Sharh Lamiyat al-Ajam lil-Damiri
- Author died
- 808 AH
- Editions
- Dr. Jamīl ‘Abd Allāh ‘Uwayḍah
Sharh Lamiyat al-Ajam (Arabic: شرح لامية العجم), also known as Mukhtasar al-Ghayth al-Musajjam, is a literary commentary and abridgment by the Egyptian Shafi'i scholar al-Damiri (742–808 AH / 1341–1405 CE) summarizing Salah al-Din al-Safadi's (d. 764 AH) extensive commentary on the famous poem Lamiyat al-Ajam by al-Tughra'i (d. 514 or 515 AH).
Background and Purpose
The source text of the work is Lamiyat al-Ajam, a poem composed in Baghdad in 505 AH by the Seljuk official and poet Mu'ayyad al-Din al-Tughra'i, in which he lamented his circumstances and time. Al-Safadi later wrote an extensive commentary on it entitled al-Ghayth alladhi insajam fi sharh Lamiyat al-Ajam (or al-Ghayth al-musajjam), filled with extensive digressions across diverse disciplines, literary anecdotes, and rare points of knowledge.
In his preface, al-Damiri explains that after seeking al-Safadi's commentary and obtaining it, he found it immensely rich and peerless in its breadth, noting that al-Safadi transitioned constantly "from one science to another, from one subtle point to another, and from one curiosity to another." Because of the sheer length of al-Safadi's work and the brevity of human lifespan, al-Damiri undertook the task of summarizing and refining it (talkhis wa-tahdhib), while maintaining al-Safadi's original chapter and verse arrangement, in order to make its core benefits accessible to students of literature.
Structure and Method
The work opens with the full text of al-Tughra'i's poem, beginning with the line:
أصالةُ الرأي صانتْنِي عن الخَطَلِ ... وحِليةُ الفضلِ زانتني لدَى العَطَلِ
"Soundness of judgment preserved me from foolishness / and the ornament of virtue adorned me in times of deprivation."
This is followed by an introductory biographical section on al-Tughra'i, detailing his lineage, his role in the Seljuk administration in Mosul, his literary skill, selections of his poetry, and discussions concerning his involvement in alchemy and the scholarly views regarding it. The main body of the work provides a line-by-line commentary on the poem, summarizing al-Safadi's philological explanations, rhetorical analyses, grammatical parsing, and historical citations without the exhaustive digressions of the original work.
Reception and Transmission
The abridgment is referenced by later bibliographers and biographers, including al-Sakhawi, who praised al-Damiri's execution stating that he "did well in it" (ajadah), as well as Haji Khalifa in Kashf al-zunun and al-Shawkani in al-Badr al-tali. The work has also been documented under the alternative title al-Durar al-maqsuda wa-al-darari al-masfuda, with a manuscript preserved under that title in the National Central Library of Florence (MS 58). The work was published in modern print in an edition edited by Jamil Abd Allah Uwaydah in 1429 AH / 2008 CE.
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