SOME NOTEWORTHY MANUSCRIPTS OF THE POEMS OF ABU'L-ʿALĀʾ AL-MAʿARRĪ

Abstract

A particular feature in the philological teaching of al-Tibrizi (for an account of whom see Encyclopaedia of Islam, s.v., and Brockelmann, i, 33I, S., i, 492) was the great role allotted to the poetical works of his teacher, Abu'l-'Ala' al-Ma'arri. This predilection for Abu'l-'Alas work became traditional in the Baghdad school of philologists in the 6th/I2th century, who were mostly al-Tibrizi's pupils, or pupils of al-Tibrizi's pupils. It is therefore, no coincidence that the most important manuscripts of al-Ma'arri's poems come from members of this school. The legend runs that al-Tibrizi wanted to study al-Azhari's dictionary, al-Tahdhtb fi'l-Lugha, under the guidance of a teacher. He put the bulky volumes in a sack and carried them so poor was he from his native town of Tabriz to Ma'arrat al-Nu'man, where Abu'l-'Ala' al-Ma'arri, in his retreat, attracted pupils from distant countries by his fame as a poet and grammarian. That curious copy of al-Azhari's book could still be seen in the I3th century, or at least so people said, in one of the libraries of Baghdad. It looked as if it had long been in water. That was the effect of the sweat that penetrated through the sack during the long journey and made the leaves of the book wet. (Ibn al-Qifti, Inbdh alRuwdt fi Anbdh al-Nuhdt, quoted by Ibn Khallikan (Wiistenfeld), no. 8Io.) This copy of the Tahdhib al-Lugha belonging to al-Tibrizi, which he studied with Abu'l-'Ala', has not come down to us, and we are thus unable to test the truth of the story chemically. We have, however, other surviving documents to bear witness of al-Tibrizi's years of study with Abu'l-'Ala' and his veneration for the memory and the works of his master. We have several manuscripts of Abu'l-'Alas main poetical compositions, the Siqt al-Zand and the Luzim md Id yalzam, which are material evidence of courses given by al-Tibrizi on the works of Abu'l-'Ala', and at least one of them also of al-Tibrizi's studies under Abu'l-'Alra.