Through investigations of the manuscripts, this book explores important aspects of the life of Badîʿ al-Zamân al-Hamadhânî’s maqâmât. Relying solely on the flawed nineteenth century editions not only compromises the results of modern scholars’ investigations of al-Hamadhānī’s text, but also prevents us from appreciating the literary culture that created this work. The broad concerns of the book are divided into three sections: authorship, texts, and contexts, although there are some overlaps across these fields. One constant is that each chapter in this volume investigates hitherto unstudied textual materials related to al-Hamadhânî’s Maqâmât. Part 1, Authorship, of the book begins with two studies related to al-Hamadhânî’s authorship. It reviews several theories about al-Hamadhânî’s reliance on earlier forms in the creation of the maqâma, and provide an edited fragment of a lost work by the well-known grammarian Ibn Fâris (d. 395/1005). It also describes the way that al-Hamadhânî’s individual maqâmas came to be included in manuscript collections in the years following his death. Part 2, Texts, presents the editions of four maqâmas attributed to al-Hamadhânî in the manuscript tradition, that were not included in Muḥammad ʿAbduh’s printing: the Ṭibbiyya, Sharîfiyya, Hamadhâniyya, Khâtamiyya, along with a discussion and analysis of their contents in relation to the extant corpus of al-Hamadhânî’s maqâmât. Part 3, Contexts, provides studies and translations of key maqāmas of al-Hamadhānī. “Adab and Metamorphosis: The Mawṣiliyya” is an edition, translation, and modern commentary on this maqāma in which Abū l-Fatḥ famously attempts to raise a dead man from the grave. This commentary identifies sources from which al-Hamadhānī may have drawn, affording modern readers further context with which to explore this tale. “What the Qadi Should not Hear: The Shāmiyya” provides the first scholarly edition of this maqāma, which ʿAbduh excised from the 1889 Beirut printing. The study explores how this maqāma draws upon ideas about the limits of proper and improper speech. The last chapter offers a study and edition of a hitherto unknown commentary on the Maqāmāt of al-Hamadhānī that the authors argue may be an example of auto-commentary. The proposed interpretation has profound implications for how the Maqāmāt of al-Hamadhānī were understood by the first generations of readers, including the writers of maqāmas who followed him.weiterlesen