Dr. Yusri Abd al-Ghani Abd Allah

If we tried to ask ourselves the following question: Are we the product of our era?... It seems to us that the correct answer will not beyond: We are children of our era, but we are nonetheless the product of multiple eras and different cultures and ideas.

Our teachers from whom we learned directly or to whom we read are all the product of virtuous professors, whether those who studied under them directly or those who read for them or listened from them, and those who supervised their books or scientific theses, or those who guided them with their experiences and knowledge, but for everyone remains his addition that distinguishes him from others.

Today's creator is not separate from the experiences of predecessors of poets, writers and critics, and our Arab heritage is an inexhaustible spring and an everlasting treasure, it does not begrudge us no matter how much we take from it, it increases in its giving if we approach it: and we do not read papers but we squeeze the nectar of previous minds, and absorb their experiences, and abbreviate years of their giving in hours of reading and viewing, after that we all make sure that the saying of some that they are a generation without teachers, is an abominable saying that contradicts the correct, and does not agree with reason and logic.

Our literary and critical experience, no matter how much it kept pace with the era and took the causes of modernization, will not have an identity if we do not stick to its roots deep in the depths of years, and he who has no past has no present and no future.

Our ancestors did not begrudge us, so they generously gave what they gave, and left what they left, for the printing presses to come in our era and present all that to us in elegant books, well-printed, clear and arranged, the important thing is that we return to this authentic heritage taking and learning from it, and no harm after that that we blend the authentic with the incoming, or the old with the modern.

From the treasures of this heritage, the people of science, thought and opinion in our country must seek to present it to the youth, in order for us to present something worth mentioning that links us with our past, which we should not peel off from no matter how much the current of the present sweeps us away, and the train of life increases its speed.

These treasures have come to be called literary references, and this term brings to our minds - without doubt - literary sources, and we may ask ourselves about the difference between them and in simple simplicity we can know the following:

1 - The holy heavenly books are considered sources, while what revolved around them of explanations and interpretations, are in the judgment of references.

2 - Creative works in poetry and prose are considered sources, while critical and analytical studies that revolve around them are counted among the references.

3- The first book compiled in its field, on condition that we make sure well of its priority, is a source, and what followed of books in the same field are counted from the references.

And if the preferred reader happened one day and decided to to one of the libraries with the aim of looking at any of the source or reference books, does he know how these books are received or in another sense how we deal with them?

It is intuitive that the first thing that catches our attention is: the cover page which is supposed to include the book's data, represented in: Title / Edition number if found / Author's name / Birth and death year / Publishing house / Printing place.

Of course, the birth and death year is only in heritage sources, and we may not find it in modern references.

And these main data on the cover of the book are added to it in some cases: the part or volume if the book consists of several parts or volumes, and also the investigator's name if the book had been investigated or explained or refined or abbreviated.

And the title is the first attraction factor on the cover page, as it may give us an idea about the subject and content of the reference, such as the title of a book: Subh al-A'sha fi Sina'at al-Insha - by al-Qalqashandi: Abu al-Abbas Ahmad ibn Ali, born in 1355 AD, and deceased in 1418 AD, which was published by the Egyptian General Organization for Compilation, Translation, Printing and Publishing, in 1964 AD, in 14 volumes, in our heritage series, from a version photographed from the edition of the Amiri Printing Press in Cairo, and the edition is appended with corrections, catch-ups and detailed indexes with a comprehensive study.

As for the author, he may be mentioned in the references by his nickname and his given name and title, such as: Abu al-Abbas Ahmad ibn Ali al-Qalqashandi, the author of the book: Subh al-A'sha fi Sina'at al-Insha.

So the author's nickname / Abu Abbas, and his name / Ahmad ibn Ali, and his title / al-Qalqashandi.

And the benefit that returns to us from mentioning the author's name in this way, is that if you wanted to know something about the author, you would search for him in the dictionaries of authors, and books of biographies, under his given name or title, but names and titles may be similar so you return to the nickname, or to the death year, or to the birth and death years together, the ancients (may d be pleased with them all) were very keen on attributing their works to them, so they did not leave room for error, and surrounded it through these steps in the author's name as we explained to you.

There remains after that the publishing house, its location, and the year of printing, and is it the first or second edition?, and these are necessary matters required in scientific research, because the number of pages of one book may vary from edition to edition, and from publisher to publisher.

Then we come after that to the investigator, who is the man who took upon himself to output the reference in a form approaching perfection and correctness, a form compatible with what he exerted in scrutiny and investigation of effort whether by matching versions with each other, if the reference had more than one version, or by attributing texts to their speakers, or correcting errors, or adding what the years and weathering factors erased from some versions, this in addition to explaining and interpreting what was obscure of words, and let us put in mind always that heritage investigation is a science that has its rules and origins, not addressed except by those who experienced it and knew it and learned it and trained on it.

