al-Muntahil
- Author died
- 429 AH
- Editions
- al-Maṭba‘ah al-Tijāriyyah - ‘Arzūzī wa-Jāwīsh
Al-Muntahil (The Plagiarized or The Appropriated) is an Arabic poetic anthology of selections from classical Arab poets, historically attributed to the writer and philologist Abu Mansur al-Tha'alibi (350–429 AH / 961–1038 CE) .
Authorship and Attribution
Although early print editions appeared under the name of Abu Mansur al-Tha'alibi, both classical and modern scholars attribute the compilation to the Khurasanian prince, scribe, and poet Abu al-Fadl al-Mikali (Ubayd Allah ibn Ahmad, d. 436 AH / 1045 CE) . In his autobiography, the 6th-century AH historian Ali ibn Zayd al-Bayhaqi noted that he memorized Kitab al-Muntahil in his youth, explicitly identifying al-Mikali as its author . Major manuscript copies preserved in collections such as the National Library in Vienna, the Feyzullah and Raghib Pasha collections in Istanbul, the Egyptian National Library in Cairo, and Cambridge University Library also record the book under al-Mikali’s authorship .
Scope and Structure
The work is an anthology composed of poetic selections from master Arab poets (fuhul shu'ara' al-'Arab) . The verses are collected and arranged thematically without consistently naming the original poets inline, presenting them as curated models of poetic expression and rhetoric .
Editions and Companion Works
Al-Muntahil was edited by the librarian and scholar Ahmad Abu Ali (d. 1355 AH / 1936 CE), founder of the Alexandria Municipal Library, and printed in Alexandria at al-Matba'ah al-Tijariyyah (1319 AH / 1901 CE; also dated 1321 AH / 1903 CE) . To supplement the text and identify the anonymous excerpts, the editor authored a companion biographical dictionary appended to the volume, titled al-Muntakhal fi tarajim shu'ara' al-Muntahil (The Selected Biographies of the Poets of al-Muntahil) .
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