Assembling an Author: On the Making of al-Hamadhānī’s Maqāmāt (original) (raw)

2016

Abstract

Modern readers encounter a book assuming that the author has played a vital role in its creation. They anticipate (rightly or wrongly) that the name prominently displayed on the cover has played an active role in the making of the book: i.e., drafting the text; dividing the work into sections; and arranging the contents. In some cases, they might imagine that this author selected the pictures, decided on the captions, and have chosen such material features such as the typeface and paper. While readers know that editors and publishers often shape the final form of modern books in important ways, few would hesitate to affirm that the role of the author is central to the production of the modern book. There were authors in the medieval Arabic world who were also involved in many aspects of the production of their own books. For instance, the author may have selected the individual poems, letters, stories, or speeches. He may have considered their arrangement. He may have even made an autograph copy on particular paper and using particular ink. Alternatively, the author may have dictated the work aloud to multiple scribes, and authorized them to teach the work through the granting of an ijāza. The particular features of authorial control in an age prior to mechanical reproduction are certainly of vital concern to the student of classical Arabic literature in general and deserve greater awareness on the part of their modern students. In this article, we address these problems of authorship and authorial control through a particular example: the collection of the maqāmāt of Badīʿ al-Zamān al-Hamadhānī. One of the central works of Classical Arabic literature, the Maqāmāt of al-Hamadhānī has long been known mainly through Muḥammad ʿAbduh’s standard edition first print 1889.

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