Maahid al-Tansis ala Shawahid al-Talkhis
- Author died
- 963 AH
- Editions
- Alam al-Kutub
Ma‘ahid al-Tansis ‘ala Shawahid al-Talkhis (معاهد التنصيص على شواهد التلخيص) is a four-volume Arabic rhetorical and literary reference work written by the Egyptian scholar Abu al-Fath al-Abbasi (867–963 AH / 1463–1556 CE) to explain and document the poetic evidential verses (shawahid) found in Talkhis al-Miftah .
Composition and Purpose
The book was conceived as an exhaustive elucidation of the poetic witnesses cited throughout al-Khatib al-Qazwini's foundational rhetoric textbook Talkhis al-Miftah . In the introduction, al-Abbasi notes that while al-Talkhis is rich in early pre-Islamic and later Islamic poetry, many of these verses lacked clear attributions or had been falsely attributed by commentators due to shared metres or similar themes . He also records that his teacher, Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti, had begun writing a brief commentary on some of the verses but left it unfinished in draft form . Al-Abbasi completed the work and dedicated it to Abu al-Baqa' Muhammad ibn Yahya ibn al-Ji‘an .
Method and Contents
Al-Abbasi designed the work to serve simultaneously as an analytical commentary on rhetoric and an expansive literary anthology . For each poetic witness, his method includes:
- Identifying the poetic metre of the verse .
- Explaining its rhetorical and linguistic meanings .
- Providing a biographical entry for the poet, based on research across literary and biographical collections .
- Supplying comparable literary examples, parallels, and citations relevant to each specific rhetorical device and category .
- Blending serious scholarship with humor and literary anecdotes (mazaja fihi al-jidd bi-l-hazl) .
Abridgments and Related Works
Al-Abbasi subsequently abridged his own text, restricting the condensed version strictly to the commentary on the poetic witnesses . He also composed a poetic versification of the same material titled Nazm al-Wishah ‘ala Shawahid Talkhis al-Miftah . Later scholars also produced summaries of the work, including Ahmad ibn Ahmad al-Ajmi al-Wafa'i (d. 1086 AH), who authored Talkhis Ma‘ahid al-Tansis .
Publication History
The work was printed in Egypt at the Bulaq Press, where its proofreading was completed by Muhammad Qutta al-Adawi in Safar 1274 AH during the reign of Sa‘id Pasha . A later critical edition was prepared by Muhammad Muhyi al-Din ‘Abd al-Hamid and published in Cairo in 1367 AH / 1947 CE .
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