Alchemical stanzaic poetry (muwashshaḥ) by Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs (fl. twelfth century)
Abstract The twelfth-century alchemist Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs is best known for his collection (dīwān) of alchemical poems entitled Shudhūr al-dhahab (“The Splinters of Gold”). However, he is also credited with other works, including stanzaic poetry (muwashshaḥāt) on alchemy. This paper presents the current state of the scholarship concerning life and works of Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs, and then focuses on three strophic poems attributed to this alchemist. It includes first editions and English translations of all three poems, and argues that at least two of the poems are likely to have been authored by Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs, while one is a literary imitation (muʿāraḍa) and therefore probably not a work of Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs himself. Furthermore, the article discusses the literary features of the poems as well as their historical contexts and their – somewhat limited – reception. This also allows us to think of Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs in a less regional Andalusī-Maghribī context, and consider if he perhaps moved east at some point of his life, which would explain the reception history of his poems, both those included in the dīwān and the muwashshaḥāt.