Poetry and Elegant Prose [IO Bijapur 122]

Poetry and Elegant Prose.

This manuscript is now IO Bijapur 122 in the India Office collections.

[metadata: Otto Loth, A Catalogue of the Arabic Manuscripts in the Library of the India Office, (volume 1), no. 800 here with further notations and hyperlinks].

800.

B 122. Size 10 in. by 53/4 in.; foll. 61. From twenty-eight to thirty lines in a page.

شرح المعلقات السبع الخ

A concise Commentary on the Mu’allaḳât, ascribed to Abu’l-Ḥasan Muḥammad b. Aḥmad, commonly called IBN KAISÂN the grammarian (d. probably A.H. 320).1 It is mentioned neither in the Fihrist (ed. Flügel, ۸۲), nor in Ḥ. Kh.

This commentary is intended for the use of beginners.

It gives rather short explanations of obscure words, and a paraphrase of each verse. The former are introduced by التفسير , and the latter by المعنى . Special grammatical questions are occasionally discussed in an appendix, which the superficial reader is advised to skip.

The preface begins: الحمد لله و الصلوة على النبى محمد و آله و صحبه اجمعين قال ابوالحسن محمد بن احمد كَيْسَان النحوى رحه اختصرنا غرائب هذه القصائد السبع المشهورة الخ.

The first scholium is introduced by the words: قال التعالبى (!) قال لنا ابوالحسن . Tha’âlibî is accordingly supposed to have handed down the work from the author; he was born, however, thirty years after the death of the latter (A.H. 350).

Plainly written. Completed and collated on Thursday, 14th Rabî’ II., 1098, by Zain b. 'Abdallah Muḳaibil.

1 Cf. Flügel, die grammatischen Schulen der Araber, 210n.