Editing Sibawayh

{{Short description|Persian grammarian from Basra (c.760–796)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2024}}
{{Infobox philosopher 
|  region          = [[Islamic philosophy]]
|  era             = [[Medieval philosophy]]
|  image      = Sibuye1.jpg
|  caption    = Entrance to Sybawayh's tomb in [[Shiraz]]
|  name             = Sybawayh<br />{{lang|ar|سيبويه}}
|  birth_date       = {{c.|760}}, [[Shiraz]], [[Persia]],{{sfn|Zubaydī (al-)|1984|loc=§6 (#22)|p=66}} Abbasid Caliphate
|  death_date       = c. 796,<ref>[http://web.mit.edu/CIS/www/mitejmes/issues/200310/br_lane.htm Mit-Ejmes]</ref> [[Shiraz]], [[Persia]] or [[Basra]], [[Iraq]], [[Abbasid Caliphate]]
|  school_tradition =  
|  main_interests   = [[Arabic]] and [[Persian language|Persian]]
|  influences       =  
<small>
[[Al-Khalīl ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi]]<ref name="harun">{{Citation|last=Sībawayh |first=ʻAmr ibn ʻUthmān |date=1988 | editor-last=Hārūn |editor-first=ʻAbd al-Salām Muḥammad |title =Al-Kitāb Kitāb Sībawayh Abī Bishr ʻAmr ibn ʻUthmān ibn Qanbar |edition=3rd | location=Cairo |publisher=Maktabat al-Khānjī |volume=Introduction | pages=7–12}}</ref>
<br />[[Hammad ibn Salamah]]<ref name="harun" />
<br />[[Al-Akhfash al-Akbar]]<ref name="harun" />
<br />[[Yunus ibn Habib]]<ref name="harun" />
<br />[[Qira'at#The Ten Readers & Their Transmitters plus the four aberrant readings|Ya‘qub Ibn Ishaq Ibn Zayd Ibn 'Abdillah Ibn Abi Ishaq]]<ref name="harun" />
<br />[[Sa'id ibn Aws al-Ansari]]<ref name="harun" />
</small>
|  influenced       =  [[Niftawayh]], [[Abu Turab al-Zahiri]]
|  notable_ideas    =  
}}

'''Sibawayh''' ({{langx|ar|سِيبَوَيْه}} {{IPA|ar|siːbawajh|IPA}} (also pronounced {{IPA|ar|siːbaweː(h)|IPA}} in many modern dialects) {{transliteration|ar|ALA-LC|Sībawayh}}; {{langx|fa|سیبُویه‎}} ''{{transliteration|fa|ALA-LC|Sēbūya}}'' {{IPA|fa|seːbuːˈja|}}; {{c.|760–796}}), whose full name is '''Abu Bishr Amr ibn Uthman ibn Qanbar al-Basri''' ({{lang|ar|أَبُو بِشْر عَمْرو بْن عُثْمَان بْن قَنْبَر ٱلْبَصْرِيّ}}, ''{{transliteration|ar|ALA-LC|'Abū Bishr 'Amr ibn 'Uthmān ibn Qanbar al-Baṣrī}}''), was a [[Persian people|Persian]]<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|title=Arabic Language iv. Arabic literature in Iran |last=Danner |first=V. |url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/arabic-iv |encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. II, Fasc. 3 |pages=237–243 | publisher=Encyclopaedia Iranica Foundation |year=1986 |quote=Persians have been prominent as well in the fields of Arabic grammar, philology, and lexicography. The greatest name in Arabic grammar belongs to the Persian Sībawayh (Sībūya) Bayżāwī (fl. 180/796), whose work, al-Ketāb (The book), remains to the present day the most authoritative exposition of Arabic grammar.}}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia|title=Basra |last=Donner |first=F.M. |author-link=Fred Donner |url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/basra |encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. III, Fasc. 8 | pages=851–855 |publisher=Encyclopaedia Iranica Foundation |year=1988 |quote=Some of these cultural figures were of Iranian descent, including the early paragon of piety Ḥasan al-Baṣrī; Sebawayh, one of the founders of the study of Arabic grammar; the famed poets Baššār b. Bord and Abū Nowās; the Muʿtazilite theologian ʿAmr b. ʿObayd; the early Arabic prose stylist Ebn al-Moqaffaʿ; and probably some of the authors of the noted encyclopedia of the Eḵwān al-Ṣafāʾ.}}</ref> leading [[Grammarians of Basrah|grammarian of Basra]] and author of the  Third book on Arabic [[grammar]]. His famous unnamed work, referred to as ''Al-Kitāb'', or "The Book", is a five-volume seminal discussion of the [[Arabic]] language.<ref>[[Kees Versteegh]], ''The Arabic Linguistic Tradition'', pg. 4. Part of the ''Landmarks in Linguistic Thought'' series, vol. 3. London: [[Routledge]], 1997. {{ISBN|9780415157575}}</ref>

