Ibn Sana al-Mulk
- Died
- 608 AH
- Born in
- Egypt
Ibn Sana al-Mulk (545–608 AH / 1150–1212 CE) was an Egyptian poet, chancery scribe, and literary theorist best known for his poetry and his treatise on strophic verse, Dar al-Tiraz .
Lineage and Early Life
He was Abu al-Qasim Hibat Allah ibn Ja'far ibn Muhammad ibn Hibat Allah ibn Muhammad al-Sa'di, bearing the honorific title al-Qadi al-Sa'id . A variant genealogy extends his ancestry to Razin . He was born in Egypt in 545 AH (1150 CE), though another report places his birth in 550 AH . He belonged to a prominent, wealthy family and was raised in an elite environment .
Education and Career
Ibn Sana al-Mulk studied the Quran under al-Sharif Abu al-Futuh al-Khatib and learned Arabic grammar from Ibn Barri . He traveled to Alexandria, where he heard hadith from Abu Tahir al-Silafi .
He pursued a bureaucratic career, serving for a period as a scribe in the Egyptian chancery (Diwan al-Insha) . In 606 AH, the Ayyubid ruler al-Malik al-Kamil appointed him to direct the army administration bureau (Diwan al-Jaysh) . Among those who transmitted from him was Shihab al-Din al-Qusi .
Scholarly Standing and Literary Life
Ibn Sana al-Mulk was recognized as an accomplished poet and prose stylist . Shihab al-Qusi remarked that he was innovative in his concepts and captivated hearts with the sweetness of his poetry . As noted by Ibn Khallikan, he lived in notable opulence and worldly fortune, maintaining a celebrated epistolary correspondence with the eminent vizier and prose master al-Qadi al-Fadil, whom he frequently praised in verse .
In literary scholarship, his treatise Dar al-Tiraz codified the rules, prosodic meters, and composition of the Andalusian-origin strophic poetry known as the muwashshah . He also compiled Fusus al-Fusul, an anthology collecting the epistolary prose of leading contemporary chancellors, centered primarily on al-Qadi al-Fadil, and abridged al-Jahiz's Kitab al-Hayawan under the title Ruh al-Hayawan . His verse was later critically analyzed by Ali ibn Isma'il ibn Jabbara in a dedicated work of literary criticism .
Later Life and Death
A year prior to his death, Ibn Sana al-Mulk turned to ascetic repentance and renounced his former pursuit of worldly luxuries . During his terminal illness in Cairo, he dictated verses expressing contentment that the loss of worldly grandeur had freed his heart for the afterlife, and died shortly after while engaged in the remembrance of God . His death occurred during Ramadan 608 AH (February–March 1212 CE) in his sixties, with one report specifying the first ten days of the month .
Answer updated
List of Works
Dar al-Tiraz fi Amal al-Muwashshahat (The House of Embroidery on the Art of Muwashshahat) is a 6th-century AH treatise and anthology dedicated to the rules, prosodic structure, and composition of the strophic poetry known as the muwashshah. It codifies the technical foundations, formal rules, and meters of the genre through an extensive theoretical introduction alongside representative poetic selections.