Juma Al Majid Center for Culture and Heritage in Dubai, in collaboration with New York University Abu Dhabi, held a virtual lecture on Tuesday, 22 October 2025, titled “The Maqāmāt of al-Hamadhani: Composition, Texts, and Contexts.” The lecture was delivered by Dr. Maurice Pomerantz, Executive Director of the NYU Abu Dhabi Institute, with the participation of a distinguished group of Arab scholars specializing in classical Arabic literature.
Dr. Pomerantz presented a research project examining the Maqāmāt of Badiʿ al-Zamān al-Hamadhani in light of their diverse manuscript tradition and long textual history. He reviewed the earliest known witnesses of these Maqāmāt and highlighted the structural variations found among the different manuscript versions. He also analyzed the role of scribes and readers in reshaping the text and adding interpretive layers over time. The lecture further addressed the discovery of a previously lost Maqāma attributed to al-Hamadhani and discussed the criteria used to establish its authorship through stylistic and textual comparison.
Special attention was given to the paratexts surrounding the Maqāmāt—such as introductions, marginal notes, and scribal colophons—as essential keys to understanding the transmission history and reception of the Maqāmāt across diverse cultural contexts.
The lecture concluded by outlining the requirements for producing a new critical edition based on comparative manuscript study and on reading the Maqāmāt as dynamic texts that reflect the interplay of literature, rhetoric, and scribal culture in the classical Arab world.
At the end of the session, the floor was opened for discussion, during which participants raised several questions and comments that enriched the dialogue and added depth to the topic.
