{"collection":"Texts of Islam","full_text_available":false,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_isl_mhm_mhm04_htm/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/sacred_texts_v1_isl_mhm_mhm04_htm","id":"sacred_texts_v1_isl_mhm_mhm04_htm","license":"unknown_pending_legal_review","rights_basis":"sacred_texts_v1_preview_gate_primary_text_only; acquisition-method/ToS and compilation-copyright questions still open, not resolved by this gate","source":"sacred_texts_v1","source_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/isl/mhm/mhm04.htm","summary":"This is a scholarly biographical introduction to Bad\u00ed' al-Zam\u00e1n al-Hamadh\u00e1n\u00ed (967\u20131008 CE), prefacing W.J. Prendergast's 1915 English translation of the *Maq\u00e1m\u00e1t* \u2014 a celebrated Arabic prose-poetry collection in the rhymed-prose (*saj'*) tradition, comprising episodic adventures of a roguish protagonist narrated by a frame character. The introduction traces Hamadh\u00e1n\u00ed's life from his origins in Hamadh\u00e1n (a city he apparently despised) through his education under prominent philologists, his travels across the Islamic east, and his famous literary duel in Nishapur against the older, celebrated scholar al-Khw\u00e1razm\u00ed, whose defeat made Hamadh\u00e1n\u00ed's reputation. Prendergast situates the *Maq\u00e1m\u00e1t* within a period of remarkable intellectual ferment \u2014 the same generation that produced Mutanabb\u00ed, al-Ma'arr\u00ed, and the *Kit\u00e1b al-Agh\u00e1n\u00ed* \u2014 arguing that Hamadh\u00e1n\u00ed's work, likely composed in his mid-twenties, reflects both the rigorous philological education of his era and the influence of his time among Ism\u00e1'\u00edl\u00ed scholars at Jurj\u00e1n. A distinctive claim is that Hamadh\u00e1n\u00ed originally dictated *four hundred* maq\u00e1m\u00e1t (far more than the fifty-two that survive), and that the work was likely begun before he left Hamadh\u00e1n and completed after al-Khw\u00e1razm\u00ed's death. The introduction is primarily useful to readers wanting historical and literary context before tackling the original texts, though it ends abruptly mid-sentence with the account of Hamadh\u00e1n\u00ed's disputed death \u2014 reportedly buried prematurely while in a coma.","tags":[],"text":null,"title":"The Maqamat of al-Hamadhani: Introduction: I. Life of the...","tradition":"Texts of Islam","translated_text":null,"word_count":2581}