Majlis min Amali Ibn al-Anbari
- Author died
- 328 AH
- Editions
- Dār al-Bashā'ir
Majlis min Amali Ibn al-Anbari (A Session from the Dictations of Ibn al-Anbari) is a short text preserving a scholarly dictation session delivered by the Baghdadi philologist and grammarian Abu Bakr Ibn al-Anbari (d. 328 AH / 940 CE), comprising prophetic tradition, linguistic commentary, historical anecdotes, and poetry .
Composition and Transmission
The session was dictated by Ibn al-Anbari in the month of Ramadan 326 AH . In transmission records, such as the Mashyakha of Siraj al-Din al-Qazwini, it is identified as the fourteenth session (al-majlis al-rabi' 'ashar) of Ibn al-Anbari's broader dictations (Amali) .
The primary chain of transmission stems from Ibn al-Anbari through al-Sharif Abu al-Fadl Muhammad ibn al-Hasan ibn al-Fadl ibn al-Ma'mun, from whom it was received by al-Sharif Abu al-Husayn Muhammad ibn Ali ibn al-Muhtadi Billah . It was subsequently transmitted by the judge Abu al-Fadl Muhammad ibn Umar ibn Yusuf al-Urmawi, through whom it was heard and read by scholars including the hadith master Muhammad ibn Nasir al-Salami, Yusuf ibn al-Hasan al-Aquli and his brother Ahmad, as well as Ibn al-Jawzi .
Contents and Scope
The session opens with a prophetic hadith narrated from Abd Allah ibn Mas'ud concerning the proportion of the Prophet's ﷺ followers among the inhabitants of Paradise: فإن أهل الجنة عشرون ومئة صَفٍّ؛ أَنْتُمْ فِيهَا ثَمَانُونَ صَفًّا ("The people of Paradise are one hundred and twenty rows; you constitute eighty rows among them") .
Following the opening hadith, the text moves through several scholarly and literary subjects:
- Lexicography and Morphology: Ibn al-Anbari explains dialectal variations in Arabic fractions (rubu', rub', and rabi'), citing poetical evidence . He discusses expressions describing the prime of youth, transmitting views from his teacher Tha'lab (Ahmad ibn Yahya) and al-Farra' . He also records pastoral proverbs and vocabulary explained by Ibn al-A'rabi, as well as multiple meanings of words such as rawq .
- Literary and Historical Anecdotes: The work records a report of Abu al-Aswad al-Du'ali traveling by boat with Imran ibn Husayn from Kufa to Basra while exchanging poetry . It includes an account of Mu'awiya addressing the people regarding the caliphate in the presence of Abd Allah ibn Umar .
- Narratives of Early Scholars: A detailed report relates how al-Asma'i was summoned by the Abbasid prince Muhammad al-Amin to the caliph Harun al-Rashid in al-Raqqah to examine the literary education of two slave girls and entertain the caliph with tales from the desert .
- Grammatical Debates: It records a grammatical dispute between al-Kisa'i and al-Asma'i in the assembly of Harun al-Rashid over the desinential inflection of a poetic line, followed by Tha'lab's grammatical analysis of the verse, as well as al-Asma'i's critical remark concerning al-Kisa'i, al-Farra', and Ali ibn al-Mubarak al-Ahmar .
- Poetry: The dictation concludes with a four-line love poem composed by Muhammad ibn Umayya, transmitted via Ibrahim ibn Abd Allah al-Wazzan, opening with the line :
لَقَدْ عَاجَلَتْنِي نَظْرَتِي بهواكِ ... كَأَنْ لَمْ تَكُنْ عَيْنِي تُرِيدُ سواكِ
("My sudden glance hastened me into your love, as though my eye had never sought anyone but you.")
Publication
The text was edited by Ibrahim Salih from a manuscript preserved in Dar al-Sunnah al-Diya'iyyah and published in 1994 by Dar al-Basha'ir as the seventh title in the Nawadir al-Rasa'il series .
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