1 Introduction*
We currently know a lot about the enormous cultural transfer from the Islamic East that reached al-Andalus, particularly in the course of the 3th/9th century when Andalusi scholars started to visit the main Eastern centers of knowledge, resulting, as Isabel Toral-Niehoff stated, in “a creative incorporation of knowledge, textual material, cultural models and attitudes of Abbasid Baghdad in Umayyad Córdoba.”1 We know less about the reception process, influence, and impact in the Islamic East of the vast amount of knowledge produced in al-Andalus, particularly when it comes to works belonging to the literary genre of adab. Compilations of this genre of adab, normally thematically arranged and presented in different chapters or books, gathered all the knowledge that an educated man was expected to possess. The first manifestations of this type of Arabic prose writing corresponded to the 8th century and happened especially in the Islamic East. Adab, however, reached a Golden Age during the 9th and 10th centuries due to the important work also carried out in al-Andalus.2
This paper intends to reconstruct the reception process in the Islamic East of the most important adab works of al-Andalus. It wishes to do so specifically for al-ʿIqd al-farīd, the excellent adab compilation of the 10th-century Andalusi author Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi (246–328/860–940).3 This adab encyclopedia4 was one of the first dated texts produced in al-Andalus that has been preserved, and its full impact inside and outside al-Andalus remains to be investigated.5 For this reason, after presenting a brief context for the author and his ʿIqd al-farīd, we will study the possible ways of transmission of Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi’s main work to the Islamic East and its reception and influence in later Eastern adab works. Firstly, we will point out the first Andalusi sources that not only mention but also provide relevant information on Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi and his compilation. Secondly, we will analyze the presence and influence of the ʿIqd al-farīd in important Eastern sources, particularly during the Mamluk period.
2 Al-ʿIqd al-farīd: Authorship and Brief Context
Al-ʿIqd al-farīd, “The unique necklace,” was composed by the Andalusi author Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi (246–328/860–940) during the Cordovan Umayyad Caliphate (929–1031) and is one of the earliest and most representative examples of adab compilations. Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi came from a local family of clients (mawali) of the Umayyads. He had a long and successful career at the court of the Caliph ʿAbd al-Raḥmān III (912–61)6 under whose reign he wrote this sophisticated and well-organized adab compilation.
Al-ʿIqd al-farīd, the only preserved work of the author, was composed with two main purposes: on the one hand, to spread the knowledge produced in the Islamic East in al-Andalus and, in doing so, train officials of the new Umayyad state; and on the other hand, to show the Andalusi literary capacity to the East. With this compendium of adab, Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi managed to seal the process of “orientalization” in al-Andalus by treating the main historical, philological, and sociological aspects of Arab culture. As a result, his work soon became the most widely read work in al-Andalus.7
The Cordovan author divided his adab anthology into 25 books, and each of them is named after a gem pearl. As a result, the whole multivolume work appears as a perfect necklace of 25 precious pearls of very varied subject matter.
The way Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi chose to compose each book is common to other adab works; that is, it includes a large volume of akhbār, interspersed with prophetic traditions (ḥadīths), Quranic verses, proverbs, and poems.8 Despite the fact that this work was composed in the 10th-century Cordovan Caliphate, most of the akhbār came from Eastern sources, such as the ʿUyūn al-Akhbār of the 9th-century Iraqi polygraph Ibn Qutayba. And although the ʿIqd al-Farīd itself was composed and produced in writing, the reception and circulation of the collected akhbār would have been carried out in its majority, as Werkmeister states,9 by oral transmission.
