al-Munsif li al-Sariq wa al-Masruq Minhu
- Author died
- 393 AH
- Editions
- Jāmi‘at Qār Yūnis
al-Munsif li al-Sariq wa al-Masruq Minhu (The Just Evaluator of the Plagiarist and the Plagiarized), also known as al-Munsif fi al-Dalalat 'ala Sariqat al-Mutanabbi, is a work of Arabic literary criticism composed by the poet and scholar Ibn Waki' al-Tinnisi (d. 393 AH / 1003 CE) on the poetic borrowings (sariqat) and stylistic defects attributed to al-Mutanabbi (d. 354 AH / 965 CE) .
Background and Purpose
Ibn Waki' composed the work in Egypt, likely after 380 AH as he invokes prayers of mercy for his teacher al-Husayn ibn Ahmad al-Muhallabi (d. 380 AH) . In the introduction, he states that he wrote the book in response to a letter from a contemporary inquiring about a faction of literary enthusiasts who excessively praised al-Mutanabbi, elevating him above ancient and modern masters while claiming that his poetic motifs were entirely original and free from grammatical error or poetic theft . Ibn Waki' set out to refute these claims by establishing an analytical framework for literary borrowing and systematically documenting the antecedents of al-Mutanabbi's verse .
Structure and Method
The book opens with a theoretical introduction examining the nature of poetic borrowing. Ibn Waki' argues that earlier generations of poets have largely exhausted universal poetic concepts, meaning that later poets inevitably build upon inherited material . He identifies ten praiseworthy categories of borrowing (al-sariqat al-mahmudah) alongside their blameworthy counterparts, formulating criteria to judge whether a later poet improved upon a source, equaled it, or fell short . Among the praiseworthy categories he lists are:
- Rendering extended phrasing into concise, pithy wording (istifa' al-lafz al-tawil fi al-mujiz al-qalil) .
- Transforming base or crude wording into robust, dignified diction (naql al-lafz al-radhl ila al-rasin al-jazl) .
- Correcting a defective structure while preserving the underlying meaning (naql ma qabuha mabnahu dun ma'nahu ila ma hasuna mabnahu wa-ma'nahu) .
- Inverting a panegyric meaning so that it becomes satirical ('aks ma yasiru bi-l-'aks hija'an ba'da an kana thana'an) .
In the analytical body of the work, Ibn Waki' reviews al-Mutanabbi's corpus, tracing lines back to classical pre-Islamic, early Islamic, and Abbasid poets, as well as lesser-known contemporaries such as the baker-poet Nasr al-Khubzaruzzi . In addition to identifying thematic parallels, he analyzes poetic imagery and grammar, proposing structural emendations where he deemed al-Mutanabbi's imagery clumsy or unrefined .
Reception and Critique
Al-Munsif drew immediate engagement and controversy from contemporary and later critics:
- The grammarian Ibn Jinni (d. 392 AH) wrote a treatise refuting Ibn Waki's criticisms of al-Mutanabbi's poetry (al-Naqd 'ala Ibn Waki' fi Shi'r al-Mutanabbi wa-Takhti'atuh) .
- Ibn Rashiq al-Qayrawani (d. 456 AH / 1064 CE) criticized the book's strict premises, remarking in al-'Umdah that Ibn Waki' established standards under which practically no poet could survive scrutiny, and asserted that he ironically titled the book al-Munsif ("The Fair Evaluator") just as a snakebite victim is euphemistically termed salim ("healthy"), remarking: "how far from fairness he was" .
- Modern literary historian Ihsan Abbas noted that while Ibn Waki' exhibited vast memorization and an ability to trace conceptual similarities exceeding predecessors like al-Hatimi, his approach suffered from the broader limitation of sariqat criticism, reducing poetry either to borrowed motifs or negligible lines .
Manuscripts and Editions
Manuscripts of the work include:
- Berlin State Library (ms. 7577, copied in 587 AH, 169 fols) .
- Yale University Library (ms. Landberg 105, containing part 1) .
- The Qaddur Library in Aleppo and excerpts preserved in the Feyzullah collection (ms. 1615) .
The text was edited by 'Umar Khalifah ibn Idris and published by Garyounis University in Benghazi in 1994 .
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