Poetry and Elegant Prose [IO Bijapur 122]

• Poetry and Elegant Prose.
• This manuscript is now IO Bijapur 122 in the India Office collections.
• [metadata: Otto Loth, A Catalogue of the Arabic Manuscripts in the Library of the India Office, (volume 1), no. 800 here with further notations and hyperlinks].

800.

B 122. Size 10 in. by 5^3/4 in.; foll. 61. From twenty-eight to thirty lines in a page.

شرح المعلقات السبع الخ

A concise Commentary on the Mu’allaḳât, ascribed to Abu’l-Ḥasan Muḥammad b. Aḥmad, commonly called IBN KAISÂN the grammarian (d. probably A.H. 320).¹ It is mentioned neither in the Fihrist (ed. Flügel, ۸۲), nor in Ḥ. Kh.

This commentary is intended for the use of beginners.

It gives rather short explanations of obscure words, and a paraphrase of each verse. The former are introduced by التفسير , and the latter by المعنى . Special grammatical questions are occasionally discussed in an appendix, which the superficial reader is advised to skip.

The preface begins: الحمد لله و الصلوة على النبى محمد و آله و صحبه اجمعين قال ابوالحسن محمد بن احمد كَيْسَان النحوى رحه اختصرنا غرائب هذه القصائد السبع المشهورة الخ.

The first scholium is introduced by the words: قال التعالبى (!) قال لنا ابوالحسن . Tha’âlibî is accordingly supposed to have handed down the work from the author; he was born, however, thirty years after the death of the latter (A.H. 350).

Plainly written. Completed and collated on Thursday, 14th Rabî’ II., 1098, by Zain b. 'Abdallah Muḳaibil.

¹ Cf. Flügel, die grammatischen Schulen der Araber, 210n.