المعلقات العشر وأخبار شعرائها

Ahmed bin Al-Amin Al-Shanqiti: A Mauritanian poet and writer, skilled in the sciences of the Arabic language and literature. Ahmed bin Al-Amin bin Muhammad Al-Amin bin Othman Al-Alawi Al-Shanqiti was born in the south of Chinguetti (Mauritania) in the year 1872 AD. In his early years, he studied the Holy Qur’an and the principles of Islamic and Arabic sciences. His ambition and thirst for knowledge led him to travel throughout his homeland and abroad. In the year 1897 AD, he began a scientific trip in which he visited the cities of the Maghreb: Tkante, Meknes, Smara, Fez, then Zawiyat al-Sheikh Ma al-Aynain. He visited scientific institutes and precious libraries in Astana and Izmir, and also went to Syria, where he met the best of its scholars and scholars. Al-Shanqeeti was an ascetic ascetic who had never married, and in none of his works did he write anything about himself; Which surrounded his character with some mystery. Perhaps the most famous and most important of his writings is his book “Al-Wasat fi Bi-Tarajim al-Watihit” (The Waset in the Traditions of the Chinguetti Writers), which is the first document that deals with Mauritania’s poets, history, literature, and social and cultural customs. He also has: “Al-Durar Al-Lawa’i ‘Ali Ham’ Al-Hawa’i’ Sharh Juma Al-Jami’,” “Al-Durar fi Banaa Omar,” “Purity of the Arabs,” and “The Ten Mu’allaqat and the News of Its Poets.” As well as a number of books that he explained and verified, including: “Lis fi Kalam al-Arab” by Ibn Khalawayh, “Al-Ilaam bi Muthalith al-Kalam” and “Tuhfat al-Mawdood fi al-Maqsour al-Mamdood” by Ibn Malik, “Antidads fi al-Lughah” by Ibn al-Anbari, and the collections of “Tarfa” Al-Shammakh and Al-Hutai’a, as well as a number of manuscripts and poems that were not collected in a private collection. In 1913 AD, Ahmed bin Al-Amin Al-Shanqeeti breathed his last in Cairo, at the age of forty-one years, after he had mastered the Arabic Library with his many valuable works and monuments.