Shuruh Hamasat Abi Tammam Dirasah Muwazanah fi Manahijiha wa Tatbiqiha
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- Editions
- Dar al-Awza'i
Shuruh Hamasat Abi Tammam: Dirasah Muwazanah fi Manahijiha wa Tatbiqiha (Commentaries on Abu Tammam's Hamasah: A Comparative Study of Their Methodologies and Application) is a critical academic study of the commentary tradition surrounding Abu Tammam's celebrated poetic anthology Diwan al-Hamasah, authored by the contemporary scholar Muhammad Uthman Ali. Originally submitted as part of a doctoral dissertation to Cairo University (Khartoum Branch), the work was published by Dar al-Awza'i and focuses primarily on the commentaries composed from the mid-3rd century AH through the end of the 6th century AH (12th century CE).
Background and Scope
The study examines the scholarly efforts dedicated to elucidating Abu Tammam's anthology, tracing the historical development of poetic commentary (sharh al-shi'r) and evaluating the distinct approaches used by classical commentators. In his historical census of works dedicated to the Hamasah up to modern times, the author registers forty-four individual commentaries in addition to multiple anonymous works, expanding upon previous bibliographical surveys compiled by Abd al-Salam Harun (who listed thirty) and Abdullah Usaylan (who listed thirty-five).
Within this broader census, the author identifies Abu al-Qasim al-Daymarti (d. 287 AH) as the earliest known commentator on the Hamasah, contesting the claims of Abd al-Qadir al-Baghdadi—who considered Abu Abdallah al-Namari (d. 385 AH) to be the first—as well as modern scholars who gave precedence to Abu Riyash. The detailed comparative scope of the monograph is restricted to the commentaries produced before the close of the 6th century AH, drawing upon printed editions, manuscripts, and substantial citations preserved across early texts.
Structure and Contents
The monograph is organized into three main divisions:
- Part One: Preliminary Studies (Dirasat Mumahhida) addresses the genesis, textual transmission, and thematic structure of Diwan al-Hamasah. It outlines how the collection reached scholars through both written manuscripts preserved in Hamadhan and oral transmissions via Abu al-Mutarrif al-Antaki to Abu Riyash and al-Amidi. The author demonstrates that Abu Tammam organized the work into ten thematic sections rather than eleven, arguing that the separate chapter division for hospitality and panegyric in al-Marzuqi's printed edition stems from a scribal error. It also refutes claims made by Ibn al-Amid and al-Marzuqi that Abu Tammam altered original poetic wording to suit his personal taste, and responds to modern critiques regarding the collection's reliability as a source for pre-Islamic poetry.
- Part Two: Methodologies and Practical Applications (Manahij al-Shurrah wa-Tatbiquha) comprises six chapters analyzing the methods used by key commentators. Evaluating the typologies established by modern scholarship for pre-Islamic poetic commentaries, the book identifies the prominent approaches among Hamasah commentators. These include the "creative-artistic method" (al-manhaj al-ibda'i al-fanni) represented by al-Marzuqi; the "abridging-facilitating method" (al-manhaj al-ikhtisari al-tashili) seen in Abu al-Qasim Zayd ibn Ali al-Farisi, al-A'lam al-Shantamarī, and Abu al-Hasan al-Bayyari; and the "cumulative-selective method" (al-manhaj al-tajmi'i al-intikhabi) initiated by al-Khatib al-Tibrizi and continued in the 6th century AH by Amin al-Din al-Tabarsi and Abu al-Rida al-Rawandi.
- Part Three: Indistinct Methodologies and General Phenomena (Shuruh Ghayr Wadihat al-Manhaj wa-Zawahir Ammah) consists of two chapters. The first examines works whose extant materials lack a fully delineated structural methodology, including the commentaries of Abu al-Futuh al-Jurjani, Abu Riyash, al-Namari, Abu Hilal al-Askari, and Abu al-Ala al-Ma'arri. The second chapter analyzes broader linguistic, grammatical, rhetorical, and critical phenomena observed across the Arabic poetic commentary tradition.
Textual and Critical Inquiries
A notable feature of the work is its critical assessment of manuscript attributions. Through textual analysis, the author investigates a manuscript preserved at the Egyptian National Library (Dar al-Kutub) previously cataloged under the authorship of Abu al-Ala al-Ma'arri, demonstrating that it was falsely attributed to him due to a 10th-century AH owner's inscription and was actually authored by an anonymous 6th-century AH scholar who drew directly upon al-Tibrizi, al-Marzuqi, and Ibn Jinni.
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