Mujam al-Udaba = Irshad al-Arib ila Marifat al-Adib
- Author died
- 626 AH
- Editions
- Dar al-Gharb al-Islami
Mu'jam al-Udaba (also known as Irshad al-Arib ila Ma'rifat al-Adib) is a biographical dictionary of Arabic literary figures, grammarians, and scholars compiled by Yaqut al-Hamawi (574–626 AH / 1178–1229 CE) .
Title and Scope
In his introduction, the author designated the title of the work as Irshad al-Arib ila Ma'rifat al-Adib ("Guide of the Discerning to Knowledge of the Literatus"), though he and later scholars referred to it under various titles, including Mu'jam al-Udaba ("Dictionary of Men of Letters"), Akhbar al-Udaba, Kitab al-Udaba, Akhbar al-Nahwiyyin, and Mu'jam A'immat al-Adab . Ibn al-Mustawfi noted that Yaqut later modified the title to Irshad al-Alibba' ila Ma'rifat al-Udaba', a title also recorded by Ibn Khallikan .
Unlike general biographical collections covering rulers and jurists, the work is dedicated specifically to scholars of language and literature . Yaqut defined eight primary categories of figures included in the book:
- Grammarians (nahwiyyun)
- Lexicographers (lughawiyyun)
- Genealogists (nassabun)
- Renowned Quran reciters (qurra')
- Transmitters of historical reports and chroniclers (akhbariyyun and mu'arrikhun)
- Well-known copyists and stationers (warraqun)
- Prominent epistolary scribes (kuttab) and compilers of official epistles
- Master calligraphers (arbab al-khutut), along with any author who produced works in the literary arts .
Method and Structure
The biographical entries are arranged alphabetically according to the Arabic letters of the dictionary . The work was originally bound in four large volumes .
Yaqut established a systematic method for each entry: whenever available, he provided the subject's lineage, birth and death dates, bibliography of authored works, selected anecdotes, and samples of poetry . To maintain conciseness in presentation, he truncated chains of transmission (isnad) except for brief ones, while providing expansive narrative text for the biographical reports . Entry lengths vary considerably; major figures such as al-Sahib ibn 'Abbad, Abu Hayyan al-Tawhidi, Ibn al-'Amid, al-Muhallabi, al-Tabari, and al-Shafi'i receive exhaustive treatments spanning numerous pages, whereas certain entries toward the end of the work comprise only a few lines .
Sources
Yaqut drew upon nearly 250 written works, in addition to marginalia on manuscripts and original autographs . The book preserves extensive excerpts from works that are otherwise lost, including local histories such as Ta'rikh Asbahan by Hamza al-Isfahani, Ta'rikh Bayhaq by Ibn al-Hasan al-Bayhaqi, Ta'rikh Khwarazm by Mahmud ibn Muhammad al-Islami, and Ta'rikh Marw by Abu Sa'd al-Sam'ani . It also cites major classical works such as Ibn al-Nadim's al-Fihrist, al-Tha'alibi's Yatimat al-Dahr, al-Khatib al-Baghdadi's Ta'rikh Baghdad, and Ibn 'Asakir's Ta'rikh Dimashq, supplemented by firsthand accounts and oral inquiries collected directly from contemporaries during the author's extensive travels .
Abridgments and Modern Publications
An abridgment of the work was produced by al-Tikriti under the title Bughyat al-Alibba' min Mu'jam al-Udaba .
The text was first edited and published in modern print by the British Orientalist D. S. Margoliouth under the E. J. W. Gibb Memorial series in seven volumes between 1907 and 1916 (reprinted 1923–1931) . Abd al-Aziz al-Maymani published extensive textual corrections to this edition in a series of articles titled Turar 'ala Mu'jam al-Udaba in the journal of the Arab Scientific Academy in Damascus . The work was reissued in Cairo by Ahmad Farid al-Rifa'i in twenty volumes (1936–1938), and was later critically edited by Ihsan Abbas and published in Beirut (1993) .
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