Alqab al-Shuara wa Man Yuraf Minhum Bi Ummihi - Dimn Nawadir al-Makhtutat
- Author died
- 245 AH
- Editions
- Sharikat Maktabat wa-Maṭba‘at Muṣṭafā al-Bābī al-Ḥalabī wa-Awlāduh bi-Miṣr
Alqab al-Shuara wa Man Yuraf Minhum Bi Ummihi (Arabic: ألقاب الشعراء ومن يعرف منهم بأمه, "The Nicknames of the Poets and Those Among Them Known by Their Mothers") is a biographical and onomastic treatise on Arab poets by the Baghdadi scholar of genealogy and poetry Abu Jafar Muhammad ibn Habib (d. 245 AH / 859–860 CE) .
Scope and Content
The work compiles the sobriquets (laqab, pl. alqab) of pre-Islamic and early Islamic poets along with those who were identified through their maternal lineages rather than their fathers . For each entry, Muhammad ibn Habib provides the poet's full lineage, the origin of the moniker or maternal affiliation, and relevant explanatory context .
The text opens with entries such as al-Abli, applied to Abd Allah ibn Umar ibn Abd Allah ibn Adi after his maternal grandmother Abla bint Ubayd; Abu Qutayfah, the nickname of Amr ibn al-Walid ibn Uqbah on account of his abundant facial hair; Ash'ar Burkan, applied to al-Walid ibn Uqbah; al-Arji, applied to Umar ibn Abd Allah ibn Amr ibn Uthman ibn Affan; and al-Qass, applied to Waraqa ibn Nawfal .
Transmission and Publication
The treatise survived as part of a single composite manuscript containing several short monographs by Muhammad ibn Habib, alongside his treatises on assassinated nobles and poets (Asma al-Mughtalin min al-Ashraf and Asma Man Qutila min al-Shuara) and his work on poets' agnomens (Kuna al-Shuara wa Man Ghalabat Kunyatuhu ala Ismih) .
The work was edited by Abd al-Salam Harun, who relied on two principal witnesses: a manuscript preserved in the Ashir Efendi library (designated as copy A) and a copy transcribed in the collection of al-Shinqiti (designated as copy B) . Harun published the critical text as the seventh treatise in his multi-volume collection Nawadir al-Makhtutat ("Rare Manuscripts") in Cairo .
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