Whereas the akhbār he collected were all oriental in origin, throughout the entire work of al-ʿIqd al-farīd Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi enriched all this material with the inclusion of comments, explanations, and criticisms, and with his own verses. Undoubtedly, the most important contribution of the author was his urjūza, a poetic composition in rajaz meter, dedicated to the Caliph ʿAbd al-Raḥmān III al-Nāṣir, with which he participated, in a significant way, in the legitimation of his caliphate.10
The Andalusi author dedicated an important space, particularly in the first books, to what we could call “serious issues,” the majority of them abstract concepts such as government, war, power, authorities, or embassies, showing the importance these issues had for Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi. On the contrary, the Andalusi compiler relegated to the last books those subjects he considered less serious and more concrete matters, such as food or jokes.11
3 The Importance of the ʿIqd in al-Andalus: Andalusi Texts on Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi
Before studying the arrival and the impact of Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi’s work in the Islamic East, it is important to introduce the first Andalusi sources that mentioned the author and his adab encyclopedia. Quite soon after his death, later Andalusi sources started providing relevant data on Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi and his work, especially between the 11th and 12th centuries. Authors like Ibn al-Faraḍī (d. 403/1013) and Ibn Ṣāʿid al-Andalusī (d. 462/1069) recorded many fragments of his poetry, calling him “the Andalusi poet” but also praising Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi’s skills as an adīb. Thus, Ibn al-Faraḍī remarked that people from al-Andalus learned not only from Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi’s poetry but also from his prose.12 Ibn Khāqān (d. 535/1140), for instance, stated:
و شهر بالأندلس حتى سار إلى المشرق ذكره
He was very famous in al-Andalus and his fame flew to the East.13
He also defended that it was not possible to criticize the ʿIqd because of its perfect and beautiful Arabic and that due to Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi’s talent and literary skills, his fame reached the Islamic East quite soon. But without any doubt, the most important Andalusi author who wrote on Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi was al-Ḥumaydī (d. 488/1095), a disciple of Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr and Ibn Ḥazm who left al-Andalus and settled in Baghdad, where he became an important source for the spread of materials dealing with al-Andalus.14 In his Jadhwat al-Muqtabis fī taʾrīkh ʿulamāʾ al-Andalus, al-Ḥumaydī recorded Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi’s full biography and much data on his life and his poetry. The information collected by al-Ḥumaydī was used by both Andalusi and Eastern sources in their own works. Among other relevant information, he pointed out that Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi’s dīwān, today not preserved, was in Caliph al-Ḥakam II’s library.
Later, in the 13th century, al-Shaqundī wrote his famous risāla in praise of al-Andalus named Risāla fī faḍl al-Andalus, where Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi is mentioned as the greatest author of adab in al-Andalus.15
4 Eastern Reception of Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihis’s al-ʿIqd al-farīd
Although it is not easy to specify the exact date that Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi’s work became known in the East, we will try to give an approximate answer to the following questions: How and when did Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi’s work become known in the East? In what way was his work transmitted? And what kind of influence did it have in later Eastern adab compilations? Firstly, it is important to highlight that Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi composed, as he stated in his ʿIqd, poetry that could be easily remembered so that the udabāʾ and poets from al-Andalus who traveled to the East in search of knowledge (in addition to carrying out their religious obligations) could bring it with them. Against the background of Andalusis’ general sense that their merits were not being acknowledged in the East,16 this would allow them to prove to the Eastern scholars the literary level that al-Andalus had achieved:
وجعلت المقطعات رقيقة غزلة، ليسهل حفظها على ألسنة الرواة … لتقوم به الحجة لمن روى هذه المقطّعات واحتج بها.
And I made sweet and delicate poems in order to facilitate their memorization to the poets … to bring it as a sample to whom transmits these poems and made the pilgrimage with them.17
Contrary to other cases, in which the descendants and friends of an Andalusi scholar were instrumental in spreading their work,18 in the case of Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi, his offspring does not seem to have played any role in spreading Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi’s ʿIqd. He never left al-Andalus, and neither did his nephew, the physician Abū ʿUthmān b. ʿAbd Rabbihi (d. 342/953 or 356/966–7). A scholar from the 12th century named Muḥammad b. ʿAbd Rabbihi al-Hafīd19 is considered a descendant of Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi but does not quote his ancestor in his Kitāb al-Istibsār.20 A disciple named al-Aydī is also known, but no information is extant about how he may have transmitted his teacher’s work.21 The most reliable hypothesis, therefore, is that it was through Andalusi travelers to the East, not directly related to Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi, that his work traveled outside al-Andalus.