There are several issues related to the study of literary references, you must be on knowledge and awareness of them, if we truly want to benefit from these references, and these issues are:

  1 - Narration and Recording.

It is fixed that narration played a big role in shaping the Arab mind and educating it, with what the Arab had of a conscious mind, and a preserving memory, and senses sharpened by desert life, so he was sharp of hearing, sharp of vision, strong of memory.....

That memory which had the ability on preservation and classification, no matter how many the subjects were, and then retrieval whenever the necessity called for that.

And perhaps we wonder how the ancient Arab had the ability to preserve this massive amount of poems and narrations and news?!

What if we placed ourselves in the place of the ancient Arab whose life depends more on what it depends on pride and enthusiasm and boasting about everything that concerns him before others, and all these matters their material is speech.

Therefore he had to sharpen his tongue after he made sure of the strength of his memory, and we know that for every tribe there was a poet, and for every poet a narrator, and both are by status of the tribe's media apparatus, for the narrator must preserve what the poet's talent generously gives until the rope of the tribe's glories remains stretched, connected, famous, known among the tribes.

And narration in a general sense is the circulation of poems and news and stories and information orally relying on memory, and often practiced in a gathering of people for the purpose of teaching or entertainment, and with our complete submission that this means prevailing in the ancient era due to the rarity of those who know reading and writing, and the matter is not without several difficulties or obstacles on which the acceptance or rejection or doubt in narration depends, we mention to you from them:

a - That the narrator may forget part of the narration, and this matter can be overcome by relying in the narration itself on the narration of others completing what one of them fort.

b- That the narration may be subject to personal bias or whim, and the taste of its narrator who does not approve of what he narrates so he rejects the narration or rejects part of it so he intentionally neglects it.

c - The narrative may be subject to distortion for the purpose of promoting a sect or doctrine or idea at the expense of another sect or doctrine or other ideas.

How do we investigate the truth of narration from its lie?

This is a subject for a science that the early Muslims established and laid down its rules and origins, and we mean by it: the science of Hadith terminology, which became the basis for accepting a narrated verse or rejecting it, and this science relies on two matters:

The first matter - Criticism of Narrators:

Criticism of narrators meaning looking at the chain of narrators, and research in the history of every narrator, and making sure of his od conduct, and his integrity, and looking into whether he was accused or defective in his ethics and lineage, as well as looking in the dates of death of narrators and making sure of whether every narrator had contemporary of whom he narrated from or not?, until the direct receiving is confirmed.

The second matter - Criticism of the Text or Narrative:

Criticism of the text or narrative is intended as looking in the content of the hadith or narration and the extent of its agreement or not with the circumstance or occasion or reason for which it was said, as well as the logic of the text in between its parts and components, so that ideas agree and do not scatter, and some of them do not reject others.

For this the Arabs were very keen on making sure of the health of what they narrate, and this science spread and became the basis for criticizing any ancient narration, and from the most famous narrators who were known in the Arab heritage:

Muhammad ibn al-Sa'ib al-Kalbi, deceased in 146 AH, and he was a narrator of lineage, interpretation and history.

Awana ibn al-Hakam, deceased in 140 AH, and he was a scholar in poetry, lineages and news.

Hammad ibn Sabur, deceased in 156 AH, and he is the famous in heritage as Hammad the Narrator.

Al-Mufaddal al-Dabbi, deceased in 186 AH, and he was a scholar of pre-Islamic news, and days of the Arabs.

And although narration was the basis for the circulation of Arab heritage, recording began to spread little by little, until it became the prevailing, and that starting from the Umayyad era (41 AH - 132 AH), where Arabs used writing, and that as a result of expansion in establishing various administrative offices, and with the end of the first Hijri century recording became a common matter but - as our professor Dr. / al-Tahir Ahmad Makki says, in his important book: (A Study in the Sources of Literature) - it was seemingly a spontaneous and individual work, subject to people's tastes and political requirements, and from the most famous literature recorders in that era:

Abu Amr ibn al-Ala', deceased in 155 AH, and Abu Amr recorded a large amount of Arab poetry and especially pre-Islamic poetry, along with news related to it.

Al-Asma'i. deceased in 215 AH. And he wrote in various sciences, and his compilations reached forty-two, from them the book: al-Ajnas and book: al-Arajiz, and book: al-Khail, and book: Ma'ani al-Shi'r... and others....

2 - Investigation of Manuscripts

Manuscripts is every book copied by hand, remaining on its image without being issued in a book, and we must know in this status that the term manuscript is also applied to every university thesis or book not issued by a publishing house, and did not obtain an approved deposit number from the national libraries and documents centers.

And what concerns us here is the ancient manuscript which more than one body works on outputting it in a book, like:

a - The Institute of Arabic Manuscripts affiliated with the League of Arab States.

b - The Heritage Investigation Center at the Egyptian National Library.

c - Other investigation departments in vernment bodies and institutions, like: The Supreme Council of Culture affiliated with the Egyptian Ministry of Culture, and the Arabic Language Academy - Immortal Academy, affiliated with the Egyptian Ministry of Higher Education.

