4to. 4 pp., 523 pp / Volume II: 522 pp., Arabic text within borders, newly bound, modern hard back binding with gilt lettering on spines, ink inscriptions on margins, browned paper, foxing throughout, slightly soiled, last page of Volume 2 cut without any loss to text, small library stamp at end of volumes, hand written inscription on front fly leaf of Volume 2, printed in Cairo, 1287 A. H. / 1877.

Synopsis

Abu al-Baqa’ al-’Abkari (1143-1219) was a leading Iraqi linguist, mathematician and literary figure. He studied in Baghdad with Ibn al-Jawzi, and was considered the most important linguist of his time. There are many controversies regarding this work of Sharh Diwan al-Mutanabbi; for example, the Iraqi scholar Mustafa Jawad believed that this version is not by al-Abkari himself, but by his student ibn Adalan. However, the book was very popular and was printed many times: in Calcutta in 1845, Cairo in 1844, 1870, 1877 and 1936-38. The last edition appeared in Beirut in 1979.
Al-Mutanabbi was the recognised master of poetry, and he continued to be the master of enthusiastic circles of admirers and students, who discussed, annotated and preserved his work under the poet’s direct guidance. Al-Mutanabbi’s poetry provided one of the primary models for the Neoclassical poets of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. His influence extended across the Arab East, North Africa and even into Persia.