SOAS Research Online

Abstract

The thesis presents an edition of Imam al-Saghani's al-Takmilah, Part I accompanied by a critical introduction. The author had written al-Takmilah as a supplement to al-Jauhari's al-Sihah. He included quite a lot of articles, items, extra meanings of some words and expressions that were left out by al-Jauhari. While supplementing al-Jauhari's work he also made innumerable corrections of the various types of mistakes committed by the former, namely grammatical, linguistic, genealogical, poetical and in the citation of traditions. al-Saghani did not only concentrate on al-Jauhari's shortcomings but also corrected the errors of some of the early lexicographers. Such a campaign was waged by him in order to improve the usage of Arabic language. His chief concern was to interpret the words according to phonetic structure, in strict obedience to the grammatical rules and in harmony with the historical facts. The text consists of first four letters - Alif, Ba, Ta and Tha. The version is based upon four manuscripts, the variations of which have been indicated in the footnotes. Five appendices have been included in the text; one dealing with the letters, the other with the articles left out by al-Jauhari, the third with the quotations from Qur'an, the fourth with the traditions and the fifth with the poetical quotations. The introduction comprises three parts. Part A is mainly biographical. Part B is divided into three sections. Section I describes al-Saghani as a scholar and teacher with a brief reference to his prominent teachers and students, whereas Section II depicts him as an author. Section III discusses his position as a lexicographer with a fairly comprehensive account of his lexical works. In Part C a comprehensive survey of the book has been made. This is followed by an account of the MSS referred to.