al-Muwashshah fi Maakhidh al-Ulama ala al-Shuara
- Author died
- 384 AH
- Editions
- al-Muwashshah fi Maakhidh al-Ulama ala al-Shuara
al-Muwashshah fi Maakhidh al-Ulama ala al-Shuara (The Embroidered Girdle on the Strictures of Scholars Against Poets) is a treatise on Arabic literary criticism and poetic defects by the Baghdadi scholar and historian Abu Ubayd Allah Muhammad ibn Imran al-Marzubani (297–384 AH / 910–994 CE) . The work systematically documents the criticisms, linguistic objections, prosodic faults, and thematic errors identified by early philologists, grammarians, and critics against major Arab poets across successive historical periods .
Structure and Scope
The book opens with an introductory exposition on technical defects in prosody and rhyme, defining faults such as al-iqwa (vowel discrepancy in the rhyme letter), al-ikfa, al-sinad, al-ita (repetition of rhyme words), and al-tadmin (enjambment), as well as permissible poetic licenses (darurat al-shir) .
The main body of the work is arranged chronologically by generational classes of poets:
- Pre-Islamic poets (al-Shuara al-Jahiliyyun): Treats figures such as Imru al-Qays, al-Nabighah al-Dhubyani, Zuhayr ibn Abi Sulma, al-Asha, Tarafah ibn al-Abd, Bishr ibn Abi Khazim, Hassan ibn Thabit, Aws ibn Hajar, and al-Nabighah al-Jadi, surveying faults attributed to them by early authorities .
- Islamic and Umayyad poets (al-Shuara al-Islamiyyun): Examines poets such as al-Farazdaq, Jarir, Dhu al-Rummah, al-Akhtal, al-Ahwas, and Umar ibn Abi Rabiah, while detailing broader aesthetic defects including incongruity between wording and meaning, meter distortion, offensive openings (al-ibtidaat al-maibah), and logical contradictions .
- Abbasid/Modern poets (al-Shuara al-Muhdathun): Addresses criticisms leveled against modern poets, such as Bashshar ibn Burd, Marwan ibn Abi Hafsah, Ibn al-Rumi, and Ubayd Allah ibn Abd Allah ibn Tahir .
The book concludes with reports and critical evaluations censuring poor or substandard poetry (dhamm al-shir al-radi) .
Method and Content
Al-Marzubani compiled criticisms transmitted by foundational philologists and critics—such as al-Asmai, Sibawayh, al-Akhfash, and Ibn al-Arabi—recording their judgments on specific verses . The text documents a wide range of critical categories, including grammatical solecisms, lexical misapplications, unnatural phrasing, plagiarism (al-sariqat), far-fetched metaphors, hyperbolic overstatement, and artificial affectation (al-takalluf) . Al-Marzubani regularly intersperses his own critical assessments alongside the transmitted reports .
Manuscripts and Editions
An early manuscript copy of the work survives in Istanbul in the Ahmet III collection (MS 1012), transcribed during the author's lifetime in 366 AH . Additional manuscripts are held at the Egyptian National Library (Dar al-Kutub al-Misriyyah) .
The work was printed in Cairo at al-Matbaah al-Salafiyyah in 1343 AH (1925 CE) . It was later edited by Ali Muhammad al-Bijawi (Cairo: Dar Nahdat Misr, 1965) and by Muhammad Husayn Shams al-Din (Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyyah, 1995) .
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