4to. Volume I: [3 contents], 234 pp / Volume II: [3 contents], 202 pp / Volume III: [5 contents], 197 pp / Volume IV: [5 contents], 188 pp., Arabic text within borders, browned paper, newly bound, modern hard back binding, gilt title on spine, previous owner’s inscription on front fly leaf of vol. 1 and 3, small stamp at the end, in good condition, Boulaq Printing, Cairo, 1296 AH/ 1878.

Synopsis

The Hamasa is a genre of Arabic poetry that “recounts chivalrous exploits in the context of military glories and victories”. In this work Yahya al-Tabrizi comments on a selection of ancient Arabic poetry which was selected by Abu Tammam Habib bin ‘Aws al-Ta’i. According to the reference book Kashf al-Zunun, about twenty-eight Arab and Muslim scholars commented on Sharh Diwan al-Hamasa, the poems in which were collected by Abu Tammam. Abu Tammam is best known in literature by his 9th century compilation of early poems known as the Diwan al-Hamasa. This work is one of the greatest anthologies of Arabic literature ever written. Abu Tammam gathered these poems when he was snowbound in Hamadan, where he had access to an excellent library belonging to his friend Abu al-Wafa Ibn Salama. There are ten books of poems in the Hamasa, all classified by subject. Some of them are selections from longer poems. A later anthology by the same name was compiled by the poet al-Buhturi, and the term has been used in modern times to mean “heroic epic”.