Ibn Abī Al-Isba？ and His Place in ？？lm Al-Badī？

Ibn Abī al-Isba？ was a prominent man of letters who spent most of his life under the Ayyubid rule and his last years in the Mamluk Sultanate. Regarded as the “Poet of Egypt,” he was one of the leading scholars in ？ilm al-balāgha, the rhetorical science. Besides his own works, Ibn Abī al-Isba？ had a considerable number of his poems included in literature books and biographies, and he made abundant use of literary devices in these poems. Ibn Abī al-Isba？ made significant contributions to ？ilm al-badī？, the science of embellishments, especially with his works Ta？rīr al-Ta？bīr (Writing Elegant Compositions) and Badī？al-Qur？ān (Embellishments in the Koran). Benefiting from the rhetorical knowledge of such orators as Ibn alMu’tazz and Qudāmah ibn Ja？far, who were pioneers in the science of embellishments, Ibn Abī al-Isba？ researched 30 literary figures in ？ilm al-badī？. This distinguished him from his predecessors, and there were even times when he criticized those who preceded him. He explained literary figures using examples from Arabic poetry, verses from the Koran, the hadith, sayings of the elders, proverbs, and aphorisms. Another important contribution he made to rhetorical science was how he accounted for the differences between similar literary figures. After a brief summary of Ibn Abī al-Isba？’s life and character as a scholar, this article will define and further clarify the 30 literary figures that the author unearthed in his work Ta？rīr al-Ta？bīr using at least one of the author’s own examples to examine each one