تتناول هذه الدراسة تراث الأديب المعروف بابن الطويل الدمشقي الطالوي، وهو عبد الحَيّ بن علي بن محمد بن محمود الحنفي. عاش في دمشق في أيّام الدولة العثمانيّة، يتمثل تراثه في عملين: الأوّل: كتاب سرور الصِّبا والشّمُول ومُرور الصَّبا والمَشْمُول. لا يزال مخطوطًا. والثاني: ديوان شعر كبير فيه المديح والغزل والأهاجي والمَواليا، ولا يزال مخطوطًا أيضًا. وتهدُف هذه الدراسة إلى كشف اللثام عن وجه هذين العَمَلَيْن الجليلين.
His full name was ‘Abd al-Ḥayy b. ʻAlī b. Muḥammad b. Maḥmūd al-Ṭālawī, known as Ibn al-Ṭawīl and also as al-Khāl al-Dimashqī (d. 1117/1705). Very little is known of his life, despite two biographical sketches, on in al-Murādī's Silk al-duwar and the other in al-Muḥabbī's Nafḥat al-rīḥāna.
Ibn al-Ṭawīl's two extant works are the following:
1. A book on prose literature entitled Surūr al-Ṣibā wal-shumūl wa-murūr al-ṣabā wal-mashmūl. The book contains ten chapters: chapter one on magnanimity, chapter two on wisdom, chapter three on moderation, chapter four on eloquence, chapter five on impudence, chapter six on the simple-minded, chapter seven on the witty, chapter eight on passionate love, chapter nine on poetry and chapter ten contains biographical sketches of the poets mentioned in the book. The chapters are divided into sections. The book is quite large: its manuscript consists of 476 long sheets.
2. A collection of poetry in the al-Ẓāhiriyya library in Damascus. The work contains panegyrics, satirical poems, love poems, humor, muwashshaḥ, mawwāl and others.
Neither of these works has been published. At the moment I am working on an edition of the first of the afore-mentioned works, Kitāb al-adab, after having obtained two manuscripts. One of these is, I believe, an autograph, but with a few missing parts. The other is complete, with notes by those who purchased it.
The book's stories, literary and linguistic anecdotes, numerous poems, correspondence with friends, especially the ṣūfī shaykh ʻAbd al-Ghanī al-Nābulsī (d. 1143/1731), make this one of the most interesting books on literature composed during the Ottoman period.
In his introduction to the book, Ibn al-Ṭawīl explains why he wrote it: "In these pages I lay down elegant stories, graceful conversations, sweet poems, juicy verses…".