Al-Marzubani
Abū 'Abd Allāh Muḥammad ibn 'Imrān ibn Mūsā ibn Sa'īd ibn 'Abd Allāh al-Marzubānī al-Khurāsānī, was a prolific author of adab, akhbar, history and ḥadīth. He lived all his life in his native city, Baghdad, although his family came originally from Khurāsān.
Life
Al-Marzubānī came from a wealthy Arab family connected to the royal court of the Abbāsid caliph. Ibn al-Jawālīqī in his Kitāb al-Mu'arrab, explains that al-Marzubānī inherited a Persian epithet "Marzban", which means 'Guardian of the frontier'. The Buyid amir ‘Aḍūd al-Dawla was known to visit his residence on the east bank of the Tigris, where he would also entertain members of a literary circle dedicated to the conservation and transmission of Arabic philological literature. Fellow authors in his circle were Abū Ya'qūb al-Najīramī, Abū Sa'īd al-Sīrāfī and Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn 'Abd al-Malik al-Tārīkhī. He edited the first dīwān by the Umayyad caliph Muawiyah I, which he produced in a small volume of about three kurrāsa, – ca., 60 ff.Al-Marzubānī's principal teachers
- 'Abd Allāh ibn Muḥammad al-Baghawī, jurist.
- Abū Bakr ibn Abī Dā'ūd al-Sijistānī, ḥāfiẓ, scholar of Ḥadīth and Qur'an, and author of Kitāb al-Masābīh.
- al-Ṣūlī held al-Marzubānī in high esteem and much of al-Marzubānī's material in his Kitāb al-Muwashshaḥ and his compilation technique was apparently borrowed from him.
Al-Marzubānī's principal authorities
- Abū Bakr ibn Durayd, a great grammarian of Basra.
- Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn al-Qāsim ibn al-Anbārī was a famous pupil of Tha'lab.
Legacy
He was the last of the authorities of literary and oral tradition Isḥāq al-Nadīm met. He was cited by the Mu'tazilite theologian Abū 'Abd Allāh al-Ṣaymarī, Abū al-Qāsim al-Tanūkhi, Abū Muḥammad al-Jauhari, et al. Some sectarian-based criticism – attributed to al-Marzubānī's religious leanings and madhhab, despite his publication of Ḥanafī, Shī'i and Mu'tazila riwāya and akhbar. – seems to have led to the relative neglect of his writings by Sunni scholars in later centuries.Works
Among his books were:Books about the ''Sawād''
- An'ān al-Shi'r – 'Essences of Poetry'; about praise and satire, glory and generosity
- Akhbār al-Ajwād – 'Traditions about the Generous'
- Al-Awṣāf – 'Qualities'
- Al-Tashbihāt – 'Allegories'