Grammarians of Basrah

The Grammarians of Basrah were grammarians and language scholars of Basra in the Islamic Golden Age, who laid down the rules of grammar and of literary style, and whose teachings and writings became the canon of the Arabic language. Shortly after the school's foundation in Basra, a rival school was established in Kufa, by the Grammarians of Kufa. The book Kitab al-Fihrist by the tenth century author, Ibn Ishaq al-Warraq, known as "al-Nadim", provides biographical details of the leading figures and is the principal source for early accounts of the two schools. The schools represent the two main branches in the development of Arabic grammar and punctuation, linguistics, philology, Quranic exegesis and recital, Hadith, poetry and literature.

Founding & Most Celebrated Philologists

  • Abū 'Amr b. al-'Alā (689-770 CE), an eminent scholar and one of the seven readers of the Qur’ān, who burned his collections of old poetry, &c., to devote himself to religion. [3][4]
  • Khalīl ibn Aḥmad, (ca.718-786 CE) inventor of the Arabic system of metres who wrote the first Arabic lexicon (al-Kitābu ‘l-’Ayn); incomplete on his death. [5][6]
  • Sībawayh (d.793/796 CE), the Persian whose Grammar, entitled 'The Book of Sībawayh,' is universally celebrated. [7]
  • al-Aṣma’ī (ca. 739-833 CE) and Abū 'Ubayda(ca. 728-824), great humanists who flourished under Hārūn al-Rashid [8][9][10]
  • al-Mubarrad (d. 899 CE), philologist best-known for Al-Kāmil [11] [12][13][14]
  • al-Sukkarī (d. 889 CE), a collector and critic of old Arabian poetry and ancient tradition. [15][16][17]
  • Ibn Durayd (d. 934 CE), a distinguished philologist, genealogist, and poet, awarded a pension by caliph Al-Muqtadir for his contribution to science; principal works, his famous ode “The Maqṣūra,” a voluminous lexicon (al-'Jamhara fi ‘l-Lugha) and a treatise on the genealogies of the Arab tribes (Kitābu ‘l-Ishtiqāq). [18][19]

Minor Scholars & Their Books

  • Affar ibn Laqit[25][26]
  • Abu al-Bayda' al-Rabahi, tribesman, poet and language scholar[25][26]
  • Abu Malik 'Amr ibn Kirkirah, Arabian, 'warraq' and noted expert in vernacular, memorised corpus: - The Disposition of Man; Horses.[27][16][28]
  • Abu 'Irar, Arab of Banu 'Ijl, poet, literary stylist and linguist[28]
  • Abu Ziyad al-Sumuwi al-Kilabi, Arabian nomad, of Banu 'Amir ibn Kilab: - Rare Forms [in the Quran]; Differentiation; Camels; The Disposition of Man[6][29][30][31][32][33][34]
  • Abu Sawwar al-Ghanawi, (fl. C9th) authority for Arabic words[30][25][34]

Notes

    References

    1. ↑ Khallikān, p. 662, I.
    2. ↑ Dodge, pp. 87-91, 346, I.
    3. ↑ Khallikān, p. 399, II.
    4. ↑ Dodge, pp. 63-231.
    5. 1 2 Khallikān, p. 493, I.
    6. 1 2 3 Nawawī, p. 230.
    7. ↑ Khallikān, p. 396, II.
    8. ↑ Khallikān, p. 123, II.
    9. ↑ Nicholson, p. 343.
    10. ↑ Dodge, pp. 119-361.
    11. ↑ Wright (1894).
    12. ↑ Khallikān, p. 31, III.
    13. ↑ Yāqūt, p. 137, Irshad,VI(7).
    14. ↑ Dodge, pp. 76-398o.
    15. ↑ Khallikān, p. 300 n.2, IV.
    16. 1 2 Flügel, p. 89.
    17. ↑ Dodge, pp. 75-353.
    18. ↑ Khallikān, p. 37, III.
    19. ↑ Dodge, pp. 78-191.
    20. ↑ Khallikān, p. 419, II.
    21. ↑ Khallikān, p. 586, VI.
    22. ↑ Dodge, pp. 63-158, I.
    23. ↑ Khallikān, p. 629, I.
    24. ↑ Dodge, pp. 123-125, 128, 137, 139, 188, 1023.
    25. 1 2 3 Flügel, p. 45.
    26. 1 2 Dodge, p. 96, I.
    27. ↑ Hajj Khalifa, III. p.173
    28. 1 2 Dodge, p. 97, I.
    29. ↑ Isbahani, p. 55, 1900.
    30. 1 2 Yāqūt, p. 439, Mu'jam, VI.
    31. ↑ Zirikli, p. 238.
    32. ↑ Kahhalah, p. 238.
    33. ↑ Qutaybah, pp. 157, l,4.
    34. 1 2 Dodge, p. 98, I.

    Sources

    • Dodge, Bayard (1970), The Fihrist of al-Nadīm A Tenth Century Survey of Muslim Culture, New York &London: Columbia University Press
    • Flügel, Gustav (1862), Die grammatischen Schulen der Araber (German ed.), Leipzig: Brockhaus
    • Isbahani (al-), Abu al-Faraj 'Ali ibn al-Husayn (1868), Kitab al-Aghani, 20, Cairo: Bulaq Press
    • Isbahani (1900) [1888], Kitab al-Aghani, V, Leiden: Brill
    • Kahhalah, Umar Rida (1957), Mu'jam al-Mu'allafin, 15, Damascus: Al-Tariq Press
    • Kahhalah (1961), Mu'jam, XIII
    • Khallikān (ibn), Aḥmad ibn Muhammad (1871) [1843], Ibn Khallikan’s Biographical Dictionary (translation of Wafayāt al-A‘yān wa-Anbā Abnā’ al-Zamān), 4, translated by William McGuckin de Slane, London: W. H. Allen
    • Nawawī (al-), Abū Zakarīyā’ (1847), Wüstenfeld, Ferdinand, ed., kitāb Tahdhīb al-Asmā’ (The Biographical Dictionary of Illustrious Men), Göttingen: Society for the Publication of Oriental Texts
    • Nicholson, Reynold Alleyne (1907), A Literary History of the Arabs (Archive.org ed.), London: T Fisher Unwin
    • Qutaybah (Ibn), Abu Muhammad 'Abd Allah (1930) [1925], Kitab 'Uyun al-Akhbar, III (Arabic ed.), Cairo: Dar al-Kutub al-Misriyah
    • Wright, William (1894), A Short History of Syriac Literature, London: Black
    • Yāqūt, Shīhab al-Dīn ibn ‘Abd Allāh al-Ḥamawī (1927) [1907], Margoliouth, David Samuel, ed., Irshād al-Arīb alā Ma’rifat al-Adīb (Yaqut’s Dictionary of Learned Men), E. J. W. Gibb Memorial Series, 7, Leiden: Brill
    • Yāqūt, Shīhab al-Dīn ibn ‘Abd Allāh al-Ḥamawī (1970) [1966], Wüstenfeld, Ferdinand, ed., Mu'jam Buldan (Jacut's Geographisches Worterbuch), 6, Leipzig: Brockhaus
    • Zirikli (al-), Khayr al-Din (1959) [1954], "10", Al-A'lam, IX (2nd ed.), Cairo
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