SOAS Research Online

Abstract

I wish to begin by paying tribute to the figure of cImad al-Din Yahya Ibn Hamz, the renowned Zaidi scholar and Imam (669-750AH). He greatly enriched the canon of Islamic studies with his output, in particular with his major work on Arabic grammar entitled al-Hasir li Fawa' id al-Muqaddima li Tahir, which constitutes the subject of this thesis. Al-Hasir li Fawa'id al-Muqaddima li Tahir is, in effect, an extensive commentary on the short grammatical treatise of al-Muqaddima al-Muhsiba (or al-Muqaddima al-Nahwiyya) by the Egyptian grammarian Ibn Babshadh Tahir Ibn Ahmad al-Jauhari (d. 469AH). The commentary amounts to a detailed analysis of Ibn Babshadh's text providing an exhaustive and original treatment of most major aspects of Arabic grammar. I have divided the thesis into two parts. Part one, a study, consists of eight chapters. In the first chapter I discuss the Arabic manuscripts of al-Hasir, six copies of which I managed to obtain from various Islamic and Western institutions, as well as the method I followed in editing the text. In Chapter two I introduce the figure of the Imam Yahya, provide a short biography covering his childhood, education and his writing, and discuss his milieu from a political, social and cultural perspective including a comment on the origin of the Zaidi state in al-Yaman and the Rasulid dynasty there under which the Imam Yahya lived. In Chapter three I give a brief history of Arabic grammar and its development up to the time of al-Imam Yahya. In Chapter four I offer a short biography of Ibn Babshadh and his works, especially his principal work al-Muqaddima al-Muhsiba and its commentary Sharh al-Muqaddima al-Muhsiba the subject of Imam Yahya's revision under the title of al-Hasir, and cover also the major commentaries written on al-Muqaddima produced by the celebrated grammarian of the period under discussion. In Chapter five I discuss the Imam Yahya's orientation in Arabic grammar and his position with respect to the traditional grammatical school's (Basran, Kufan and Baghdadi). In Chapter six I discuss the subject and method in al-Hdsir. In Chapter seven I discuss the importance of the shawahid in Arabic grammar, as a source of the Imam Yahya's work in al-Hasir derived from the Qur'an, the Hadith, ancient Arabic poetry and prose, as well as shawahid by analogy. Chapter eight deals with the significance of al-Hasir as a work of Arabic grammar and presentation comparing with the work of al-Zamakhshari's al-Mufassal and the Shark al-Muqaddima al-Muhsiba by Ibn Babshadh. The second part of the thesis covers the Arabic edition of al-Hasir. It is based upon the oldest available manuscript and supplied with a full critical apparatus.