al-Waraqa
- Author died
- 296 AH
- Editions
- al-Waraqa
al-Waraqa (The Sheet) is a biographical anthology of early Islamic and Abbasid-era poets compiled by the Abbasid administrator and man of letters Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Dawud ibn al-Jarrah (243–296 AH / 857–908 CE) .
Background and Title
The author composed the work in the form of an epistolary treatise addressed and sent to Ibn al-Munajjim . It was reportedly titled al-Waraqa because Ibn al-Jarrah originally intended to allot a single leaf (waraqa) to each poet's entry, designing it as a concise reference manual . In practice, the lengths of the biographical entries in the extant text vary: while most entries occupy around two pages, some span a single page or less, and others extend to three or four pages .
Content and Scope
al-Waraqa contains biographical profiles and selected verses for sixty-three male and female poets . The work focuses primarily on poets associated with the Abbasids, including those who bridged the transition between the Umayyad and Abbasid dynasties (mukhaḍramūn) as well as modern Abbasid poets (al-muḥdathūn) . Despite its concise entries, the compilation preserves numerous literary anecdotes and verses not documented elsewhere .
Influence and Editions
The book served as an important early source for subsequent bibliographers and literary historians. Ibn al-Nadim relied extensively on al-Waraqa in al-Fihrist when documenting modern poets and recording the estimated sizes of their poetic output, including figures such as Ru'ba ibn al-'Ajjaj, al-Sayyid al-Himyari, Sudayf, Ali ibn Thabit, Abu Nukhayla, Salama ibn 'Ayyash, Rabi'a al-Raqqi, the Caliph al-Mahdi, Hammad 'Ajrad, Ashja' al-Sulami, Abu Dulama, Waliba ibn al-Hubab, and al-Khalil ibn Ahmad . The work also provided a conceptual model for later compendia, notably Kitab al-Awraq by Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Yahya al-Suli .
In the modern era, the text was edited and published by Abd al-Wahhab 'Azzam and Abd al-Sattar Farraj .
Answer updated