Sharh Diwan al-Mutanabbi al-Mansub lil-Ukbari
- Author died
- 616 AH
- Editions
- Maṭba‘at Muṣṭafā al-Bābī al-Ḥalabī wa-Awlāduh bi-Miṣr
Sharh Diwan al-Mutanabbi, commonly titled al-Tibyan fi Sharh al-Diwan (The Clarification in Explaining the Diwan) and traditionally attributed to Abu al-Baqa al-Ukbari (538–616 AH / 1143–1219 CE), is an extensive commentary on the poetic collection of Abu al-Tayyib al-Mutanabbi (303–354 AH / 915–965 CE) .
Attribution Debate
Although the work was attributed for centuries to the Baghdadi grammarian Abu al-Baqa al-Ukbari, modern scholar Mustafa Jawad argued that this attribution is incorrect and that the actual author was the grammarian 'Afif al-Din Abu al-Hasan 'Ali ibn 'Adlan ibn Hammad al-Rib'i al-Mawsili (d. 666 AH / 1268 CE in Cairo) . Among the key evidence cited against al-Ukbari's authorship is that the author frequently cites Ibn al-Shajari and explicitly states that he copied passages in his own handwriting from Ibn al-Shajari's Amali, whereas al-Ukbari had lost his eyesight to smallpox in early childhood and does not mention Ibn al-Shajari in his other established works .
Method and Content
The work provides a systematic line-by-line exposition of al-Mutanabbi's poetry. For each verse, the commentary examines three primary aspects:
- Grammatical parsing (i'rab) .
- Obscure and rare vocabulary (al-gharib) .
- Intended poetic meaning (al-ma'na) .
The commentary draws extensively upon earlier philological traditions, drawing heavily from Ibn al-Shajari's analyses and citing them both directly and indirectly .
Publication History
The text was published in early printed editions, including a two-volume edition in Calcutta (1261 AH / 1845 CE) edited by Yar 'Ali Badrnawi, and in Cairo at the Bulaq Press (1287 AH / 1870 CE; reprinted in 1308 AH) edited by Ibrahim al-Dasuqi . A widely referenced modern critical edition was edited by Mustafa al-Saqqa, Ibrahim al-Ibyari, and Abd al-Hafiz Shalabi, published in Cairo by Mustafa al-Babi al-Halabi (1971) and later reprinted in Beirut . Marginal notes extracted from the commentary also featured alongside Ali ibn Ahmad al-Wahidi's commentary in lithograph editions printed in Cairo .
Answer updated