Abū ‘Abd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Ziyād, surnamed Ibn al-A’rābī ; a philologer, genealogist, and oral traditionist of Arabic tribal poetry. A grammarian of the school of al-Kūfah, who rivalled the grammarians of al-Baṣrah in poetry recital. He was famous for his knowledge of rare expressions and for transmitting the famous anthology of ancient Arabic poetry, Al-Mufaḍḍalīyāt. The meaning of the wordA'rābī, and its difference to the word Arabī, is explained by the exegete al-Sijistānī, in his book on rare Qur’ānic terms: A'rābī is a non-Arab desert inhabitant, whereas Arabī is a non-desert dwelling Arab.
Life
Ibn al-A‘rābī was born in al-Kūfah in 760. His father, Ziyād, had been captured from Sindh, probably by the Banū Hāshim, or possibly by the Banū Shaybān or some other tribe. He himself was a mawla of al-Abbās ibn Muḥammad ibn Alī ibn ‘Abd Allāh. He was said to have a cast. His mother had been a servant of, and later married, al-Mufaḍḍal ibn Muḥammad al-Ḍabbī, the author of Al-Mufaḍḍalīyāt, and as his stepson, Ibn al-A‘rābī received a broad education in the Ḥadīth, poetry, history, theology, genealogy and literature. The centres of scholarship in these fields encompassed by the term ‘philology’ were at al-Baṣrah, al-Kūfah, and later at Baghdād. Apart from al-Mufaḍḍal, Ibn al-A'rābī's principal tutor was the qāḍīal-Qāsim ibn Ma’n ibn ‘Abd al-Raḥmān. Abū Mu’āwiyah al-Ḍarīr, and al-Kisā’ī, also tutored him. Ibn al- A‘rābī became a scholar of the Arab tribes and of the poets of the Jahiliya and Islamic era, up to the beginning of the rule of the Banū al-‘Abbās. Other scholars were Abū ‘Amr al-Shaybānī, Khālid ibn Kulthūm, Muḥammad ibn Ḥabīb, al-Ṭūsī, and al-Aṣma’ī. His lectures were very popular and Abū al-Abbās Tha’lab, who was his student of ten years, reports that a hundred people typically attended his lectures, coming from as far afield as Isfījāb in Transoxiana, and from Spain. A glimpse into the setting for scholarly debate occurring at this time is indicated in an anecdote told by Tha‘lab, where a group of scholars, that included al-Sukkarī, Abū al-‘Āliyah and Ibn al-A'rābī, had assembled at the home of Aḥmad ibn Sa’īd. It appears that Aḥmad ibn Sa‘īd and Ibn al-A‘rabi were astonished, presumably impressed, by Tha‘lab’s precocious critique of a poem by al-Shammākh. Ibn al-A‘rābī quoted such Arabian linguistic authorities as al-Ṣamūtī, al-Kalbī, and Abū Mujīb. His pupils included Ibrāhīm al-Ḥarbī, Ibn al-Sikkīt, and Ibn al-Azhar. As a leading philologist, Ibn al- A‘rābī was critical of rival scholars of rare linguistic expressions, and in particular of Abū Ubaydah and al-Aṣma’ī. He proposed orthographic liberalisation and urged permissiveness in the substitution of the letter dād for the letter zā. Muḥammad ibn Ḥabīb, quoted Ibn al-A’rābī, along with Quṭrub, Abū ‘Ubaydah, Abū al-Yaqẓān, et al. Tha’lab and al-Ṭabarī wrote Ibn al-A'rābī's biography, while anecdotes about him and his philological commentaries were popular. Tha‘lab reports never seeing a book in his hand, even when he was over eighty years old. This was a huge tribute as scholars attached great importance to facility of memorisation. Tha'lab also claims no one surpassed Ibn al-A'rābī in his knowledge of poetry. Al-Nadīm read Ibn al-Kūfī ‘s account that Tha‘lab had heard him say he was born the nightAbū Ḥanīfah died. Al-Qāsim had met, and was an admirer of, Abū Ḥanīfah. Ibn al-A‘rābī died in 846, in Surra Man Ra’ā, , Iraq, aged eighty years, four months and three days.
Works
Among his books there were:
Kitāb Al-Nawadir ;, a large book; Rare Forms, which was quoted by a group of scholars among whom were al-Ṭūsī, Tha‘lab, and others —some say there were twelve and some say nine quotations ;
Al-Anwā’ Al-Anwā’;
Ṣifat al-Khayl ; ‘Description of the Horse’;
Ṣifat al-Zara’ ‘Description of the Palm ’;
Al-Khayl ‘Horses’;
Madh al-Qabā’il ‘Tribute of the Tribes’;
Ma’anī al-Sha’ir ‘Meaning of Poetry’;
Tafsīr al-Amthāl ‘Explanation of Similes’, or ‘Exposition of Proverbs’
Al-Nabāt 'Plants';
Al-Alfāz ‘Pronunciations ’ or ‘Vocabulary’;
Nisba al-Khail ‘Pedigrees of Horses’;
Nawadir al-Zabīrīyīn Rare Forms of the Inhabitants of Dabīr;
Nawādir banī Fakās ‘Anecdotes of the Banū Faq‘as;
Al-Dabāb – bi khaṭ al-Sukkarī ; ‘Flies' – copied in the handwriting of al-Sukkarī.
Al-A'rābī's importance as a philologist, or linguistic scientist, of the Arab language, and his milieu, can be estimated by the account given by the tenth-century bibliophile Al-Nadim, who writing about a hundred and fifty years after the death of Ibn al-A'rābī, describes visiting the library in the city of al-Ḥadīthah of Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn, known as ‘Ibn Abī Ba‘rah’, who had received a collection of ancient writings from a Shī’ī book-collector of al-Kūfah. Among the material on the sciences of Arabs and other nations, there were documents written on double parchment, deeds, ta‘līqāt, poems, papers on grammar, anecdotes, historical traditions, names, genealogies, etc., on adam skins and on paper from Egypt, China, Tihāmah, and Khurāsān; notes written in an ancient calligraphy by ‘Allān the Grammarian and al-Naḍr ibn Shumayl; and Ḥadīth authorities, such as Sufyān ibn ‘Uyaynah, Sufyān al-Thawri, al-Awzā‘ī.Of the scholars, whose handwritten notes on Arabic grammar and philological literature, and other ancient works, he lists are Abū ‘Amr ibn al-‘Alā', Abū ‘Amr al-Shaybanī, al-Aṣma’ī, Ibn al-A‘rābī, Sībawayh, al-Farrā’, al-Kisā’ī, Abū al-Aswad. Ibn al-A‘rābī transmitted the authorised edition of the Al-Mufaḍḍalīyāt, one hundred and twenty-eight poems, that begins with a poem of Ta’abbaṭa Sharran Thābit ibn Jābir, where others selected, extended, and reordered the poems.
