Abū al-Barakāt al-Baghdādī’s Risāla fī Māhiyyat al-Malāl: Study, Critical Edition, and Turkish Translation

This article is composed of an original study about a treatise in Arabic attributed to Abū al- Barakāt al-Baghdādī (d.547/1152), the critical edition of the work, and its translation in Turkish. The treatise is entitled Risāla fī Māhiyyat al-Malāl (Treatise on the Essence of Ennui), which aims to explain the nature of and reasons for feeling ennui. This study first examines and shows the authenticity of the epistle’s attribution to Abū al-Barakāt al-Baghdādī through a variety of evidence, and then shows that treatise was composed upon a request by Gārshāsb II Farāmarz b. Alī (r.488–post 546/1095–post 1151), a ruler of a vassal state in Yazd under the Great Seljuq Empire. It is also shown that the treatise was probably written in a period between 517-537/1123-1143. Providing information about the extant manuscripts of the treatise accompanied by an analysis of its content, this study presents, in the second part, the first critical edition of the text based on these manuscripts, and finally offers a Turkish translation of the text.