All Rights Reserved… Between Two Poets

The phrase “All Rights Reserved” began appearing on the covers of Arabic books several years before the end of the nineteenth century as a notice affirming intellectual ownership and protecting the rights of either the publisher or the author.

What is particularly noteworthy, however, is that this phrase later transcended its straightforward prose function and entered Arabic poetry through a pair of elegant verses that circulated widely in books and printing houses. Over time, these lines became closely associated in readers’ minds with the concept of copyright protection, appearing on the covers or opening pages of numerous Arabic publications.

The Famous Printing-House Verses (A Notice)

The renowned bookseller and publisher Ahmad Ali al-Maliji, often described as a distinguished bibliophile, made a habit of printing the following two verses of his own composition on the covers of books he published:

A book that contains precious pearls,
Admired through the eye of beauty.
Therefore, as a notice, I declare:
All rights of printing are preserved.

Among the works bearing these lines was Al-Ajwibah al-Jaliyyah ‘an al-As’ilah al-Diniyyah fi Madhhab al-Sadah al-Shafi‘iyyah by the Egyptian jurist Muhammad ibn Abdullah al-Jurdani, published in 1910 (1328 AH).

The verses subsequently spread throughout the Arabic publishing world. With the passage of time, this poetic notice became one of the most recognizable literary expressions associated with copyright protection in modern Arab culture.

Yet the two hemistichs:

“Admired through the eye of beauty”
and
“All rights of printing are preserved”

were not originally composed by al-Maliji. Rather, he incorporated them from verses written by an earlier poet. So who was the original author?

The Earlier Source (Chronogram)

More than a decade before the publication of al-Jurdani’s book, Hadith al-Tayf ‘an Rihlat al-Shita’ wa al-Sayf (“The Tale of the Phantom on the Journey of Winter and Summer”) by the Baghdadi litterateur Ahmad Sa‘id al-Husayni al-Gilani was printed in 1896. The book’s cover featured the following verses composed by the author himself:

The Tale of the Phantom, in its authenticity,
Is admired through the eye of beauty.
Record its printing date: May there endure
The preserved rights of printing.

The numerical values of the letters in the phrase produce the year 1896, the year in which the book was printed.

Here, then, we encounter the earliest known source of the two hemistichs. We also discover that the phrase “All Rights Reserved” entered poetry not merely as a legal notice but as part of a carefully calculated poetic chronogram.

When the Phrase Became a Date

In the second verse, the poet employed hisab al-jummal (abjad numerology), an ancient method in which letters are assigned numerical values and words or phrases are used to encode dates. Such chronograms are often introduced by a cue word indicating that what follows contains a date, such as the word fa’arrikh (“record the date”) used here.

The words:

“its printing,” “may there endure,” “rights,” “printing,” and “preserved”

together yield the numerical value corresponding to the year 1896 CE, the year the book was published.

Thus, the phrase “All Rights Reserved” became part of a hidden date embedded within the poem itself.

Interestingly, although this metrically balanced phrase—composed in the shortened form of the Wafir meter—had already appeared on book covers for years, it had done so only in straightforward prose, without any poetic or chronological intention.

Before It Became Poetry

Among the earliest books on whose covers the phrase appeared was Al-Nada al-Ratib fi al-Ghazal wa al-Nasib by Salim Shahin Sarkis, published in Beirut by the Literary Press in 1886.

Likewise, the phrase “The printing rights are reserved for the author” appeared on the cover of Tuhfat al-Ikhwan fi Hifz Sihhat al-Abdan by Dawud ibn Sulayman ibn Musa Abu Sha‘r, printed in 1883.

It appears that the phrase had already begun entering the Arabic publishing world during that period as a concise legal or commercial formula intended to protect printing rights.

Unequal Fame

Although neither poet enjoys extensive coverage in biographical dictionaries or literary studies, available sources confirm that both were active literary and cultural figures in their time.

Relatively little information survives about Ahmad Sa‘id al-Husayni al-Gilani al-Baghdadi. What is known is that he was alive before 1896 and worked in the Khedivial (Saniyyah) Administration in Egypt. He was recognized as both a poet and a man of letters and authored another work titled Nadim al-Adib (“The Companion of the Literatus”).

As for Ahmad Ali al-Maliji, his biography is better documented. He was known as a bookseller, author, poet, and cultural activist. Born in the Egyptian village of Malij in the governorate of Monufia, he memorized the Qur’an in the village kuttab before moving to Al-Azhar, where he completed his studies and received certification. He later taught at Al-Azhar, established the Malijiyyah Printing House and Bookstore, founded the Charitable Party, and served as its president. He died in Cairo during the 1940s.

And What About the “Pearls”?

The opening hemistich:

“A book that contains precious pearls”

also appears to have earlier origins.

In Al-Rawd al-Nadir fi Tarjamat Udaba’ al-‘Asr (“The Verdant Garden in the Biographies of Contemporary Literati”), it occurs within a poem by ‘Isam al-Din ibn ‘Ali ibn Murad al-‘Umari (1134–1184 AH), who wrote:

The book has reached the intended recipient
From one of lofty intellect, as a favor and a gift.
A book containing pearls indeed, but
The jewels of its composition have become a dark sea-shell.

Here, the word “book” refers to a written epistle.

Another pair of verses appeared on the cover of editions of Ibn Khaldun’s Muqaddimah:

A book that contains pearls of meaning,
And an ocean of benefits for its seeker.
Do not marvel at those structures,
For the sea contains every pearl within it.

The author of these lines remains unknown, and they may have been composed specifically for the book’s cover, as they have not been found elsewhere despite appearing in multiple editions, including a Beirut printing from 1900.

Conclusion

We may therefore conclude that Ahmad Ali al-Maliji was indeed the author of the two famous verses beginning with:

“A book that contains precious pearls…”

However, the first person to incorporate the phrase:

“All Rights Reserved”

into a poetic structure—and to make it serve both an artistic and chronological function—was the Baghdadi litterateur Ahmad Sa‘id al-Husayni al-Gilani.

This subtle literary innovation transformed a simple publishing notice into a poetic device, embedding legal language within verse while simultaneously encoding the date of publication itself.