Editing Sibawayh (section)

==Legacy==
[[File:Sibuye2.jpg|thumb|left|Sibawayh's tomb in Shiraz.]]
Sibawayh's ''Al-Kitab'' was the first formal and analytical Arabic grammar written by a non-native speaker of Arabic, i.e. as a foreign language.  His application of logic to the structural mechanics of language was wholly innovative for its time.  Both Sibawayh and his teacher al-Farahidi are historically the earliest and most significant figures in respect to the formal recording of the Arabic language.<ref>Toufic Fahd, "Botany and agriculture." Taken from ''Encyclopedia of the History of Arabic Science, Volume 3: Technology, Alchemy and Life Sciences'', pg. 814. Ed. Roshdi Rasheed. [[London]]: [[Routledge]], 1996. {{ISBN|0415124123}}</ref> Much of the impetus for this work came from the desire of non-Arab [[Muslims]] for correct interpretation of the [[Quran]] and the development of ''[[tafsir]]'' (Quranic exegesis); The poetic language of the Qur'an presents interpretative challenges even to the native Arabic speaker.<ref name=ver58/> In Arabic, the final voiced [[vowel]] may occasionally be omitted, as in the Arabic pronunciation of the name ''Sibawayh'' where the name terminates as ''Sibuyeh''.  Discrepancies in pronunciation may occur where a text is read aloud (See [[Arabic diacritics#harakat|''harakat'']]); these pronunciation variants pose particular issues for religious readings of Qur'anic scripture where correct pronunciation, or reading, of God's Word is sacrosanct.

Later scholars of Arabic grammar came to be compared to Sibawayh. The name [[Niftawayh]], a combination of "nift", or [[Bitumen|asphalt]] – due to his dark complexion – and "wayh", was given to him out of his love of Sibawayh's works.<ref>Bencheikh, Omar. [http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-islam-2/niftawayh-SIM_5900 Nifṭawayh]. [[Encyclopaedia of Islam]], Second Edition. Brill Online, 2013. Reference. Accessed 1 January 2013.</ref> [[Abu Turab al-Zahiri]] was referred to as the Sibawayh of the modern era due to the fact that, although he was of Arab descent, Arabic was not his mother tongue.<ref>''Abu Turab al-Zahiri...Sibawayh of the Era''. [[Al Jazirah (newspaper)|Al Jazirah]], Monday, 27 October 2003.</ref>

===''Al-Kitāb''===
''Al-Kitāb''{{refn|group=n|Al-Nadim claims to have seen notes about grammar and language in Sibawayh's handwriting in the library of a book collector, Muhammad ibn al-Husayn ([[Abu Ba'rah]]), in the city of al-Hadithah – he may have been referring to a city near [[Mosul]] or a town on the [[Euphrates]].}} or ''Kitāb Sībawayh'' ('Book of Sibawayh'), is the foundational grammar of the Arabic language, and perhaps the first Arabic [[prose]] text. Al-Nadim describes the voluminous work, reputedly the collaboration of forty-two grammarians,<ref name=":1"/> as "unequaled before his time and unrivaled afterwards".<ref name=":1"/> Sibawayh was the first to produce a comprehensive encyclopedic Arabic grammar, in which he sets down the principles rules of grammar, the grammatical categories with countless examples taken from Arabic sayings, verse and poetry, as transmitted by [[Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi]], his master and the famous author of the first Arabic dictionary, "''[[Kitab al-'Ayn]]''", and of many philological works on lexicography, diacritics, poetic meter (ʻarūḍ), cryptology, etc.  Sibawayh's book came from flourishing literary, philological and [[tafsir]] (Quranic exegetical) tradition that centred in the schools of [[Grammarians of Basra|Basra]], [[Grammarians of Kufa|Kufa]] and later at the [[Abbasid Caliphate|Abbasid caliphal]] seat of [[Baghdad]].<ref name=ver55>Kees Versteegh, ''The Arabic Language'', pg. 55.</ref>
Al-Farahidi is referenced throughout ''Al-Kitāb'' always in the third person, in phrases such as "I asked him", or "he said".<ref>Introduction to Early Medieval Arabic: Studies on Al-Khalīl Ibn Ahmad, pg. 3. Ed. Karin C. Ryding. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 1998. {{ISBN|9780878406630}}</ref><ref>Kees Versteegh, ''Arabic Linguistic Tradition'', pg. 25.</ref> Sibawayh transmits quotes, mainly via Ibn Habib and al-Farahidi, of [[Abu 'Amr ibn al-'Ala'|Abu ʻAmr ibn al-ʻAlāʼ]] 57 times, whom he never met.<ref>Michael G. Carter, Sibawayh, pg. 19. Part of the Makers of Islamic Civilization series. London: I.B. Tauris, 2004. {{ISBN|9781850436713}}</ref> Sibawayh quotes his teacher [[Harun ibn Musa]] just five times.<ref>[[Kees Versteegh]], ''Arabic Grammar and Qurʼānic Exegesis in Early Islam'', pg. 161. Volume 19 of Studies in Semitic languages and linguistics. Leiden: Brill Publishers, 1993. {{ISBN|9789004098459}}</ref>

