Badi' al-Zaman al-Hamadani

Maqamat Badi' al-Zaman al-Hamadani
Maqamat Badi' al-Zaman al-Hamadani

Badi' al-Zamān al-Hamadāni or al-Hamadhāni (Arabic: بديع الزمان الهمذاني‎; 969 CE – 1007 CE) was a medieval Arab[1] man of letters born in Hamadan, Iran. He is best known for his work the Maqamat Badi' az-Zaman al-Hamadhani, a collection of 52 episodic stories of a rogue, Abu al-Fath al-Iskandari, as recounted by a narrator, 'Isa b. Hisham. His Arabic name translates into "The Wonder of the Age".

Hamadani was born and educated in Hamedan, Iran. In 990 he went to Gorgan, where he remained two years; then passing to Nishapur, where he rivalled and surpassed the learned Khwarizmi. After journeying through Khorasan and Sistan, he finally settled in Herat under the protection of Abu'l-Hasan Isfaraini, who was the vizier of Mahmud of Ghazni, the sultan of the Ghaznavid dynasty. There he died at the age of forty. He was renowned for a remarkable memory and for fluency of speech, as well as for the purity of his language.

His letters were first published at Constantinople (1881), and with commentary at Beirut (1890); his maqamas at Constantinople, and with commentary at Beirut (1889). A good idea of the latter may be obtained from Silvestre de Sacys edition of six of the maqamas with French translation and notes in his Chrestomathie arabe, vol. iii. (2nd ed., Paris, 1827). A specimen of the letters is translated into German in A. von Kremers Culturgeschichte des Orients, ii. 470 sqq.

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References

  1. ↑ In a letter to the vizier of Mahmud of Ghazni, Badi' al-Zaman traced his descent back to the tribes of Taghlib and Mudar:
    "... يقول في رسالة إلى الفضل بن أحمد وزير السلطان محمود، (إني عبد الشيخ واسمي أحمد، وهمذان المولد، وتغلب المورد، ومضر المحتد،) وكأنه يريد أن يقول إنه مضري الأصل، ولكن أسرته عاشت في تغلب. وفي رسالة إلى الشيخ أبي القاسم يعتذر عن التخلف عن الحضور بالزكام، ويقول عن رجل أسمه أبو الحسن يظهر أن اسمه سقط من الرسالة: (وما أشد استظهاري بخلافته وإن لم يكن من ولد العباس والله يبقيه علما للفضل) فيقول أبو القاسم في الجواب. (والشيخ أبو الحسن فوق شروط الخلافة، فان كان المستخلف تغلبيا، جاز أن يكون الخالف كسرويا) فالتغلبي هو الهمذاني نفسه. ودليل آخر أنه كتب إلى القاضي أبا الحسين علي بن علي: (أنا أمت إلى القاضي أطال الله بقاءه بقرابة، إن لم يكن عربياً فأبي وأبوه إسماعيل، وعمي وعمه إسرائيل، الخ)"
    مجلة الرسالة/العدد 38/بديع الزمان الهمذاني

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