Tawshi al-Tawshih
- Author died
- 764 AH
- Editions
- Tawshi al-Tawshih
Tawshi al-Tawshih (Embellishing the Muwashshah) is a treatise and anthology on Arabic strophic poetry (muwashshahat) composed by the Mamluk scholar and man of letters al-Safadi (d. 764 AH / 1363 CE) .
Composition and Purpose
Al-Safadi states in his introduction that he decided to compile the work after noticing that the muwashshahat he had composed were scattered across his vast notebook (al-Tadhkirah) . Seeking to preserve them in an orderly collection (diwan), he brought his poems together alongside theoretical discussion and selections from earlier and contemporary masters . Al-Safadi notes that when he arrived in Aleppo in 756 AH, the local scholar Taqi al-Din (Ibn al-Darir) transcribed several of his works in his own hand, including Tawshi al-Tawshih and Nusrat al-Tha'ir .
Structure and Poetic Theory
The book begins with an overview of the origins of the muwashshah genre in Islamic Spain, citing traditional reports concerning its earliest inventors, such as Muhammad ibn Mahmud al-Qabri and Ibn Abd Rabbih . Al-Safadi draws heavily on the structural definitions formulated by Ibn Sana' al-Mulk in his treatise Dar al-Tiraz, reviewing the core components of the genre:
- Strophic Forms: The distinction between the complete form (al-tamm), which opens with a refrain (qufl), and the headless form (al-aqra'), which opens directly with a strophe (bayt) .
- Component Structures: The internal division of refrains (aqfal) and strophes (abyat) into parts (ajza') and hemistich clauses (fiqar), ranging from simple two-part refrains to complex multi-part configurations .
- The Closing Envoi (al-kharjah): The rules governing the final refrain of the poem, which Ibn Sana' al-Mulk required to be colloquial, lively, or in non-classical phrasing .
Al-Safadi remarks that few later poets managed to fulfill all of Ibn Sana' al-Mulk's strict conditions for the kharjah, observing that poets such as al-Sarraj al-Muhhar, Ahmad ibn Hasan al-Mawsili, Sadr al-Din Ibn al-Wakil, and Ibn Daniyal often composed muwashshahat without regular kharjahs or deviated from these requirements . He highlights the technical difficulty of his own endeavor, which entailed emulating the meters and rhyme schemes of earlier poets while supplying new, properly integrated kharjahs .
Survey of Poets and Anthologized Material
Al-Safadi provides a regional survey of distinguished muwashshah poets (washshahun), categorizing them into:
- Andalusians and Maghribis: Including Ubadah ibn Ma' al-Sama', Ubadah al-Qazzaz, al-A'ma al-Tutili, Ibn Baqi, Ali ibn Abd al-Ghani al-Husri, Ibn Zuhr, and Ibrahim ibn Sahl .
- Egyptians: Led by Ibn Sana' al-Mulk, alongside Ibn Qalaqis, al-As'ad ibn Mammati, al-Sarraj al-Warraq, and al-Shihab al-A'zazi .
- Syrians: Including al-Sarraj al-Muhhar al-Halabi, Sadr al-Din Ibn al-Wakil, and Ahmad ibn Hasan al-Mawsili .
The anthology incorporates sixty-one choice muwashshahat from Andalusian, Egyptian, Iraqi, and Levantine traditions, including works by poets such as Shams al-Din Muhammad ibn Ali al-Dahhan (d. 721 AH), Jamal al-Din Yusuf al-Sufi (d. 750 AH), and Ali ibn Abd al-Ghani al-Husri . In addition, al-Safadi records thirty-seven of his own muwashshahat, many of which are poetic contrafactions (mu'aradat) emulating well-known Andalusian compositions, such as a piece written in imitation of Ibn al-Labbana .
Editions
Tawshi al-Tawshih was edited by Albert Mutlaq and published by Dar al-Thaqafah in Beirut in 1966 .
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