====Grammarians of Basra====
Probably due to Sibawayh's early death, "no one", al-Nadim records, "was known to have studied ''Al-Kitāb'' with Sibawayh," nor did he expound it as was the tradition.  Sibawayh's associate and pupil, Al-Akhfash al-Akbar, or al-Akhfash al-Mujashi'i, a learned grammarian of Basra of the [[Banu Mujashi]] ibn Darim, transcribed Sibawayh's ''Al-Kitāb'' into manuscript form.<ref name=sem>Khalil I. Semaan, Linguistics in the Middle Ages: Phonetic Studies in Early Islam, pg. 39. Leiden: Brill Publishers, 1968.</ref><ref>Monique Bernards, "Pioneers of Arabic linguistic studies." Taken from ''In the Shadow of Arabic: The Centrality of Language to Arabic Culture'', pg. 215. Ed. [[Bilal Orfali]]. Volume 63 in the series "Studies in Semitic languages and linguistics." Leiden: Brill Publishers, 2011. {{ISBN|9789004215375}}</ref><ref>{{citation| last=Qutaybah |first=Abu Muh. 'Abd Allah | editor-last=Wustenfeld | editor-first=Ferdinand | title=Kitab al-Ma'arif (Ibn Coteiba's Handbuch de Geschichte)| publisher=Vandenhoek und Ruprecht | year=1850| pages=36 line 19 to 37 line 17}}</ref><ref>{{citation| last=Qutaybah |first=Abu Muh. 'Abd Allah | editor-last=Wustenfeld | editor-first=Ferdinand |title=Kitab al-Ma'arif (Ibn Coteiba's Handbuch de Geschichte – New edition| publisher='Tharwat 'Ukashah | year=1960| place=Cairo }}</ref> Al-Akhfash studied ''Al-Kitāb'' with a group of student and grammarian associates including [[Al-Jarmi|Abu 'Umar al-Jarmi]] and [[Abu 'Uthman al-Mazini]], who circulated Sibawayh's work,<ref name=sem/> and developed the science of grammar, writing many books of their own and commentaries, such as al-Jarmi's "(Commentary on) The Strange in Sibawayh". Of the next generation of grammarians, [[Al-Mubarrad]] developed the work of his masters and wrote an ''Introduction to Sibawayh'', ''Thorough Searching (or Meaning) of "the Book" of Sibawayh'', and ''Refutation of Sibawayh''.<ref name=":1"/> Al-Mubarrad is quoted as posing the question to anyone preparing to read the ''Book'',
::"Have you ridden through grammar, appreciating its vastness and meeting with the difficulties of its contents?"<ref name=":1"/>
[[Al-Mabriman]] of [[al-'Askar]] Mukram and [[Abu Hashim]] debated educational approaches to the exposition of ''Al-Kitāb''.  Among Al-Mabriman's books of grammar was ''An Explanation of "the Book" of Sibawayh'' (incomplete).  Al-Mubarrad's pupil and tutor to the children of the Caliph [[al-Mu'tadid]], [[Ibn al-Sari al-Zajjaj|Ibn as-Sarī az-Zajjāj]]  wrote a ''Commentary on the Verses of Sibawayh'', focusing on Sibawayh's use of both pre- and post-Islamic poetry.  Al-Zajjaj's pupil, [[Abu Bakr ibn al-Sarraj]], also wrote a ''Commentary on Sibawayh''. In an anecdote about Ibn al-Sarraj being reprimanded for an error, he is said to have replied "you have trained me, but I've been neglecting what I studied while reading this book (meaning Sibawayh's ''Al-Kitāb''), because I've been diverted by logic and music, and now I'm going back to [Sibawayh and grammar]", after which he became the leading grammarian after al-Zajjaj, and wrote many books of scholarship. [[Ibn Durustuyah]] an associate and pupil of al-Mubarrad and [[Abu al-‘Abbās Tha’lab|Tha'lab]] wrote ''The Triumph of Sibawayh over All the Grammarians'', comprising a number of sections but left unfinished. [[Al-Rummani]] also wrote a ''Commentary on Sibawayh''.  [[Al-Maraghi]] a pupil of al-Zajjaj, wrote "Exposition and Interpretation of the Arguments of Sibawayh".<ref name=":1"/>

