@article{Papoutsakis_2020, title={Quṭbaddīn an-Nahrawālī’s (917-990/1511-1582) Treasure of Names and Other Ottoman-Era Arabic Treatises on the Art of the Muʿammā}, volume={20}, url={https://journals.uio.no/JAIS/article/view/7905}, DOI={10.5617/jais.7905}, abstractNote={<p>In Timurid times Persian littérateurs devised a new kind of logogriph (<em>mu</em><em>ʿammā</em>) that differed con­siderably from the <em>mu</em><em>ʿammā</em> as was known in the Arabic tradition. The most salient feature of the new, Persianate <em>mu</em><em>ʿammā</em>, which is normally a couplet, is that it has two levels of meaning: an obvious or surface meaning (‘the poetic meaning’), and an encoded ‘riddle meaning’, which gives the clues to the solution of the riddle. Since the 16<sup>th</sup> century the new, Persianate <em>mu</em><em>ʿammā</em> became very popular with Ottoman Turkish and Arabic littérateurs as well. In fact, to judge by the available evidence, it appears that the new <em>mu</em><em>ʿammā</em> gradually became the most popular kind of literary riddle in Arabic. The present paper presents Quṭbaddīn an-Nahrawālī’s (917-990/1511-1582) <em>Treasure of Names</em>, the most influential Arabic treatise on the new <em>mu</em><em>ʿammā</em>, which is modelled on earlier Persian treatises. It discusses the growth of the new <em>mu</em><em>ʿammā</em> in Arabic, describes the rules applying to it as presented in an-Nahrawālī’s treatise, analyses several Arabic <em>mu</em><em>ʿammayāt</em> cited in that treatise and concludes by mentioning some additional Ottoman-era Arabic treatises on the riddle that testify to the great popularity of the new <em>mu</em><em>ʿammā</em> in Arabic until the late 19<sup>th</sup> century.</p>}, journal={Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies}, author={Papoutsakis, Nefeli}, year={2020}, month={Apr.}, pages={53–89} }