking rather than sitting, and especially by the practice of going for a walk on one's own: "They say it is useful for reflection, for revealing hidden thoughts, and for discovering new ways of doing things; and I tried it and it was true." This is all in great contrast to many Western accounts of the time, which are often any- thing but accurate or open-minded in their descriptions of the Muslim world. And yet, when he reports on his delegation's reception at court, aş-Şaffär goes to great lengths to excuse the fine words the Moroccans addressed to the French king. Among the five quotations he adduces for this purpose is this one:

God rewards the wise man Who takes fate in his stride Who recompenses friends with good deeds And puts the enemy aside until the right time Who clothes destiny in pleasing garb And dances with the monkey in his house.

Aş-Şaffar and his delegation were dancing with the monkey. The French might have organization, but they had no religious zeal-indeed,relative to the Moroccans, they barely had a religion. What they did with their women and their wines was their own concern, because in the end it really did not matter. This is one basis for tolerance in a multicultural world.

MARK SEDGWICK American University in Cairo