Al-Akhfash al-Akbar

Abu al-Khaṭṭāb ʻAbd al-Ḥamīd ibn ʻAbd al-Majīd (Arabic: أبو الخطاب عبد الحميد بن عبد المجيد; died 177 AH/793 CE),[1] commonly known as Al-Akhfash al-Akbar (Arabic: الأخفش الأكبر) was a notable Arab grammarian. A non-Arab from Bahrain,[2] he lived in Basra and associated with the method of Arabic grammar of its linguists, and was a client of the Qais tribe.[3][4]

His most notable students were: Sibawayh,[5][6][7] Yunus ibn Habib,[6][8] Abu 'Ubaida, Abu Zayd al-Ansari and Al-Asma'i. Al-Akhfash revised his student Sibawayh's famous Kitab, the first book ever written on Arabic grammar, and was responsible for circulating the first manuscripts after his student's untimely death.[9] Al-Akhfash was also one of the first linguists to contribute significantly to commentary and analysis of Arabic poetry.[4] Additionally, he contributed extensively to Arabic philology as well as lexicography, recording vocabulary and expressions of the Bedouin tribes which had not previously been recorded.[2]

References

  1. Stefan Sperl, Mannerism in Arabic Poetry: A Structural Analysis of Selected Texts (3rd Century AH/9th Century AD - 5th Century AH/11th Century AD), pg. 109. Part of the Cambridge Studies in Islamic Civilization series. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004. ISBN 9780521522922
  2. 2.0 2.1 Ibn Khallikan's Biographical Dictionary, vol. 2, pg. 244. Trns. William McGuckin de Slane. Paris: Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland. Sold by Institut de France and Royal Library of Belgium.
  3. Reinhard Weipert. al-Akhfash. Encyclopaedia of Islam. Eds. Gudrun Krämer, Denis Matringe, John Nawas and Everett Rowson. Brill Online, 2013. Reference. Accessed 17 July 2013.
  4. 4.0 4.1 Monique Bernards, "Pioneers of Arabic Language Studies." Taken from In the Shadow of Arabic: The Centrality of Language to Arabic Culture, pg. 214. Ed. Bilal Orfali. Volume 63 of Studies in Semitic Languages and Linguistics. Leiden: Brill Publishers, 2011. ISBN 9789004215375
  5. Francis Joseph Steingass, The Assemblies of Al Harîri: The first twenty-six assemblies, pg. 498. Volume 3 of Oriental translation fund. Trns. Thomas Chenery. Williams and Norgate, 1867.
  6. 6.0 6.1 Sībawayh, ʻAmr ibn ʻUthmān (1988), Hārūn, ʻAbd al-Salām Muḥammad, ed., Al-Kitāb Kitāb Sībawayh Abī Bishr ʻAmr ibn ʻUthmān ibn Qanbar, Introduction (3rd ed.), Cairo: Maktabat al-Khānjī, p. 9
  7. M.G. Carter, Sibawayh, pg. 21. Part of the Makers of Islamic Civilization series. London: I.B. Tauris, 2004. ISBN 9781850436713
  8. Ibn Khallikan, Deaths of Eminent Men and History of the Sons of the Epoch, vol. 4, pg. 586. Trns. William McGuckin de Slane. London: Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland, 1871.
  9. Khalil I. Semaan, Linguistics in the Middle Ages: Phonetic Studies in Early Islam, pg. 39. Leiden: Brill Publishers, 1968.