Al-Mubarrad

Al-Mubarrad () (al-Mobarrad), or Abū al-‘Abbās Muḥammad ibn Yazīd (c. 826c. 898), was a native of Baṣrah. He was a philologist, biographer and a leading grammarian of the School of Basra, a rival to the School of Kufa. In 860 he was called to the court of the Abbasid caliph al-Mutawakkil at Samarra. When the caliph was killed the following year, he went to Baghdād, and taught there until his death.

A prolific writer, perhaps the greatest of his school, his best known work is ''Al-Kāmil'' ("The Perfect One" or "The Complete").

A leading scholar of Sībawayh's seminal treatise on grammar, "al-Kitab" ("The Book"), he lectured on philology and wrote critical treatises on linguistics and Quranic exegesis ( tafsir). He is said to be the source of the story of Shahrbanu or Shahr Banu — eldest daughter of Yazdegerd III.

His quote to would-be students was:

:“Have you ridden through grammar, appreciating its vastness and meeting with the difficulties of its contents?"

Biography

Ishaq Al-Nadīm transmitted the written account of Abū al-Ḥusayn al-Khazzāz, who gives al-Mubarrad's full genealogical name: Muḥammad ibn Yazīd ibn ‘Abd al-Akbar ibn ‘Umayr ibn Ḥasanān ibn Sulaym ibn Sa‘d ibn ‘Abd Allāh ibn Durayd ibn Mālik ibn al-Ḥārith ibn ‘Āmir ibn Abd Allāh ibn Bilāl ibn ‘Awf ibn Aslam ibn Aḥjan ibn Ka‘b ibn al-Ḥarīth ibn Ka‘b ibn ‘Abd Allāh ibn Mālik ibn Naṣr ibn al-Azd, al-Azd said to be the son of al-Ghawth.

According to Sheikh Abū Sa‘īd al- Sīrāfī, Abū al-‘Abbās Muḥammad ibn Yazīd al-Azdī al-Thumālī l-Mubarradwas a protégé of the grammarians al-Jarmī, al-Māzinī, etc. He was descended from a branch of al-Azd, called the Thumālah. He began studying Sībawayh's ''Book'' with al-Jarmī, but completed it with al-Māzinī, whose linguistic theories he developed. In a citation from the book called ''Device of the Men of Letters'', al-Hakimi wrote that Abū ‘Abd Allah Muhammad ibn al-Qāsim called Al-Mubarrad a "Sūraḥūn", of al-Baṣrah. His origins were in al-Yaman, however his marriage to a daughter of al-Ḥafṣā al-Mughannī earned him the name ‘Ḥayyan al-Sūraḥī.’

Abū Sa’īd reports al-Sarrāj and Abū ‘Ali al-Ṣaffār that al-Mubarrad was born in 825-26 (210 AH)and died in 898-99 (285 AH), aged seventy-nine. Others said his birth was in 822-23 (207 AH). Al-Ṣūlī Abū Bakr Muhammad ibn Yahya said he was buried in the cemetery of the Kūfah Gate.

Al-Mubarrad related many anecdotes of the poets, linguists and satirists of his circle. In one such tale al-Mubarrad says

:“One day Abū Muḥallim al-Shaybānī said to me, ‘I had never seen a mortar among the nomads, so that when I came across one, I was disdainful of it.’”
He estimated that “Abū Zayd knew a great deal about grammar, but less than al-Khalīl and Sībawayh." He described al-Aṣma’ī as "equal to Abu ‘Ubaydah in poetry and rhetoric but more expert in grammar, although ‘Ubaydah excelled in genealogy."

In another tradition al-Mubarrad read a poem of the poet Jarīr to a student of al-Aṣma‘ī and Abū ‘Ubaydah, called al-Tawwazī, in the presence of the poet’s great grandson Umārah, which began:
::The dove was happy in the trees exciting me;
::For a long time may thou tarry in the branches and the forest verdure,
until he came to the line
::But the heart remaineth bound by longing
::For Jumanah or Rayya, the Barren Place (al-‘Āqir).
When ‘Umārah asked al-Tawwazī how his master Abū ‘Ubaydah would interpret “Jumanah and Rayyā”, al-Tawwazī replied, “The names of two women,” ‘Umārah laughed saying, ‘These two, by Allāh, are two sandy places to the right and left of my house!' When al-Tawwazi asked al-Mubarrad to write this explanation down, he refused out of respect for Abū ‘Ubaydah. Al-Tawwazī insisted that if he were present, Abū ‘Ubaydah, would accept Umārah’s interpretation, as it was about his own house.’

