Kuna al-Shuara wa Man Ghalabat Kunyatuhu ala Ismihi - Dimn Nawadir al-Makhtutat
- Author died
- 245 AH
- Editions
- Sharikat Maktabat wa-Maṭba‘at Muṣṭafá al-Bābī al-Ḥalabī wa-Awlāduh
Kuna al-Shu‘ara’ wa-Man Ghalabat Kunyatuhu ‘ala Ismihi (The Agnomens of the Poets and Those Whose Kunya Prevailed over Their Name) is an early Arabic onomastic and biographical treatise by the Baghdadi philologist and genealogist Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn Habib (d. 245 AH / 860 CE) .
Subject and Content
The work documents pre-Islamic and early Islamic Arab poets whose agnomens (kunya) became predominant over their given personal names (ism) . For each entry, Ibn Habib lists the subject's kunya followed by his true given name, full genealogical descent (nasab), tribal lineage, and maternal epithets where applicable . He also occasionally includes poetic citations and brief biographical clarifications, opening with figures such as Abu Talib (Abd Manaf ibn Abd al-Muttalib), Abu Sufyan (al-Mughira ibn al-Harith), Abu Dahbal, Abu Azza, and Abu al-Aswad .
Title and Bibliographical Reception
The treatise is recorded as an independent monograph in classical bibliographical works:
- Ibn al-Nadim listed it in al-Fihrist under the abridged title Kuna al-Shu‘ara’, an attribution repeated by Yaqut al-Hamawi in Mu‘jam al-Udaba’ .
- In early manuscript transmissions, the title was occasionally corrupted to Kanz al-Shu‘ara’ .
- Hajji Khalifa recorded it in Kashf al-Zunun under the letter alif as Akna al-Shu‘ara’, which the editor Abd al-Salam Harun noted as an oversight .
Manuscript Tradition and Publication
The text survived alongside other monographs by Ibn Habib, such as Asma' al-Mughtalin min al-Ashraf and Alqab al-Shu‘ara’ . It was edited by Abd al-Salam Muhammad Harun using two principal witnesses: a manuscript from the Aşir Efendi Library in Istanbul (designated as copy alif) and a copy transcribed by the Mauritanian scholar Muhammad Mahmud al-Shinqiti (designated as copy ba') . It was published in Cairo within Harun's multi-volume anthology Nawadir al-Makhtutat (Rare Manuscripts) in 1373–1374 AH (1954–1955 CE) .
Answer updated