Quṭrub the Grammarian


Abū Alī Muḥammad ibn al-Mustanīr, known as Quṭrub the Grammarian of al-Baṣrah, was a poet, a scientist, a scholar of Qur'anic exegesis and the leading philologist and linguist of his time. He wrote on a wide field of subjects and authored the first Kitāb al-Muthalath, of which several later and extended versions were produced. He died in 821/22.

Life

Quṭrub the Grammarian, Abū ‘Alī Muḥammad ibn al-Mustanīr, known also as Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad, or al-Ḥasan ibn Muḥammad; he studied under Sibawayh and the Baṣran philologists, rivals of the Kūfah school. Quṭrub, and later his son al-Ḥasan, taught the sons of Abū Dulaf al-Qāsim ibn Īsā.
Quṭrub was a native of Baṣrah and a mawlā of Salīm ibn Ziād. The polymath Muḥammad ibn Ḥabīb quoted Quṭrub along with Ibn al-A‘rābī, Abū ‘Ubaydah, Abū al-Yaqẓān, et al, who were among the scholars of genealogy, historical tradition, language, poetry and the tribes. The ḥāfiẓ of Baghdād Hārūn Ibn ‘Alī al-Munajjim, of the famous Munajjim family, included verses by Quṭrub in his Kitāb al-Bārī.

Works

Among his written books were: