Abd al-Rahman al-Muallimi al-Yamani
Tanbihat ala al-Juz al-Awwal min Mujam al-Udaba
- Author died
- 1386 AH
- Editions
- ta Ahmad Farid al-Rifai - Dimn Athar al-Muallimi
Tanbihat ala al-Juz al-Awwal min Mujam al-Udaba (Notices on the First Volume of the Dictionary of Men of Letters) is a critical treatise written by the Yemeni scholar Abd al-Rahman al-Muallimi al-Yamani (1312–1386 AH / 1894–1966 CE) . The work consists of textual emendations, orthographic corrections, and critical observations on the first volume of the biographical dictionary Mujam al-Udaba (also known as Irshad al-Arib ila Marifat al-Adib) by Yaqut al-Hamawi, specifically targeting the twentieth-century edition published by Ahmad Farid al-Rifa'i .
Background and Context
Yaqut’s Mujam al-Udaba was first edited and published in seven volumes by the British orientalist D. S. Margoliouth in Cairo between 1907 and 1916 (reprinted 1923–1931) under the auspices of the Gibb Memorial Trust . Later, Dr. Ahmad Farid al-Rifa'i—director of Egypt's Press, Publishing, and Culture Administration—republished Margoliouth's text in Cairo between 1355 and 1357 AH (1936–1938 CE) in a twenty-volume format after obtaining permission from Margoliouth and the Gibb Memorial Trust . Although al-Rifa'i's edition stated that it had been reviewed and corrected under the auspices of Egypt's Ministry of Public Education, al-Muallimi examined the first volume upon its release and documented the errors and misreadings he encountered, noting in his opening remarks that he recorded what appeared incorrect to him without attempting an exhaustive survey .
Structure and Method
In his autograph manuscript, al-Muallimi organized his critical notices into five tabular columns:
- Page number (صفحة)
- Line number (سطر)
- Reading in the printed text (في المطبوع)
- Correct reading (الصواب)
- Evidence, rationale, or references (الإشارة إلى الدليل)
To streamline the notes, al-Muallimi employed specific editorial conventions: when a page or line repeated from the preceding entry, he marked it with two slashes (//); when suggesting the deletion of an erroneous footnote from the edition, he marked an "x" (علامة الحذف) in the correction column; and when he doubted the printed reading and proposed an emendation conjecturally, he inserted a question mark (?) alongside his suggestion .
His corrections addressed typographical slips, grammatical and case voweling errors, and historical-biographical inaccuracies . For example, he corrected the omission of the kunya in the name "Abd al-Rahman al-Nasa'i" to "Abu Abd al-Rahman al-Nasa'i", rectified the grammatical voweling of ambiguous lines to restore their intended sense (such as reading hazama al-ya’su al-tama‘a instead of the reverse), and corrected corrupted sobriquets, such as identifying the descriptor al-Nadim where the printed editions gave the distorted reading al-Zarim in the biography of Ibrahim al-Suli .
Manuscript and Publication
The unique autograph manuscript of the treatise is preserved in the Library of the Grand Mosque in Mecca (Maktabat al-Haram al-Makki) . It was cataloged under the working title al-Akhta al-Matba'iyyah al-Waqi'ah fi Mujam al-Udaba li-Yaqut al-Hamawi (Typographical Errors Occurring in Yaqut al-Hamawi's Mujam al-Udaba) . The work was later prepared, edited, and published as part of the collected works project Athaar Abd al-Rahman ibn Yahya al-Muallimi al-Yamani (Volume 23), where the tabular format of the manuscript was converted into a standard sequential entry format with comparative cross-references to later editions of Mujam al-Udaba .
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