Marginal Discourses on Arabic Poetry: A Case Study of the Baku Manuscript of Tāj al-lughah wa-ṣiḥāḥ al-ʿarabiyyah by Abū Naṣr Ismāʿīl ibn Ḥammād al-Fārābī al-Jawharī

Shortly after the revelation of the Qur’an, Arabic poetry acquired special importance as explanatory material for the gharīb (alien, unfamiliar) lexicon of Muslim exegetics; subsequently, not only Qur’an commentaries but also sīrah literature, grammar works, and lexicographic dictionaries abounded with poetic proofs (shawāhid) presented as authoritative sources. Such supporting poetic material comprises an important part of the famous dictionary Tāj al-lughah wa-ṣiḥāḥ al-ʿarabiyyah by Abū Naṣr Ismāʿīl ibn Ḥammād al-Fārābī al-Jawharī (d.400/1009). The present paper explores the scholarly value of marginal notes discussing Arabic poetry in an important Baku manuscript of al-Ṣiḥāḥ preserved in the Azerbaijani Institute of Manuscripts Library (call number M389). The manuscript, dated 510-511/1116, appears to have been copied from a manuscript written by Ismāʿīl al-Jawharī’s student, Abū Sahl al-Harawī (d.433/1041), and preserves the original notes, marginalia, and addendums of al-Harawī’s codex. The Baku manuscript of al-Ṣiḥāḥ seems to have been copied within the walls of the Niẓāmiyyah madrasah. This manuscript is therefore valuable not only for its antiquity but also for being connected to great scholars of the Medieval Islamic world, including al-Khaṭīb al-Tibrīzī (d.502/1109) and Mawhūb al-Jawālīqī (d.539/1145), whose discourses, commentaries, and critical remarks on illustrative poetic examples can be found throughout multiple dictionaries and relevant literature.