oye GentleIllen Arabic Studies on Science and Literary Culture

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298 THOMAS BAUER Not visible in the chart is the general public, which is nonetheless always present in the mind of both poet and addressee. As the many sources for Ibn Nubäta's hunting urjüza show, the literary public of the time had a vivid interest in hunting literature of this kind. Ibn Nubäta's muzdawija was praised as a model for insijäm 'fluency?l This fluency is without doubt alsd prominent in the poem by Ibn Fa
THE DAWÄDÄR'S HUNTING PARTY 299 low. At the very end of the page, the writer added another headline, saying: al-Mawlä al-Shaykh al-Imam al-Adib al-Fäqil]amäl al-Din Abü 'AbdAlläh b.al-Shaykhal-Imäm al-Mu~addith Mu~ammad Ibn Nubäta. The words 'Ibn Nubäta' are crossed out and substituted by the words 'Mu~yi '1-Din FaqlAlläh'. This error can be explained by the following hypothesis: The urjüza is still part of the section comprising texts by al- Shihäb Ibn Fac;llAlläh. The writer, however, realised that the following text is a hunting urjüza. At this time, the most famous hunting urjüza, was, of course, Ibn Nubäta's poem, a text that is also induded in this very collection a few pages later. Further, the writer must have realised that severalleaves of his source were in disorder. This is very obvious in the text of al-Qatr al-Nubäti. Obviously, he thought that Ibn Nubäta's hunting urjüza had already started even in these earlier pages. Therefore he added the headline appropriate for this text. Later, perhaps when he reached f. 47b, he realised his error. On that page, Ibn Nubäta's urjüza begins, and it is introduced with exactly the same headline as the bottom of f. 42a.Having realised his error, the writer crossed out the words 'Ibn Nubäta' and substituted them with the last words of the headline at the top of the page. Even so, he still did not realise that not only the end of the headline was wrong, but also its beginning. I conjecture that the original headline at this place was either a simple wa-Iahü (ayqan) or a repetition of the headline at the top of the page. The writer of the title page, which contains a list of the principle texts indud:ed in the Tadhkira, refers to our text as Urjüzat Ibn Faql Alläh fi 'l-$ayd. This is corroboratedby internal criticism. The poem presented here cannot be a work of Ibn Nubäta. A comparison betweenthis poem and Ibn Nubätas Farä'id al-Sulük reveals aldear stylistic contrast. Whereas Ibn Nubäta repeatedly uses the tawriya (double entendre), this stylistic device hardly plays a role in the urjüza published here. Instead, its author makes ample use of aBkinds ofjinäs. This corresponds exactly to what we are told by Ibn I:Iijjaal-I:Iamawi,who mentions al-Shihäb Ibn Fac;llAlläh among the poets who possess no virtuosity in the field of the tawriya and make only sporadic use of it.34In favouring jinäs instead of the tawriya, his style is doser to that of al-I:Iillithan to that of Ibn Nubäta. Other sources corroborate that the urjüza is a literary 34 Ibn I:Iijja,Khizänat al-adab, III, p. 522.
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oye GentleIllen Arabic Studies on Science and Literary Culture

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