al-Lami al-Azizi Sharh Diwan al-Mutanabbi
- Author died
- 449 AH
- Editions
- Markaz al-Malik Fayṣal lil-Buḥūth wa-al-Dirāsāt al-Islāmiyyah
Al-Lamiʿ al-ʿAzizi Sharh Diwan al-Mutanabbi (The Splendid [Commentary] for [the Prince] ʿAziz [al-Dawlah], Explaining the Diwan of al-Mutanabbi) is an extensive commentary on the poetic collection of the Arab poet al-Mutanabbi (d. 354 AH / 965 CE), composed by the Syrian poet and philologist Abu al-Ala al-Maarri (363–449 AH / 973–1057 CE) .
Title and Arrangement
The work was titled al-Lamiʿ al-ʿAzizi after the Mirdasid ruler ʿAziz al-Dawlah Thabit ibn Thimal ibn Salih ibn Mirdas . It is one of two distinct commentaries that al-Maʿarri devoted to the poetry of al-Mutanabbi, alongside Muʿjiz Ahmad . While later scholars such as Carl Brockelmann conflated both titles as designations for a single book, analysis of copies preserved in the ʿAshuriyya collection demonstrated that they are two separate works with different editorial methods . Whereas Muʿjiz Ahmad was organized sequentially by poetic genres and themes, al-Lamiʿ al-ʿAzizi arranged the poems alphabetically according to the letter of the rhyme (huruf al-muʿjam), a methodology also followed in the commentaries of Ibn Jinni, al-Isfahani, al-Khatib al-Tibrizi, and Abu al-Baqa al-Ukbari .
Method and Content
In al-Lamiʿ al-ʿAzizi, al-Maʿarri provided exhaustive grammatical, lexical, and semantic analyses of al-Mutanabbi's verse . His student Abu Murshid al-Maarri observed that the work addressed obscure meanings and grammatical intricacies so comprehensively that it rendered further references largely unnecessary, though its length grew significantly because al-Maʿarri incorporated a vast array of literary arts and erudite digressions .
Reception and Manuscripts
The commentary became a focal point of scholarly study and critique. The literary critic Abu al-Abbas al-Muhallabi singled out the commentary for evaluation in his critical treatise al-Maʾakhidh ʿala Shurrah Diwan Abi al-Tayyib al-Mutanabbi (Objections against the Commentators of al-Mutanabbi's Diwan), devoting its entire second volume to critiquing al-Maʿarri's interpretations in al-Lamiʿ al-ʿAzizi .
Manuscript copies of the commentary have been preserved across multiple collections, including the Hamidiye library in Istanbul—which houses an early copy copied close to al-Maʿarri's lifetime bearing the author's title al-Lamiʿ al-ʿAzizi—as well as holdings in Munich, the British Library, the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts in Saint Petersburg, Nuruosmaniye, Dar al-Kutub in Cairo, and Maktabat ʿArif Hikmat in Medina . A two-volume manuscript copied in 1059 AH was also held in the personal library of Muhammad al-Tahir ibn ʿAshur in Tunis .
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