al-Hulal fi Sharh Abyat al-Jumal
- Author died
- 521 AH
- Editions
- al-Hulal fi Sharh Abyat al-Jumal
al-Hulal fi Sharh Abyat al-Jumal (Arabic: الحلل في شرح أبيات الجمل) is a grammatical treatise by the Andalusian philologist Ibn al-Sayyid al-Batalyawsi (444–521 AH / 1052–1127 CE), dedicated to explaining and parsing the poetic proof-texts cited in Abu al-Qasim al-Zajjaji's foundational grammar manual, al-Jumal fi al-Nahw.
Composition and Purpose
Al-Batalyawsi composed al-Hulal as a sequel to his earlier critical work, Islah al-Khalal al-Waqi' fi Kitab al-Jumal ("Rectifying the Defects in the Book of al-Jumal"). In the preface, he noted that after addressing the conceptual and stylistic shortcomings of al-Zajjaji's compendium, he wished to elucidate the grammatical inflection (i'rab) of its poetic citations (shawahid), clarify their meanings, and identify their poets.
A primary methodological objective was to supply the preceding or following verses of the poems from which each cited line was drawn; al-Batalyawsi maintained that examining isolated verses often led commentators to misinterpret their intended context and purpose.
Structure and Transmission
The book is smaller in volume than Islah al-Khalal. It opens with the author's doxology and preface, and the grammatical commentary itself commences under the chapter on adjectival qualification (Bab al-Na't), opening with the verse:
لا يبعدن قومي الذين همُ ... سمُّ العداةِ وآفةُ الجُزُرِ
Ibn Abd al-Malik al-Marrakushi recorded in al-Dhayl wa-l-Takmilah that al-Batalyawsi's student Abu al-Hasan Ibn Sa'd al-Khayr al-Ansari completed his teacher's commentary on al-Jumal from the chapter on adjectival qualification to the end of the text after al-Batalyawsi died before finishing it; however, no explicit textual division indicating a student's completion appears within surviving manuscript copies of al-Hulal.
Title Variations and Manuscripts
The book is recorded under the full title al-Hulal fi Sharh Abyat al-Jumal by bibliographers and historians such as Katib Chelebi in Kashf al-Zunun, Ibn Qadi Shuhbah, Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti, Ahmad al-Maqqari, Ibn Khallikan, and Ibn al-Imad al-Hanbali. Other scholars, including Ibn Khayr al-Ishbili, Ibn al-Qifti, and Carl Brockelmann, referred to it under the shorter title Sharh Abyat al-Jumal.
Surviving manuscript witnesses include:
- An early codex copied in 526 AH, held in the University of Tehran Library, which once belonged to the private library of the Zaydi imam al-Mutawakkil Ahmad ibn Sulayman (d. 556 AH).
- A manuscript preserved in the General Library of Rabat (MS 1701 k).
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