Regarding the moment when the reception of the work took place, we know that only a few decades after Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi’s death, an anthologist from Nishapur in the East, al-Thaʿālibī22 (d. 429/1039) quoted in his geographically arranged literary compilation Yatīmat al-dahr a substantial amount of material that was taken from Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi’s work, especially from his poetry. He started writing his anthology in 994 to assemble the best literary production until his day, and he included a total of 470 poets and prose writers from different parts of the Islamic world. The fact that Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi was one of these udabāʾ that were mentioned in the Yatīma, and the quantity of material al-Thaʿālibī quoted from him, indicates that the ʿIqd was already well known in the East at a relatively early stage.23
As Bilal Orfali stated in The anthologist’s art, orality played a crucial role in the transmission of poetry and akhbār in al-Thaʿālibī’s work. Much of the Yatīma’s information comes from 10th-century transmitters al-Thaʿālibī met during their travels or their visits to Nishapur. The majority of these transmitters, as Orfali insists, came from the East and transmitted the poetry and akhbār of their own regions, as well as that of the regions they visited. The main transmitter of Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi’s poetry for the Yatīma was an adīb from Nishapur and close friend of al-Thaʿālibī named Abu Ṣāʿid ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Muḥammad b. Dust.24 Apparently, the main source of Ibn Dust when transmitting poetry by Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi was the Andalusi faqīh al-Walīd b. Bakr who had access both to Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi’s ʿIqd and his dīwān.25 The information on Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi is introduced in the Yatīma with expressions such as: أنشدت (unshidtu), that is, “it was recited to me,” or prefaced with a brief isnād or chain of transmitters. For instance, “(عن/ʿan) from Muḥammad b. Dust, from al-Walīd b. Bakr al-Faqīh al-Andalusī.” As it is well known, the Yatīma became widely known, and consequently, with its diffusion, the information included on Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi’s work also spread.26
As for Yāqūt al-Ḥamawī (d. 626/1229), he states that he received the ijāza (authorization) to transmit the ʿIqd from Ibn Diḥya (d. 633/1235), a famous Maghrebi author, who wrote, for example, a poetic compilation named al-Muṭrib min ashʿār ahl al-Maghrib and who settled in the East:
و قد أجاز لي رواية كتابه الموسوم ب« العقد» الحافظ ذو النسبين، بني دحية و الحسين، أبو الخطاب عمر بن الحسن المعروف بابن دحية المغربي
I received the ijāza of his book, known as the “ʿIqd” from the reciter, owner of two genealogies, Banī Dihya and al-Ḥusayn. Abū l-Khatāb ʿUmar b. al-Ḥasan, known as Ibn Diḥya al-Maghribī.27
Unfortunately, Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi’s ʿIqd did not make a good impression in other quarters. There is the famous anecdote according to which the Buyid vizier al-Ṣāhib b. ʿAbbād (326–85/938–95) remarked when he read the book, “This is our merchandise brought back to us! We do not need it!” This reaction was recorded by Yāqūt in his Irshād28 and confirms that Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi’s adab compilation was known in the East very soon, probably even during Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi’s lifetime.
In contrast, the risāla of the 10th-century author al-Ḥasan b. Aḥmad al-Qayrawānī addressed to Abū l-Mughīra b. Ḥazm (a relative of Abū Muḥammad b. Ḥazm, the famous author of the Ṭawq al-ḥamama), which was recorded in al-Maqqarī’s work from the 16th century, insisted on the idea of the good reception that the ʿIqd received in the East.29
5 Encyclopedism: The Reception Process of Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi’s Work during the Mamluk Period
In the Ayyubid and early Mamluk periods, there was a literary renaissance that has been studied by many scholars, such as Robert Irwin, Th. Emil Homerin, Hilary Kilpatrick, Ulrich Haarmann, and Elias Muhanna, to mention only a few.30 Andalusi materials were taken into consideration as by then al-Andalus was associated with poetry (suffice it to mention the impact the muwashshahat had). The presence of many Maghrebi and Andalusi scholars who had settled, especially in Egypt and Syria, also helped in spreading information about the Andalusi literary production.31
The Mamluk period was particularly famous for its encyclopedism. The impulse for anthologizing and compiling previous knowledge was carried out not only “because of the writers’ fear that all knowledge would be lost as a result of invasions or destruction of libraries,”32 as Elias Muhhanna has remarked in Encyclopaedism in the Mamluk period: The composition of Shihāb al-Dīn al-Nuwayrī, but also because of the vast amount of literature that circulated.33 Scholars began to select and summarize the materials of their predecessors that they considered of great quality or relevance in order to pass it on to future generations. For instance, the Egyptian Ibn Mammātī summarized the anthology al-Dhakhīra fī maḥāsin ahl al-jazīra (Book of the Treasure-house concerning the elegant aspects of the people of the [Iberian] peninsula) written by the Andalusi author Ibn Bassām al-Shantarinī (d. 543/1147) and named the resulting work Laṭāʾif al-Dhakhīra wa-ṭarāʾiq al-jazīra, detailing the organization of the Andalusi work. Another important example is that of the distinguished author of the Lisān al-ʿarab, Ibn Manẓūr (d. 711/1311),34 who summarized important voluminous compendia written by earlier authors, such as al-ʿIqd al-farīd of Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi. Both cases are evidence that the Andalusi contribution to Arabic literature was known and appreciated by Eastern scholars.