====Format====
Al-Kitāb, comprising 5 volumes, is a long and highly analytic and comprehensive treatment of grammar and remains largely untranslated into English. Due to its great unwieldiness and complexity the later grammarians produced concise grammars in a simple descriptive format suitable for general readership and educational purposes.<ref name=ver58/> Al-Kitāb categorizes grammar under subheadings, from [[syntax]] to [[Morphology (linguistics)|morphology]], and includes an appendix on [[phonetics]].<ref>Kees Versteegh, ''The Arabic Language'' (1997), pg. 74.</ref> Each chapter introduces a concept with its definition.<ref>Kees Versteegh, ''The Arabic Language'' (1997), pg. 77.</ref> [[Arabic verbs]] may indicate three tenses (past, present, future) but take just two forms, defined as "past" (past tense) and "resembling" (present and future tenses).<ref>Kees Versteegh, ''The Arabic Language'' (1997), pg. 84.</ref>

Sibawayh generally illustrates his statements and rules by quoting verses of [[Arabic poetry|poetry]], grabbing material from a very wide range of sources, both old and contemporary, both urban and from the desert: his sources range from [[pre-Islamic Arabia]]n poets, to later [[Bedouin]] poets, urban [[Umayyad Caliphate|Umayyad]]-era poets, and even the less prestigious and more innovative [[Rajaz (prosody)|rajaz]] poets of his time.<ref>Kees Versteegh, ''The Arabic Language'', page 65 in first ed. (1997), page 73 in second ed (2014).</ref>

Although a grammar book, Sibawayh extends his theme into [[Arabic phonology|phonology]], standardised pronunciation of the [[Arabic alphabet|alphabet]] and prohibited deviations.<ref name=ver55/> He dispenses with the letter-groups classification of al-Farahidi's dictionary.<ref>Kees Versteegh, ''The Arabic Language'' (1997), pg. 88.</ref> He introduces a discussion on the nature of morality of speech; that speech as a form of human behavior is governed by ethics, right and wrong, correct and incorrect.<ref>Yasir Suleiman, "Ideology, grammar-making and standardization." Taken from ''In the Shadow or Arabic'', pg. 10.</ref>

Many linguists and scholars highly esteem ''Al-Kitāb'' as the most comprehensive and oldest extant Arabic grammar. [[Abu Hayyan al-Gharnati]], the most eminent grammarian of his era, memorized the entire ''Al-Kitāb'', and equated its value to grammar as that of [[hadith]]s to [[Fiqh|Islamic law]].<ref name="encyclopediaislam">Encyclopedia of Islam, vol. I, A-B, pg. 126. Eds. [[Hamilton Alexander Rosskeen Gibb]], J.H. Kramers, [[Évariste Lévi-Provençal]] and [[Joseph Schacht]]. Assisted by [[Bernard Lewis]] and [[Charles Pellat]]. Leiden: Brill Publishers, 1979. Print edition.</ref>