Tuhfat al-Qadim
- Author died
- 658 AH
- Editions
- Dar al-Gharb al-Islami
Tuhfat al-Qadim (The Gift of the Arriving One) is a biographical anthology of Andalusian poets and verse selections compiled by the Valencian scholar and statesman Ibn al-Abbar (595–658 AH / 1199–1260 CE) .
Purpose and Composition
Ibn al-Abbar composed the work as a deliberate literary counterpart (mu‘arada) to Zad al-Musafir by Abu Bahr Safwan ibn Idris al-Mursi (d. 598 AH / 1202 CE) . He selected the title Tuhfat al-Qadim in direct stylistic correspondence with Safwan's title . In his preface, Ibn al-Abbar also likened his endeavor to Ibn Rashiq’s al-Unmudhaj, which recorded the poets of Qayrawan . It has been suggested that he gathered its material while in al-Andalus and published it after relocating to Tunis .
Scope and Method
Ibn al-Abbar restricted the primary scope of the work to poets from al-Andalus whose deaths preceded his own birth, alongside select later figures who had interacted with the teachers of that generation, as well as foreign poets who had visited the Iberian Peninsula . He intentionally excluded figures already covered by Safwan ibn Idris in Zad al-Musafir, as well as those detailed in earlier major compilations such as Ibn Bassam's al-Dhakhira .
The work comprises biographical entries and selected poetic samples for one hundred male poets and four female poets spanning the fifth and sixth centuries AH . Ibn al-Abbar organized the entries chronologically by death date, occasionally giving precedence to figures of elevated social rank, while keeping the prose biographical notices concise to place the central emphasis on the selected verses .
Abridgment and Editions
The book was epitomized by Abu Ishaq Ibrahim ibn Muhammad al-Balfiqi under the title al-Muqtadab min Kitab Tuhfat al-Qadim . Al-Balfiqi's abridgment covers poets spanning the period between 519 AH and 634 AH, focusing on short biographical notes followed by selected poetic excerpts, while stripping away most of the original prose commentary . A manuscript of this abridgment is preserved in the Escorial Library (MS 356) .
al-Muqtadab was edited by Ibrahim al-Ibyari and published in Cairo in 1957 . Later, Tuhfat al-Qadim was reconstructed and edited by Dr. Ihsan Abbas, published by Dar al-Gharb al-Islami in Beirut in 1986 .
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