8vo. Arabic text, 93 pp., [3 index and errata] / 86 pp., [4 index and errata], printed on buff paper, modern hard back binding, gilt lettering on spine, new endpapers, light soiling to the last page of both Volumes 1 and 2, otherwise copy in very good condition, Matba'at al-Ma'arif, Cairo, first edition, 1315 AH [1897/8].

Synopsis

Al-Watwat, (d. 578/1182), a bilingual poet, philologist, and prose writer in Persian and Arabic, as well as a high-ranking official of the Khwarazmian court in the 12th century. There is considerable data on his biography, with the Dictionary of Learned Men by Yaqut (d. 1229) as the earliest source.
As a chief secretary of the Kvarazmsahan, Watwat engaged in diplomatic correspondence with the caliphs and their officials (in Arabic), and with the court of Sanjar and some local rulers (in Persian). The author himself compiled a book of highly embellished prose resalas in both languages, under the title of ‘Ara’es al-Khawater wa nafa’es al-nawader; nine Arabic and nine Persian letters are included into his Abkar al-afkar fi’l-rasa’el wa’l-ašʿār; a later collection titled Rasāʾel ʿArabi is also extant. His Persian epistles have been edited by K. Toyserkani (Rashid-al-Din Watwat, Namaha, Tehran, 1960); a representative selection of his Arabic output (this work) was published by Mohammad Fahmi (Majmuʿat rasāʾel Rašid-al-Din al-Waṭwāṭ, 2 parts, Cairo, 1315/1897-8). Ref: Encyclopaedia Iranica.