Gli aforismi dialettali in “al-Mustaṭraf” di aš-Šihāb al-Abšīhī (1388-1450)

Abstract

Al-Mustaṭraf fī kull fann mustaẓraf by the Egyptian preacher Šihāb ad-Dīn al-Abšīhī (1388-1450) is considered one of the most renowned anthologies of Arabic literature. As the most ancient text of this genre written in the Cairo dialect, the section dedicated to popular aphorisms which were in use among Egyptians during the fifteenth century, stands out from the 84 chapters of this collection, almost totally written in literary Arabic. Despite the extraordinary linguistic and literary importance of vernacular aphorisms contained in this work, they have not been given sufficient attention so far by the scholars. The aim of this paper is to shed light on al-Mustaṭraf by providing an analysis which takes into account both the language and the content of some dialectal aphorisms in the work.