Works

* Meaning of the Qur’ān;
*Al-Kāmil (The Complete)
*The Garden;
*Improvisation;
*Etymology;
*Al-Anwā' and the Seasons;
*Al-Qawāfī;
*Penmanship and Spelling;
*Introduction to Sībawayh;
*The Shortened and the Lengthened Masculine and Feminine;
*The Meaning of the Qur’ān, known as Kitāb al-Tāmm (Entirety);
*Proving the Readings ethods of reading the Qur’ān
*Explanation of the Arguments of the “Book" of Sībawayh;
*Necessity of Poetry;
*The Training of an Examiner;
*The Letters in the Meaning of the Qur’an to “Ṭā' (Ṭ) Ha‘(H);
*The Meaning of the Attributes of Allāh, May His Name Be Glorified;
*Praiseworthy and Vile;
*Pleasing Gardens;
*Names of the Calamities among the Arabs;
*The Compendium (unfinished);
*Consolation;
*Embellishment;
*Thorough Searching of the “Book” of Sībawayh;
*Thorough Searching of “Kitab al-Awsaṭ" of al-Akhfash;
*Prosody- An Explanation of the Words of the Arabs, Rescuing Their Pronunciation, Coupling of Their Words, and Relating Their Meaning;
*How the Pronunciations of the Qur’ān Agree, Though Their Meanings Differ;
*The Generations of the Grammarians of al-Baṣrah, with Accounts about Them;
*The Complete Epistle;
*Refutation of Sībawayh The Principles of Poetry;
*Inflection (Declension) of the Qur’ān;
*Exhortation for Morality and Truth;
*Qaḥṭān and ‘Adnan he basic Arab tribes
*The Excess Deleted from Sībawayh;
*Introduction to Grammar;
*Inflection (Declension);
*The Speaker (The Rational Being);
*Superior and Distinguished;
Explanation of the Names of Allah the Almighty;
*The Letters;
*Declension (Conjugation).

Transcribers of al-Mubarrad

The copyists Ismā’īl ibn Aḥmad Ibn al-Zajjājī and Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad al-Shāshī were probably al-Mubarrad’s amanuenses.

Other contemporary grammarians wrote commentaries of lesser value on ''The Book of Sībawayh''.
Among this group were:
Abū Dhakwān al-Qāsim ibn Ismā’īl, who wrote “The Meaning of Poetry”;
Abū Dhakwān’s stepson Al-Tawwazī.
‘Ubayd ibn Dhakwān Abū ‘Ali, among whose books there were Contraries, Reply of the Silencer, Oaths (Divisions) of the Arabians,
Abū Ya‘lā ibn Abī Zur‘ah, a friend of al-Māzinī, who wrote A Compendium of Grammar (unfinished)

Al-Mubarrad‘s leading pupil al-Zajjāj became an associate of al-Qāsim, the vizier of the ‘Abbāsid caliph al-Mu‘taḍid (892-902), and tutor to the caliph’s children. When al-Mu’taḍid was recommended the book ''Compendium of Speech'' by Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā ibn Abi ‘Abbād, which was composed in the form of tables, the caliph ordered his vizier, al-Qāsim, to commission an expositionary commentary. Al-Qāsim sent first to Tha‘lab, who declined -offering instead to work on '' Kitāb al-‘Ayn'' of al-Khalīl- and then to al-Mubarrad, who in turn declined on grounds of age. Al-Mubarrad recommended his younger colleague al-Zajjāj for such a laborious task.
Al-Mubarrad had a close friendship with Ibn al-Sarrāj, one of his brightest and sharpest pupils. When al-Mubarrad died al-Sarrāj became a pupil of al-Zajjāj. Al Mubarrad taught Abū Muḥammad ‘Abd Allah ibn Muhammad ibn Durustūyah. and Abū al-Ḥasan ‘Alī ibn ‘lsā al- Rummānī, wrote a commentary on the “Introduction" (Al-Madkhal) (on grammar) of al-Mubarrad. Ibn al-Ḥā’ik Hārūn, from al-Ḥīrah, a grammarian of al-Kūfah, debated with al-Mubarrad. A conversation between al-Mubarrad and Ibn al-Ḥā’ik is related by al-Nadīm were al-Mubarrad says to Ibn al-Ḥā’ik, “I notice that you are full of understanding, but at the same time free from pride." Ibn al-Ḥā’ik replied, “Oh, Abū al-‘Abbas, it is because of you that Allāh has provided our bread and livelihood.” Then al-Mubarrad said, “In spite of receiving your bread and livelihood, you would be proud if you had a proud nature."

Al-Nadīm also relates a tradition from Abū ‘Ubayd Allāh that Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad had related that Abū al-‘Abbas Muhammad ibn Yazid l-Mubarradthe grammarian had said:
“I never saw anyone more avaricious for learning than al- Jāḥiẓ, al- Fatḥ ibn Khāqān, and Ismā’īl ibn Isḥaq al- Qāḍī (Judge). Whatever book came into the hands of al-Jāḥīẓ, he read it from cover to cover, while al-Fatḥ carried a book in his slipper and if he left the presence of Caliph al-Mutawakkil to relieve himself or to pray, he read the book as he walked and returned to his seat. As for Ismā’īl ibn Isḥaq, whenever I went in to him there was in his hand a book which he was reading, or else he was turning over some books so as to choose one of them to read.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Mubarrad
820s births
898 deaths
9th-century Arab people
9th-century Arabic-language writers
9th-century jurists
9th-century linguists
9th-century philologists
Scholars from the Abbasid Caliphate
Arab grammarians
Baghdad under the Abbasid Caliphate
Grammarians of Basra
Philologists of Arabic
Quranic exegesis scholars