al-Mufaddaliyat
- Author died
- 168 AH
- Editions
- Dār al-Maʿārif
al-Mufaddaliyat (The Selections of al-Mufaddal), originally compiled under the title Kitab al-Ikhtiyarat (The Book of Selections), is an anthology of ancient Arabic poetry compiled by the Kufan philologist al-Mufaddal al-Dabbi (d. c. 168 AH / 784 CE; other reports give 164, 170, or 175 AH) . Considered the earliest independent anthology dedicated purely to selected specimens of Arabic poetry from diverse poets and tribes, it serves as a primary source for ancient and pre-Islamic verse .
Background and Compilation
Accounts differ regarding the circumstances of its composition. The most widespread narrative states that after al-Mufaddal participated in the revolt of Ibrahim ibn Abd Allah ibn al-Hasan, the Abbasid caliph Abu Ja'far al-Mansur pardoned him and appointed him to tutor his son and heir apparent, al-Mahdi . Al-Mufaddal assembled these selections for al-Mahdi's literary education, focusing on exemplary poems by less prolific poets (al-muqillun) that embodied courage, chivalry, and noble conduct .
Another account relates that while Ibrahim ibn Abd Allah was in hiding at al-Mufaddal's house, al-Mufaddal brought him boxes of poetry books to pass the time; Ibrahim selected seventy poems that formed the initial nucleus of the work, which al-Mufaddal subsequently expanded . According to Abu Ikrimah al-Dabbi, al-Mufaddal initially presented eighty poems to al-Mahdi; these were later read to al-Asma'i, whose students added further selections until the compilation expanded .
Structure and Contents
The total number of poems varied across recensions. Ibn al-Nadim noted that the anthology comprised 128 poems in its standard transmission, though copies varied in count and sequence; he identified the transmission through al-Mufaddal's stepson and pupil Ibn al-A'rabi as the soundest recension . The text transmitted in the commentary of Abu Bakr Ibn al-Anbari contains 126 poems . Modern editions frequently feature 130 poems by including four supplementary poems preserved in other manuscript recensions .
The collection includes works by 67 poets, categorized as follows:
- 47 pre-Islamic (jahili) poets .
- 14 mukhadram poets who lived through both the pre-Islamic and Islamic eras .
- 6 Islamic-era poets .
The anthology opens with an ode by the brigand-poet Ta'abbata Sharran that begins with the verse: يا عِيدُ مَا لَكَ مِنْ شَوْقٍ وَإِبْرَاقِ ... ومَرِّ طَيْفٍ عَلَى الأَهْوَالِ طَرَّاقِ "O recurring longing, what is this yearning and gleaming, and this visitation of a phantom passing through perils by night?" . The longest ode included in the collection is by Suwayd ibn Abi Kahil, running to 108 verses .
Transmission and Commentaries
Al-Mufaddal transmitted only the bare poetic texts without grammatical commentary or lexical exposition . The dominant transmitted commentary was composed by Abu Muhammad al-Qasim ibn Bashar al-Anbari (d. 304 AH), who received the poems via dictation from Abu Ikrimah from Ibn al-A'rabi from al-Mufaddal . Al-Qasim supplemented this base transmission with lexical glosses and variants from scholars including Abu Amr Bundar al-Karkhi, Abu Bakr al-Abdi, Muhammad ibn Rustam, and Ali ibn Sinan al-Tusi, subsequently cross-checking the entire work with Ahmad ibn Ubayd ibn Nasih (d. 273 AH) . The commentary was later transmitted by his son Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn al-Qasim al-Anbari (d. 328 AH) .
Other notable classical commentaries were composed by Abu Ja'far al-Nahhas, Abu Ali al-Marzuqi (d. 421 AH), al-Khatib al-Tibrizi (d. 502 AH), and Abu al-Fadl al-Maydani .
Printed Editions
- Heinrich Thorbecke published the first part with German notes in Leipzig (1885) .
- Charles Lyall edited the Arabic text with Ibn al-Anbari's commentary and an English translation with historical notes in two volumes (Oxford, 1918–1921), complemented by an index volume compiled by A. A. Bevan (1924) .
- Ahmad Muhammad Shakir and Abd al-Salam Harun published a critical two-volume edition in Cairo (first published in 1942), containing 130 poems equipped with extensive indexes for poets, rhymes, vocabulary, places, and artistic themes .
- Fakhr al-Din Qabawah published al-Tibrizi's commentary in four volumes (1968), and Muhammad Ali al-Bijawi edited another four-volume printing of al-Tibrizi's commentary in Cairo (1977) .
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