Risalat al-Tayf
- Author died
- 692 AH
- Editions
- Risalat al-Tayf
Risalat al-Tayf (The Epistle of the Phantom) is an Arabic literary work in belles-lettres and epistolography by the chancery scribe, poet, and scholar Baha al-Din al-Irbili (d. 692 AH / 1292–1293 CE) .
Title and Genre
The work is best known as Risalat al-Tayf, and is also recorded under variant titles including Tayf al-Khayal, Tayf al-Insha, Risalat al-Tayf fi al-Insha, and Kitab al-Tayf . Composed in a blend of ornate prose and verse, it forms part of al-Irbili's literary output alongside his al-Maqamat al-Arba' (The Four Assemblies) . The text opens with the poetic verse:
«يا خليلي من ذؤابةِ قيسٍ ... في التَّصابي رياضةُ الأخلاقِ» ("O my two companions from the crest of Qays, in amorous pursuit is the refinement of character") .
Manuscript Tradition and Publication
Multiple historical manuscript copies of the work are preserved in international libraries, including an early copy in the Ahmet III collection (MS 2393) dated 674 AH, as well as copies in the Kara Celebizade collection (MS 313/2, dated 767 AH), the Koprulu Library (MS 1265/2, dated 896 AH), the Zahiriyya Library (MS 9635, dated 1035 AH), the Austrian National Library (MS Mixt. 1594,2), and the Vatican Library (MS 476 Arabic) , .
The treatise was edited by Abd Allah al-Juburi and published in Baghdad in 1968, and subsequently printed in Beirut in 1405 AH / 1985 CE .
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