|
Arabic Only
Muqamat
al Hariri Al Musamma bil Makamat al Adabiya
Ash Shaikh Abi Muhammad al
Qassim Ibn Ali Ibn Muhammad ibn Uthman al Hariri al Basri
Al Hariri of Basrah (446-516
A.H./1054-1122 CE):
Maqamat, (The Assemblies), c. 1100 CE
The Maqamat
were composed in a style characteristic for this art form, They were cast into
the ancient form of saj, "rhymed prose" (the form, as will be
remembered, in which the Koran was revealed). Each maqamat dealt with a separate
topic, the whole being unified by the persons of the narrator and the traveler,
Abu'lFatb in al-Hamadhani's Maqamat, Abu Zayd of Saruj in those by the
later al-Hariri (446-516 A.H./1054-1122 A.D.), This style enabled the authors to
display all the brilliancy of their erudition, their rhetoric, and their wit.
The maqdmdt became almost the best known and most highly appreciated literary
works of later times among the Arabs; in particular, al-Hariri's Maqamat
were praised highly and remained a favorite in the Muslim world. They found
imitators all over its sphere of influence, including, in Spain, the Maadmat of
the Jewish thinker al-Harizi (thirteenth century).
|
