Tanbihat ala al-Kamil lil-Mubarrad nashrat Zaki Mubarak - ضمن "Athar al-Mualimi
- Author died
- 1386 AH
- Editions
- Dār ‘Ālam al-Fawā’id lil-Nashr wa-al-Tawzī‘
Tanbihat ala al-Kamil lil-Mubarrad: Nashrat Zaki Mubarak (Reminders on al-Mubarrad's al-Kamil: Zaki Mubarak's Edition) is a critical treatise of textual corrections and marginalia by the Yemeni scholar Abd al-Rahman al-Muallimi al-Yamani (1312–1386 AH), published within his collected works (Athar al-Muallimi). The work comprises a systematic record of emendations on the first volume of al-Mubarrad's classical literary and grammatical compendium al-Kamil fi al-Adab, specifically targeting the edition published in Cairo in 1356 AH under the editorial care of Dr. Zaki Mubarak.
Background and Purpose
In his opening remarks, al-Muallimi notes that al-Mubarrad's al-Kamil had been printed repeatedly in Istanbul and Egypt, had received commentaries from Egyptian scholars, and was widely taught in Egyptian curricula. When a new edition appeared in Cairo in 1356 AH, its first volume was edited by Zaki Mubarak, who stated in his preface that he had spent long months establishing and correcting its text. However, upon examining the published volume, al-Muallimi observed numerous errors in vocalization, scansion, attribution, and editorial commentary. He compiled his critical observations to demonstrate these oversights, remarking that an exhaustive scrutiny consulting broader reference works would likely uncover further discrepancies.
Structure and Method
Al-Muallimi originally drafted his treatise in a tabular layout consisting of five columns: the page number, the line number, the reading as printed in Mubarak's edition, the correct reading, and the supporting evidence or reference. In its modern publication within Athar al-Muallimi, the editors converted the tabular format into a sequential list of entries following the pagination and line counts of the 1356 AH Cairo edition.
Al-Muallimi supports his emendations by drawing upon classical lexicographical, biographical, geographical, and literary sources, as well as grammatical principles and Quranic verses. Among the reference works he cites are Lisan al-Arab, al-Jahiz's al-Bayan wa-al-Tabyin, Ibn Qutayba's al-Shi'r wa-al-Shu'ara, Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani's Kitab al-Aghani, Abd al-Qadir al-Baghdadi's Khizanat al-Adab, Yaqut al-Hamawi's Mu'jam al-Buldan, Radi al-Din al-Astarabadhi's commentary on al-Shafiya, Abu Ubayd al-Bakri's La'ali al-Amali, and Ibn Hajar's biographical dictionaries Tahdhib al-Tahdhib and Taqrib al-Tahdhib.
Scope of Corrections
The treatise covers diverse categories of textual correction across the first volume of al-Kamil:
- Poetic Meter and Vocalization: Rectifying faulty vocalizations that break poetic meters (such as removing an erroneous hamza in ka-Sadda or reading fahya with a vowelless ha) and fixing incorrect verb vowellings.
- Typesetting and Printing Corruptions: Identifying garbled typography resulting from scrambled lead type, such as the corrupt phrase ba'i yaqidd al-shal which he restores to ba'da al-shay' yuqal.
- Quranic Citations and Allusions: Correcting misprinted Quranic phrasing, including أَوَمَنْ يُنَشَّأُ , and identifying implicit scriptural references, such as pointing out that a passage read yablu al-akhbar in allusion to وَنَبْلُوَ أَخْبَارَكُمْ rather than yablu al-akhyar.
- Biographical and Onomastic Errors: Amending corrupted names and lineages, such as correcting Mubarak's misidentification of the early grammarian Qutrub (Muhammad ibn al-Mustanir) as the Kharijite leader Qatari ibn al-Fuja'a, fixing al-Hasan ibn al-Hasan to al-Hasan ibn Abi al-Hasan (al-Hasan al-Basri), rectifying Yahya ibn Ya'mur to Yahya ibn Ya'mar, and correcting Ruwayshid ibn Rumayd al-Anbari to Rushayd ibn Rumayd al-Anazi.
- Critique of Mubarak's Footnotes: Challenging editorial errors in Mubarak's own glosses, such as refuting Mubarak's definition of atbaq as human gatherings and demonstrating that it refers to platters or trays, as well as defending al-Mubarrad against Mubarak's claim of grammatical error regarding shifts in grammatical address (iltifat).
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