at Abū Tammām’s verse. In response to one scholar’s question, “Why don’t you compose poetry that can be understood?” Abū Tammām answered impatiently, “Why can’t you understand the poetry that is composed?” (§42.1).
Abū Tammām thus heralded a crucial phase of growth in the study of Arabic as a language and of literary criticism: much of the debate surrounding the poet can be explained as a turf war between the recently established discipline of language and the competing fledgling discipline of poetics. Al-Ṣūlī, by collecting sources contemporary with Abū Tammām, shows those ideas in ferment, cast into a vivid tableau. This layer of the compilation thus presents the words of others, the contemporaries of Abū Tammām.
The second stage, the layer of the compiler’s craft, presents the arguments of the author-collector al-Ṣūlī himself, as well as his extensive commentary on several of the accounts he cites. He speaks in his own voice as an expert arbiter, and as one who defends the separation of poetics and philology. Al-Ṣūlī lived a century after his protagonist, when personal attack had matured into scholarly debate, and the contested ideas were being reformulated with greater precision. The material al-Ṣūlī provides is unusually concise, accessible, and concrete. He highlights the significance of the new type of poetic criticism, which claimed the status of scholarship, while considering features other than the purely linguistic.
Despite his clear preference for, and defense of, the contemporary poetic style, al-Ṣūlī was an even-handed arbiter between ancient and modern poets. His ire was directed at those critics of the Moderns whom he deemed incompetent and dishonest (§§9–10 and §69.6). Being a poet and an expert on poetic motifs, he well knew the indebtedness of the Moderns to their predecessors. The same is true of his subject Abū Tammām, who excerpted and reused ancient poetry, even though he boasted of his own additions: “The ancient poet has left so much for the modern!” (§109).
Thanks to the efforts of al-Ṣūlī, Abū Tammām was enshrined as one of the classics in al-Qāḍī l-Jurjānī’s (d. 392/1002) Mediation between al-Mutanabbī and His Opponents (al-Wasāṭah bayn al-Mutanabbī wa-khuṣūmihi), composed when the next genius of Arabic poetry, al-Mutanabbī, had become the major bone of contention. The great theorist ʿAbd al-Qāhir al-Jurjānī (d. 471/1078 or 474/1081) defined metaphor and imagery through a heavy reliance on both Abū Tammām’s and al-Mutanabbī’s verses. The subsequent fifth/eleventh and sixth/twelfth centuries saw a wealth of commentaries on both Abū Tammām’s Dīwān and his Ḥamāsah anthology.
CONTENTS
The Life and Times of Abū Tammām opens with an introductory epistle, addressed to one Muzāḥim ibn Fātik, about whom almost nothing is known.15 The opening (§§2.1–4) recapitulates the conversation between al-Ṣūlī and Muzāḥim that prompted the commission to compose The Life and Times and edit the Collected Poems of Abū Tammām. Al-Ṣūlī then (in §§3–5.2) makes an unfavorable comparison between over-ambitious and pretentious contemporary literary scholarship and the integrity of the previous generation. He next explains (in §§6.1–8) how badly he has suffered at the hands of contemporary scholars. But the favor of the patron and his brothers encourages al-Ṣūlī to continue with the commission. In §§9.1–18, he describes how Abū Tammām was and continues to be faulted by one group of scholars, experts on ancient poetry, who deliberately avoided his poetry and modern poetry generally.16 In his rebuttal al-Ṣūlī shows how the Moderns improved upon the motifs of the Ancients.17 Al-Ṣūlī next identifies the second kind of critic of Abū Tammām: would-be litterateurs (§§19.1–26.3). He describes how this group criticizes Abū Tammām as a means of self-promotion. Al-Ṣūlī rebuts the criticism of one particular metaphor and lambasts the ignorance of critics in general and sets Abū Tammām’s borrowing alongside his inventiveness. The epistle ends (§§27–28) with the plan of the book, which is also intended as a corrective to the circulation of corrupt variants of verses by Abū Tammām. Al-Ṣulī intimates that his new and superior edition will supersede any other extant versions of Abū Tammām’s poems, in the same way as al-Ṣūlī’s edition of Abū Nuwās’s collected poems had done (§27).
The epistle is followed by a long chapter on the status of Abū Tammām as recorded in instances of practical criticism, and then by chapters that describe Abū Tammām’s dealings with illustrious patrons. A judge, two generals, two high officials, two governors, and a prince represent elite support and establish the wide acclaim the poet received. The treatise concludes with shorter chapters on negative criticism and the end of the poet’s life. The Life and Times of Abū Tammām was in fact originally intended as a preface to the edition of Abū Tammām’s Collected Poems (§28).18
In the first and longest chapter, “The Superiority of Abū Tammām,” and a later shorter chapter, “Criticisms of Abū Tammām,” al-Ṣūlī assembles competing opinions about the poet. To the philologists, who claimed poetry as their scholarly province, Abū Tammām’s verse posed a particular challenge. Al-Ṣulī records testimonies by the philologists Thaʿlab (§4.6, §§10.1–2) and al-Mubarrad (§4.6, §51.1–3, §91.2, §95.2) in which they either reserved judgment or begrudgingly acknowledged Abū Tammām’s merit. Other philologists remained puzzled and undecided, such as Ibn al-Aʿrābī (§123), Abū Ḥātim al-Sijistānī (§124), and Muḥammad al-Tawwazī (§125).
Fellow poets were divided. Diʿbil al-Khuzāʿī even denied Abū Tammām the title of poet, excluding him from his book on poets and referring to him as an orator instead (§§122.1–2). Ibn al-Muʿtazz halfheartedly defended Abū Tammām’s rhetorical figures by claiming older precedents for them, notably in the Qurʾan, admitting his innovation not in kind but in degree. Many other poets, such as ʿUmārah ibn ʿAqīl (§§50.1–3), Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥāzim al-Bāhilī (§35), the court poets of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṭāhir (§64.3), ʿAlī ibn al-Jahm (§31, §179), Ibn al-Rūmī, and al-Buḥturī (§39), were admirers. Those most vocal in the poet’s defense were government scribes, such as al-Ḥasan ibn Wahb, who combined material support for the poet with vociferous defense of his odes.
The short texts that make up the collection depict real-life situations. They contain fascinating information about the professional life of poets, how they supported or competed with each other, and the etiquette of literary gatherings. They even include circumstantial details, such as how a poet composed (with ink on papyrus, or by heart), what sort of tools he had at his disposal, or which hurdles he had to brave to find a sponsor or get a promised reward disbursed. Most importantly, they touch on many more aspects than are reflected in the chapter headings. Notable are the recurrent topics of poetry and poetics, such as imitation and innovation, briefly characterized in what follows.
CRITICISM
