Persian scholar of Herat whose gloss on al-Jurjānī’s gloss on the Quṭbī, nicknamed Qara Ḥāshiya, ‘the black gloss’, for its obscurity, was read and printed in the Ottoman lands.
Life
Almost nothing is known of ʿImād al-Fārisī’s life beyond his work. Ḥājjī Khalīfa, listing the glosses on al-Sayyid al-Sharīf al-Jurjānī’s gloss on Quṭb al-Dīn al-Rāzī’s commentary on the Shamsiyya, names ‘ʿImād b. Muḥammad b. Yaḥyā b. ʿAlī b. al-Fārisī’, whose gloss begins Naḥmaduka yā man anṭaqa lisāna ʿabdihi, and records a further gloss on it by Shujāʿ al-Dīn Ilyās al-Rūmī (d. 929/1522–23). Brockelmann lists the same work as one of the glosses on al-Jurjānī’s ‘small gloss’ and explains its name: it was called Qara Ḥāshiya, ‘the black gloss’, ‘because of its obscurity’; he gives the author’s death as about 900/1494 and records many manuscripts, from Berlin, Leipzig, Munich, Gotha and Paris to Cairo, Damascus, Mosul, Mashhad, Bukhara, Rampur and Calcutta, as well as an anonymous supergloss.
Khaled El-Rouayheb, as cited in the site’s catalogue and article on the commentaries, dates the work more precisely: it was completed in Herat in 850/1446, covers only the part on conceptions, and was printed in Istanbul in 1287/1870. The wide spread of the manuscripts suggests that the gloss travelled from Timurid Herat to the Ottoman and Indian madrasas, where al-Jurjānī’s gloss on the Quṭbī was itself a standard text.
PIPDI also lists a commentary on al-Abharī’s by a ‘Yaḥyā ibn ʿAlī al-Fārisī ʿImād al-Dīn’, completed in 869/1464, and the site’s catalogue records such a commentary, completed in Herat, under the name ʿImād al-Dīn Yaḥyā b. Aḥmad al-Fārisī. Whether its author is the glossator of the Quṭbī cannot be decided from the sources consulted (see below).
Uncertain or disputed
- His dates: El-Rouayheb (as cited in the catalogue) dates the gloss to 850/1446; Brockelmann and PIPDI put his death at about 900/1494. The two are compatible only if he lived long after finishing the gloss.
- His name appears in several forms: ʿImād b. Muḥammad b. Yaḥyā b. ʿAlī (Kashf, Brockelmann), ʿImād al-Dīn ibn Yaḥyā (PIPDI under the Shamsiyya), Yaḥyā ibn ʿAlī ʿImād al-Dīn (PIPDI under the Īsāghūjī) and ʿImād al-Dīn Yaḥyā b. Aḥmad (the site’s catalogue). PIPDI also lists a Qara Ḥāshiya on al-Samarqandī’s treatise on disputation by an ʿImād al-Dīn Yaḥyā b. Aḥmad Kāshānī, with the impossible date 744/1343 marked ‘sic’; these forms may confuse two or more scholars.
- The completion date 850/1446, the restriction to conceptions and the Istanbul print of 1287/1870 come from El-Rouayheb as cited in the site’s catalogue; El-Rouayheb’s book was not accessible for this page. The catalogue also notes that the TDV gives the print as Istanbul 1289.
Works
- Qara Ḥāshiya (gloss on al-Jurjānī’s gloss on Quṭb al-Dīn al-Rāzī’s commentary on the Shamsiyya) قَرَه حَاشِيَة — atas al-Sayyid al-Sharīf al-JurjānīBegins naḥmaduka yā man anṭaqa lisāna ʿabdihi (Kashf al-ẓunūn). Called ‘the black gloss’ for its obscurity (Brockelmann). Completed in Herat in 850/1446 and limited to the conceptions; printed Istanbul 1287/1870 (El-Rouayheb, as cited in the catalogue). Glossed by Shujāʿ al-Dīn Ilyās al-Rūmī.hasyiyah
- Sharḥ Īsāghūjī (attribution to be checked) — atas ĪsāghūjīA commentary completed in 869/1464 by ‘Yaḥyā ibn ʿAlī al-Fārisī ʿImād al-Dīn’ (PIPDI); the catalogue gives ʿImād al-Dīn Yaḥyā b. Aḥmad al-Fārisī and Herat. Manuscripts in Mosul, Mashhad and Rampur (Brockelmann, as cited in the catalogue).syarah
Reception
The nickname ‘black gloss’ stuck: under the name Qara Ḥāshiya the work is listed by Ḥājjī Khalīfa, Brockelmann and PIPDI, and it attracted superglosses of its own.
Sources (3)