Matn Muwattaat al-Fasih Nazm Fasih Thalab

Muwatta'at al-Fasih (al-Muwatta'ah, or Nazm Fasih Tha'lab) is an Arabic didactic poem by the Andalusian grammarian and poet Abu al-Hakam Malik ibn Abd al-Rahman ibn al-Marhal (604–699 AH / 1207–1300 CE) versifying the celebrated lexical treatise Kitab al-Fasih by Abu al-Abbas Tha'lab (d. 291 AH) Jamharat Maqalat wa Rasai…+1.

Composition and Structure

The work is an urjūzah composed in the rajaz meter, consisting of approximately 1,300 to 1,340 verses Tarikh al-Turath al-Arabi…+1. Ibn al-Marhal undertook the versification without an external patron's command, aiming to present the vocabulary of Tha'lab's al-Fasih in a polished, fluid poetic mold to facilitate its memorization Matn Muwattaat al-Fasih N…+1. In the concluding verses, the author notes that he titled the poem al-Muwatta'ah (the smoothed or facilitated) because he refined and made accessible its linguistic formulation Jamharat Maqalat wa Rasai…+1.

The poem opens with praise of God and blessings upon the Prophet ﷺ:

حَمْدُ الإِلَهِ وَاجِبٌ لِذَاتِهِ ... وَشُكْرُهُ عَلَى عُلَا هِبَاتِهِ "Praise of God is incumbent for His Essence, and gratitude to Him for the exaltedness of His gifts." Matn Muwattaat al-Fasih N…+1

Method and Contents

In addition to rendering the contents of Kitab al-Fasih into verse, Ibn al-Marhal incorporated necessary lexical explanations, linguistic definitions, and morphological interpretations, making the text function simultaneously as a versification (nazm) and a concise commentary (sharh) Jamharat Maqalat wa Rasai…. It covers the various lexical and grammatical categories established in Tha'lab's original manual, including passive verbal paradigms (fa'ala bi-l-damm), correct usage of homonyms, distinct verbal forms, and standard Arabic vocabulary Matn Muwattaat al-Fasih N…+1.

Commentary and Transmission

Muwatta'at al-Fasih was widely studied and transmitted in the Islamic West and beyond. The Moroccan scholar Muhammad ibn al-Tayyib al-Fasi (d. 1170 AH / 1757 CE) composed an extensive two-volume commentary on the poem titled Muwatia'at al-Fasih li-Muwatta'at al-Fasih Tarikh al-Turath al-Arabi…+1.

Manuscript copies of the poem survive in several international repositories, including the National Library in Cairo, the Nuruosmaniye Library in Istanbul, the Zahiriyya Library in Damascus, the Ahmadiyya Library at the Zitouna Mosque in Tunis, the General Library and the Kattaniyya Library in Rabat, and Yale University Tarikh al-Turath al-Arabi…+1. The text was printed in Fez within a compilation of pedagogical texts, and later edited by Abd Allah ibn Muhammad al-Hakami with revisions by Muhammad al-Hasan al-Didu al-Shanqiti Isfar al-Fasih+1.