ManÃÂqib (Arabic àÃÂÃÂçÃÂÃÂè, also transliterated manÃÂḳib; singular àÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂèÃÂ, manqaba/manḳaba) is a genre in Arabic, Turkish, and Persian literature, broadly encompassing "biographical works of a laudatory nature", "in which the merits, virtues and remarkable deeds of the individual concerned are given prominence" and particularly hagiographies (biographies of holy people). The principal goal of such works "is to offer to the reader a moral portrait and information on the noble actions of the individuals who constitute their subject or on the superior merits of a certain group". Such texts are valuable sources for the socio-political and religious history of early and medieval Islam.
The usage of the word manÃÂqib has varied over time and from one author to another, which is reflected in medieval Arabic scholarship by diverse opinions about the word's etymological meaning. The main possible explanations are:
Because the term manÃÂqib came to be closely associated with Sufi saints, it later also came to mean "miracles".
Like many genre terms, the term manÃÂqib is not neatly defined, and the usage of the term overlaps with a wide range of other Arabic genre terms. Some are fairly neutral in tone: tarjama ("biography"), taÿrëf ("history"), akhbÃÂr (collections of historical traditions), sëra ("biographies of prophets"). Others are more expressive: faá¸ÂÃÂþil (âÂÂvirtuesâÂÂ), maþÃÂtòhòir and mafÃÂkhir (âÂÂexploitsâÂÂ), and akhlÃÂq (apparently synonymous with manÃÂqib).
The earliest texts labelled as manÃÂqib have generally not survived, and their existence is known only from bibliographic lists made by medieval scholars.
From the 4th A.H. / 10th A.D. century onwards, manÃÂqib were produced focusing on biographies of the imams (madhÃÂhib) who founded different schools of Islamic thought (madhhab) about shariÿa, primarily: Abà « Ḥanëfa (d. ca. 150/767), al-AwzÃÂÿë (d. 157/774), MÃÂlik b. Anas (d. 178/795), al-SòhòÃÂfiÿë (d. 204/820), and Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal (d. 241/855). These were intended to edify the communities associated with these schools of thought, encouraging people to emulate their founders' (supposed) virtues. The fashion extended to biographical dictionaries of the disciples of each school, and sometimes biographies of particular disciples, primarily: Ibn Taymiyya (d. 728/1328), Saḥnà «n (d. 240/854), al-ḲÃÂbisë (d. 403/1012), and Abà « Bakr Aḥmad ibn ÿAbd al-RaḥmÃÂn (d. 432 or 435/1040-3).
From this time too, however, manÃÂqib were increasingly produced in praise of people who achieved the status of saints in some varieties of Islam, distinguished particularly by their (supposed) miracles. This trend pertained particularly to the Maghrib, with key subjects of manÃÂqib including: Abà « Yazëd (d. 336/947), al-Rabëÿ ibn al-Qaá¹Âá¹ÂÃÂn (d. 334/946), al-Mammasë (d. 333/944), al-SabÃÂþë (d. 356/966), al-JabanyÃÂnë (d. 369/979), and the patron saint of Tunis, Sëdë Maḥrez (d. 413/1022). The genre then spread to Arab Africa more generally, and onto the Turkic- and Persian-speaking worlds. Production of such texts declined around the seventeenth century CE.