# Al-Marzubani

Abū 'Abd Allāh Muḥammad ibn 'Imrān ibn Mūsā ibn Sa'īd ibn 'Abd Allāh al-Marzubānī al-Khurāsānī (Arabic: أبو عبد الله محمد بن عمران بن موسى المرزباني الخراساني) (c. 909 – 10 November 994), was a prolific author of adab, akhbar (news), history and ḥadīth (traditions). He lived all his life in his native city, Baghdad, although his family came originally from Khurāsān.

## Life

Al-Marzubānī came from a wealthy Arab family connected to the royal court of the Abbāsid caliph. Ibn al-Jawālīqī in his Kitāb al-Mu'arrab, explains that al-Marzubānī inherited a Persian epithet "Marzban", which means 'Guardian of the frontier'. The Buyid amir ‘Aḍūd al-Dawla was known to visit his residence on the east bank of the Tigris, where he would also entertain members of a literary circle dedicated to the conservation and transmission of Arabic philological literature. Fellow authors in his circle were Abū Ya'qūb al-Najīramī (d.1031), Abū Sa'īd al-Sīrāfī (d. 979) and Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn 'Abd al-Malik al-Tārīkhī. He edited the first dīwān (collected poems) by the Umayyad caliph Muawiyah I (r. 661–680), which he produced in a small volume of about three kurrāsa, – ca., 60 ff.

### Al-Marzubānī's principal teachers

* 'Abd Allāh ibn Muḥammad al-Baghawī (829 – 929), jurist.
* Abū Bakr ibn Abī Dā'ūd al-Sijistānī (ca. 844—928/929), ḥāfiẓ, scholar of Ḥadīth and Qur'an, and author of Kitāb al-Masābīh.
* al-Ṣūlī held al-Marzubānī in high esteem and much of al-Marzubānī's material in his Kitāb al-Muwashshaḥ and his compilation technique was apparently borrowed from him.

### Al-Marzubānī's principal authorities

* Abū Bakr ibn Durayd (837 -934), a great grammarian of Basra.
* Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn al-Qāsim ibn al-Anbārī (855 – 940) was a famous pupil of Tha'lab.
Abū Bakr al-Khwārizmī led the funeral service. He was buried in his house on Shari Amr al-Rūmī (Amr the Greek Street), on the eastern quarter of Baghdād.

## Legacy

He was the last of the authorities of literary and oral tradition Isḥāq al-Nadīm met. He was cited by the Mu'tazilite theologian Abū 'Abd Allāh al-Ṣaymarī (d. 927/8), Abū al-Qāsim al-Tanūkhi (940 – 994), Abū Muḥammad al-Jauhari, et al. Some sectarian-based criticism – attributed to al-Marzubānī's religious leanings and madhhab, despite his publication of Ḥanafī, Shī'i and Mu'tazila riwāya and akhbar (biographies). – seems to have led to the relative neglect of his writings by Sunni scholars in later centuries.

