Ibn al-A'rabi

Ibn al-A‘rābī was born in al-Kūfah in 760. His father, Ziyād, had been captured from Sindh, probably by the Banū Hāshim, or possibly by the Banū Shaybān or some other tribe. He himself was a mawla (client) of al-Abbās ibn Muḥammad ibn Alī ibn ‘Abd Allāh. He was said to have a cast.[n 3] His mother had been a servant of, and later married, al-Mufaḍḍal ibn Muḥammad al-Ḍabbī, the author of Al-Mufaḍḍalīyāt, and as his stepson, Ibn al-A‘rābī received a broad education in the Ḥadīth, poetry, history, theology, genealogy and literature. The centres of scholarship in these fields encompassed by the term ‘philology’ were at al-Baṣrah, al-Kūfah, and later at Baghdād. Apart from al-Mufaḍḍal, Ibn al-A'rābī's principal tutor was the qāḍī (judge) al-Qāsim ibn Ma’n ibn ‘Abd al-Raḥmān.[1] Abū Mu’āwiyah al-Ḍarīr[n 4], and al-Kisā’ī,[n 5] also tutored him.

Ibn al- A‘rābī became a scholar of the Arab tribes and of the poets of the Jahiliya (pre-Islamic) and Islamic era, up to the beginning of the rule of the Banū al-‘Abbās.[n 6] Other scholars were Abū ‘Amr al-Shaybānī, Khālid ibn Kulthūm [n 7], Muḥammad ibn Ḥabīb, al-Ṭūsī,[n 8] and al-Aṣma’ī.[2]

His lectures were very popular and Abū al-Abbās Tha’lab,[n 9] who was his student of ten years, reports that a hundred people typically attended his lectures,[1] coming from as far afield as Isfījāb in Transoxiana, and from Spain. [3] A glimpse into the setting for scholarly debate occurring at this time is indicated in an anecdote told by Tha‘lab, where a group of scholars, that included al-Sukkarī,[n 10] Abū al-‘Āliyah and Ibn al-A'rābī, had assembled at the home of Aḥmad ibn Sa’īd. It appears that Aḥmad ibn Sa‘īd and Ibn al-A‘rabi were astonished, presumably impressed, by Tha‘lab’s precocious critique of a poem by al-Shammākh.[4]

Ibn al-A‘rābī quoted such Arabian linguistic authorities as al-Ṣamūtī,[n 11] al-Kalbī, and Abū Mujīb[n 12]. His pupils included Ibrāhīm al-Ḥarbī,[n 13] Ibn al-Sikkīt,[n 14] and Ibn al-Azhar.[n 15] As a leading philologist, Ibn al- A‘rābī was critical of rival scholars of rare linguistic expressions (al-kalām al-gharīb), and in particular of Abū Ubaydah[n 16] and al-Aṣma’ī.[n 17] He proposed orthographic liberalisation and urged permissiveness in the substitution of the letter dād (ض) for the letter zā (ظ).[5] Muḥammad ibn Ḥabīb,[n 18] quoted Ibn al-A’rābī, along with Quṭrub, Abū ‘Ubaydah, Abū al-Yaqẓān,[n 19] et al.[6]

Tha’lab[n 20] and al-Ṭabarī wrote Ibn al-A'rābī's biography, while anecdotes about him and his philological commentaries were popular. Tha‘lab reports never seeing a book in his hand, even when he was over eighty years old. This was a huge tribute as scholars attached great importance to facility of memorisation. Tha'lab also claims no one surpassed Ibn al-A'rābī in his knowledge of poetry.[1] Al-Nadīm read Ibn al-Kūfī ‘s[n 21] account that Tha‘lab had heard him say he was born the night Abū Ḥanīfah died. Al-Qāsim had met, and was an admirer of, Abū Ḥanīfah.[5] [1]

Ibn al-A‘rābī died in 846 (231 AH), in Surra Man Ra’ā, (i.e. the ancient name of Sāmarrā), Iraq, aged eighty years, four months and three days.

Among his books there were:

• Kitāb Al-Nawadir (كتاب النوادر); (‘Anecdotes’), a large book; Rare Forms, which was quoted by a group of scholars among whom were al-Ṭūsī, Tha‘lab, and others —some say there were twelve and some say nine quotations (transcriptions);
• Al-Anwā’ (كتاب الانواء) Al-Anwā’;[n 22]
• Ṣifat al-Khayl (كتاب صفة النحل); ‘Description of the Horse’;
• Ṣifat al-Zara’ (كتاب صفة الزرع) ‘Description of the Palm (or Corn in the Blade)’;
• Al-Khayl (كتاب الخيل) ‘Horses’;
• Madh al-Qabā’il (كتاب مدح القبائل) ‘Tribute of the (History [epochs] of the) Tribes’;
• Ma’anī al-Sha’ir (كتاب معانى الشعر) ‘Meaning of Poetry’;
• Tafsīr al-Amthāl (كتاب تفسير القبائل) ‘Explanation of Similes’, or ‘Exposition of Proverbs’
• Al-Nabāt (كتاب النبات) 'Plants';
• Al-Alfāz (كتاب الالفاظ) ‘Pronunciations (Dialects)’ or ‘Vocabulary’;
• Nisba al-Khail (كتاب نسب الخيل) ‘Pedigrees of Horses’;
• Nawadir al-Zabīrīyīn (كتاب نوادر الزبيريين) Rare Forms of the Inhabitants of Dabīr; [n 23]
• Nawādir banī Fakās (كتاب نوادر بنى فقعس) ‘Anecdotes of the Banū Faq‘as;[n 24]
• Al-Dabāb – bi khaṭ al-Sukkarī (كتاب الذباب – بخط السكرى); ‘Flies' – copied in the handwriting of al-Sukkarī. [n 25]
• Al-Nabāt wa-al-Baqal (كتاب النبت والبقل) ‘Plants and Herbs’;[n 26]
• Gharīb al-Ḥadīth (غريب الحديث) The Strange in the Ḥadīth[7]

Al-A'rābī's importance as a philologist, or linguistic scientist, of the Arab language, and his milieu, can be estimated by the account given by the tenth-century bibliophile Al-Nadim, who writing about a hundred and fifty years after the death of Ibn al-A'rābī, describes visiting the library in the city of al-Ḥadīthah of Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn, known as ‘Ibn Abī Ba‘rah’, who had received a collection of ancient writings from a Shī’ī book-collector of al-Kūfah. Among the material on the sciences of Arabs and other nations, there were documents written on double parchment, deeds, ta‘līqāt,[n 27] poems, papers on grammar, anecdotes, historical traditions, names, genealogies, etc., on adam[n 28] skins and on paper from Egypt, China, Tihāmah, and Khurāsān; notes written in an ancient calligraphy by ‘Allān the Grammarian and al-Naḍr ibn Shumayl; and Ḥadīth authorities, such as Sufyān ibn ‘Uyaynah, Sufyān al-Thawri, al-Awzā‘ī.[8]Of the scholars, whose handwritten notes on Arabic grammar and philological literature, and other ancient works, he lists are Abū ‘Amr ibn al-‘Alā', Abū ‘Amr al-Shaybanī, al-Aṣma’ī, Ibn al-A‘rābī, Sībawayh, al-Farrā’, al-Kisā’ī, Abū al-Aswad (in the handwriting of Yaḥyā ibn Ya‘mar).[9]

Ibn al-A‘rābī transmitted the authorised edition of the Al-Mufaḍḍalīyāt, one hundred and twenty-eight poems, that begins with a poem of Ta’abbaṭa Sharran Thābit ibn Jābir, where others selected, extended, and reordered the poems.[n 29] [10]

• List of Arab scientists and scholars
• Encyclopædia Britannica Online

• Dhahabī (al-), Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn ‘Uthmān (1948). Ta’rīkh al-Islām. Cairo: Al-Qudsī.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Flügel, Gustav (1862). Die Grammatischen Schulen der Araber (in German). Leipzig: Brockhaus. p. 653.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Khallikān (ibn), Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad (1868). Ibn Khallikān’s Biographical Dictionary (tr., Wafayāt al-A’yān wa-Anbā’). III. Translated by MacGuckin de Slane. London: Oriental Translation Fund of Britain and Ireland. pp. 23–27.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Khallikān (Ibn), Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad (1868). Ibn Khallikān’s Biographical Dictionary (translation of Wafayāt al-A’yān wa-Anbā’). III. Translated by MacGuckin de Slane. London: Oriental Translation Fund of Britain and Ireland. pp. 29–30.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Nadīm (al-), Abū al-Faraj Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq Abū Ya’qūb al-Warrāq (1970). Dodge, Bayard (ed.). The Fihrist of al-Nadim; a tenth-century survey of Muslim culture. New York & London: Columbia University Press.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Nadīm (al-), Abū al-Faraj Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq (1872). Flügel, Gustav (ed.). Kitāb al-Fihrist (in Arabic). Leipzig: F.C.W. Vogel. p. 653.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Taghrī-Birdī (Ibn), Abū al-Maḥāsin Yūsuf (1963). Popper, William (ed.). Al-Nujūm al-Zāhirah fī Mulūk Miṣr wa-al-Qāhirah (in Arabic). III. Cairo: Dār ak-Kutub al-Miṣrīyah. pp. 116, 118.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• al-Ziriklī, Khayr al-Dīn (2007). al-Aʻlām, qāmūs tarājim li-ashhar al-rijāl wa-al-nisāʼ min al-ʻArab wa-al-mustaʻribīn wa-al-mustashriqīn (in Arabic). VII (17 ed.). Bayrūt: Dār al-ʻIlm lil-Malāyīn. p. 149.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)