Abu Jaʿfar an-Nahhas

Abu Jaʿfar An-Nahhas (أبو جعفر النحاس; died 949 / AH 338) was an Egyptian scholar of grammar and Qur'anic exegete during the Abbasid period. His full name was Abū Jaʿfar Ahmad Ibn Muhammad Ibn Ismail Ibn Yūnus al-Murādi, surnamed an-Nahhās "copper-worker" (a term for artisans who make brass vessels).

Life

Abu Jaʿfar An-Nahhas—whose full name was Abū Jaʿfar Ahmad Ibn Muhammad Ibn Ismail Ibn Yūnus al-Murādi, surnamed an-Nahhās "copper-worker" (a term for artisans who make brass vessels)—was born in Fustat, he studied in Baghdad under the foremost grammarians of the period like al-Zajjāj who familiarised him with the Kitāb by the famed grammarian Sībawayh (d. c.180/796). He also studied philology with ʿAlī b. Sulaymān al-Akhfash al-Aṣghar (d. 315/927) and Nifṭawayh (d. 323/935). He is the author of an influential work on abrogation, Al-Nasīkh wal-Mansūkh. He wrote a treatise on the grammatical analysis of the Qur'an and a grammatical primer known as "The Apple" (التفاحة at-Tuffāha), besides works on poetry, including a commentary on the Mu'allaqat.

Death

According to Ibn Khallikan, An-Nahhas was of extremely niggardly and avaricious character. He was killed as he was reciting poetry sitting on the banks of the Nile in Cairo, as a passing peasant thought he was uttering a charm to prevent the rise of the Nile, "so as to raise the price of provisions" and threw him into the river.

gollark: Are you casting things to floats too much?
gollark: Well, it's obvious, the file named fisible is unknown and something something unk random number equals other random number.
gollark: Also, laws are often about complicated issues which people have no idea about. Now, frequently the politicians will have no idea about them too, but in general having dedicated people able to take lots of time to learn about the issue is better than random people with lots of other stuff to do. Although it has other downsides.
gollark: I don't think I agree, having direct input would expose it to the whims of whatever random controversy has happened *more*.
gollark: And "oh bees [BAD THING] happened so now we must immediately respond to it in some stupid way".

References
    • Mac Guckin de Slane, (trans.), Ibn Khallikan's Biographical Dictionary, vol. 1, Paris, 1843, p. 81.
    • Louis Moréri, Le grand dictionnaire historique (1759), Abou-Giafar al Nahas
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