Maqamat al-Hariri
- Author died
- 516 AH
- Editions
- Ma‘ārif Press
Maqamat al-Hariri (The Assemblies of al-Hariri) is a collection of fifty Arabic literary tales composed by the grammarian and man of letters al-Hariri (446–516 AH / 1054–1122 CE) . Modeled on the earlier Maqamat of Badi' al-Zaman al-Hamadhani, the work is celebrated for its elaborate rhymed prose, linguistic virtuosity, and depictions of mendicancy and wit .
Origin and Composition
The genesis of the work is related in an account transmitted by the author's son, Abu al-Qasim Abd Allah: while al-Hariri was seated in the mosque of the Bani Haram quarter in Basra, an impoverished yet remarkably articulate wanderer from Saruj entered, identified himself as Abu Zayd, and delivered an eloquent appeal concerning his son's capture by the Byzantines . Al-Hariri captured the incident in the "Assembly of Bani Haram" (al-Maqama al-Haramiyya, the forty-eighth assembly in the collection) . After this piece gained wide renown, a high official—identified in historical reports as the Abbasid vizier Anushirwan ibn Khalid or the vizier Ibn Sadaqa—urged him to compose further episodes, leading al-Hariri to expand the collection into fifty assemblies .
Structure, Characters, and Style
The work consists of fifty separate episodes structured around two recurring characters:
- Al-Harith ibn Hammam: The narrator, presented as a dignified and observant traveler . The name was chosen by al-Hariri to signify himself or every striving person, echoing the hadith describing every human being as a striver (harith) and purposeful (hammam) .
- Abu Zayd al-Saruji: The protagonist, a cunning, shape-shifting rogue and master of mendicancy (kudya) whose verbal brilliance allows him to extract money from his audiences . Some classical biographers reported that Abu Zayd was based on a real scholar named al-Mutahhar ibn Sallam (or Sallar), whereas others considered both figures purely fictitious archetypes .
The assemblies vary in tone, ranging from literary humor and satire to solemn homilies and debauchery . Stylistically, the work is composed in rhythmic, rhymed prose (saj') interspersed with original poetry . It incorporates rare Arabic vocabulary, proverbs, grammatical riddles, rhetorical devices such as palindromic sentences (ma la yastahil bi-l-in'ikas), letters constructed under strict orthographic constraints, and legal puzzles, including Shafi'i jurisprudential rulings in the thirty-second assembly .
Reception and Commentaries
The Maqamat achieved immense popularity across the Islamic world during al-Hariri's lifetime and became a standard pedagogical text for the Arabic language . The scholar al-Zamakhshari lauded it in verse, declaring that it deserved to be transcribed in gold leaf . The grammarian Ibn al-Khashshab penned critical strictures against aspects of the text, prompting written defenses by Ibn Barri and al-Mas'udi .
Due to its linguistic density, more than thirty-five classical commentaries were written on the work . Among the most prominent commentators are Abu al-Abbas al-Sharishi, al-Mutarrizi (who authored al-Iffsah), Ibn al-Anbari, al-Ukbari, and Ibn Zafar . The text was subsequently translated into several languages, including Persian, Turkish, English, French, and German .
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