al-Rawd al-Nadr fi Tarjamat Udaba al-Asr
- Author died
- 1193 AH
- Editions
- al-Majmaʻ al-ʻIlmī al-ʻIrāqī
al-Rawd al-Nadr fi Tarjamat Udaba al-Asr ("The Flourishing Garden: Biographies of the Men of Letters of the Age") is an 18th-century biographical anthology of contemporary poets and literary figures compiled by the Iraqi scholar, poet, and administrator Isam al-Din al-Umari (1134–1193 AH / 1721–1779 CE; also reported as d. 1184 AH / 1770 CE) .
Composition and Dedication
The author states that he completed the text in 1170 AH (1756–1757 CE), as noted in his biographical entry on Muhammad Amin Pasha al-Jalili . Al-Umari recounts in his preface that he had harbored a passion for literature from his youth, preserving notes, drafts of debates, epistolary exchanges, and literary assemblies. When rumors spread that he had abandoned belles-lettres, he organized these materials and appended biographies of contemporary literati to them .
Manuscript copies diverge regarding the book's dedication:
- In Awqaf manuscript 928, al-Umari dedicated the work to the governor of Mosul, Muhammad Amin Pasha al-Jalili .
- In Awqaf manuscript 5894, he dedicated it to the Ottoman Grand Vizier Raghib Pasha (Muhammad Raghib), presenting it to him in Istanbul .
The title appears in historical references with slight variants, including al-Rawd al-Nadr fi Tarajim Udaba al-Asr and al-Rawd al-Nadr fi Tarajim Abna al-Asr .
Scope and Content
The anthology stands within the classical tradition of works devoted to the biographies and poetry of contemporary writers, following the trajectory of Abu Mansur al-Tha'alibi's Yatimat al-Dahr, al-Fath ibn Khaqan's Qala'id al-Iqyan, Shihab al-Din al-Khafaji's Rayhanat al-Alibba, al-Muhibbi's Nafhat al-Rayhana, and Ibn Ma'sum's Sulafat al-Asr . Al-Umari explicitly acknowledges modeling his work after Rayhanat al-Alibba and Qala'id al-Iqyan .
The book does not encompass poets from all Arab lands, but restricts itself to 123 literary figures of the 12th century AH: 114 from Iraq and nine from Ottoman Anatolia and Rumelia (Rum) . It serves as an essential primary record for the poetry and prose of 18th-century Iraq .
Method and Style
Following the convention of Rayhanat al-Alibba, al-Umari generally omits the birth and death years of his subjects, as well as biographical milestones from their lives . Instead, he characterizes their literary merit in rhymed prose (saj'), often employing uniform laudatory phrasing across entries . Each entry is followed by selections of the biographee's verse and prose .
Al-Umari frequently traces poetic motifs back to earlier classical inventors, introducing literary digressions throughout the work . He drew heavily upon earlier manuals of rhetoric and anthologies—such as those of Ibn Hijja al-Hamawi and Salah al-Din al-Safadi—sometimes quoting or summarizing them with only infrequent explicit citation .
Publication History
The work was edited by Salim al-Nu'aymi and published by the Iraqi Scientific Academy in Baghdad in three volumes between 1394 and 1395 AH (1974–1975 CE), with proofs corrected by the calligrapher Walid al-Azami . The division into three parts was instituted by the modern editor for readability, with the third volume containing the concluding biographies along with comprehensive indices of proper names and rhyme schemes (qawafi) .
Answer updated