Niftawayh | |
---|---|
Title | The Grammarian |
Personal | |
Born | 858 or 864 |
Died | 935 (aged 76–77) |
Resting place | Kufa |
Religion | Islam |
Region | Mesopotamia |
Denomination | Sunni |
Jurisprudence | Zahiri |
Main interest(s) | Arabic grammar, Arabic literature |
Occupation | Linguist, Poet, Historian |
Muslim leader | |
Influenced by | |
Influenced |
Abu Abdillah Ibrahim bin Muhammad bin 'Urfah bin Sulaiman bin al-Mughira bin Habib bin al-Muhallab bin Abi Sufra al-Azdi (Arabic : أبو عبد الله إبراهيم بن محمّد بن عرفة العَتَكيّ الأزديّ) better known as Niftawayh, was a Medieval Muslim scholar. He was considered to be the best writer of his time, [1] in addition to an expert in Muslim prophetic tradition and comparative readings of the Qur'an. [2]
Niftawayh was born in Wasit in what is now Iraq. [3] His date of birth is most commonly held to be 858, though the year 864 has been suggested as well. [4] He spent most of his life in Baghdad, where he died on a Wednesday in the month of Safar just an hour after sunrise in the year 935. [5] He was buried at the gate of Kufa the next day. [4] His date of death carries some dispute as well, with some historians suggesting that he died in the year 936 on the same day as Abu Bakr Ibn Mujāhid.
He taught lexicography while in Baghdad. [5] [6] He wrote a history book which, according to his student Al-Masudi, was considered to be one of the most useful of the time. [1]
Ibn Khalawayh holds that Niftawayh was the only Muslim scholar with the first name Ibrahim who had a son named Abdullah. [4] According to Tha'ālibī, Niftawayh was called for two reasons. First, his knowledge of the Arabic language was unparalleled in his time, as was Sibawayh's during his. Niftawayh possessed an intense interest in Sibawayh's works in grammar, to the point where the former was even referred to as the latter's son. [4] Second, his complexion was of a very dark color and his appearance was compared to asphalt, known as "nift." [2] Thus, the words "nift" and "wayh" were combined and he was known as "Niftawayh al-Nahwi," or Niftawayh the grammarian.
Niftawayh was a follower of the Zahirite rite of Muslim jurisprudence, having been a student of Dawud al-Zahiri. [7] He rejected analogical reason not only as a means for deriving religious verdicts, but also as a poetic device. [8] None of his works on religious topics are known to have survived to the modern era. Alongside Muhammad bin Dawud al-Zahiri, the son of his teacher in jurisprudence, Niftawayh was also a student of the canonical Qur'an reciter Al-Duri. [9]
Niftawayh held very positive views of the fifth Abbasid Caliph Harun al-Rashid. [10] Niftawayh remarked on the caliph's support of theologians and artists, though he also noted that the caliph later regretted much of his own extravagance in regard to his court's spending. In contrast, he clashed with his contemporary Ibn Duraid, who had written the second dictionary of the Arabic language ever. [11] Niftawayh accused Ibn Duraid of merely plagiarizing the work of Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi, who had written the first Arabic dictionary, Kitab al-'Ayn. [12] [13]
Niftawayh was intensely disliked by the Mu'tazila, an ancient sect of Islam active during his life. While Sunnis and Mu'tazila were hostile to each other in general, Niftawayh's Zahirite views along with his methods in teaching grammar were, in the view of the Mu'tazila, of the "utmost ignorance." [14]
Abu Ali al-Kali quotes some verses which Niftawayh had written for an anonymous woman in Kali's own book al-Amali: [4]
Sibawayh, whose full name is Abu Bishr Amr ibn Uthman ibn Qanbar al-Basri, was a Persian leading grammarian of Basra and author of the earliest book on Arabic grammar. His famous unnamed work, referred to as Al-Kitāb, or "The Book", is a five-volume seminal discussion of the Arabic language.
Ibn Hazm was an Andalusian Muslim polymath, historian, traditionist, jurist, philosopher, and theologian, born in the Córdoban Caliphate, present-day Spain. Described as one of the strictest hadith interpreters, Ibn Hazm was a leading proponent and codifier of the Zahiri school of Islamic jurisprudence, and produced a reported 400 works, of which only 40 still survive.
