al-Taliqat wa al-Nawadir
- Author died
- 300 AH
- Editions
- al-Taliqat wa al-Nawadir
al-Ta‘liqat wa al-Nawadir (Notes and Rare Transmissions) is an Arabic compendium of philology, poetry, tribal genealogy, and Arabian topography compiled by the linguist and genealogist Abu Ali al-Hijri (d. c. 300 AH / 912 CE) . The book is also recorded under the title al-Nawadir al-Mufidah in Haji Khalifa's Kashf al-Zunun .
Scope and Contents
The work preserves a vast record of rare Arabic vocabulary, dialectal expressions, oral Bedouin poetry, and geographical details collected directly from native Arabian informants across various regions of the Arabian Peninsula during the third and early fourth centuries AH . Abu Ali al-Hijri cited transmissions, verses, and linguistic commentaries from numerous contemporary Bedouin narrators whom he met, such as Abu al-Ghatammash al-Mu‘ridi of Banu ‘Uqayl, Mukramah bint al-Kuhayl al-Firasiyyah of Banu Qushayr, Ibn ‘Alkam al-Ma’ribi, Abu Burayh al-‘Udhami al-Asadi, al-Jabhi, Abu ‘Andal al-Awsi, Jamil ibn Dughaym al-Minqari, Hirmizah al-Tamimi, Abu al-Bassam al-Thumali, al-Rudayni al-Harithi, al-Musallam ibn Ahmad ibn Yazid al-Harbi, and Abu al-Mi‘dad al-Harashi .
Topographically and anthropologically, al-Ta‘liqat wa al-Nawadir documents the dwellings, tribal branches, migrations, and local dialects of Arabian tribes prior to the major migrations to North Africa and elsewhere, including Banu Sulaym, Banu Hilal, Qushayr, Khath'am, Nahd, and clans of Azd in the Sarawat range .
Transmission and Reception
The book reached al-Andalus at an early date, circulating among Western Islamic scholars while remaining largely inaccessible or unknown to scholars in the Islamic East except through Andalusian transmissions . Andalusian scholars made extensive use of its material:
- Thabit ibn Hazm al-Saraqusti (d. 313 AH) transmitted from Abu Ali al-Hijri and incorporated his linguistic explanations of uncommon Prophetic traditions into al-Dala'il fi Sharh Gharib al-Hadith .
- Ibn Sidah (d. 458 AH) utilized al-Hijri's lexicographical material in al-Muhkam, through which citations from al-Hijri later entered Ibn Manzur's Lisan al-Arab .
- Abu Ubayd al-Bakri (d. 487 AH) relied extensively on al-Hijri's geographical determinations in his geographical dictionary Mu‘jam ma Ista‘jam .
Manuscripts and Editions
Surviving manuscript portions of the work include two large parts preserved in India and a portion housed in Dar al-Kutub in Cairo . The Saudi scholar Hamad al-Jasir published an extensive monograph on the author and his geographical research titled Abu Ali al-Hijri wa-Abhathuhu fi Tahdid al-Mawadi‘ in Riyadh in 1968, and subsequently edited and published al-Ta‘liqat wa al-Nawadir through Dar al-Yamamah in Riyadh in 1992 .
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