al-Uyun al-Ghamiza ala Khabaya al-Ramiza
- Author died
- 827 AH
- Editions
- al-Uyun al-Ghamiza ala Khabaya al-Ramiza
al-Uyun al-Ghamiza ala Khabaya al-Ramiza (The Winking Eyes upon the Secrets of the Hinting Ode) is a commentary on Arabic prosody and rhyme (al-arud wa-al-qafiya) written by the grammarian and jurist Badr al-Din al-Damamini (763–827 AH / 1362–1424 CE) . It serves as an exposition of al-Ramiza fi Ilmay al-Arud wa-al-Qafiya (commonly known as al-Qasida al-Khazrajiyya), a 98-verse didactic poem composed by Diya al-Din Abu Muhammad Abd Allah ibn Muhammad al-Khazraji (d. 626 AH) .
Background and Composition
In his introduction to the work, al-Damamini relates that he was drawn to the study of poetic meter in his youth and obtained a copy of al-Khazraji's al-Ramiza, which he studied independently in the absence of a resident teacher or study partner . He initially began drafting notes on the text, but paused after students arriving from al-Andalus introduced him to an earlier commentary written by the chief judge of Granada, al-Sharif Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Sabti (d. 760 AH) .
Al-Damamini subsequently resolved to produce an intermediate commentary conceived as neither overly brief nor excessively exhaustive ("فوق الوجيز دون البسيط") . He commenced writing the work at the beginning of Jumada al-Akhira 817 AH and completed the fair copy in Rajab 817 AH while residing in the town of Naqada in Upper Egypt .
Subject and Scope
The book explicates the metrical principles condensed in al-Khazraji's poem, which uses symbolic shorthand and compressed phrasing to outline the meters of Arabic poetry (abhur), their constituent feet (tafa'il), metrical variations and alterations, and the rules governing rhyme schemes (qawafi) . In certain bibliographical works and early printings, the title also appears under the expanded variant al-Uyun al-Fakhira al-Ghamiza ala Khabaya al-Ramiza .
Reception and Publication
The commentary circulated widely in manuscript form, with surviving copies preserved in collections such as the Zahiriyya Library in Damascus, the Ahmadiyya and Uthmaniyya libraries in Aleppo, and the Zitouna collection in Tunis . It was referenced by later scholars of prosody and inspired related treatises, including Raf' Hajib al-Uyun al-Ghamiza an Kunuz al-Ramiza by Shams al-Din Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Dalaji .
The work was printed in Cairo in 1303 AH by the Uthman Abd al-Raziq Press, carrying Zakariyya al-Ansari's commentary Fath Rabb al-Bariyya bi-Sharh al-Qasida al-Khazrajiyya in its margins . Subsequent Egyptian editions appeared at al-Matba'a al-Maymaniyya in 1321 AH, al-Matba'a al-Khayriyya in 1323 AH, and Mustafa al-Babi al-Halabi in 1324 AH . A critical edition prepared by al-Hassani Hasan Abd Allah was published in Cairo at Matba'at al-Madani in 1973 (1383 AH) and republished by Maktabat al-Khanji in 1994 (1415 AH) .
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