This article provides a sketch map of Arabic poetry anthologies up to the fall of Baghdad in 759/1258 by grouping titles that share general characteristics in form or content, or exhibit specific goals and aspirations. The purpose is to provide an analytic framework to the study of this type of literature. With its ten categories, the map allows for the inclusion of new or previously overlooked anthologies. The map is introduced by a survey of the state of scholarship on the terms adab and anthology within the scope of classical Arabic literature, and highlights a number of the main approaches to the study of Arabic literary anthology in recent scholarship. The article also suggests some authorial motives behind the genesis, development, and popularity of this type of literature.

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This article deals with the oeuvre of Abū Manṣ ūr al-Thaʿālibī, a prominent literary figure of the Eastern part of the Islamic world in the 4th/10th century. It deals with some of the literary and social issues that led to the numerous problems of false attribution and duplication in his bibliography, such as patronage and the periodical reworking of his books. This is followed by an up-to-date bibliography for al-Thaʿālibī, based on archives, primary sources and secondary literature. Works in print and manuscript form are assessed as to their authenticity and content, including bibliographical information on published works and locations of manuscripts. A further list reunites lost works and those surviving in quotations with references to the extant passages.Abū Manṣ ūr ʿAbd al-Malik b. Muḥ ammad b. Ismāʿīl al-Thaʿālibī (350-429/961-1039) was a prominent figure of his time, who participated in the extraordinary literary efflorescence which, in his generation, made the cities of Khurāsān serious rivals to Baghdād and its wider cultural sphere. 1 Al-Thaʿālibī's life was politically unstable due to the continuous conflicts between the Būyid, Sāmānid, Ghaznavid, and Saljūq rulers who had created independent states that served as destinations for itinerant poets and prose writers. Hence, during the course of his life, al-Thaʿālibī traveled extensively 2 The title of Abū Hilāl al-ʿAskarī's work, K. al-Ṣ ināʿatayn-al-Kitāba wa-l-shiʿr, "Book of the two arts-prose and poetry," demonstrates the equal emphasis on poetry and prose. In his al-Maqāma al-Jāḥ iẓ iyya, al-Hamadhānī uses the voice of his narrator, Abū l-Fatḥ al-Iskandarī, to criticize the celebrated al-Jāḥ iẓ (d. 255/869) for failing in this respect. "Verily," al-Iskandarī claims, "al-Jāḥ iẓ limps in one department of rhetoric and halts in the other." The narrator expands the point by saying that the eloquent man is the one "whose poetry does not detract from his prose and whose prose is not ashamed of his verse." See Badīʿ al-Zamān al-Hamadhānī, The Maqāmāt, trsl. W. J. Pendergast, London: Luzac, 1915, 72; for the Arabic text, see idem, Maqāmāt Badīʿ al-Zamān al-Hamadhānī, Ed. M. ʿAbduh. Beirut: Dār al-Mashriq, 2000, 75. Al-Hamadhānī's maqāmāt themselves are a good example of the juxtaposition of prose and poetry common in the literature of the period. 3 Al-Bākharzī, Dumyat al-qaṣ r wa-ʿuṣ rat ahl al-ʿaṣ r. ed. M. al-Tunjī, Beirut: Dār al-Jīl, 1993, 2: 966. Ibn al-ʿAmīd according to al-Thaʿālibī is given the title of al-Jāḥ iẓ al-akhīr [the last Jāḥ iẓ ], see al-Thaʿālibī, Yatīmat al-dahr fī maḥ āsin ahl al-ʿaṣ r, ed. M. M. ʿAbd al-Ḥ amīd, Cairo: Mat ̣baʿat al-Ṣ āwī, 1934, 3: 185, and in later sources he is called al-Jāḥ iẓ al-thānī [the second Jāḥ iẓ ], see Ibn Khallikān, Wafayāt al-aʿyān wa-anbāʾ abnāʾ al-zamān, ed. I. ʿAbbās, Beirut: Dār Ṣ ādir, 1968, 5: 104; al-Dhahabī, Siyar aʿlām al-nubalāʾ, eds. Sh. al-Arnāʾūt ̣ & M. N. Al-ʿAraqsūsī, Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Risāla, 1990-1992, 16: 137. Maḥ mūd b. ʿAzīz al-ʿĀriḍ al-Khwārizmī was...

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