Abu al-Khaṭṭāb ʻAbd al-Ḥamīd ibn ʻAbd al-Majīd ( ar, أبو الخطاب عبد الحميد بن عبد المجيد; died 177 AH/793 CE), commonly known as Al-Akhfash al-Akbar ( ar, الأخفش الأكبر) was an Arab grammarian who lived in

Basra Basra ( ar, ٱلْبَصْرَة, al-Baṣrah) is an Iraqi city located on the Shatt al-Arab. It had an estimated population of 1.4 million in 2018. Basra is also Iraq's main port, although it does not have deep water access, which is han ...

and associated with the method of Arabic grammar of its linguists, and was a client of the Qais tribe.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 Bilal Orfali is a Lebanese scholar of Arabic language and literature. He currently serves as Sheikh Zayed Chair of Arabic and Islamic Studies at the American University of Beirut. He is considered an expert on Arabic prose and poetry, especially d ...

. Volume 63 of Studies in Semitic Languages and Linguistics.

Leiden Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wi ...

: Brill Publishers, 2011. His most notable students were:

Sibawayh Sibawayh ( ar, سِيبَوَيْهِ ' or ; fa, سِیبُویه‎ ' ; c. 760–796), 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 ...

Yunus ibn Habib Yunus ibn Habib ( ar, أبو عبد الرحمن يونس بن حبيب الضبي; died after 183 AH/798 CE) was a reputable 8th-century Arab linguist. An early literary critic and expert on poetry, Ibn Habib's criticisms of poetry were known, alo ...

, Abu ʿUbaidah,

Abu Zayd al-Ansari Abū Zayd Sa’īd ibn Aws al-Anṣārī (; died 830 CE/215 AH) was an Arab linguist and a reputable narrator of hadith. Sibawayh and al-Jāḥiẓ were among his pupils. His father was Aws ibn Thabit also a hadith narrator, while his grandfather ...

and Al-Asma'i. Al-Akhfash revised his student Sibawayh's famous ''Kitab'', the first book ever written on

Arabic grammar Arabic grammar or Arabic language sciences ( ar, النحو العربي ' or ar, عُلُوم اللغَة العَرَبِيَّة ') is the grammar of the Arabic language. Arabic is a Semitic language and its grammar has many similarities with ...

, and was responsible for circulating the first manuscripts after his student's untimely death.Khalil I. Semaan, ''Linguistics in the Middle Ages: Phonetic Studies in Early Islam'', pg. 39.

: Brill Publishers, 1968. Al-Akhfash was also one of the first linguists to contribute significantly to commentary and analysis of Arabic poetry. Additionally, he contributed to Arabic

philology Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as th ...

as well as

lexicography Lexicography is the study of lexicons, and is divided into two separate academic disciplines. It is the art of compiling dictionaries. * Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionaries. * Theoreti ...

, recording vocabulary and expressions of the Bedouin tribes which had not previously been recorded.

Ibn Khallikan Aḥmad bin Muḥammad bin Ibrāhīm bin Abū Bakr ibn Khallikān) ( ar, أحمد بن محمد بن إبراهيم بن أبي بكر ابن خلكان; 1211 – 1282), better known as Ibn Khallikān, was a 13th century Shafi'i Islamic scholar w ...

's Biographical Dictionary, vol. 2, pg. 244. Trns.

William McGuckin de Slane William McGuckin (also Mac Guckin and MacGuckin), known as Baron de Slane (Belfast, Ireland, 12 August 1801 - Paris, France, 4 August 1878) was an Irish orientalist. He became a French national on 31 December 1838. and held the post of the Princ ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

: Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland. Sold by

Institut de France The (; ) is a French learned society, grouping five , including the Académie Française. It was established in 1795 at the direction of the National Convention. Located on the Quai de Conti in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, the institute ...

and Royal Library of Belgium.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Al-Akhfash Al-Akbar 793 deaths Arab grammarians Medieval grammarians of Arabic Year of birth unknown 8th-century Arabs