al-Durra al-Khatira fi Shuara al-Jazira
- Author died
- 515 AH
- Editions
- al-Durra al-Khatira fi Shuara al-Jazira
al-Durra al-Khatira fi Shu'ara' al-Jazira (The Precious Pearl on the Poets of the Island) is a biographical anthology of Arabic poets from Islamic Sicily compiled by the philologist and literary scholar Ibn al-Qatta al-Siqilli (433–515 AH / 1041–1121 CE) . It serves as the foremost historical source for the Arabic poetry of Sicily prior to Norman rule .
Scope and Structure
The book is also referenced under variant titles, including al-Durra al-Khatira min Shi'r Shu'ara' al-Jazira, al-Durra al-Khatira wa-al-Mukhtar min Shu'ara' al-Jazira, and al-Durra al-Khatira fi al-Mukhtar min Shu'ara' al-Jazira . Ibn al-Qatta' restricted the work exclusively to poets of Muslim Sicily—specifically during the Kalbid era—and omitted figures from the Norman period .
In its complete original form, the anthology documented one hundred and seventy poets, functioning as a Sicilian counterpart to Ibn Rashiq al-Qayrawani's al-Unmudhaj, which surveyed one hundred poets of Ifriqiya . Ibn al-Qatta' provided biographical introductions for each poet alongside selections of their verse . Toward the conclusion of the text, he included an autobiographical entry detailing his own lineage, birth in 433 AH, and early composition of verse around 446 AH .
Transmission and Abridgments
The complete text of the work has not survived, but its contents have been preserved through later abridgments and substantial quotations in biographical compendia :
- Abridgment of Abu Ishaq ibn Aghlab: Titled al-Kitab al-Muntakhal min al-Durra al-Khatira, it originally selected sixty-seven poets from the work . The surviving manuscript (held in the Taymuriyya collection at the Egyptian National Library, No. 2216 History, detached from Paris MS No. 3418, fols. 96–110) contains lacunae and preserves entries for only forty-three poets, opening with the Kalbid ruler Abu al-Qasim Abd Allah ibn Sulayman al-Kalbi . Ibn Aghlab's selection omitted Ibn al-Qatta's biographical prefaces .
- Abridgment of Ibn al-Sayrafi: Compiled by Ibn al-Sayrafi (Ali ibn Munjib, d. 542 AH), this selection covers nineteen poets not found in Ibn Aghlab's abridgment and was later published within 'Unwan al-Arib by Muhammad al-Nayfar in Tunis .
- Selections by al-Imad al-Isfahani: Imad al-Din al-Isfahani drew heavily upon the text for his biographical work Kharidat al-Qasr wa-Jaridat al-Asr, extracting biographies and verse for forty-four Sicilian poets .
Later biographers, including Ibn Khallikan, also cited directly from Ibn al-Qatta's autograph copy of the text for chronological and biographical records .
Answer updated