Buhuth wa Tahqiqat Abd al-Aziz al-Maymani
- Author died
- 1398 AH
- Editions
- Dar al-Gharb al-Islami
Buhuth wa Tahqiqat Abd al-Aziz al-Maymani (Researches and Critical Editions of Abd al-Aziz al-Maymani) is a two-volume compendium of dispersed articles, critical reviews, and edited rare texts by the Indian philologist and manuscript scholar Abd al-Aziz al-Maymani (1306–1398 AH / 1888–1978 CE), compiled and prepared for publication by Muhammad Uzayr Shams.
Background and Compilation
Over several decades, al-Maymani published scholarly studies, critical notes, book reviews, and editions of short classical treatises across various journals and independent printings in India, Egypt, and Syria. Because many of these periodicals and rare prints had become difficult for researchers to access, Muhammad Uzayr Shams undertook the task of tracking down, transcribing, and collecting them from libraries across India, Pakistan, and the Arab world.
Shams deliberately omitted al-Maymani's widely published independent books (such as Abu al-Ala wa-ma Ilayh, Simt al-La'ali, al-Tara'if al-Adabiyya, Diwan Suhaym, Diwan Humayd, al-Wahshiyyat, and al-Tanbihat ala Aghalit al-Ruwat), as well as his larger works requiring separate reprinting (such as Ibn Rashiq, Iqlid al-Khizana, and Khulasat al-Siyar). The resulting collection brought together more than fifty individual articles, treatises, and textual notes. The collection was reviewed by Muhammad al-Ya'lawi, prefaced by Dr. Shakir al-Fahham, and published in two volumes by Dar al-Gharb al-Islami in Beirut in 1995 CE (1416 AH).
Structure and Contents
The collection is divided into three main parts across its two volumes:
- Part One (Articles and Studies / Maqalat wa Buhuth): Comprises diverse research essays composed at various stages of al-Maymani's life, including Arabic translations of two articles originally written in Urdu for Indian periodicals. It includes an English article on al-Maymani authored by his student Muhammad Yusuf, as well as al-Maymani's travel notes (Mudhakkirat), in which he documented the rare manuscripts he examined across libraries in Egypt, Syria, Iraq, and Turkey during his journey between 1935 and 1936.
- Part Two (Criticism and Book Notices / Naqd wa Ta'rif): Contains critical examinations of printed texts and manuscripts, corrections of errata, and authorial attributions based on manuscript collations. It features al-Maymani's emendations on major reference works, such as his marginal notes (turar) on Yaqut al-Hamawi's Mu'jam al-Udaba', his textual corrections on the first volume of Ibn Manzur's Lisan al-Arab, and his notes on Abd al-Qadir al-Baghdadi's Khizanat al-Adab.
- Part Three (Edited Texts / Nusus Muhaqqaqa): Constitutes the second volume and gathers rare treatises edited and annotated by al-Maymani. These include Maqalat Kalla wa-ma Ja'a Minha fi Kitab Allah by Ibn Faris, Ma Talhanu fihi al-Awwamm by al-Kisa'i, Ibn Arabi's epistle to Fakhr al-Din al-Razi, poetic supplements to the divan of al-Mutanabbi (Ziyadat Diwan Shi'r al-Mutanabbi), uncollected verses of Abu al-Ala al-Ma'arri (Fa'it Shi'r Abi al-Ala), and gathered poetry of Ibn Rashiq and Ibn Sharaf.
Method and Reception
Shams documented the original publication source of each article or treatise in the footnotes to ensure bibliographic accuracy and facilitate cross-referencing. In his preface, Shakir al-Fahham commended Shams for compiling these scattered texts, noting that the volume effectively makes al-Maymani's rare scholarly output and insights on Arabic philology, poetry, and manuscript repositories accessible to contemporary researchers.
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