[[Ibn Qutaybah]], the earliest extant source, in his biographical entry under ''Sibawayh'' simply wrote:
<blockquote>He is Amr ibn Uthman, and he was mainly a grammarian. He arrived in Baghdad, fell out with the local grammarians, was humiliated, went back to some town in Persia, and died there while still a young man.<ref>Michael G. Carter, ''Sibawayhi'', pg. 8.</ref></blockquote>

The tenth-century biographers [[Ibn al-Nadim]] and [[Abu Bakr al-Zubaydi]], and in the 13th-century [[Ibn Khallikan]], attribute Sibawayh with contributions to the science of the Arabic language and linguistics that were unsurpassed by those of earlier and later times.<ref name=":0">{{cite book|last=Ibn Khallikan |title=Ibn Khallikan's Biographical |translator-last=MacGuckin de Slane |translator-first=William |publisher=W.H. Allen |place=London |year=1868 |volume=2 |page=396 |url=https://archive.org/stream/ibnkhallikansbi00slangoog}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Meri |first1=Josef W. |title=Medieval Islamic Civilization, An Encyclopedia |volume=1 |date=January 2006 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-415-96691-7 |page=741 |quote=Of Persian origin, he attached himself in the middle of the second/eighth century to a number of early authorities on the Arabic language in Basra, notably al-Khalil ibn Ahmad and Yunus ibn Habib.}}</ref> He has been called the greatest of all Arabic linguists and one of the greatest linguists of all time in any language.<ref>Jonathan Owens, ''Early Arabic Grammatical Theory: Heterogeneity and Standardization'', pg. 8. Volume 53 of Amsterdam studies in the theory and history of linguistic science. Amsterdam: [[John Benjamins Publishing Company]], 1990. {{ISBN|9789027245380}}</ref>