## Works

Among his books were:
* Al–Mu'niq (كتاب المونق) 'Pleasing'; accounts of famous pre–Islamic poets, from Imru' al-Qays and members of his category, with a thorough investigation of their traditions; to poets from the pre-to-early-Islāmic period, and the Muslims following them and their generations; early Muslims and their best traditions about Jarīr ibn 'Aṭīyah, al-Farazdaq and their cohort before the 'Abbāsid era; Ibn Harmah (685 – 767) and al-Ḥusayn ibn Muṭayr al-Asadī (d. 767), and poets; over 5000 ff.
* Al–Mustanīr 'Illuminating'; anthology of famous modern poets and selected poetry according to age and period; From Bashshār ibn Burd, to Abū al-'Abbās 'Abd Allāh ibn al-Mu'tazz bi-Allāh. —6000 ff; in an autograph by al-Marzubānī in sixty Sulaymānīyah volumes.
* Al-Mufīd (كتاب المفيد) 'Profitable'; §1—late-pre-early-Islāmic poets with paternal or maternal surnames, genealogies, patrons, affiliations etc.; §2—references to physical characteristics of poets; §3—religious ideologies and practices of poets; §4—those who spurned pre-Islāmic poetry in favour of Islām and religious piety; or satire for eulogy; or love poetry for virtuosity; and those dedicated to a single poetic subject, such as Sayyid ibn Muḥammad al-Ḥimyarī and al-'Abbās ibn al-Aḥnaf, et al. 5000 ff.
* Al-Mu'jam (كتاب المعجم) 'The Alphabetical Book'; a dictionary of ca., 5000 poets and selected verses, and best known stanzas; over 1000 ff.
* Al-Muwashshaḥ (كتاب الموشّح) 'The Acrostic', literary criticism of poetry by the authorities (al-'ulamā'), such as use, and inconsistent use, of vowel signs, mispronunciations, final syllable repetition in a verse, irregular rhyming, changes, ambiguity, loose weaving of the composition, and other errors in poetry; over 300 ff.
* Al-Shi'r (كتاب الشعر) 'Poetry' a compendium of descriptions of qualities, benefits, defects; kinds, forms, measures, prosody, essential characteristics, selections; compositional and recitational poetic training, plagiarism – detection, varieties and forms. Over 2000 ff.
* Ash'ār al-Nisā (كتاب اشعار النساء) 'Poems of Women'; ca. 500 ff.
* Kitab Ash'ār al-Khulafā (كتاب اشعار الخلفآء) 'Poems of the Caliphs'; over 200 ff.
* Al-Muqtabas (كتاب المقتبس) 'Things Quoted', traditions of the grammarians of al-Baṣrah, the first grammarian and author of a book on grammar; traditions about al-Farrā' and the scholars of al-Baṣrah and of al-Kūfah, the quoters (transmitters), and residents of the 'City of Peace' (Baghdād); ca., 3000 ff.
* Al-Murshid (كتاب المرشد) 'Guide to the Right Way'; traditions of al-mutakallimūn and the People of Justice and Oneness ('Mu'tazilah'), their assemblies and doctrines; ca 1000 ff.
* Ash'ār al-Jinn (كتاب اشعار الجن) 'Poems Attributed to the Jinn'; ca. 100 ff.
* Al-Riyāḍ (كتاب الرياض) 'Gardens'; accounts of obsessed people arranged by category; passionate love and its effects, its start and end; terminology and varieties recorded by the philologists; derivations of the terms, with examples from poems by pre-Islāmic poets and by converts to Islām, Muslim and contemporary poets; over 3000 ff.
* Al-Wāthiq (كتاب الواثق) 'The Clear'; characteristics, qualities, forms, and methods of song; traditions on freeborn, handmaid, and male and female slave singers; over 1600 ff.
* Al-Azminah (كتاب الازمنة) 'The Seasons'; characteristics of the four seasons; heat and cold; clouds and lightning, wind and rain, al-rawwād ('fresh pasturage'), prayers for rain, spring and autumn; ẓurafā ("beauties") of the celestial sphere, the houses of the zodiac, the sun, and the moon with its stations; astrological descriptions and poems of Arabs; planets and the fixed stars, day and night, Arab and Persian days, months and years; periods and eras, language connections to sections of this book, historical traditions, poems, explanations; ca., 2000 ff.
* Al-Anwār wa-al-Thimār (كتاب الانوهر والثمار) 'Flowers and Fruits'. References in poetry, records and traditions, to the rose, the narcissus, and other flowers; praise in poetry and prose of certain fruits, palms etc; ca., 500 ff.
