Abū Ḥafṣ ʿUmar bin Ibrāhīm al-Anṣārī al-Awsī (died 751 AH / 1350/1351 CE) was an
AndalusianMalikimuqriʾ associated with
Murcia, known for composing Zahr al-kumām fī qiṣṣat Yūsuf ʿalayhi al-salām (
Arabic: زهر الكمام في قصة يوسف عليه السلام), a text about the Abrahamic
prophetYūsuf. He is mentioned, inter alia, in
Kâtip Çelebi's seventeenth-century CE book catalogue Kashf al-ẓunūn and the twentieth-century biographical dictionary al-Aʿlām by
Khayr al-Dīn al-Ziriklī.[1]: 6
Zahr al-kumām fī qiṣṣat Yūsuf ʿalayhi al-salām
According to
Wilhelm Ahlwardt, describing manuscript Pet. 291 of the work in the
Königlichen Bibliothek zu Berlin, the author (here named merely as ʿUmar ibn Ibrāhīm al-Anṣārī al-Awsī) opens by explaining that the
stories of the prophets are useful, and pleasing to God, and that the story of Joseph is particularly instructive, as its presence as
sūrat Yūsuf in the
Qur'ān indicates. Accordingly, al-Awsī edited the tale, dividing it into seventeen sections and making it more instructive by adding stories, verses, admonitions, reflections, and so forth. Each section begins with detailed praise of God and testimony to his Prophet and then deals with a passage from the Qur'ānic account of Joseph's life story.[2]
^W. Ahlwardt, Verzeichniss der arabischen Handschriften der königlichen Bibliothek zu Berlin, vol. 8 (Berlin: Asher, 1896), pp. 2-4 [no. 8953].
^Carl Brockelmann, History of the Arabic Written Tradition, trans. by Joep Lameer, Handbook of Oriental Studies. Section 1: The Near and Middle East, 117, 5 vols in 6 (Leiden: Brill, 2016–19), Supplement Volume 2, p. 391 [trans. from Geschichte der arabischen Litteratur, 2nd edn, 2 vols (Leiden: Brill, 1943–49) and Geschichte der arabischen Litteratur. Supplementband, 3 vols (Leiden: Brill, 1937–42)].