Relevant information is also found in the Ashrafiyya library’s catalog that was studied by Konrad Hirschler in his Medieval Damascus: Plurality and diversity in an Arabic library. The Ashrafiyya library catalogue. The Ashrafiyya library, as Konrad Hirschler explains, is an important example of the book revolution initiated in the 9th and 10th centuries and of the popularization of libraries in the medieval Middle East. Founded in the 13th century in Damascus by the Ayyubid ruler al-Malik al-Ashraf, the Ashrafiyya library was a minor institution with a remarkable collection of more than 2,000 books, many of them multivolume works composed in the late Ayyubid and early Mamluk periods. Thanks to the preservation of the Ashrafiyya’s catalog, we know that one of the books it held was Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi’s al-ʿIqd al-farīd and also the later summary of the ʿIqd carried out by Ibn Manẓūr. Therefore, contrary to what al-Ṣāhib b. ʿAbbād had stated in the 10th century, three centuries later in the Mashriq, the need for Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi’s al-ʿIqd al-farīd continued to be felt.35
In addition to Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi’s work, there are other examples of Andalusi adab held in the Ashrafiyya library, for example, the Bahjat al-Majālis by Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr and later summaries of the Bahja and the Dhakhīra by Ibn Bassām al-Shantarinī, although it is not clear if the Ashrafiyya also held the summary of this work made by Ibn Mammātī or if the title is mistaken and it is an anonymous collection.
6 Presence and Influence of Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi’s Work in Mamluk Compilations
Adab compilations are extraordinary examples of the uninterrupted dialogue between oral and written sources and the juxtaposition of prose and poetry. Even though their structure, purpose, and organization differ from one to the other, the common idea was to collect the finest literary material and to preserve and ensure their circulation for future generations.
In the 12th and 13th centuries, adab works gained importance among the Mamluk elite, and this trend continued in later periods. The most popular adab compilation of this time was the Nihāyat al-arab fī funūn al-adab (The ultimate ambition in the branches of erudition) by al-Nuwayrī (667–732/1279–1332).36
In his work, al-Nuwayrī relied basically on his contemporary, the Egyptian Muḥammad b. Ibrāhīm b. Yaḥyā b. ʿAlī al-Anṣārī al-Kutubī al-Waṭwaṭ (632–718/1235–1318), on the tradition of his Eastern forerunners, such as Ibn Qutayba, and also on Andalusi authors whose works served as model examples, such as that of Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi.37 Al-Nuwayrī’s Nihāyat al-ʿarab combined prose, verses, or anecdotes. Just as Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi did, it omitted long chains of transmitters so that the reader could focus their attention on the content. The Nihāyat is divided into five books by which the author tried to create a comprehensive guide of the whole universe. In the first three books, the ʿIqd is one of the sources that was quoted by al-Nuwayrī and the Dhakhīra by Ibn Bassām is also used in book one.38 The popularity of these Andalusi works is corroborated with quotations included by al-Qalqashandī (756–821/1355–1418) in his Ṣubḥ al-Aʿshā fī ṣināʿat al-inshāʾ, considered by Hillary Kilpatrick “more a specialized administration manual than an adab encyclopedia.”39
The texts that undoubtedly require the most attention in this context, however, are those by Ibn Abī Hajala40 (725–76/1325–75), a poet and anthologist born in Tlemcen. In his work, we find evidence of his excellent knowledge of Andalusi literature. For instance, in his Mujtabā l-udabāʾ (The literatteurs’ pick), not preserved but mentioned in his risāla Maghnātis al-durr al-nafīs, he relied on Ibn Bassām’s Dhakhīra (conceived as a sequel to the Yatīma). Apart from this, in his much admired anthology on profane love, named Dīwān al-ṣabāba, Ibn Abī Hajala included poetry on this subject written by Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi.41 In his compilation Salwat al-hazīn fī mawt al-banīn, dealing with those who suffer the loss of a child, he added Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi’s verses dedicated to his deceased son, for instance:
و قال ابن عبد ربه في ولده: [االطويل].
