Ibn al-A'rabi

Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Ziyād (ابو عبد الله محمد بن زياد), surnamed Ibn al-Aʿrābī (ابن الاعرابى) (ca. 760 – 846, Sāmarrā); a philologist, genealogist, and oral traditionist of Arabic tribal poetry. A grammarian of the school of al-Kūfah, who rivalled the grammarians of al-Baṣrah in poetry recital. He was famous for his knowledge of rare expressions and for transmitting the famous anthology of ancient Arabic poetry, Al-Mufaḍḍalīyāt.^{[n 1]}

The meaning of the word A'rābī, and its difference to the word Arabī, is explained by the exegete al-Sijistānī,^{[n 2]} in his book on rare Qur’ānic terms: A'rābī is an Arab desert inhabitant, whereas Arabī is a non-desert dwelling Arab.

Ibn al-Aʿrābī 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 ʿAbd 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-Aʿrābī received a broad education in the Ḥadīth, poetry, history, theology, genealogy and literature. The centres of scholarship in these fields encompassed by the term ʿphilology’ 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 ʿAbd al-Raḥmān.^[1] Abū Mu’āwiyah al-Ḍarīr^{[n 4]}, and al-Kisā’ī,^{[n 5]} also tutored him.

Ibn al- Aʿrābī 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-ʿAbbās.^{[n 6]} Other scholars were Abū ʿAmr 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 Thaʿlab, where a group of scholars, that included al-Sukkarī,^{[n 10]} Abū al-ʿĀliyah and Ibn al-A'rābī, had assembled at the home of Aḥmad ibn Sa’īd. It appears that Aḥmad ibn Saʿīd and Ibn al-Aʿrabi were astonished, presumably impressed, by Thaʿlab’s precocious critique of a poem by al-Shammākh.^[4] Conversely, he had a running feud with his uncle Abū Naṣr Aḥmad b. Ḥātim al-Bāhilī, who destested him.^[5]: 54

Ibn al-Aʿrābī 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- Aʿrābī 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).^[3] Muḥammad ibn Ḥabīb,^{[n 18]} quoted Ibn al-A’rābī, along with Quṭrub, Abū ʿUbaydah, 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. Thaʿlab 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 ʿs^{[n 21]} account that Thaʿlab had heard him say he was born the night Abū Ḥanīfah died. Al-Qāsim had met, and was an admirer of, Abū Ḥanīfah.^[3][1]

Ibn al-Aʿrābī 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); (ʿAnecdotes’), a large book; Rare Forms, which was quoted by a group of scholars among whom were al-Ṭūsī, Thaʿlab, 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); ʿDescription of the Horse’;
• Ṣifat al-Zara’ (كتاب صفة الزرع) ʿDescription of the Palm (or Corn in the Blade)’;
• Al-Khayl (كتاب الخيل) ʿHorses’;
• Madh al-Qabā’il (كتاب مدح القبائل) ʿTribute of the (History [epochs] of the) Tribes’;
• Ma’anī al-Sha’ir (كتاب معانى الشعر) ʿMeaning of Poetry’;
• Tafsīr al-Amthāl (كتاب تفسير الأمثال) ʿExplanation of Similes’, or ʿExposition of Proverbs’
• Al-Nabāt (كتاب النبات) 'Plants';
• Al-Alfāz (كتاب الالفاظ) ʿPronunciations (Dialects)’ or ʿVocabulary’;
• Nisba al-Khail (كتاب نسب الخيل) ʿPedigrees of Horses’;
• Nawadir al-Zabīrīyīn (كتاب نوادر الزبيريين) Rare Forms of the Inhabitants of Dabīr; ^{[n 23]}
• Nawādir banī Fakās (كتاب نوادر بنى فقعس) ʿAnecdotes of the Banū Faqʿas;^{[n 24]}
• Al-Dabāb – bi khaṭ al-Sukkarī (كتاب الذباب – بخط السكرى); ʿFlies' – copied in the handwriting of al-Sukkarī. ^{[n 25]}
• Al-Nabāt wa-al-Baqal (كتاب النبت والبقل) ʿPlants 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 ʿIbn Abī Baʿrah’, 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, taʿlīqāt,^{[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 ʿAllān the Grammarian and al-Naḍr ibn Shumayl; and Ḥadīth authorities, such as Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah, Sufyān al-Thawri, al-Awzāʿī.^[8]Of the scholars, whose handwritten notes on Arabic grammar and philological literature, and other ancient works, he lists are Abū ʿAmr ibn al-ʿAlā', Abū ʿAmr al-Shaybanī, al-Aṣma’ī, Ibn al-Aʿrābī, Sībawayh, al-Farrā’, al-Kisā’ī, Abū al-Aswad (in the handwriting of Yaḥyā ibn Yaʿmar).^[9]

Ibn al-Aʿrābī 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

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• Flügel, Gustav (1862). Die Grammatischen Schulen der Araber (in German). Leipzig: Brockhaus. p. 653.
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• Taghrī-Birdī (Ibn), Abū al-Maḥāsin Yūsuf (1963). Popper, William (ed.). Al-Nujūm al-Zāhirah fī Mulūk Miṣr wa-al-Qāhirah (in Arabic). Vol. III. Cairo: Dār ak-Kutub al-Miṣrīyah. pp. 116, 118.
• 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). Vol. VII (17 ed.). Bayrūt: Dār al-ʻIlm lil-Malāyīn. p. 149.