Notice of an unknown Anthology of Ancient Arabic Poetry, “Muntaha 'l-ṭalab min Ash'âr-i 'l-'Arab,”, by Muḥammad b. al-Mubârak b. Muḥammad b. Maimûn

Abstract

At Oxford, in 1927, while hunting up references to the verses of an unknown anthology of ancient Arabic poetry, which I hope to present shortly to the students of Arabic, I came to find mention of another unknown anthology of Ancient Arabic poetry: Muntaha 'l-Ṭalab min Ash'dr-i 'l-'Arab by Muḥammad b. al-Mubârak b. Muhammad b. Maimûn, said to contain one thousand Arabic odes. Although the anthologist, Muḥammad b. al-Mubârak b. Muhammad b. Maimûn, was no familiar figure in Arabic literary history, the name of the anthology and the note about its enormous extent at once struck me and led me to think that it was a very valuable work. So I at once consulted the well-known expert, Mr. (now Dr.) F. Krenkow about it. Mr. Krenkow informed me that he also had come across the name of this anthology, most probably in the catalogue of the books in the late De Slane's library. Afterwards, when I visited Germany and met Dr. Hommel of Munich, he felt immensely interested in this anthology, and suggested to me to be on the look-out for it in my intended Near East tour especially in the libraries of Istanbul and Damascus. As a matter of fact, in Istanbul I came upon a codex of this work in the library of Laleli, where it is numbered 1941. But this codex, 2·1 cm. × 1·5 cm., containing 164 folios, was only a small part—one-sixth—of the whole work. Again in Cairo I found two manuscripts of the Muntaha 'l-Ṭalab in the Royal library.