Ibn Abi Tahir Tayfur

Ibn Abi Tahir Tayfur
Ibn Abi Tahir Tayfur
Native name	أبوالفضل أحمد بن أبي طاهر الطيفور
Born	819; Baghdad, Abbasid Caliphate
Died	August 893; Baghdad, Abbasid Caliphate
Occupation	Poet, Linguist, Historian
Nationality	Abbasid
Notable works	Kitab al-Manthur wa al-Manzum, Kitab Baghdad, Balaghat al-Nisa'

Abū al-Faḍl Aḥmad ibn Abī Ṭāhir Ṭayfūr (b. 204 AH/819 CE, d. 280 AH/August 893 CE) was a Persian^[1] linguist and poet of Arabic language. He was born in Baghdad. Tayfur was his father's name who was from Khorasan, Persia. He played an important role in the Arabic literary revolution. Ibn Abi Tahir Tayfur was the first writer who devoted a book to writers. He was buried in Bab al-Sham cemetery, where people of note were buried.

Works

Kitab al-Manthur wa al-Manzum (Book of prose and poetry), in three volumes. This book is the first attested multi-author anthology of prose writing and poetry epistles.
Kitab Baghdad (Book of Baghdad), 6 volumes, but only one survived.
Balaghat al-Nisa' (the eloquence of women).
Kitab Sariqat Abi Tammama (book of borrowings/plagiarism of Abi Tammama)
Al-Mushtaq. This, along with the romantic literature of Muhammad bin Dawud al-Zahiri and Ibn Qutaybah, were considered by lexicographer Ibn Duraid to be the three most important works for those who wished to speak and write eloquently.^[2]^[3]

In addition, there are scattered quotations of his works and hundreds of verses of his poetry which have survived.

References

Shawkat M. Toorawa, Ibn Abī Ṭāhir Ṭayfūr and Arabic writerly culture: a ninth-century bookman in Baghdad, ISBN 0-415-29762-1 [1]
Encyclopedia Islam, Ibn Abi Tahir Tayfur (in Persian)

Citations

^ Donzel, E. J. van (1 January 1994). Islamic Desk Reference. BRILL. p. 143. ISBN 90-04-09738-4. Ibn Abi Tahir Tayfur: littérateur and historian of Persian origin; 819-893. He is famous for his History of Baghdad, down to the reign of the Abbasid* Caliph al-Muhtadi.
^ Shawkat M. Toorawa, "Defing Adab by re-defining the Adib: Ibn Abi Tahir Tayfur and storytelling." Taken from On Fiction and Adab in Medieval Arabic Literature, pg. 303. Ed. Philip F. Kennedy. Volume 6 of Studies in Arabic language and literature. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2005. ISBN 9783447051828
^ Shawkat M. Toorawa, "Ibn Abi Tayfur versus al-Jahiz." Taken from ʻAbbasid Studies: Occasional Papers of the School of ʻAbbasid Studies, pg. 250. Ed. James Edward Montgomery. Volume 135 of Orientalia Lovaniensia analecta. Peeters Publishers, 2004. ISBN 9789042914339