Hamasa al-Khalidiyyin
- Author died
- 371 AH
- Editions
- Ministry of Culture, Syrian Arab Republic
Hamasa al-Khalidiyyin (Arabic: حماسة الخالديين), also known as al-Ashbah wa-al-naza'ir min ash'ar al-mutaqaddimin wa-al-jahiliyyin wa-al-mukhadramin ("The Similarities and Parallels from the Poems of the Ancients, Pre-Islamic, and Veteran Poets"), is a classical Arabic poetic anthology and comparative work compiled jointly by the brothers al-Khalidiyan—Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Hashim al-Khalidi (d. c. 380 AH / 990 CE) and Abu Uthman Sa'id ibn Hashim al-Khalidi (d. 371 AH / 981 CE; also reported c. 391 AH or c. 400 AH) .
Title and Purpose
The anthology is primarily designed to demonstrate the precedence of pre-Islamic (Jahili), veteran (Mukhadram), and early Islamic poets in inventing poetic motifs (ma'ani), tracing how later and modern poets (al-muhdathun) inherited, developed, and paralleled those themes . In early bibliographical records, notably that of Ibn al-Nadim, the work is cited under the title Hamasa shi'r al-muhdathin, which scholars identified with al-Ashbah wa-al-naza'ir, although modern editor al-Sayyid Muhammad Yusuf considered them to be two distinct compilations .
Content and Method
The book begins with verses dedicated to martial courage and valor (hamasa), opening with lines attributed to al-Muhalhil ibn Rabi'ah . It spans a diverse assortment of thematic topics across centuries of Arabic poetry, including:
- The virtue of desert life over urban settlement (fadl al-badw 'ala al-hadar) and the praise of Bedouin women over town women .
- Poetic expressions concerning wishes and hopes (al-amani) .
- Motifs regarding the betrayal of perfumes and jewelry worn by beloveds .
- Injunctions urging departure from places where one suffers humiliation, as well as delicate descriptions of women's speech .
Methodologically, the authors grouped corresponding poetic excerpts without providing explicit headings for each individual section . Scholars have noted that the anthology suffers from organizational weaknesses, such as dispersing poetic citations of a single motif across unconnected sections and occasionally repeating verses .
Reception and Editions
The 20th-century scholar Abd al-Aziz al-Maymani evaluated the compilation as the finest work of poetic criticism conducted through the comparative method of juxtaposing multiple verses on a single theme .
The work was edited in full by al-Sayyid Muhammad Yusuf and published in two volumes in Cairo (1958 and 1965) . A selected edition was also prepared and edited by Muhammad Ali Diqqah, published by the Syrian Ministry of Culture in Damascus in 1995 .
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