Lamiyya by al-Shanfara and its Commentaries: Copies Available in the Holdings of the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts and the Oriental Department Collection, Gorky Research Library

Authors

  • Yafia Yousif Jamil Hana St. Petersburg State University, 7–9, Universitetskaya nab., St. Petersburg, 199034, Russian Federation
  • Amalia A. Mokrushina St. Petersburg State University, 7–9, Universitetskaya nab., St. Petersburg, 199034, Russian Federation

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21638/spbu13.2019.406

Abstract

The article “Lāmiyya by al-Shanfarā and its commentaries: Copies available in the holdings of the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts and the Oriental Department collection, Gorky Research Library” reviews the problem of studying and describing oriental manuscripts, which gains more relevance in recent times. This research presents life facts of the famous pre-Islamic poet al-Shanfarā and the features of his most famous work, Lāmiyya. The study focus on the copies of this work, as well as copies of its commentaries stored in the holdings of the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts and the Oriental Department collection, Gorky Research Library, SPbSU. The poetry of al-Shanfarā is traditionally compared with classical muallaq, where the authors praise tribal patriotism against the main idea — a life in exile. Lāmiyya got its name for the special repetitive rhyme. Among European researchers, this qaṣīda is also known as “The Desert Song”. The authors analyze the features of various copies of al-Shanfarā’s work and discuss the most important aspects of various commentaries on his work. The article provides illustrations of some sheets of al-Shanfarā’s copies and copies of Lāmiyya commentaries. The writing by al-Shanfarā was subjected to extensive research by national, Western and Arab experts. Through analyzing the most well-known commentaries on Lāmiyyat al-arab, it is possible to evaluate exactly what features call the attention of scholars. In addition, copies of Lāmiyya commentaries stored in manuscript collections deserve an independent careful study and description.

Keywords:

codicology, Arabic manuscript, copies, Arabic, pre-Islamic poetry

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References

Abd al-Halim Hanafi. Lamiyyat al-arab li-Shanfara. Sharh wa dirasa. Cairo, 2008. (In Arabic)

Filshtinskiy I. M. History of Arabic Literature from the 5th to the beginning of the 10th century. Мoscow, 1983. 524 p. (In Russian)

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Al-Jahiz. The Book of the Greedy ones. Transl., introd. and comment by H. K. Baranov. Poetry transl. by A. Revich. Moscow, 1985. 477 p. (In Russian)

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Krymsky A. E. History of Modern Arabina Literature (11th–20th centuries). Moscow, 1971. 794 p. (In Russian)

Krachkovsky I. Y. Ash-Shanfara. The Desert Song. Selected works. Vol. 2. Moscow — Leningrad, 1956, pp. 238–245. (In Russian)

Arabian Olden Time. From Ancient Arabian Poetry and Prose. Transl. by L. A. Dolinina. Polosin. Moscow, 1983. 142 p. (In Russian)

Hana Yafia Yousif Jamil, E. K. Akhmatshina. Copies of the manuscript Atwāq Al-ḏahab al-Zamahsharī from the Collections of the Institute of Oriental manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Oriental Department of Gorky Research Library of St. Petersburg State University. Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. Asian and African Atudies, 2017, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 196–210.

Krachkovsky I. Y. Sheikh Tantavi the Professor of SP University. Leningrad, 1929. (In Russian)

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Published

2020-01-20

How to Cite

Hana, Y. Y. J., & Mokrushina, A. A. (2020). Lamiyya by al-Shanfara and its Commentaries: Copies Available in the Holdings of the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts and the Oriental Department Collection, Gorky Research Library. Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. Asian and African Studies, 11(4), 493–512. https://doi.org/10.21638/spbu13.2019.406

Issue

Vol. 11 No. 4 (2019)

Section

History and source studies

License

Articles of "Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. Asian and African Studies" are open access distributed under the terms of the License Agreement with Saint Petersburg State University, which permits to the authors unrestricted distribution and self-archiving free of charge.