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xxxv Notes to the Introduction 1 Ibn Khallikān, Wafayāt, i, 113–16; the same in al-Ṣafadī, al-Wāfī, iv, 94–111. 2 Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-udabāʾ, iii, 107–217; see p. 161. 3 Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-udabāʾ, xv, 83. 4 Nicholson, “Persian Manuscripts.” 5 Nicholson, “The Risālatu ’l-Ghufrān by Abū ’l-ʿAlāʾ al-Maʿarrī,” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (1900): 637–720; (1902): 75–101, 337–62, 813–47. 6 Al-Thaʿālibī, Tatimmat al-Yatīmah, p. 16; also in Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-udabāʾ, iii, 129–30; Ibn al-ʿAdīm, Bughyat al-ṭalab, p. 897; al-Ṣafadī, al-Wāfī bi-l-Wafayāt, vii, 96. Ibn al-ʿAdīm, always keen to defend al-Maʿarrī, doubts that he ever played games or even jested. Al-Maʿarrī’s jesting cannot be denied but it is admittedly always of a serious kind. 7 Following Arabic usage, in this introduction he will be called either al-Maʿarrī or Abū l-ʿAlāʾ, for the sake of variety. 8 The Arabic term is kunyah (incorrectly translated as “patronymic” in the Encyclopaedia of Islam, New [= Second] Edition, v, 395). 9 Ibn al-ʿAdīm, Bughyat al-ṭalab, pp. 896–97. 10 An allusion to making fire by means of the friction between two pieces of wood, one hard and one soft. 11 The collection is often called al-Luzūmiyyāt. 12 For a good selection, with English translations, see Nicholson, “The Meditations of Maʿarrī.” 13 Abū l-ʿAlāʾ al-Maʿarrī, Zajr al-nābiḥ: Muqtaṭafāt. 14 Al-Maʿarrī, Luzūm mā lā yalzam, i, 188 (rhyme -īthī): “I see myself in my three prisons | (so do not ask me about my secret story) || Because of my loss of sight, being homebound | and my soul’s residing in an evil body.” 15 See, e.g., Ibn Khallikān, Wafayāt, i, 115. 16 Al-Qifṭī, Inbāh al-ruwah, i, 85. 17 Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-udabāʾ, iii, 176–213; see Margoliouth, “Abū ’l-ʿAlāʾ al-Maʿarrī’s Correspondence on Vegetarianism.” 18 e.g., Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-udabāʾ, iii, 125. 19 Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-udabāʾ, iii, 126; Ibn al-ʿAdīm, Bughyat al-ṭalab, p. 910 mentions “seventy poets from al-Maʿarrah.” xxxvi Notes to the Introduction 20 On speaking animals, see Wagner, “Sprechende Tiere in der arabischen Prosa.” 21 There are several versions of this anecdote, see, e.g., Ibn al-ʿAdīm, Bughyat al-ṭalab, pp. 879–80. 22 Gibb, Arabic Literature: An Introduction, whose “Silver Age” begins two years before al-Maʿarrī’s death, with the Seljuqs entering Baghdad. 23 Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-udabāʾ, iii, 142; cf. e.g. Ibn al-ʿAdīm, Bughyat al-ṭalab, p. 865. 24 Ibn al-ʿAdīm, Bughyat al-ṭalab, p. 909, al-ʿAbbāsī, Maʿāhid al-tanṣīṣ, i, 52. The two snakes growing on the shoulders are reminiscent of al-Ḍaḥḥāk/Zahhāk/Zuhāk, the evil Arabian king of Iranian lore; see, e.g., E. Yarshater, “Zuhāk.” Ibn al-ʿAdīm gives the dream an interpretation that is favorable to al-Maʿarrī: the snakes are the false accusations of heresy and unbelief; the dream describes the sheikh’s life, not his afterlife. 25 Dawkhalah or dawkhallah means “date basket made of palm leaves.” 26 On Ibn al-Qāriḥ see Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-udabāʾ, xv, 83–88; shortened in al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī, xxii, 233–35; al-Suyūṭī, Bughyat al-wuʿāh, ii, 207. It is said that he died after 421/1030 (al-Ṣafadī, xxii, 234; Yāqūt, implausibly, has “after 461/1068”). 27 For a fragment of four verses, see Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-udabāʾ, xv, 84. 28 For a German translation and study, see Schoeler, “Abū l-Alāʾ al-Maʿarrīs Prolog zum Sendschreiben über die Vergebung.” 29 ʿĀʾishah ʿAbd al-Raḥmān “Bint al-Shāṭiʾ,” Qirāʾah jadīdah fī Risālat al-Ghufrān, pp. 52–54; eadem, “Abū ʾl-ʿAlāʾ al-Maʿarrī,” p. 337. 30 Schoeler, “Abū l-Alāʾ al-Maʿarrīs Prolog,” p. 421. 31 Schoeler, “Die Vision, der auf einer Hypothese gründet: Zur Deutung von Abū ’l-ʿAlāʾ al-Maʿarrīs Risālat al-Ġufrān.” 32...

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