al-Muqtataf min Azahir al-Taraf
- Author died
- 685 AH
- Editions
- Sharikat Amal
Al-Muqtataf min Azahir al-Taraf (Selections from the Flowers of Novelty) is an Arabic literary anthology compiled by the Andalusian scholar and traveler Ibn Said al-Maghribi (610–685 AH / 1213–1286 CE) . Dedicated to the Hafsid caliph Abu Abd Allah al-Mustansir bi-llah of Tunis, the work brings together classical and vernacular poetry, artistic prose, anecdotes, and post-classical strophic verse from both the Islamic East and West .
Composition and Structure
Ibn Said initially compiled enough material to fill twenty large volumes before abridging and refining it into a single condensed volume . He organized the book symmetrically around the calendar, dividing it into four main chapters (fusul) corresponding to the four seasons, each comprising three groves (khama'il) representing the months of that season, totaling twelve groves across twelve quires :
- Chapter 1: Flowers of Prose (Azahir al-Nathr): Divided into three groves according to line length: short passages (1–4 lines), medium passages (5–8 lines), and extended passages (9–12 lines), each further subdivided into four ranks (tabaqat) .
- Chapter 2: Flowers of Verse (Azahir al-Nazm): Divided into three groves by verse count: fragments consisting of 1–4 lines, selections of 5–8 lines, and pieces of 9–12 lines .
- Chapter 3: Flowers of Anecdotes (Azahir al-Hikayat): Arranged across three groves into short, moderate, and detailed narratives, each organized into four ranks .
- Chapter 4: Flowers of Post-Classical Meters (Azahir al-Awzan al-Muwalladah): Comprising three groves devoted to vernacular and non-classical poetic forms: the first covers dubayt, murabba'at, and mukhammasat; the second covers kan wa-kan and mawaliya; and the third gathers muwashshahat and azjal .
To maintain brevity, the author refrained from providing full biographical backgrounds or origins for each excerpt, noting that biographical and geographical details belonged to his separate book al-'Unwan, while aesthetic critiques of verse were reserved for his Kitab al-Mashitah .
Reception and Transmission
The book was heavily utilized by later writers, notably Ibn Khaldun, who incorporated large sections of the final grove on muwashshahat and azjal almost verbatim into the concluding literature chapter of his Muqaddimah without explicitly citing Ibn Said at the start . Passages from the work were also cited by al-Maqqari in Nafh al-Tib and Azhar al-Riyad .
The work survived in two primary manuscripts: one preserved in the Al Rifa'ah Library in Girga (Sohag Governorate, Egypt) and another at the El Escorial Library in Spain (ms. 2/455), where it had earlier been cataloged under the title al-Khama'il because its opening pages were missing . Its Escorial text was identified as Ibn Said's work through the research of Abd al-Aziz al-Ahwani and Muhammad ibn Tawit al-Tanji . The text was edited by Sayyid Hanafi Hasanayn and published in Cairo in 1983 .
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