Diwan al-Hudhaliyyin
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Diwan al-Hudhaliyyin (Dīwān al-Hudhalīyīn, "The Collected Poetry of the Hudhayl Tribe") is an extensive Arabic poetic anthology that preserves the verse and tribal lore of the Hudhayl tribe, compiled and commented upon in the third century AH by the philologist Abu Sa'id al-Sukkari (212–275 AH / 827–888 CE). It is the only major tribal poetry collection (diwan qabilah) from the Hijaz and ancient Arabia to survive to the modern era.
Compilation and Transmission
The collection was assembled by Abu Sa'id al-Sukkari from several earlier recensions transmitted by leading philologists and native tribal authorities. Among these primary lines of transmission were:
- The recension of al-Riyashi from al-Asma'i, deriving from the tribal informant Abu Umara Umara ibn Abi Tarfa al-Hudhali, as well as the transmissions of al-Shafi'i.
- The recension of Muhammad ibn Habib from Ibn al-A'rabi and Abu 'Amr al-Shaybani.
- The recension of Abu Hatim al-Sijistani and Ali ibn al-Mughira al-Athram from Abu 'Ubaydah.
- The transmission of Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Ahwal from Abd Allah ibn Ibrahim al-Jumahi.
Subsequent scholars continued to transmit the work, including Ibn Durayd, from whom Abu Ali al-Qali read fourteen parts of the collection.
Structure and Contents
The collection brings together the poetry of over forty poets from the tribe of Hudhayl, spanning the pre-Islamic, transitional (mukhadram), and early Islamic eras, though the surviving material contains more Islamic-era than pre-Islamic verse. The majority of poets in the collection are represented by only short fragments of fewer than twenty-five lines, whereas only seven poets exceed one hundred verses.
The most prominent poet featured in the anthology is Abu Dhu'ayb al-Hudhali, whose work opens the collection with thirty-three poems and one urjuzah. His section begins with his celebrated rhyming-'ayn elegy mourning the death of his five sons from the plague in Egypt, opening with the verse:
أَمِنَ المَنُونِ وَرَيْبِهَا تَتَوَجَّعُ ... وَالدَّهْرُ لَيْسَ بِمُعْتِبٍ مَنْ يَجْزَعُ "Is it at fate and its uncertainties that you grieve? Yet time grants no reprieve to the one who despairs."
Other major poets included in the Diwan are Abu Khirash al-Hudhali, al-Mutanakhkhal (Malik ibn 'Uwaymir), Sa'ida ibn Ju'ayyah, Abu Kabir al-Hudhali, Sakhr al-Ghayy, Abu al-Iyal, Umayya ibn Abi 'A'idh, Abu Jundab, Ma'qil ibn Khuwaylid, Malik ibn Khalid, Usama ibn al-Harith, and Abu Sakhr al-Hudhali. The collection also preserves poetic flytings (naqa'id) between rival poets, such as Sakhr al-Ghayy and Abu al-Muthallam, as well as elegies by female poets such as 'Umrah (also identified as Janub), who eulogized her brother 'Amr Dhu al-Kalb.
Linguistic Authority and Commentaries
The poetry of Hudhayl held foundational authority among classical Arabic lexicographers and grammarians for establishing correct linguistic usage, rare vocabulary (gharib), and Quranic exegesis. Early authorities such as al-Shafi'i were noted for their mastery of this corpus, with al-Shafi'i reportedly memorizing ten thousand verses of Hudhayl poetry along with their syntax and meanings, from whom al-Asma'i read the poems.
Because the extant recensions of al-Sukkari's work did not encompass all Hudhayli verse, later scholars composed supplements and commentaries. The grammarian Ibn Jinni (d. 392 AH / 1002 CE) authored Kitab al-Tamam fi tafsir ash'ar Hudhayl ("The Book of Completion in Explaining the Poetry of Hudhayl") to gloss verses that al-Sukkari had omitted. Later commentaries were also produced by al-Marzuqi and Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Qari (d. 945 AH / 1538 CE).
Editions and Modern Scholarship
The text has been published in several European and Middle Eastern editions:
- European editions: The first volume, containing al-Sukkari's commentary on twenty-nine poets, was edited by Johann Gottfried Ludwig Kosegarten in London (1854). The remainder of the collection, covering twenty-seven poets along with historical narratives of tribal battle-days (ayyam), was edited with a German translation by Julius Wellhausen in Berlin (1884/1887). Additional individual diwans of Hudhayli poets were edited by Joseph Hell in Hannover (1926) and Leipzig (1933).
- Cairo editions: A three-volume edition was published by Dar al-Kutub al-Misriyyah in Cairo between 1364 and 1369 AH (1945–1950, reprinted in 1965). It was prepared from a Maghrebi-script manuscript formerly in the collection of Muhammad Mahmud al-Shinqiti, edited initially by Ahmad al-Zayn and completed by Dar al-Kutub editors following his death. Another three-volume edition of al-Sukkari's commentary was edited by Abd al-Sattar Ahmad Farraj and reviewed by Mahmud Muhammad Shakir (Cairo: Dar al-'Urubah).
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