Asma al-Mughtalin min al-Ashraf wa Asma man qutil min al-Shuara - ضمن Nawadir al-Makhtutat
- Author died
- 245 AH
- Editions
- Sharikat Maktabat wa-Maṭba‘at Muṣṭafá al-Bābī al-Ḥalabī wa-Awlāduh bi-Miṣr
Asma al-Mughtalin min al-Ashraf wa Asma man qutil min al-Shuara (Names of Assassinated Nobles and Names of Slain Poets) is a biographical and historical treatise on victims of assassination by the Baghdadi philologist and genealogist Muhammad ibn Habib (d. 245 AH / 859–860 CE) . The work documents individuals of high social standing and poets who were murdered across the pre-Islamic era (Jahiliyyah) and the Islamic period .
Title and Structure
In classical bio-bibliographical works, Ibn al-Nadim and Yaqut al-Hamawi recorded the work under the title Maqatil al-Fursan (The Slayings of Knights), a designation later maintained by Katip Celebi in Kashf al-Zunun alongside similarly titled works by Abu Ubayda Ma'mar ibn al-Muthanna and Abu Ali al-Qali . Ibn Habib himself referred to the work internally in two complementary parts: one dedicated to assassinated nobles (al-mughtalin or ashraf al-mughtalin) and the other to poets who were killed (man qutil min al-shuara) .
Later scholars cited the treatise under multiple shortened or descriptive variants; Abd al-Qadir al-Baghdadi in Khizanat al-Adab cited it as Kitab al-Maqtulin Ghilatan, Kitab Asma al-Mughtalin min al-Ashraf fi al-Jahiliyya wa al-Islam, and simply Kitab al-Mughtalin, while also referring to its second section as Kitab man qutil min al-Shuara .
Scope and Content
The work focuses on assassination (ghilah), specifically treating figures who were slain treacherously or violently through stabbing, bludgeoning, strangulation, poisoning, and related means . Ibn Habib employed the term "nobles" (ashraf) in its early Arab usage, denoting prominent, distinguished figures and tribal leaders rather than restricting it to lineage of the Prophet's family; as such, it encompasses pre-Islamic tribal leaders, figures across diverse tribes, and non-Muslim personalities such as Ka'b ibn al-Ashraf . The text opens with the account of Jadhima al-Abrash, the pre-Islamic king of Iraq, and his killing at the hands of al-Zabba' .
Manuscript Tradition and Publication
The text survived as the leading part of a single manuscript compilation that also preserved two other monographs by Ibn Habib: Kuna al-Shuara wa man ghalabat kunyatuh ala ismih and Alqab al-Shuara wa man yu'raf minhum bi-ummih .
The primary manuscript witness is preserved in the Aşir Efendi collection in Istanbul (MS 872), copied by Yusuf ibn Muhammad, known as Ibn al-Wakil al-Mallawi, on 18 Jumada al-Ula 1114 AH from an ancient copy written in Kufic script; a photographic reproduction of it is held at Dar al-Kutub al-Misriyya (No. 2606 Tarikh) . A second transcription was made from this archetype in Jumada al-Ula 1296 AH by a scribe of the same name and acquired by the Mauritanian scholar Muhammad Mahmud al-Shinqiti (d. 1322 AH), who annotated and corrected it against the Aşir Efendi manuscript (Dar al-Kutub al-Misriyya, No. 57 Adab Shinqiti) .
The text was edited from these manuscripts by Abd al-Salam Harun and published as part of the sixth collection of his series Nawadir al-Makhtutat (Rare Manuscripts) in Cairo .
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