Diwan meaning

Its Arabic title is Kitab ul'Ibar, wa diwan el Mubtada wa'l Khabar, fi ayyamul`Arab wa'l`Ajam wa'l Berber; that is, "The Book of Examples and the Collection of Origins and Information respecting the History of the Arabs, Foreigners and Berbers."

If we compare this with a similar allegory in Nasir's diwan, which culminates in the praise of Mostansir, we are fairly entitled to look upon it as a covert allusion to the eminent men who revealed to the poet in Cairo the secrets of the Isma`ilitic faith, and showed him what he considered the "heavenly ladder" to superior knowledge and spiritual bliss.

The 12th century contributes the Diwan Mukhtarat ush-Shu`ara'i with fifty gasidas.