Diwan Ru'bah ibn al-Ajjaj

Rare Books copy is gift of Dr. Aziz S. and Mrs. Lola Atiya. Country of production based on places associated with the scribe and poet. Manuscript on paper. Anthology of diwan (poetry) with the signed commentaries of previous owners. Written in a large Naskh script glossed in a smaller script. A study of the paper corroborates a 9th century CE production date. The author, Ruʼbah ibn al-ʻAjjāj, was an Umayyad poet who died in Basra around 762 CE, at the beginning of the Abbasid Dynasty. The poet incorporated Bedouin themes of the desert in this collection of poetry. Ruʼbah was one of several Arabic poets of the time who coined new words or modified others to achieve a certain effect. The scribe was likely Muḥammad ibn Ḥabīb al-Baghdadi, though there are 2 other hands and later, additional glosses in the margins. Likely copied from a manuscript by al-Baghdadi's teacher, Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Ziyād ibn al-Aʿrābī, which itself was checked by ʿUnayf, a rawi of Ruʼbah, and the poet himself.