Book Reviews (MSR XI.1, 2007)

After years of painstaking research Dr. Giuseppe Scattolin has at last published his critical edition of Ibn al-Fa≠rid ̋'s D|wa≠n. While Ibn al-Fa≠rid ̋ lived during the Ayyubid period, his verse was a dominant influence on later Arabic poetry composed under the Mamluks. Moreover, his verse and mystical ideas were, at times, sources of contention among factions of ulama during Mamluk rule, while Mamluk amirs endowed the grave and shrine of this poet whom they venerated as a saint. Prior to Scattolin, many editions of Ibn al-Fa≠ rid̋'s D|wa≠n were published during the twentieth century, yet all, excepting the edition by A. J. Arberry, lacked careful editing or were flawed in some way. As for Arberry's edition, it was based on the Chester Beatty manuscript that was independent of the main line of transmission from Ibn al-Fa≠rid ̋'s grandson, ‘Al|, and so it lacked ‘Al|'s hagiographical introduction and appendix of additional, probably spurious verse, ascribed to Ibn al-Fa≠rid ̋. Now, Scattolin has joined these separate lines of transmission in his meticulous edition of the D|wa≠n. Adding to this work's importance is Scattolin's re-discovery during his research of several old manuscripts of the D|wa≠n, including one in Konya dating from between 1242 and 1274, making it the oldest known manuscript. Similar to the Chester Beatty manuscript, it is independent of ‘Al|'s transmission and contains the same fifteen major poems, in addition to a few quatrains and riddles. Scattolin used the Konya manuscript as his primary text to which he then added material from other manuscripts, including those representing ‘Al|'s line of transmission. In his introduction, Scattolin enumerates and describes the eight manuscripts and thirteen earlier printed editions whose readings and variants appear in the notes to the poems. Scattolin then carefully walks the reader through the critical apparatus of his own edition, which is followed by a "basic bibliography," and illustrations of some of the most important manuscripts (pp. 12–28).