The only complete collection of mediaeval tribal Arabic poetry

Kosegarten, Johann Gottfried Ludwig (ed.). [Sharh ash'ar al-Hudhaliyin]. The Poems of the Huzailis; Edited in the Arabic, from an Original Manuscript in the University of Leyden, and Translated, with Annotations. Vol. I. Containing the First Part of the Arabic Text.

€ 6,500.00

First edition of the first (and only) volume compiled from the only complete collection of tribal Arabic poetry from the medieval period: the "Ash'ar al-Hudhaliyyin", known in English as "The Poems of the Hudhaylis". The Hudhayl tribe originated on the west coast of the Arabian Peninsula and lived near Mecca during the time of the Prophet; today they inhabit Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Jordan, and Egypt.

Hudhayl poetry was first recorded around 500-700 CE, which makes it not only a uniquely complete but also a quite early poetic tradition marking the very beginning of both the medieval period and the Golden Age of Islam. The poetic traditions of the 6th and 7th centuries were dominated by tribes in Nejd, and the Hadhayl tribe's poetry adapted the stylistic devices of the dominant poetic traditions of their time - largely those of poets in Nejd - to their own local ecological and cultural experiences.

"Apart from anthologies and diwans of individual poets, the philologists also compiled diwans of the poets of entire tribes. Of these, the only one to have been preserved is that of the Hudhayl, who lived on the Sarat Hudhayl between Mecca and Medina, as well as in the south, as far as al-Ta'if, where they still exist today" (Brockelmann, GAL). Fück speaks with appreciation of "the versatile J. G. L. Kosegarten (1792-1850), who, among other achievements, edited the Hudhaylite diwan" (p. 157). Although a translation was apparently planned for a second volume, only a reproduction of the Arabic text of the poems in this first volume was published.

Light exterior wear, endpapers replaced; altogether in good condition.