SOAS Research Online

Abstract

The present thesis consists of two parts: one, an introductory biographical and actual part, prefacing the actual text of al-Hutai'ah's work; two, the newly revised text of his diwan. The introduction is divided into two main parts, biographical study of al-Hutai'ah's life and personality, and a critical study of his diwan, its contents and form, its distinguishing characteristics and transmissions. It is the main purpose of this thesis to rectify the errors prevalent in the judgements of Arabic philologists both ancient and modern, and to produce a new unbiased evaluation of his personality and his work. Consequently, most conventional views regarding his allegedly dubious origin, his character and his work had to be refuted and ultimately rejected on the grounds of inaccuracy and prejudice. The new image of al-Hutai'ah has been reconstructed on the basis of those statements of ancient Arabic critics which were found reliable on the one hand, and on an analysis of his background and his own poetry on the other. The present edition of the diwan is composed of a main part which comprises al-Hutai'ah's poetry as recorded in al-Sukkari's transmission and three appendices, one containing additional poems found in Ibn al-Sikkit's recension, the second comprising poems not presented in any of the transmissions of the diwan, hut collected from ancient Arabic sources. The third appendix consists of Ibn al-Sikkit's commentary on al-Hutai'ah's poetry.