Abstract
Usāmah Ibn Munqidh (d. 584/1188) who spent most of his life as a consultant to the Abbasids and served his last years to the founder of the Ayyubid State, Salahaddin-i Eyyubi, and is known for his "sharp sword and sharp pen” is one of the important writers of his time. He produced important works in the field of literature and history such as Dîvānü'sh- shi'r, Kitābü'l-İ'tibār, al-Menāzil ve'd-diyār, Lubābu'l-ādāb, Kitābü'l-ʿAṣā, Tārîkhu'l-Islām, Akhbārü'l-büldān, Tārîkhu'l- qılā' ve'l- ḥuṣûn. Apart from his own works, Usāmah Ibn Munqidh, who has many poems in source books, has included literary arts in his poems densely. In particular, his work al-Bedîʿ fî naqdi'sh- shi'r (a unique source on poetry/literary criticism) with the content of rhetoric and literary criticism has survived until today and has made significant contributions to the science of literary criticism and rhetoric. In this work, Usāmah Ibn Munqidh scanned the famous literary criticism books written before him and aimed to tidy up the scattered information in them and present it to the reader. In addition to this, he also discussed the beautiful aspects and flaws of poetry in the work. He divided this work into ninety-five chapters, in which he also pointed to some important authors, whom he benefited from and cited references from their works. The author, who touched upon the subjects of rhetoric in each chapter, focused on literary criticism in the epilogue. This work, as it is understood from the word bedi' contained in the work’s name, generally includes titles such as nefî (النَّفِي), teẕyîl ( التَذْيِيل), teşṭîr (التَشْطِير), müḳâbele (المُقَابَلَة), tâṭrîf (التَطْرِيف), i‘tirâḍ (الاعتِرَاض), mebâdî (المَبَادِي), meṭâlî‘ (المَطَالِع), taḫlîs (التَخْلِيص), and ḫurûc (الخُرُوج) that are not often encountered in today's literary criticism and rhetoric books, but that beautify the style, add harmony to it and form the basis of this field. Usāmah Ibn Munqidh is not satisfied with the titles that only beautify the style and enrich the text but also touched upon the issues that weaken and devalue the expression, such as ḥaşv (الحَشو), ġalaṭ (الغَلَط), tefrîṭ (التَفْرِيط), fesâd (الفَسَاد), tenâḳüḍ (التَّناقُض), tehcîn (التَهْجِين), mü‘âẓele (المُعَاظَلَة), cehâmme (الجَهَامَّة), raşâḳa (الرَّشَاقَة), tekellüf (التَّكَلُّف), te‘assüf (التَعَسُّف), müḫâlefe (المُخَالَفة) and teslîm (التَثلِيم). In this sense, one of the most striking features of the work is that after the items that beautify the style, the items that weaken the expression and make it ugly are also discussed. In this respect, it can easily be said that the work deserves the title of al-Bedîʿ fî naqdi'sh- shi'r, and that it is a work that is true to its name. After the author gave a bāb (title) to the subject he dealt with, he tried to explain the subject with the Qur'an, hadith and the poems of many distinguished poets and prose by defining it in an easy-to-understand style. The fact that important information in some other works, which were lost due to different factors in their historical course and could not reach our time, was recorded in this work increases its value. Another point that gives importance to the work is that the author also mentioned the literary steals that were both praised and criticized under a few titles. In the present study, some works written in the field of literary criticism are introduced after Usāmah Ibn Munqidh’s life is briefly discussed, and then the place and importance of the author's work named al-Bedîʿ fî naqdi'sh-shi'r in the field of literary criticism is emphasized.