Abu ‘Abd ar-Raḥmān al-Khalīl ibn Aḥmad ibn ‘Amr ibn Tammām al-Farāhīdī al-Azdī al-Yaḥmadī, known as al-Farāhīdī, or al-Khalīl, was an Arab philologist, lexicographer and leading grammarian of Basra in Iraq. He made the first dictionary of the Arabic language – and the oldest extant dictionary – Kitab al-'Ayn – introduced the now standard harakat system, and was instrumental in the early development of ʿArūḍ, musicology and poetic metre. His linguistic theories influenced the development of Persian, Turkish, Kurdish and Urdu prosody. The "Shining Star" of the Basran school of Arabic grammar, a polymath and scholar, he was a man of genuinely original thought.
Abū Bakr Muhammad ibn al-Ḥasan ibn Duraid al-Azdī al-Baṣrī ad-Dawsī Al-Zahrani, or Ibn Duraid, a leading grammarian of Baṣrah, was described as "the most accomplished scholar, ablest philologer and first poet of the age", was from Baṣra in the Abbasid era. Ibn Duraid is best known today as the lexicographer of the influential dictionary, the Jamharat al-Lugha. The fame of this comprehensive dictionary of the Arabic language is second only to its predecessor, the Kitab al-'Ayn of al-Farahidi.
Abu al-Abbas Ahmad bin Abd al-Rahman bin Muhammad bin Sa'id bin Harith bin Asim al-Lakhmi al-Qurtubi, better known as Ibn Maḍāʾ was an Andalusian Muslim polymath from Córdoba in Islamic Spain. Ibn Mada was notable for having challenged the traditional formation of Arabic grammar and of the common understanding of linguistic governance among Arab grammarians, performing an overhaul first suggested by Al-Jahiz 200 years prior. He is considered the first linguist in history to address the subject of dependency in the grammatical sense in which it is understood today, and was instrumental during the Almohad reforms as chief judge of the Almohad Caliphate.
Abu Salma Hammad ibn Salamah ibn Dinar al-Basri, the son of Salamah ibn Dinar, was a prominent narrator of hadith and one of the earliest grammarians of the Arabic language. He was noted to have had a great influence on his student, Sibawayh.
Abu al-Khaṭṭāb ʻAbd al-Ḥamīd ibn ʻAbd al-Majīd, commonly known as Al-Akhfash al-Akbar was an Arab grammarian who lived in Basra and associated with the method of Arabic grammar of its linguists, and was a client of the Qais tribe.
Abu ʻAmr bin al-ʻAlāʼ al-Basri (Arabic: أبو عمرو بن العلاء; was the Qur'an reciter of Basra, Iraq and an Arab linguist.
Al-Kisā’ī (الكسائي) Abū al-Ḥasan ‘Alī ibn Ḥamzah ibn ‘Abd Allāh ibn ‘Uthman, called Bahman ibn Fīrūz, surnamed Abū ‘Abd Allāh, and Abū al-Ḥasan ‘Alī ibn Hamzah of al-Kūfah was preceptor to the sons of caliph Hārūn al-Rashīd and one of the ‘Seven Readers’ of the seven canonical Qira'at. He founded the Kufi school of Arabic grammar, the rival philology school to the Basri school founded by Sibawayh.
Abu Bakr Ahmad bin `Amr ad-Dahhak bin Makhlad ash-Shaibani, widely known as Ibn Abi Asim, was an Iraqi Sunni scholar of the 9th century. He is most famous for his work in the field of hadith science.
Dāwūd ibn ʿAlī ibn Khalaf al-Ẓāhirī was a Sunnī Muslim scholar, jurist, and theologian during the Islamic Golden Age, specialized in the study of Islamic law (sharīʿa) and the fields of hermeneutics, biographical evaluation, and historiography of early Islam. He was the eponymous founder of the Ẓāhirī school of thought (madhhab), the fifth school of thought in Sunnī Islam, characterized by its strict adherence to literalism and reliance on the outward (ẓāhir) meaning of expressions in the Quran and ḥadīth literature; the consensus (ijmāʿ) of the first generation of Muhammad's closest companions (ṣaḥāba), for sources of Islamic law (sharīʿa); and rejection of analogical deduction (qiyās) and societal custom or knowledge (urf), used by other schools of Islamic jurisprudence. He was a celebrated, if not controversial, figure during his time, being referred to in Islamic historiographical texts as "the scholar of the era."
Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Dawud al-Zahiri, Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Dāwūd al-Iṣbahānī, also known as Avendeath, was a medieval theologian and scholar of the Arabic language and Islamic law. He was one of the early propagators of his father Dawud al-Zahiri's method in jurisprudence, Zahirism.
Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Jamīl bin ʿAbd al-Ḥaqq bin ʿAbd al-Waḥīd bin Muḥammad bin al-Hāshim bin Bilāl al-Hāshimī al-ʿUmarī al-ʿAdawī, better known as Abū Turāb al-Ẓāhirī, was an Indian-born Saudi Arabian linguist, jurist, theologian and journalist. he was often referred to as the Sibawayh of his era due to his knowledge of the Arabic language. Al-Ẓāhirī’s contributions to Islamic jurisprudence, poetry, and biographical evaluation have left a lasting impact on the field. Born in Ahmedpur East, Punjab Province, British India, he later became a prominent figure in Saudi Arabia, where he taught Muslim theology at Mecca’s Masjid al-Haram. His extensive travels in pursuit of Islamic manuscripts and his scholarly works have cemented his legacy as a distinguished scholar and author.
Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Abi Nasr Futuh ibn Abd Allah ibn Futuh ibn Humayd ibn Yasil, most commonly known as al-Humaydi Al-saboni, was an Andalusian scholar of history and Islamic studies of Arab origin.
Abu al-Fadl Muhammad ibn Tahir ibn Ali al-Qaysarani, known simply as Ibn Tahir, was an Islamic scholar, historian and traditionist. He is largely credited with being the first to delineate and define the Six Books of Sunni Islam after the Qur'an, and the first person to include Sunan Ibn Maja as a canonical work.
Abdallāh ibn Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad, better known as Ibn al-Mughallis, was a medieval Arab Muslim theologian and jurist.
Abu Muhammad Ruwaym bin Ahmad was an early Muslim jurist, ascetic, saint and reciter of the Qur'an. He was one of the second generation of practitioners of Sufism (tasawwuf).
Abu Muhammad Abd Allah bin Muhammad bin Qasim bin Hilal bin Yazid bin 'Imran al-'Absi al-Qaysi was an early Muslim jurist and theologian.
The Ẓāhirī school or Zahirism is a Sunnī school of Islamic jurisprudence founded in the 9th century by Dāwūd al-Ẓāhirī, a Muslim scholar, jurist, and theologian of the Islamic Golden Age. It is characterized by strict adherence to literalism and reliance on the outward (ẓāhir) meaning of expressions in the Quran and ḥadīth literature; the consensus (ijmāʿ) of the first generation of Muhammad's closest companions (ṣaḥāba), for sources of Islamic law (sharīʿa); and rejection of analogical deduction (qiyās) and societal custom or knowledge (urf), used by other schools of Islamic jurisprudence, although the Anti-Hazm wing of Zahiris usually accept Religious inference.
Abu ‘Amr Hafs Ibn ‘Umar Ibn ‘Abd al-‘Aziz al-Baghdadi, better known as Al-Duri, was a significant figure in the transmission of the Qira'at, or methods of reciting the Qur'an. Of the seven canonical reciters, al-Duri was a transmitter for two entirely separate methods: that of Abu 'Amr ibn al-'Ala' and that of Al-Kisa'i. He was a direct disciple of the latter and an indirect disciple of the former due to a generational gap. al-Duri transmits Abu 'Amr's recitation through Abu Muhammad Yahya ibn al-Mubarak ibn a-Mughirah al-Yazidi. Learned men were said to have travelled from different countries to learn both Qur'an recitation as well as Hadith from him. Among his students in recitation were Muhammad bin Dawud al-Zahiri and Niftawayh.