SOAS Research Online

Abstract

The present thesis consists of two parts: an introduction and an edition of Ibn Sahl's Diwan. The introduction is divided into four chapters and a bibliography. The first chapter surveys the historical and political events in Spain and North Africa since the last decade of the 6th Century A. H. to the middle of the 7th. The second is a chapter on the poet himself, dealing with his youth, education, whereabouts, faith and death. The poet's religion and death have given rise to many contradictory accounts and verdicts by various historians; hence a thorough inclusive examination of oil available material relating to both matters is undertaken and sound judgements are made. Literary activities in towns where the poet has been to are outlined to give a clear picture of the whole environment in which the poet has lived and by which he is influenced. The third chapter of the introduction is a critical appreciation of the poet's poetry, Muwashshah and prose with emphasis on his own characteristic poetic tendencies as well as the general trends of the literature before and during his lifetime. The fourth is devoted to the description of the extant copies of ibn Sahl's Diwan and a brief account of the methods adopted in producing the present edition. The second part is an Arabic text which is the Diwan itself. It is based on the most ancient copies of the Diwan and on other works printed or in hand so as to produce an adequate text adopting the most acceptable readings throughout the whole text with comments and other various readings included in the footnotes.