==Biography==
Born circa 143/760, Sibawayh was from [[Shiraz]], in today's [[Fars province]], [[Iran]].{{sfn|Zubaydī (al-)|1984|loc=§6 (#22)|p=66}}{{refn|group=n|Versteegh gives Sibawayh's birth-place as [[Hamadan]]<ref name=ver58>Kees Versteegh, ''The Arabic Language'', pg. 58. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2001. Paperback edition of the 1997 first edition. {{ISBN|9780748614363}}</ref> in Western Iran, however neither [[Ibn Nadim]] nor [[Ibn Khallikan]], whose work seems based on the former's, mention his place of birth, and merely state he was Persian. Only Al-Zubaydī reports an ''akhbar'' (tradition) from Abū 'Alī al-Baghdadī that Sibawayh was born in a village near Shiraz.}} Reports vary, some saying he went first to [[Basra]], then to [[Baghdad]], and finally back to the village of al-Baida near Shiraz where he died between 177/793 and 180/796, while another says he died in Basra in 161/777.{{sfn|Khallikan (Ibn)|1843|p=397}}<ref name=":1">{{cite book|editor-last=[[Bayard Dodge|Dodge]] |editor-first=Bayard |translator-last=Dodge |translator-first=B |title=The Fihrist of al-Nadim A Tenth Century Survey of Muslim Culture |publisher=Columbia University Press |place=New York & London |year=1970 |volume=1 |pages=111–114}}</ref><ref name=":0"/>
His Persian nickname ''Sibuyeh'', arabized as ''Sībawayh(i)'', means "scent of apples" coming from the Persian root word ''sib'' meaning apple and reportedly refers to his "sweet breath."<ref>{{cite book|last1=Versteegh |first1=Kees |title=Landmarks in Linguistic Thought III: The Arabic Linguistic Tradition |date=1997 |publisher=Routledge |location=London |isbn=0-203-44415-9 |page=29}}</ref> A protégé of the [[Banu Harith]] b. Ka'b b. 'Amr b. 'Ulah b. Khalid b. Malik b. Udad,<ref>{{citation|last=Durayd |editor-last=[[Ferdinand Wüstenfeld|Wüstenfeld]] |editor-first=Ferdinand |editor2-last=Gottingen |editor2-first=Dieterich |title=Kitab al-Ishtiqaq (Ibn Doreid's genealogisch-etymologisches Handbuch) |year=1854| pages=155, 237}}</ref><ref>{{citation|title=Kitab al-Ishtiqaq (New edition) |editor='Abd al-Salam Muh. Harun |place=Cairo |publisher=Al-Khanji | year=1958}}</ref> he learned the dialects (languages) from Abu al-Khattab [[al-Akhfash al-Akbar]] (the Elder) and others. He came to [[Iraq]] in the days of [[Harun al-Rashid]] when he was thirty-two years old and died in Persia when he was over forty.<ref name=":1"/> He was a student of the two eminent grammarians [[Yunus ibn Habib]] and [[Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi]], the latter of whom he was most indebted.<ref>{{cite book|first1=Florentin |last1=Smarandache |first2=Salah |last2=Osman |title=Neutrosophy in Arabic Philosophy |page=83 |location=Ann Arbor, Michigan |publisher=American Research Press |year=2007 |isbn=9781931233132}}</ref><ref>[[Aryeh Levin]], "Sibawayh." Taken from ''History of language sciences: an international handbook on the evolution of the study of language from the beginnings to the present'', pg. 252. Ed. Sylvain Auroux. Berlin: [[Walter de Gruyter]], 2000. {{ISBN|9783110111033}}</ref><ref>[[Francis Joseph Steingass]], ''The Assemblies of Al Harîri: The first twenty-six assemblies'', pg. 498. Volume 3 of Oriental translation fund. Trns. [[Thomas Chenery]]. Williams and Norgate, 1867.</ref>

==Debates==
Despite Sibawayh's renowned scholarship, his status as a non-native speaker of the language is a central feature in the many anecdotes included in the biographies. The accounts throw useful light on early contemporary debates which influenced the formulation of the fundamental principles of Arabic grammar.

===The Question of the Hornet===
In a story from the debate held by the [[Abbasid Caliphate|Abbasid]] vizier [[Yahya ibn Khalid]] of Baghdad on standard Arabic usage, Sibawayh, representing the [[Grammarians of Basrah|Basra]] school of grammar, and [[al-Kisa'i]], one of the canonical [[Quran reading|Quran readers]] and the leading figure in the rival school of [[Kufa]],<ref>{{cite book|last1=Touati |first1=Houari |last2=Cochrane |first2=Lydia G. |title=Islam and Travel in the Middle Ages |year=2010 |publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-80877-2 |page=51}}</ref> had a dispute on the following point of grammar, which later became known as المسألة الزنبورية ''al-Mas’alah al-Zunbūrīyah'' ("The Question of the Hornet").