قطعت رجائي منك يا قطعة منيذهبت عن الدنيا أذهبتها عني
And Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi said about his son:
I lost my hope, oh piece of me, leaving this world, you took it away of me.42
Ibn Abī Hajala43 also composed maqāmāt, and in his Maqāma al-Kutubiyya, he portrayed the decline of the 14th century’s book market in Cairo, the reactions on the part of the elites to the rise of popular literary forms, and the circulation of books. He also provided data on which were the “must read” Andalusi works for achieving an adequate intellectual formation. These are al-ʿIqd al-farīd by Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi, Qalāʾid al-ʿiqyān by Ibn Khāqān, the Dhakhīra by Ibn Bassām, and Ibn Ṣāʿid al-Andalusī’s Kitāb Ṭabaqāt al-Umam.44
Finally, the secretary of the chanceries of Syria and Egypt, Ibn Ḥijja al-Ḥamawī (767–837/1366–1434) wrote the Qahwat al-inshāʾ, a valuable source for Mamluk literature and history. This epistolary collection includes Ibn Ḥijja’s own letters and documents written by his contemporaries or coming from foreign governments to which he responded. One of these letters mentioned the importance and fame of Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi’s work, acknowledging it as one of the most valued of its genre.45
Later, in the 16th and 17th centuries, authors like al-Maqqarī in his Nafḥ al-ṭīb, or Ibn al-ʿImād in his Shadharāt al-dhahab, again revealed the Eastern success of the ʿIqd al-farīd.46
7 Conclusion
Further research needs to be carried out in order to detail, for example, which parts of the ʿIqd enjoyed greater impact, as shown in the summaries that were written on the work. Also, the manuscript transmission of this adab work needs to be studied. The evidence provided here demonstrates how Andalusis’ travels to the East in search of knowledge were the channels through which the reception of the Andalusi production took place and that the personalities and skills of those travelers were decisive in determining the success of such production, or lack thereof, regardless of the quality of the work. Al-Ṣāḥib b. ʿAbbād’s dismissive remark on the ʿIqd as providing nothing new (in fact, it does contain very little Maghrebi materials) and as being a recycling of knowledge of Eastern provenance made sense in a 10th-century context in which the sources used by Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi (and on which we have the excellent study by Werkmeister) were still available. Three centuries later, the ʿIqd would be appreciated by the Mamluk scholars precisely for such “recycling” of older materials, because by collecting it, Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi not only preserved important previous works but gave them form and meaning.
This work has been carried out within the research project “Local contexts and global dynamics: Al-Andalus and the Maghreb in the Islamic East (AMOI),” funded by the Ministry of Economy of Spain (FFI2016–78878-R) and codirected by Maribel Fierro (ILC-CSIC) and Mayte Penelas (EEA-CSIC). The aim of my research is to study the reception process, influence, and impact in the East of the most important adab works of al-Andalus, such as the Bahjat al-majālis by Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr (d. 478/1071), the Ḥadāʾiq al-azāhir fī mustaḥsan al-ajwiba wa-muḍḥikāt wa-l-ḥikam wa-l-amthāl wa-l-ḥikayāt wa-l-nawādir by Abū Bakr b. ʿĀṣim (d. 829/1426), and more particularly al-ʿIqd al-farīd of Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi.
See Toral-Niehoff, History 78; Ramírez del Río, Orientalización; Chalmeta, Historiografía 353–404; Chafic, Introducción 51–7; Marín, Transmisión 87–108; Ḏū n-Nūn Taha, Importance 39–44.
See López, ¿Autor 169–93; Cheikh-Moussa, Considérations 25–62; Sadan, Ornate 339–55; Peña Martín and Vega Martín, El ideal 464–502; Veglison, El collar.
See Brockelmann, Ibn ʿAbd Rabbih, 676–7; Ibn Khallikān, Wafayāt 92–4; Werkmeister, Quellenuntersuchungen 42–3; Haremska, Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi i, 620–9; Veglison, El Collar 120–3; Boullata, Unique.
