al-Gharamiya fi Mustalah al-Hadith
- Author died
- 699 AH
- Editions
- Dār al-Maʼāthir
al-Gharamiya fi Mustalah al-Hadith (Arabic: الغرامية في مصطلح الحديث, also known as al-Qasida al-Gharamiya or Manzumat Ibn Farah) is a didactic poem on hadith terminology composed by the Andalusian Shafi'i traditionist and jurist Ibn Farah (625–699 AH / 1227–1300 CE) .
Structure and Style
The poem comprises twenty verses composed in the tawil meter, ending in the rhyming letter lam (hence also referred to as al-Lamiyya) . Though other sources report it as thirty verses, editors note twenty as the standard count .
The work is distinctive for framing the technical classifications and designations of hadith (alqab al-hadith) within the conventions of Arabic love poetry (ghazal) . It employs double entendre (tawriya), using terms that have an apparent romantic meaning while intending specific technical definitions in hadith criticism . The poem lacks a conventional introductory preamble and begins directly with its romantic motif:
غرامي صحيح والرجا فيك معضل ... وحزني ودمعي مرسل ومسلسل
وصبري عنكم يشهد العقل أنه ... ضعيف ومتروك وذلي أجمل
"My passion is sound (sahih) while hope in you is problematic (mu'dal), / and my grief and tears are sent forth (mursal) and continuous (musalsal);
And my patience without you, intellect testifies that it is / weak (da'if) and abandoned (matruk), while my humility is more fitting."
The author did not intend an exhaustive compendium of every technical hadith subcategory, but rather an elegant pedagogical summary combining literary artistry with core definitions .
Transmission and Reception
The poem was transmitted directly from Ibn Farah by several prominent scholars of Damascus, including al-Dhahabi, al-Dimyati, al-Yunini, and al-Birzali . Taj al-Din al-Subki praised the text as eloquent and encompassing the majority of hadith categories, and Ibn Kathir highlighted it as fine poetry on the subject . Ibn Nasir al-Din observed that students memorized it and relied upon it, though he later authored an imitation titled 'Uqud al-Durar fi 'Ulum al-Athar to incorporate terms Ibn Farah had omitted .
Commentaries
The poem attracted numerous commentaries across different legal schools, including:
- Zawal al-Tarah bi-Sharh Manzumat Ibn Farah by Badr al-Din Ibn Jama'a (d. 819 AH) .
- A commentary by Ibn 'Abd al-Hadi al-Maqdisi (d. 744 AH) .
- A commentary by Qasim ibn Qutlubugha .
- al-Bahja al-Saniyya fi Hall al-Isharat al-Saniyya by Shams al-Din al-Tata'i .
- al-Mulah al-Gharamiya bi-Sharh Manzumat Ibn Farah al-Lamiyya by Muhammad al-Saffarini al-Hanbali .
- A commentary by Yahya ibn 'Abd al-Rahman al-Qarafi .
- al-Muqtarah fi Sharh Abyat Ibn al-Farah by 'Umar ibn 'Abd Allah al-Fihri (d. 1188 AH) .
- A commentary by Badr al-Din Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Bibani, completed in Damascus and printed at Bulaq in 1286 AH .
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