This volume presents papers given at the second Symposium on the History of Arabic Grammar (Nijmegen, 1987). The subject has many aspects and invites many different approaches, which might roughly be categorized into three main groupings, viz. treatments of individual grammarians, examinations of particular grammatical topics, and analysis of medieval concepts from the perspective of contemporary linguistics.
In addition, the series will include re-editions or entirely new translations into English of 'classic' accounts in the field which have been out of print for many years and have become rare books even in larger university libraries. Each of these new editions will be prefaced by an introductory essay by a present-day specialist in the discipline who will place the book in its original historical context and analyze its significance in the light of contemporary work in the history of linguistic thought
In this volume the author examines the origins of Arabic linguistics on the basis of the earliest Qur’ānic commentaries (1st half of the 8th century A.D.). The material used includes both edited texts and manuscript commentaries. Various chapters analyze the exegetical methods of the early commentators (such as Muqātil and Muḥammad al-Kalbī) and their use of grammatical terminology. These data are compared with the earliest grammatical treatises (Such as Sābawayhi and Farrā’). The material presented here constitutes an important source of evidence for the development of linguistic thinking in Islam and the origin of the grammatical schools of Basra and Kufa.
In this volume the author examines the origins of Arabic linguistics on the basis of the earliest Qur nic commentaries (1st half of the 8th century A.D.). The material used includes both edited texts and manuscript commentaries.Various chapters analyze the exegetical methods of the early commentators (such as Muq til and Muh ammad al-Kalb ) and their use of grammatical terminology. These data are compared with the earliest grammatical treatises (Such as S bawayhi and Farr ).The material presented here constitutes an important source of evidence for the development of linguistic thinking in Islam and the origin of the grammatical schools of Basra and Kufa.
In The Subjunctive Mood in Arabic Grammatical Thought Arik Sadan outlines the grammatical theories on the na?b (subjunctive mood) in Classical Arabic. Special attention is given to S?bawayhi and al-Farr??, who represent the Schools of al-Ba?ra and al-K?fa respectively.
The majority of these articles dedicated to Michael G. Carter address aspects of Classical Arabic grammar. Ramzi Baalbaki discusses Mu'addib's treatise Daqa-'iq al-Tas.rif. Kees Versteegh considers questions of the government of 'inna in a treatise by the grammarian al-Warraq. Yasir Suleiman considers the fierce extra-linguistic debates which took place in the wake of two recent publications provocatively featuring Sibawayhi's name in the title. Pierre Larcher treats questions of authenticity surrounding a longish quotation from al-Farabi's Kitab al-'alfaz wa-l-huruf. Adrian Gully addresses the relationship between two important treatises on syntax and rhetoric from the eighth and sixth centuries AH respectively. Georges Bohas and Abderrahim Saguer consider the extent to which Arabic roots display a biliteral core which can be assigned a fairly constant semantic value. James Dickins provides an in-depth analysis of the system of verbal diatheses in Central Urban Sudanese Arabic. Werner Diem investigates the euphemistic use of the root lhq in its first and fourth forms to refer to death. Ronak Husni and Janet Watson analyse typical patterns of errors in Arabic essays written by English-speaking learners of Arabic. Finally, in a case study of the medieval translations of Aristotle's Poetics, Lutz Edzard and Adolf Kohnken look at the central status of Arabic for the transmission of Classical knowledge.
This book explores aspects of the Arabic Grammatical Tradition and Arabic Linguistics from both a theoretical and descriptive perspective. It also touches on issues of relevance to other disciplines, particularly Qur'anic exegesis and jurisprudence. The links between the fields of language and religion are historically strong in the Arabic and Islamic traditions as so much time and effort was spent by grammarians in interpreting the precise meanings of two of the main sources of Islamic jurisprudence - the Quran and Hadith. Prof Suleiman has assembled an international team of experts in this area and presents a thorough review of the sources and arguments. The book will be of interest to all students, researchers and teachers of Arabic Language and Culture.
The last decades have witnessed a major resurgence of interest in the Arabic grammatical tradition. Many of the issues on which previous scholarship focused - for example, foreign influences on the beginnings of grammatical activity, and the existence of grammatical "schools" - have been revisited, and new areas of research have been opened up, particularly in relation to terminology, the analytical methods of the grammarians, and the interrelatedness between grammar and other fields such as the study of the Qur'an, exegesis and logic. As a result, not only has the centrality of the Arabic grammatical tradition to Arab culture as a whole become an established fact, but also the fields of general and historical linguistics have finally come to realize the importance of Arabic grammar as one of the major linguistic traditions of the world. The sixteen studies included in this volume have been chosen to highlight the themes which occupy modern scholarship and the problems which face it; while the introductory essay analyses these themes within the wider context of early Islamic activity in philology as well as related areas of religious studies and philosophy.
The study focuses on a famous work by a mediaeval Arab grammarian who was once called the 'second Sibawayhi' (the pioneer of Arabic grammatical studies).
This volume establishes the importance of the large grammatical material found in the earliest Arabic dictionary, a unique contemporary of S bawaihi's Kit b (late 8th century). Aspects of the early Arabic grammatical tradition and the medieval adab literature depicting exemplary heroes of the past are involved in this study of authenticity of the source and its attribution.