For more on the adab genre in al-Andalus, see López ¿Autor 169–93; Soravia, Ibn Qutayba 539–65; Fierro, El saber 83–104.
For further information see, for instance, the articles of Toral-Niehoff, Book 134–51; History 61–85. See also Bray, Abassid 1–54; and Kilpatrick, Classical 2–26.
For more information about this caliph and the Umayyad Caliphate in al-Andalus, see Lévi-Provençal and García Gómez España 261–368; Fierro Abd al-Rahman.
For an extensive study on this, see Werkmeister, Quellenuntersuchungen; Guillén Monje, Ibn ʿAbd Rabbih 306–13.
For instance, Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi’s main source, the 10th-century Iraqi adab author Ibn Qutayba, see Ibn Qutayba, ʿUyūn.
Werkmeister, Quellenuntersuchungen 46.
See Fierro, La legitimidad 147–84; Pompa 125–52; Abderramán; Toral-Niehoff, History 61–85; Martínez-Gros, L’ idéologie; Monroe, Historical 67–95.
See Veglison, El collar; Boullata, Unique.
Ibn al-Faraḍi, Taʾrīkh 81.
Ibn Khāqān, Matmah 270.
Al-Humaydī, Jadhwat 151.
See the study and Spanish translation made by García Gómez, Andalucía contra Berbería, 43–141.
For instance, the Buyid vizier al-Ṣāhib b. ʿAbbād (326–85/938–95) remarked that the ʿIqd of Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi was only “our merchandise brought back to us.” See Yāqūt al-Ḥamawī, Irshād, i, 463.
Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi, al-ʿIqd, vii, 270.
See, for instance, in this volume, the article of Víctor de Castro about the diffusion of Ibn al-Khaṭīb’s work through his intellectual network. See also Fromherz, Ibn Khaldūn 288–305; Molina, The reception 663–80.
Puerta Vílchez and Rodríguez Figueroa, Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi 609–19.
Ibid. 614–18; Ibn Sharīfa, Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi.
Al-Faraḍī, Taʾrīkh i, 82.
See Orfali, Anthologist’s; Sources 1–47; Works 273–318.
See al-Thaʿālibī, Yatīmat ii, 85–144.
See Orfali, Sources 45.
As noted before, al-Ḥumaydī states that Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi composed a 20 volume dīwān kept in the library of al-Ḥakam II.
See Orfali, Works 273–318.
Yāqūt, Irshād ii, 219–20.
Ibid., 214–5.
See al-Maqqarī, Nafḥ iv, 138–40.
For a general perspective of this period, see Homerin, Reflections 63–85; Franssen, What 311–32; Ghersetti, al-Suyuti; Haarmann, Mamluk 329–47; Irwin, Mamluk 1–29; Kilpatrick, Beyond 71–80.
See Pouzet, Maghrébins 167–93.
As, for instance, happened with the Ayyubid library in the citadel, destroyed by a fire in 1292. Irwin, Mamluk 1–29.
See Muhanna, Encyclopaedism.
He also epitomizes other earlier voluminous works, such as Ibn ʿAsākir’s Taʾrīkh Dimashq or Samʿānī’s Dhayl Taʾrīkh Baghdād. See Brockelmann, Ibn Manẓur, 864.
See Hirschler, Medieval.
See Muhanna, World.
See al-Nuwayrī’s Nihāyat ii, 7–9, 22, 219–20; iii, 205–6, 219; iv, 2–4; vi, 5–6, 191–2, 211, 222; vii, 8, 186–8; x, 40.
Muhanna, Encyclopaedism 125–8, 180–5.
Kilpatrick, Adab i, 175–6; Genre 34–42.
See the studies carried out by Papoutsakis, Anthologist’s 417–36 and Pomerantz, Maqāmah 179–207.
Ibn Abī Ḥajala, Dīwān 29, 75.
Ibn Abī Ḥajala, Salwat 82.
For the political events of this period, see Irwin, Middle 125–51; Van Steenbergen, Order.
Pomerantz, Maqāmah 188–96.
See Ibn Ḥijja al-Ḥamawī, Qahwat 315–9.
See al-Maqqarī, Nafḥ ii, 118–9, 511; iii, 158–9, 186–94; vi, 22–7, 145–6, 509–13; vii, 49–52, 69–73; Ibn al-ʿImād, Shadharāt iii, 12–13.
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