A Poet of the Abbasid Period

Abû al-Qâsim al-Zâhî ('Alî b. Ishâq b. Khalaf al-Zâhî), 313-352 AH/925-963 CE. His Life and Poetry. Annotated, edited and with an introduction by Khalid Sindawi.

Introductions in english and arabic provide information on the poet's biography and historical background, and discuss themes and language of his poetry. The arabic text of the verses, edited from various sources, is accompanied by a detailed commentary. Framing the biographical section, the book presents the historical, political and intellectual background of the poet’s lifetime, discusses his names, his occupation, his relations with prominent personalities of his age and his conversion to Shi'ite. It provides an account of the various themes in his poetry and gives an analysis of the technical aspects of al-Zahi‘s poetry, its language, style and rhetorical devices. It also discusses the transmitters of his poetry, opinions of ancient and modern critics, and cases of plagiarism of his verse. The volume provides a scholarly analysis of the poems which have survived in various traditional collections. There are 54 poems with 307 verses in total. The verses as they have been extracted from the various sources are presented with a detailed commentary of all the poems. 59,180* Seiten, broschiert (Codices Arabici Antiqui; Band 12/Harrassowitz Verlag 2010)