* Akhbār al-Barāmakah (كتاب اخبار البرامكة) 'Traditions of the Barmak Family', their rise and downfall in disgrace; ca 500 ff.
* Al-Mufaṣṣal (كتاب المفصل) 'Elocution and Eloquence,' Arabic elocution and calligraphy; ca 700 ff.
* Al-Tahānī (كتاب التهانى) 'Congratulations'; ca., 500 ff.
* Al-Taslīm wa-al-Ziyārah (كتاب التسليم والزيارة) 'Submission and Pilgrimage'; 400 ff.
* Al-'Ibādah (كتاب العبادة) 'Worship'; 400 ff.
* Al-Maghāzī (كتاب المغازى) 'Raids'; ca., 300 ff.
* Al-Marāthī (كتاب المراثى) 'Elegies'; 500 ff.
* Al-Mu'allā 'The Exalted Book', excellencies of the Qur'ān; 200 ff.
* Talqīḥ al-'Uqūl (كتاب تلقيح العقول) 'Fertilization of Minds', over 100 sections, on the mind, culture, learning, etc.; over 3000 ff.
* Al-Mushrif (كتاب المشرف) 'The Noble Book', the rule of the Islamic prophet Muḥammad, his culture, his preaching, his companions, the testaments and the rule of the Arabs and Persians; 1500 ff.
* Akhbār man Tamaththal bi-al-Ash'ār 'Traditions of Poets Who Use Metaphor'; over 100 ff.
* Al-Shabāb wa-al-Shayb (كتاب الشباب والشعيب) 'Youth and Old Age'; 300 ff.
* Al-Mutawwaj (كتاب المتوج) 'Crowned', on justice and ethical living; over 100 ff.
* Al-Madīḥ (كتاب المديح في الولائم والدعوات والشراب) 'Praise, on banquets, invitations, and drink';
* Al-Farkh (كتاب الفرخ) 'The Young'; nearly 100 ff.
* Al-Hadāyā (كتاب الهدايا) 'Gifts'; ca., 300 ff.
* Al-Muzakhraf (كتاب المزخرف) 'Ornamented'; on the ikhwān (الاخوان) 'Brothers' and aṣḥāb (الاصحاب) 'Companions'; 300 ff.
* Akhbār Abī Muslim al-Khurāsānī, Ṣāḥib al-Da'wah (كتاب اخبار ابى مُسْلم صاحب الدعوة) 'Traditions of Abū Muslim al-Khurāsānī, Giver of the Summons'; 100 ff.
* Al-Du'ā (كتاب الدعاء) 'Supplication' (Invocation); ca., 200 ff.
* Al-Awā'il (كتاب الاوائل) 'The Ancients'; eras and beliefs of ancient Persians and the People of Justice and Oneness, viz., the Mu'tazilah; ca., 1000 ff.
* Al-Mustaṭraf (كتاب المستطرف) 'The Newly Acquired'; the foolish and unusual; over 300 ff.
* Akhbār al-Awlād wa-al-Zawjāt wa-al-Ahl (كتاب الخبار الاولاد والزوجات والاهل) 'Traditions of Children, Wives, and the Family', with praise and blame; 200 ff.
* Al-Zuhd wa-Akhbār al-Zuhhād 'Renunciation and Traditions of the Ascetics'; over 200 ff.
* Dhamm al-Dunyā (كتاب ذمّ الدنيا) 'Blame of the World'; over 100 ff.
* Al-Munīr (كتاب المنير) 'The Shining'; repentance, good deeds, piety, abstinence from crime etc.; over 300 ff.
* Al-Mawā'iẓ wa-Dhikr al-Mawt 'Warnings and Mention of Death'; over 500 ff.
* Akhbār al-Muḥtaḍarīn (كتاب المحتضرين) 'Traditions about Those Near Death'; 100 ff.
* Dhamr al-Ḥujjāb (كتاب ذمر الحجاب) 'Chiding the Chamberlain'; 100 ff.
* Shi'r Ḥātim al-Ṭa'ī' (كتاب شعر حاتم الطاءى) 'Poetry of Ḥātim al-Ṭa'ī'; ca., 100 ff.
* Akhbār Abū Ḥanīfah al-Nu'mān ibn Thābit (كتاب اخبار ابى حنيفة النعمان بن ثابت) 'Traditions of Abū Ḥanīfah al-Nu'mān ibn Thābit'; ca., 500 ff.
* Akhbār 'Abd al-Ṣamad ibn al-Mu'adhdhal (كتاب اخبار عبد اصمد بن المْعَدَّل) 'Traditions of 'Abd al-Ṣamad ibn al-Mu'adhdhal'; ca., 200 ff.
* Akhbār Abī 'Abd Allāh (كتاب اخرار ابى عبد الله) 'Traditions of Abū 'Abd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Ḥamzah al-'Alawī; ca., 100 ff.
* Akhbār Mulūk Kindah (كتاب اخرار ملوك كندة) 'Traditions of the Kings of Kindah'; ca., 200 ff.
* Akhbār Abī Tammām (كتاب اخرار ابى تمّام) Traditions of Abū Tammām; ca., 100 ff.
* Akhbār Shu'bah ibn al-Ḥajjāj (كتاب اخبار شعبة بن احجاج) 'Traditions of Shu'bah ibn al-Ḥajjāj'; ca., 100 ff.
* Naskh al-'Uhūd (كتاب نسح العهود الى القضاة) 'Cancellation of Contracts'; addressed to the judges; ca., 200 ff.

### Books about the Sawād

* An'ān al-Shi'r – 'Essences of Poetry'; about praise and satire, glory and generosity
* Akhbār al-Ajwād – 'Traditions about the Generous'
* Al-Awṣāf – 'Qualities'
* Al-Tashbihāt – 'Allegories'
Isḥāq al-Nadīm records that 20,000 ff from sources written in al-Marzubānī's handwriting had survived to his day.