Kharidat al-Qasr wa Jaridat al-Asr - Aqsam Ukhra
- Author died
- 597 AH
- Editions
- Kharidat al-Qasr wa Jaridat al-Asr - Aqsam Ukhra
Kharidat al-Qasr wa Jaridat al-Asr (The Unpierced Pearl of the Palace and the Periodical of the Age) is an extensive Arabic biographical anthology of poets and men of letters composed in ten volumes by the historian and chancery official al-Imad al-Isbahani al-Katib (519–597 AH / 1125–1201 CE) .
Lineage and Composition
Al-Imad al-Isbahani conceived the work as a continuation (dhayl) to Zinat al-Dahr by Abu al-Ma'ali Sa'd ibn Ali al-Hadhiri, which had itself continued Dumyat al-Qasr by al-Bakharzi, a continuation of al-Tha'alibi’s Yatimat al-Dahr, which traced back to al-Bari' by Harun ibn Ali al-Munajjim . Al-Imad recorded in his introduction that he undertook the project because he observed that literary excellence had lost its standing and its practitioners had fallen into obscurity, motivating him to preserve the verses and achievements of his contemporaries .
The compilation documents the poets of the sixth Islamic century from 500 AH onward until around 572 AH, the year al-Imad concluded its main composition, though another report states that its coverage extends up to 592 AH . To gather his material, al-Imad traveled across various regions, meeting poets and transmitters directly, hearing their verses, and recording them alongside written transmissions .
Structure and Scope
The anthology is organized geographically across four major territorial divisions, each containing multiple sub-volumes subdivided by province, town, and city :
- Iraq: Beginning with biographical notices and verses of the Abbasid caliphs from al-Qa'im bi-Amr Allah to al-Mustadi' bi-Amr Allah, followed by viziers, scribes, and poets of Baghdad, al-Hilla, Kufa, Hit, and al-Anbar .
- Syria and Adjacent Regions: Covering the poets of Damascus and the Ayyubid dynasty princes, followed by Homs, Hama, Shayzar, Ma'arrat al-Nu'man, Aleppo, Manbij, and Harran, with dedicated sections for the Jazira of Banu Rabi'a, Diyar Bakr, as well as the poets of the Hijaz, Tihama, and Yemen .
- Egypt and the Islamic West: Covering Egypt, Sicily, the Maghrib, and al-Andalus, supplying entries and excerpts for numerous figures not found in earlier Andalusian compilations like Ibn Bassam’s al-Dhakhira .
- The Non-Arab Lands: Covering Persia, Khurasan, and broader Persian-speaking regions .
Style and Reception
Al-Imad employed an ornate rhymed prose (saj') marked by rhetorical ornamentation and wordplay . Salah al-Din al-Safadi observed that al-Imad's poetry was gentler and more natural than his prose, remarking that his prose was frequently weighed down by excessive paronomasia (jinās), while Taj al-Din al-Subki noted that the opening formulas of the anthology's chapters were heavy with paronomasia and rhetorical inversion .
Supplements and Publication
Al-Imad later wrote a supplement to the book entitled al-Sayl 'ala al-Dhayl (also known as Dhayl al-Kharida wa-Sayl al-Jarida) to incorporate notices and verses that he had omitted from the original work .
In modern scholarship, the anthology was published in regional sections over several decades: the Egyptian section in 1951, edited by Ahmad Amin, Shawqi Dayf, and Ihsan Abbas; the Iraqi section in 1955, edited by Muhammad Bahjat al-Athari; the Syrian, Hijazi, and Yemeni sections, edited by Shukri Faysal; the Maghribi section beginning in 1967, edited by Muhammad al-Marzuqi, al-Jilani ben al-Hajj Yahya, and al-Habib al-Arusi; and the Persian section, published in Tehran in 2000 .
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