The discussion involved the final clause of the sentence:

: {{langx|ar|كُنْتُ أَظُنُّ أَنَّ ٱلْعَقْرَبَ أَشَدُّ لَسْعَةً مِنَ الزُّنْبُورِ، فَإِذَا هُوَ إِيَّاهَا.}}
: {{transliteration|ar|ALA-LC|kuntu ʾaẓunnu ʾanna l-ʿaqraba ʾašaddu lasʿatan min az-zunbūri, fa-ʾiḏā huwa ʾiyyā-hā.}}
: "I have always thought that the scorpion was more painful in stinging than the hornet, and sure enough it is."<ref>Kees Versteegh, ''The Arabic Language'', p. 64 in first ed., p. 72 in second ed.</ref>

Both Sibawayh and al-Kisa'i agreed that it involved an omitted verb, but disagreed on the specific construct to be used.

Sibawayh proposed finishing it with ''fa-'iḏā huwa hiya'' ({{lang|ar|فإذا هو هي}}), literally "and-thus he [is] she",<ref name="Carter 2004">{{cite book|first=Michael G. |last=Carter |title=Sibawayhi |page=13 |location=London |publisher=I.B. Tauris |year=2004 |isbn=1850436711}}</ref> using "he" for the scorpion (a masculine noun in Arabic) and "she" for "stinging, bite" (a feminine noun), arguing that Arabic does not need or use any verb-form like ''is'' in the present [[Grammatical tense|tense]], and that object forms like ''('iyyā-)hā'' are never the main part of a predicate.

Al-Kisa'i argued instead for ''fa-'iḏā huwa 'iyyā-hā'' ({{lang|ar|فإذا هو إياها}}), literally "and-thus he [does] onto-her", supporting the object pronoun ''-hā'' ("her") with the particle '''iyyā-''. The grammatical constructions of the debate may be compared to a similar point in the grammar of modern English: "it is she" vs. "it is her", which is still a point of some disagreement today.

To Sibawayh's dismay, al-Kisa'i soon ushered in four [[Bedouin]]s who had "happened" to be waiting near the door.<ref>Kees Versteegh, ''The Arabic Language'', p. 64 in first ed. (1997) or 72 in second ed. (2014), citing Ibn al-'Anbārī's '''Insāf'', pp. 292-5 in Weil's edition of 1913.</ref><ref>{{cite book|author-link=Franz Rosenthal |first=Franz |last=Rosenthal |title=A History of Muslim Historiography |page=245 |location=Leiden |publisher=Brill Archive |year=1952}}</ref> Each testified that ''huwa 'iyyā-hā'' was the proper usage and so Sibawayh's was judged incorrect. After this, he left the court,<ref name="Carter 2004"/> and was said to have returned in indignation to Shiraz where he died soon, apparently either from upset or illness.<ref name=":0"/>

A student of Sibawayh's, al-Akhfash al-Asghar (Akhfash the Younger), is said to have challenged al-Kisa'i after his teacher's death asking him 100 questions on grammar, proving al-Kisa'i's answers wrong each time. When the student revealed who he was and what had happened, al-Kisa'i approached the Caliph [[Harun al-Rashid]] and requested punishment from him knowing he had had a share in "killing Sibawayh."<ref>al-Qāsim Ibn-ʻAlī al- Ḥarīrī, ''The Assemblies of Al Ḥarîri: 1: containing the first 26 assemblies'', vol. 1, p. 499. Trns. Thomas Chenery. Williams and Norgate, 1867.</ref>

==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>

==See also==
*[[Abu al-Aswad al-Du'ali]]
*[[Arabic grammar]]

==Notes==
{{Reflist|group=n}}
{{notelist}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== Bibliography ==
{{Refbegin}}

