al-Iklil
- Author died
- 334 AH
- Editions
- al-Iklil
al-Iklil (The Crown, in full al-Iklīl min akhbār al-Yaman wa-ansāb Ḥimyar or al-Iklīl fī ansāb Ḥimyar wa-ayyām mulūkihā) is an expansive ten-part historical, genealogical, and antiquarian work on ancient South Arabia and the Himyarite kingdoms by the Yemeni scholar, genealogist, and poet Abu Muhammad al-Hasan ibn Ahmad al-Hamdani (known as Ibn al-Ha'ik, d. 334 AH / 945 CE) .
Overview and Structure
The work is organized into ten distinct parts or disciplines (funūn) :
- Part One: An abridgment of primordial beginnings (al-mubtadaʾ), the genealogical origins of the Arabs and non-Arabs, and the descendants of Himyar .
- Part Two: The genealogy of the descendants of al-Humaysaʿ ibn Himyar .
- Part Three: The virtues and merits of Qahtan (faḍāʾil Qaḥṭān) .
- Part Four: The ancient biography and history (al-sīra al-qadīma) spanning from the era of Yaʿrub ibn Qahtan to the reign of Abu Karib Asʿad al-Kamil .
- Part Five: The middle biography (al-sīra al-wusṭā) from the reign of Abu Karib to the era of Dhu Nuwas .
- Part Six: The later biography (al-sīra al-ukhrā) from the era of Dhu Nuwas down to the advent of Islam .
- Part Seven: A critical examination alerting readers to false reports and impossible tales (al-tanbīh ʿalā al-akhbār al-bāṭila wa-l-ḥikāyāt al-mustaḥīla) .
- Part Eight: An architectural, antiquarian, and historical survey of the fortresses and palaces of Himyar (quṣūr Ḥimyar), their maxims, and their wars .
- Part Nine: Traditions and lore concerning the tribe of Hamdan (maʿārif Hamdān); in another accounting, this part comprised inscriptions, while traditions of Hamdan formed Part Ten .
- Part Ten: The genealogy and branches of the Hamdan confederation, specifically Hashid and Bakil . Passages across the work also integrate astronomical conjunctions and calculations, natural philosophy, astrological judgments, early philosophical views on the eternity or temporal creation of the world, cosmic cycles, and human longevity .
Subject Matter and Methodology
al-Iklil serves as an encyclopedia of South Arabian antiquity, documenting castles (maḥāfid), cities, ancient pre-Islamic poetry—such as verses by ʿAlqama—elegies, and South Arabian epigraphic inscriptions in the Musnad script . It preserves specialized South Arabian architectural and masonry terminology not recorded in standard Arabic lexicons, as well as the names of local chieftains (aqyāl) and settlements .
The author observed orthographic conventions of Musnad writing, recording that scribes separated words within a line with vertical dividers and omitted internal alifs in names such as Hamdan and Riʾam . He also documented dialectal phonetic features of contemporary South Arabian speech, such as the elision of initial vowels in imperative verbs . Alongside historical and antiquarian observations, the work incorporates cosmological, physical, and astrological treatises alongside poetic selections, including al-Hamdani's polemical ode al-Qaṣīda al-Dāmigha in praise of Qahtan at the end of Part Two .
Scholars have noted that while the book provides firsthand observations of monuments and preserved ancient vocabulary, it also incorporates unverified legendary narratives, particularly regarding tomb discoveries (qubūriyyāt) and the pre-Islamic Tubbaʿ kings . Later analyses also observed that readings of Musnad inscriptions transmitted in the text frequently recast ancient texts through later Islamic monotheistic and ascetic themes .
Preservation and Editions
Much of al-Iklil was lost over time, and only Parts 1, 2, 8, and 10 are known to have survived and been published :
- Part One: Preserved through the transmission of Muhammad ibn Nashwan ibn Sa'id al-Himyari, who abridged certain disputed matters and lineages, and edited by Muhammad ibn Ali al-Akwa' al-Hiwali (Cairo, 1963) .
- Part Two: Edited by Muhammad ibn Ali al-Akwa' al-Hiwali (Cairo, 1966) .
- Part Eight: Published with a German translation and commentary by David Heinrich Müller (Leipzig, 1879) , and later edited by Father Anastas Marie al-Karmali (Baghdad) based on multiple manuscripts, as well as an edition by Nabih Amin Faris .
- Part Ten: Edited by Muhibb al-Din al-Khatib (Cairo, 1368 AH) .
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