al-Asmaiyat
- Author died
- 216 AH
- Editions
- Dār al-Maʿārif
al-Asmaiyat (al-Aṣmaʿīyāt) is an early anthology of ancient Arabic poetry compiled by the philologist and transmitter al-Asmai (d. 216 AH / 831 CE) .
Composition and scope
The collection was assembled following the model of al-Mufaddaliyat, an earlier anthology compiled by al-Asma'i's teacher al-Mufaddal al-Dabbi . While al-Mufaddal's compilation was named after his given name, al-Asma'i's work took its title from his well-known epithet . It is reported that al-Asma'i compiled it for the Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid, seemingly selecting from lesser-known or minor poets to complement al-Mufaddaliyat .
The two anthologies share overlapping material, with nineteen poems appearing in both collections . Individual poets such as Hajib ibn Habib al-Asadi, Zabban ibn Sayyar al-Murri, Sinan ibn Abi Haritha al-Murri, 'Amir ibn al-Tufayl, and 'Abd Qays ibn Khufaf each have two duplicate poems across both compilations, while Subay' ibn al-Khatim has one .
Structure and contents
The anthology comprises ninety-two poems and fragments across seventy-one poets . These include forty-four pre-Islamic (Jahili) poets, fourteen transitional (Mukhadram) poets, six Islamic-era poets, and seven unidentified figures . A differing count records seventy-two poems and fragments totaling 1,163 verses by sixty-one poets, of whom three are unnamed and five are unknown in other sources . The collection totals 1,439 verses in the ninety-two poem recension .
Most of the contents consist of short poetic excerpts, sometimes spanning only two lines, rather than full odes . Among the prominent pre-Islamic figures represented in the work are Imru al-Qays, Tarafa, al-Harith ibn 'Ibbad, Durayd ibn al-Simma, Abu Du'ad al-Iyadi, Dhu al-Isba' al-'Adwani, Salama ibn Jandal, 'Urwa ibn al-Ward, and Qays ibn al-Khatim, as well as the Jewish poets Su'ya ibn al-Gharid and al-Samaw'al .
Reception and editions
al-Asmaiyat holds high standing for its reliability and linguistic preservation, retaining obsolete vocabulary not recorded in standard lexicons . However, it did not achieve the widespread circulation or extensive commentary tradition enjoyed by al-Mufaddaliyat, partly because it contains fewer rare or obscure words (gharib) and because al-Asma'i often transmitted abridged selections rather than complete poems . Ibn al-Nadim noted that al-Asma'i produced a large corpus of Arab poetry that scholars did not find entirely satisfactory due to its paucity of rare expressions and abbreviated transmissions .
The orientalist Wilhelm Ahlwardt published an edition of the work in Berlin in 1902 based on a defective manuscript . It was later edited by Ahmad Muhammad Shakir and Abd al-Salam Harun from a manuscript copied in 1285 AH by al-Shinqiti from an early exemplar bearing the handwriting of Ibn al-Anbari . This edition was published by Dar al-Ma'arif in 1375 AH (1955 CE), with subsequent printings in 1383 AH (1963 CE) and 1387 AH (1967 CE) .
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