Khizanat al-Adab wa Lubb Lubab Lisan al-Arab lil-Baghdadi
- Author died
- 1093 AH
- Editions
- Maktabat al-Khanji
Khizanat al-Adab wa Lubb Lubab Lisan al-Arab (The Treasury of Literature and the Core of the Essence of the Arabic Tongue) is an encyclopedic commentary by the Iraqi-born scholar Abd al-Qadir al-Baghdadi (1030–1093 AH / 1621–1682 CE) on the poetic evidentiary verses (shawāhid) cited in al-Radi al-Astarabadhi's commentary on the grammatical treatise al-Kafiyya by Ibn al-Hajib .
Background and Purpose
Al-Baghdadi undertook the work to elucidate the approximately one thousand poetic evidentiary lines in al-Radi's commentary on al-Kafiyya . In his introduction, he noted that although al-Radi's work was widely celebrated by scholars for its rigorous grammatical analysis, the poetry cited within it remained difficult to decipher due to obscure meanings, unknown authors, and textual corruptions (taṣḥīf) that had crept into manuscript copies over time . Drawing on an extensive personal collection of manuscripts and literary works, al-Baghdadi expanded his analysis of the 957 verses into an exhaustive reference on Arabic grammar, morphology, lexicography, and literary history .
Structure and Methodology
The work provides a line-by-line exposition of each poetic citation in al-Radi's text . For each verse, al-Baghdadi identifies the poet, supplies biographical background, contextualizes the poem within its historical and tribal setting, and analyzes its vocabulary, morphology, and syntactic structure .
In the theoretical introduction to the compilation, al-Baghdadi outlines the principles governing linguistic probation (istishhād) and classifies Arabic poets into four chronological generations:
- Jāhiliyyūn: Pre-Islamic poets (such as Imru' al-Qays and al-A'sha) .
- Mukhaḍramūn: Poets who lived during both the pre-Islamic and Islamic eras (such as Labid and Hassan ibn Thabit) .
- Islāmiyyūn (or Mutaqaddimūn): Early Islamic poets from the Umayyad period (such as Jarir and al-Farazdaq) .
- Muwalladūn (or Muḥdathūn): Post-classical poets whose usage is not accepted as normative proof for grammar and lexicography, though it may be cited for rhetorical and stylistic figures .
Sources and Scholarly Reception
Khizanat al-Adab is recognized as a major repository of early Arabic literature because al-Baghdadi incorporated extensive excerpts from rare and lost manuscripts . His primary sources include major lexicons such as Ibn Durayd's Jamharat al-Lugha, al-Jawhari's al-Sihah, al-Saghani's al-Ubab al-Zakhir, and al-Firuzabadi's al-Qamus al-Muhit . He also drew heavily from earlier commentaries on poetic evidence, citing Badr al-Din al-Ayni's al-Maqasid al-Nahwiyya hundreds of times, as well as the poetic collections (dawawin) and tribal anthologies assembled by early philologists like al-Sukkari and Abu Amr al-Shaybani .
Scholars emphasize the critical rigor of the work, noting al-Baghdadi's precision in cross-referencing multiple recensions of verses, correcting misattributions, and verifying transmission chains .
Publication History
The work was first printed in four volumes at the Bulaq Press in Cairo in 1299 AH (1882 CE), accompanied in its margins by al-Ayni's al-Maqasid al-Nahwiyya . It was later edited critically by the Egyptian scholar Abd al-Salam Harun and published by Maktabat al-Khanji .
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