Qashr al-Fasar
- Author died
- 445 AH
- Editions
- Markaz al-Malik Fayṣal lil-Buḥūth wa-al-Dirāsāt al-Islāmiyyah
Qashr al-Fasar (Arabic: قشر الفسر, lit. 'The Peeling of al-Fasar'), also titled in fuller form as Qashr al-Fasar ʿan Diwan Abi al-Tayyib al-Mutanabbi, is a critical work composed by Abu Sahl al-Zawzani (d. c. 445 AH / 1053 CE) offering corrections and critiques on Ibn Jinni's (d. 392 AH / 1002 CE) major commentary on the poetry of al-Mutanabbi.
Content and Critical Context
The book is an emendation (istidrāk) and refutation (radd) directed against al-Fasar (also known as Tafsīr Dīwān al-Mutanabbī al-Kabīr), the extensive commentary compiled by the grammarian Ibn Jinni on the poetry collection of al-Mutanabbi. The title Qashr al-Fasar directly plays on Ibn Jinni's title al-Fasar (which signifies explanation and unveiling), indicating the peeling or stripping away of that commentary.
It belongs to a contemporary tradition of critical tracts written to scrutinize Ibn Jinni's interpretations and linguistic judgments on al-Mutanabbi's verse, which includes al-Tanbīh ʿalā Khaṭaʾ Ibn Jinnī by Ali ibn Isa al-Raba'i (d. 420 AH), as well as al-Fatḥ ʿalā Abī al-Fatḥ and al-Tajannī ʿalā Ibn Jinnī by Ibn Furrajah.
While biographical notices generally attribute the work to the prominent scholar and official al-Shaykh al-ʿAmīd Abu Sahl Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Zawzani (d. c. 445 AH), some bibliographical entries record the author under the name Abu Jaʿfar Muhammad ibn Hasan ibn Sulayman al-Zawzani, describing him as a Shafiʿi jurist, judge, and hadith scholar of Khurasan who died in Bukhara in 370 AH (980 CE).
Manuscripts and Publication
Qashr al-Fasar is preserved in an early manuscript copy held at the Egyptian National Library (Dar al-Kutub) in Cairo under the Talʿat collection (MS Adab 4480), dated to 457 AH (or reported as 475 AH). A later transcription copied from it in 1355 AH, comprising 147 folios, is also preserved in the same library under MS 11083/z.
The text was critically edited by Abd al-Aziz ibn Nasir al-Maniʿ and published by the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies in Riyadh in its first edition in 1427 AH (2006 CE).
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