| Abū Ish&dotbelow;āq al-H&dotbelow;us&dotbelow;rī died in Qayrawān in 413/1022 and gained renown as an adīb through his mentorship of the youth of Qayrawān, including Ibn Rashīq (d. 456/1063) and Ibn Sharaf (d. 460/1067), and through his authorship of several works, most notably the Zahr al-ādāb wa-thamar al-albāb, in which he collects and comment upon the literary culture of his time in a comprehensive and succinct manner. His principle work was followed by two thematic adab collections: Jam' al-jawāhir fī mulah&dotbelow; wa-nawādir on humor and Al-Mas&dotbelow;ūn fī sirr al-h&dotbelow;ubb al-mak-nūn on love. A fourth work, Nūr al-t&dotbelow;arf wa-nawr al-z&dotbelow;arf, claims to be an abridgement of the Zahr al-ādāb but it seems to be spurious.;In addition to describing the contents of these works and classifying its themes, this dissertation sets each work in the context of other writings of its kind and gives examples of how the information scattered throughout these works can be organized in such a way to enlighten a wide range of topics of interest for modern scholars including issues of patronage, education, performance of oral and written eloquence. |