*{{citation |editor-last=[[Bayard Dodge|Dodge]] | editor-first=Bayard | translator-last=Dodge | translator-first=B | title=The Fihrist of al-Nadim A Tenth Century Survey of Muslim Culture | publisher=Columbia University Press | place=New York & London | year=1970 | volume=2 
}}
* Brustad, Kristen, 'The Iconic Síbawayh', in ''Essays in Islamic Phililogy, History, and Philosophy'', ed. by Alireza Korangy and others, Studies in the History and Culture of the Middle East, 31 (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2016), pp.&nbsp;141–65 {{ISBN|9783110313727}}
* [[Carter, Michael G.]], ''Síbawayhi'' (London: Tauris, 2004)
*{{citation|last=Khallikan (Ibn)|author-link=Ibn Khallikan| title=Ibn Khallikan's Biographical | translator-last=[[William McGuckin de Slane|MacGuckin de Slane]]| translator-first=William | publisher=W.H. Allen | place=London |year=1843|volume=2|pages=396–9| url=https://archive.org/stream/ibnkhallikansbi00slangoog#page/n418/mode/2up}}
*[[Silvestre de Sacy|de Sacy, Silvestre]]. ''Anthologie grammaticale arabe''. Paris 1829.
*[[Hartwig Derenbourg|Derenbourg, H.]] (ed.) ''Le livre de Sibawaihi''. 2 vols. Paris 1881–1889. [reprinted: New York: Hildesheim 1970].
*Jahn, Gustav. ''Sībawaihis Buch über die Grammatik übersetzt und erklärt''. Berlin 1895–1900. [reprinted: Hildesheim 1969].
*Schaade, A. ''Sībawaihi’s Lautlehre''. Leiden 1911.
*ʻAbd al-Salām Hārūn, M. (ed.) ''Kitāb Sibawayhi''. 5 vols. Cairo 1966–1977.
*Owens, J. ''The Foundations of Grammar: An introduction to Medieval Arabic Grammatical Theory''. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company 1988. {{ISBN|90-272-4528-2}}.
*Al-Nassir, A.A. ''[[Sibawayh the Phonologist]]''.London and New York: Keegan Paul International 1993. {{ISBN|0-7103-0356-4}}.
*Edzard, L. "Sibawayhi's Observations on Assimilatory Processes and Re-Syllabification in the Light of Optimality Theory", in: ''Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies'', vol. 3 (2000), pp.&nbsp;48–65. ([https://web.archive.org/web/20060512150858/http://www.uib.no/jais/v003/edzard1.pdf PDF version] – No longer available; [https://web.archive.org/web/20060512144525/http://www.uib.no/jais/v003ht/edzard1.htm HTML version]; [https://web.archive.org/web/20051031233243/http://www.uib.no/jais/v003ht/03-048-065.htm HTML Unicode version])
*{{cite book|last=Zubaydī (al-)|author-link=Abū Bakr al-Zubaydī|first=Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan|title=Ṭabaqāt al-Naḥwīyīn wa-al-Lughawīyīn |editor-last=Ibrāhīm|editor-first= Muḥammad|place=Cairo|publisher=Al-Khanjī|orig-year=1954|year=1984|pages=66–72|section=§6 (#22)|language=Arabic |url=https://archive.org/details/WAQ42908}}{{Refend}}

==External links==
*[http://sydney.edu.au/arts/research_projects/sibawiki/homepage/ Sibawayhi Project] contains all significant printed editions of Chapters 1–7, 285–302, and 565-571 of the Kitāb, together with published translations into French and German.
*[http://www.al-eman.com/Islamlib/viewtoc.asp?BID=205 Sibawayh's ''Kitāb'' online] in [[Arabic]] at [https://web.archive.org/web/20060327211556/http://www.al-eman.com/default.asp al-eman.com].
*[https://waqfeya.com/book.php?bid=8349  Sibawayh's ''Kitāb'' online] in [[Arabic]] (1988, 5 vols., index, cover.)
*Download the ''Kitāb'' in scanned format from [https://archive.org/details/kitabsibawayh Internet Archive] or [http://ar.wikisource.org/wiki/تصنيف:كتاب_سيبويه:مطبوع Arabic Wikisource]
*[https://archive.org/details/sibawaihisbuchb01sbgoog Sibawaihi's Buch über die Grammatik nach der Ausgabe von H. Derenbourg und dem Commentar des  (1900)]
*[https://archive.org/details/buchberdiegram00amri Buch über die Grammatik (1895)]
*[https://archive.org/details/buchberdiegram01amri Buch über die Grammatik (1895)]

{{Wikisourcelang|ar|تصنيف:كتاب سيبويه:مطبوع}}

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