The Shifā’ al-‘Alīl of Āzād Bilgrāmī (d.1200/1786): Introducing an Eighteenth-century Indian Work on al-Mutanabbīʹs Poetry

Arabic belletristic literature outside the time frame c.1500 to c.1800 is relatively unstudied and, in many cases, unknown; the same is true of Arabic belletristic literature outside Arabic-speaking lands. By presenting and describing the Shifā’ al-‘alīl (1196/1782), this article endeavours to bring to light a work in which Ghulām ‘AlīĀzād Bilgrāmī (d.1200/1786)—hailed in India as assān-i Hind for his superior panegyrics of the Prophet Muammad—engages with 180 of al-Mutanabbīʹs verses. Although he is relatively well known to Persianists and to historians of India, Āzād Bilgrāmī belongs also to Arabic literature, as his engagement and dialogue with al-Mutanabbīʹs poetry shows.