al-Aqqa wa al-Barara - Damin Nawadir al-Makhtutat
- Author died
- 209 AH
- Editions
- Sharikat Maktabat wa-Maṭba‘at Muṣṭafā al-Bābī al-Ḥalabī wa-Awlāduh bi-Miṣr
al-Aqqa wa al-Barara (The Undutiful and the Dutiful Offspring) is a literary treatise by the Basran philologist and genealogist Abu Ubayda Ma'mar ibn al-Muthanna (110–209 AH / 728–824 CE) compiling Arabic poetry and historical anecdotes regarding filial impiety, filial devotion, and familial estrangement .
Subject Matter and Scope
The treatise gathers akhbār (narrative reports) and poetic verses focused on sons who mistreated, defied, or rebelled against their fathers (al-ʿaqqa), the poetic reproaches and laments composed by aggrieved fathers in response, and examples of dutiful offspring (al-barara) . It also records accounts of youth who migrated from the desert (al-bawādī) to settle in urban garrison cities (al-amṣār), leaving behind aging parents who longed for them and composed poems expressing their grief and yearnings .
The material serves as both a lexical and literary record of Bedouin and early Islamic poetic exchanges concerning family conflicts, such as the disputes between the poet Uqayl ibn Ullafa al-Murri and his sons, as well as accounts involving figures like Munazil ibn Far'an .
Transmission and Classical Citations
The text was transmitted on the authority of Abu Ubayda by his student and scribe, the transmitter Abu Ghassan Rufay' ibn Salama al-Abdi (known as Dammadh) .
The work is listed under various titles in early bibliographical sources: Ibn al-Nadim listed it in Kitab al-Fihrist simply as Kitab al-Aqqa, while later bibliographers like Yaqut al-Hamawi and Ibn Khallikan also referenced it, though in some manuscript traditions of their biographical works the word was corrupted to al-Iffa . The grammarian al-Tabrizi cited passages from it in his commentary on al-Hamasa under the fuller title Akhbar al-Aqqa wa al-Barara, and citations appear in the works of Badr al-Din al-Ayni (Sharh al-Shawahid) and Abd al-Qadir al-Baghdadi (Khazanat al-Adab) .
Manuscripts and Publication
The work survived in a single known manuscript kept at the El Escorial Library (MS 1895) within a composite codex written in an ancient Maghribi script dating approximately to the 7th century AH . The Escorial copy begins at folio 38 and was transcribed from an exemplar copied by the Andalusian scholar Abu Dharr al-Khushani (Muhammad ibn Mas'ud, 533–604 AH) .
The text was edited from this unique manuscript by the Egyptian scholar Abd al-Salam Muhammad Harun and published within the second volume of his multiauthor collection Nawadir al-Makhtutat (Rare Manuscripts) in Cairo in 1374 AH / 1954 CE .
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