Sulafat al-Asr fi Mahasin al-Shuara bi-Kull Misr
- Author died
- 1119 AH
- Editions
- Sulafat al-Asr fi Mahasin al-Shuara bi-Kull Misr
Sulafat al-Asr fi Mahasin al-Shuara bi-Kull Misr (The Choice Wine of the Age on the Merits of the Poets of Every Region) is an Arabic biographical anthology of eleventh-century AH poets and literati by the scholar and man of letters Ibn Masum al-Hasani (1052–1119 AH / 1642–1707 CE) .
Background and Composition
Ibn Masum composed the work during his extended residence in Hyderabad, India . In the introduction, he explains that he had long contemplated gathering an anthology modeled on classical anthological dictionaries such as Yatimat al-Dahr by Abu Mansur al-Thaalibi and Dumyat al-Qasr by al-Bakharzi, but was delayed by the hardships of travel and exile . He began drafting the book in the latter part of 1081 AH, while living in confinement with books as his sole companions, and finished Part One on the first night of Safar 1082 AH . The entire work was completed in 1082 AH .
The book is devoted to recording the biographies, prose anecdotes, and selected verses of figures from the eleventh century AH . Ibn Masum noted that although Shihab al-Din al-Khafaji had compiled Rayhanat al-Alibba, he had omitted many capable contemporary poets due to geographical distance . When repeating the names of poets already treated by al-Khafaji, Ibn Masum stipulated that he would record different selections of their poetry rather than the verses cited in Rayhanat al-Alibba . The anthology also preserved the works of numerous Shi'i poets whose memory might otherwise have been forgotten .
Structure and Contents
The author arranged the anthology geographically into five parts (aqsam):
- Part One: Poets and notables of the Two Holy Sanctuaries (Mecca and Medina), subdivided into two chapters, opening with Mecca .
- Part Two: Poets of the Levant (Syria), Egypt, and their adjacent territories .
- Part Three: Poets of Yemen .
- Part Four: Poets of the non-Arab realms (Ajam), Bahrain, and Iraq .
- Part Five: Poets of the Maghrib, placed at the end as a deliberate stylistic device for the closing section .
Reception and Supplements
The Damascene biographer al-Muhibbi praised the book's eloquence, refined prose, and inclusion of rare anecdotes, while observing that critics took issue with personal biases that appeared in some of its entries .
After returning from India, Ibn Masum composed a supplement to his own work titled Mulhaqat al-Sulafah . Later, Abdullah al-Jazairi wrote an independent supplement titled Tadhyil Sulafat al-Asr, in which he supplied biographies of scholars and poets from Iraq and surrounding regions who had been omitted because Ibn Masum compiled the original work while isolated in India . The book was published in Egypt in 1324 AH (1906 CE) through the patronage of Aziz Bey Zand .
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