Majma al-Hikam wal-Amthal fi al-Shiir al-Arabi
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- Majma al-Hikam wal-Amthal fi al-Shiir al-Arabi
Majma al-Hikam wal-Amthal fi al-Shiir al-Arabi (The Compendium of Maxims and Proverbs in Arabic Poetry) is a thematic dictionary of didactic and proverbial verse compiled by Ahmad Qabash .
Background and Composition
The author conceived the work from an early interest in hearing speakers and learned elders recite lines of wisdom and proverbs, which led him to memorize and record them systematically . He continued accumulating entries during his university studies and while reading for his earlier publications . Noting that existing compilations heavily favored prose maxims while poetic wisdom remained sparse or incomplete, he organized his collected material into a dedicated reference work, finishing the compilation in Damascus on 1 January 1979 .
Structure and Methodology
The work is organized as an alphabetical reference divided into twenty-eight chapters corresponding to the letters of the Arabic alphabet . Within each chapter, topics are ordered alphabetically according to the subsequent letters of the subject headword .
Qabash arranged the topics by their apparent lexical form rather than tracing them back to their root origins; for instance, al-taqwa (piety) and al-ta'anni (deliberation) are placed under the letter Ta', while al-musibah (affliction) is listed under Mim . Under each topic, he aimed to place poetic verses where the theme's keyword opens the line either explicitly or implicitly, or where the poetic content directly centers on the subject of the heading .
Publication
The work was published by Dar al-Rashid in Damascus and Beirut, appearing in a second edition in 1403 AH (1983 CE) and a third edition in 1405 AH (1985 CE) .
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