Abstract
Traditionally prized as much for its poetic artistry as its didactic content, Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs’s (fl. twelfth century) dīwān of alchemical verse, the Shudhūr al-dhahab (Shards of Gold), is one of the most important and influential works in the literary canon of Arabic alchemy. Drawing on commentaries by both Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs himself and Aydamir al-Jildakī (d. 743/1342 [?]), the present article explores a core feature of Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs’s allegorical style – one that appears to have captured the attention of his medieval readership – namely his novel use of stock poetic motifs as metaphors for alchemical processes and substances. As well as focusing on the commentators’ theoretical interpretations, the article situates Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs’s deliberate appropriation of pre-Islamic and Nuwāsian motifs in its broader literary context, noting the extent to which it foreshadows similar techniques in the poetic allegories of the thirteenth-century Sufi poets, Ibn ʿArabī and Ibn al-Fāriḍ.
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Introduction: alchemy in the Islamicate world
- The alchemical work of Khālid b. Yazīd b. Muʿāwiya (d. c. 85/704)
- In code we trust: the concept of rumūz in Andalusī alchemical literature and related texts
- The tongues of stones: diversity of interlocutions in Arabic alchemical writings
- Alchemical lexica in Syriac: planetary signs, code names and medicines
- Alchemy in the Cairo Genizah: the Nachlass of an untidy Jewish alchemist
- Alchemy in an age of disclosure: the case of an Arabic Pseudo-Aristotelian treatise and its Syriac Christian “translator”
- The Alchemist’s work: Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs and the reception of his collection of alchemical poems Shudhūr al-dhahab
- Alchemical stanzaic poetry (muwashshaḥ) by Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs (fl. twelfth century)
- Classical poetic motifs as alchemical metaphors in the Shudhūr al-dhahab and its commentaries
- The alchemical symbols in the manuscripts of “The Mirror of Wonders” (Mirʾāt al-ʿajāʾib)
- “Take dragon’s blood and crush it to a fine powder”: recipes in the alchemical composite manuscript MS Gotha orient A. 1162
- Buchbesprechungen – Comptes Rendus – Book Reviews
- Ahmet Turan Türk: Erken Dönem Tatar Türkçesine Ait Çok Lehçeli Bir Metin: Tefsīr-i Noʿmānī
- Ahmed El Shamsy: Rediscovering the Islamic Classics: How Editors and Print Culture Transformed an Intellectual Tradition
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Introduction: alchemy in the Islamicate world
- The alchemical work of Khālid b. Yazīd b. Muʿāwiya (d. c. 85/704)
- In code we trust: the concept of rumūz in Andalusī alchemical literature and related texts
- The tongues of stones: diversity of interlocutions in Arabic alchemical writings
- Alchemical lexica in Syriac: planetary signs, code names and medicines
- Alchemy in the Cairo Genizah: the Nachlass of an untidy Jewish alchemist
- Alchemy in an age of disclosure: the case of an Arabic Pseudo-Aristotelian treatise and its Syriac Christian “translator”
- The Alchemist’s work: Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs and the reception of his collection of alchemical poems Shudhūr al-dhahab
- Alchemical stanzaic poetry (muwashshaḥ) by Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs (fl. twelfth century)
- Classical poetic motifs as alchemical metaphors in the Shudhūr al-dhahab and its commentaries
- The alchemical symbols in the manuscripts of “The Mirror of Wonders” (Mirʾāt al-ʿajāʾib)
- “Take dragon’s blood and crush it to a fine powder”: recipes in the alchemical composite manuscript MS Gotha orient A. 1162
- Buchbesprechungen – Comptes Rendus – Book Reviews
- Ahmet Turan Türk: Erken Dönem Tatar Türkçesine Ait Çok Lehçeli Bir Metin: Tefsīr-i Noʿmānī
- Ahmed El Shamsy: Rediscovering the Islamic Classics: How Editors and Print Culture Transformed an Intellectual Tradition