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 an Arab[2] grammarian who lived in
Basra and associated with the method of Arabic grammar of its linguists, and was a client of the
Qais tribe.[3]
His most notable students were:
Sibawayh,[4][5][6]Yunus ibn Habib,[5][7]Abu ʿUbaidah,
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.[8] Al-Akhfash was also one of the first linguists to contribute significantly to commentary and analysis of
Arabic poetry.[3] Additionally, he contributed to Arabic
philology as well as
lexicography, recording vocabulary and expressions of the
Bedouin tribes which had not previously been recorded.[9]
References
^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.
ISBN9780521522922
^Weipert, Reinhard (2009-06-01).
"al-Akhfash". Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE.
^
abMonique 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.
ISBN9789004215375
^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.
^
abSībawayh, ʻAmr ibn ʻUthmān (1988), Hārūn, ʻAbd al-Salām Muḥammad (ed.), Al-Kitāb Kitāb Sībawayh Abī Bishr ʻAmr ibn ʻUthmān ibn Qanbar, vol. Introduction (3rd ed.), Cairo: Maktabat al-Khānjī, p. 9
^M.G. Carter, Sibawayh, pg. 21. Part of the Makers of Islamic Civilization series. London: I.B. Tauris, 2004.
ISBN9781850436713