| Author | Mufaḍḍal al-Ḍabbī |
|---|---|
| Original title | المفضليات |
| Language | Arabic |
| Subject | Pre-Islamic Arabic poetry |
| Genre | Anthology |
Publication date | 762-784 CE |
| Publication place | Abbasid Caliphate |
| Media type |
The Mufaddaliyyat (Arabic: المفضليات / ALA-LC: al-Mufaḍḍaliyāt), meaning "The Examination of al-Mufaḍḍal", is an anthology of pre-Islamic Arabic poems deriving its name from its author, Mufaḍḍal al-Ḍabbī,[1][2] who compiled it between 762 and his death in 784 CE.[3] It contains 126 poems, some complete odes, others fragmentary. They are all of the Golden Age of Arabic poetry (500—650) and are considered to be the best choices of poems from that period by different authors.[4] There are 68 authors, two of whom were Christian.[5] The oldest poems in the collection date from about 500 CE. The collection is a valuable source concerning pre-Islamic Arab life.
The Mufaḍḍaliyāt is one of five canonical primary sources of early Arabic poetry. The four others are Mu'allaqat, Hamasah, Jamharat Ash'ar al-Arab and the Asma'iyyat.[6][7]
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- ^ Maria Hofner, The Library of Enno Littman 1875-1958, pg. 280. Leiden: Brill Archive, 1959.
- ^ Encyclopedia of Arabic Literature, vol. 2, pg. 537. Eds. Julie Scott Meisami and Paul Starkey. London: Taylor & Francis, 1998. ISBN 9780415185721
- ^ "The Earliest Demon Lover: The Tayf al-Khayal in Al-Mufaddaliyat" by John Seybold. Reorientations: Arabic and Persian Poetry, pg. 180. Ed. Suzanne Pinckney Stetkevych. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994. ISBN 9780253354938
- ^ Ramzi Baalbaki, The Arabic Lexicographical Tradition: From the 2nd/8th to the 12th/18th Century, pg. 89. Leiden: Brill Publishers, 2014. ISBN 9789004274013
- ^ First Encyclopaedia of Islam, vol. 6, pg. 625. Eds. Martijn Theodoor Houtsma, R. Bassett and Thomas Walker Arnold.Leiden: Brill Publishers: 1993. ISBN 90-04-09796-1
- ^ Wen-chin Ouyang, Literary Criticism in Medieval Arabic-Islamic Culture: The Making of a Tradition, pg. 65. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1997. ISBN 9780748608973
- ^ Shady Nasser, The Transmission of the Variant Readings of the Qurʾān: The Problem of Tawātur and the Emergence of Shawādhdh, pg. 210. Leiden: Brill Publishers, 2012. ISBN 9789004241794