In addition to what is done - individually or collectively - by the university professors and higher institutes in the Arab and Islamic countries interested in the Arab heritage in its various fields: literature, history, philosophy... etc... and it is fixed that the manuscript has more than one version available, like ((al-Suyuti's Maqamat)), by Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti, who we know has five versions, one in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, and three in the Arab Maghreb libraries, and a final version in the Egyptian National Library.

And also the book ((Tabaqat Fuhul al-Shu'ara')) , by Muhammad ibn Sallam al-Jumahi (139 AH - 231 or 232 AH), which has two manuscripts, one in Medina in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and another brought by Mr. / Amin al-Khanji from Iraq's libraries, and from it the Sheikh / Mahmoud Muhammad Shakir investigated and explained it, knowing that the book had an edition issued by Dar al-Ma'arif al-Misriyya in Cairo in 1952 AD in 720 pages, and in fairness to the truth it should be noted that this book was printed for the first time at the Brill press in the Dutch city of Leiden in 1913 AD - 1916 AD, with the care of the scholar / Joseph Hell, then printed a second time at the al-Sa'ada press in Cairo in 1920 AD, with the care of Mr. / Hamid Ajjan al-Hadid al-Kutubi, except that Sheikh / Shakir's edition is distinguished by its investigation and explanations and margins and indexes and completion of news from al-Aghani by al-Isfahani, and al-Muwashah by al-Marzubani, and al-Amali by al-Zajjaj.

This and investigation science requires from the investigator several steps, summarized for you in the following:

a - Trying to count the versions of the manuscript, and touching every way confirming their number.

b - Trying to obtain these versions or accurate photocopies of them.

c - Referring to the manuscripts that preceded this manuscript in its field if found, and the extent of benefit of the manuscript's owner from them.

d - Talking about the manuscript's narrators, who are those whom the manuscript's owner took from, and verifying that they are trustworthy and just.

e - Referring to the manuscript's subject, and what literary and intellectual issues are in it.

f - Talking about the manuscript owner's methodology in presenting his material, and the extent of his success in presentation.

g - Criticizing the manuscript by highlighting its negatives and positives, with placing in mind that we must judge the manuscript between our hands or criticize it according to the conditions of its era, because what may seem to us negative in our days, perhaps was not so in the era of the manuscript's author, and for example excessive use of rhetorical beautifiers.

h - The manuscript investigator must refer in his introduction to how he intervened to repair the manuscript's versions and catch up what was in it of defects, as well as referring to the special symbols the investigator will use, in order for the reader to perceive his interventions, and we do not mix between the investigator's speech, and the manuscript author's speech.

i - If the manuscript includes poems or narrations the investigator must output them as a scientific output according to the followed origins, and observed rules in this regard, and in another sense making sure of their attribution, and if they were attributed by way of error, he must refer to that, and correct this error.

j - The investigator must explain to the reader the difficult words which the manuscript's owner neglected, and he of course did not neglect them intentionally, but they were for his era clear easy used understood, so they were not in need of explanation, and with days and change of conditions and circumstances they were abandoned in the era of investigation, and therefore the investigator should refer to that.

And after that the investigator can push his book to the press to become a published book from which all readers benefit, and of course absolute perfection is an impossible matter for all humans.

3- Types of Literary Sources and References:

a - Poetry Collections:

They are the collections aimed at preserving the Arab poetic heritage, and are divided into:

Poetry collections according to the subject, like: Abu Tammam's Hamasa, and al-Buhturi's Hamasa.

Poetry of the Arab tribes, like: Diwan al-Hudhaliyyin.

Diwans of individuals, like: Diwan of the pre-Islamic poet / Imru' al-Qays, and Diwan of the Abbasid poet / Ibn al-Rumi..... and others...

b - Literature books in general:

They are the books that deal with various literary phenomena and issues and news, from them what relates to one subject, like: al-Bukhala' by al-Jahiz, and al-Aghani by al-Isfahani, and from them what contains various literary knowledge, like: al-'Iqd al-Farid by Ahmad ibn Abd Rabbuh, and Zahr al-Adab by al-Husri al-Qayrawani.. etc...

c - Tabaqat books:

They are the books that classify writers and poets into classes, according to various criteria seen by the author, and from them : book of al-Tabaqat by Abu Ubaida Ma'mar ibn al-Muthanna, and book: Tabaqat Fuhul al-Shu'ara' by Muhammad ibn Sallam al-Jumahi.....

And others ...

d - Biography books:

They are the books that present the life history of various literary personalities, and from these books: Mu'jam al-Shu'ara' by al-Marzubani, and book of al-Dhakhira by Ibn Bassam al-Andalusi.. and others...

And d Almighty is the guardian of success....