Ibn al-Sari al-Zajjaj

Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Sarī al-Zajjāj (Arabic: ابو اسحق ابرهيم محمد بن السرى الزجاج‎) was a grammarian of Basrah, a scholar of philology and theology and a favourite at the Abbāsid court. He died in 922[n 1][1] at Baghdād, the capital city in his time.[2][3][4]

Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Sarī (Surrī) al-Zajjāj
Bornc. 842
Died13 October 922(922-10-13) (aged 80)
Baghdad
Other names‘The Glassman’
OccupationGrammarian
Years activecaliph al-Mu’taḍid
Academic work
EraAbbāsid
School or traditionSchool of Baṣrah
Main interestsphilology, theology, philosophy, linguistics, natural science
Notable worksKitāb mā fassarahu min jāmi‘ an-nuṭq (كتاب ما فسّرة من جامع النطق); ‘Exposition of the "Compendium of Speech"’

Life

Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad al-Sarī (Surrī) al-Zajjāj had been a glass-grinder – al-Zajjāj means ‘the glassman’ - before abandoning this trade to study philology under the two leading grammarians, al-Mubarrad of the Baṣran school and Tha'lab of the Kufan school. As top student and class representative he advised al-Mubarrad. He studied “Al-Kitāb” of Sībawayh with the Baṣrah grammarian Abū Fahd.[n 2][5]

Al-Zajjāj entered the Abbāsid court, first as tutor to al-Qāsim ibn ‘Ubayd Allāh,[n 3] son of the vizier ‘Ubayd Allāh ibn Sulaymān ibn Wahb’s [n 4] and later, as tutor to the sons of the caliph al-Mu‘taḍid.

On his succession to the vizierate, Caliph al-Mu’taḍid ordered vizier al-Qāsim to commission an exposition of the Compendium of Speech by Maḥbarah al-Nadīm.[n 5] Both Tha’lab and Al-Mubarrad declined the project for lack of knowledge[8] and old age respectively. Al-Mubarrad proposed his friend and relative novice al-Zajjāj, who was commissioned to work on just two sections as a trial of his abilities. In doing his research he consulted books on language by Tha‘lab, al-Sukkarī, et al. He was assisted by al-Tirmidhī the Younger, as his amanuensis. The bound two-section commentary greatly impressed Caliph al-Mu’taḍid and al-Zajjāj was given the work to complete the commentary for the payment of three hundred gold dīnār. The finished manuscript was kept in al-Mu’taḍid's royal library, and the issuing of any copies to other libraries was prohibited.[n 6]

Winning the caliph's favour, he received a royal pension of three hundred gold dīnār from three official roles as court companion, jurist and scholar.[9]

Among al-Zajjāj's pupils were the grammarian Abū Alī al-Fārisī and Abū ‘l-Qāsim Abd ar-Raḥmān, author of the Jumal fi ‘n-Nawhi,[n 7] Ibn al-Sarrāj[11] and ‘Alī al-Marāghī[n 8] the rival of Abu al-‘Abbās Tha’lab.[n 9]

Al-Zajjāj had a dispute with al-Khayyāṭ,[15][16] a grammarian-theologian of Samarqand, whom he met in Baghdād.[17]

Al-Zajjāj died at Baghdād on 13 October 922 [Friday, 18th, or 19th, Jumada al-Akhirah 310 AH] - other sources give 924 and 928 [311 and 316 AH.], aged over eighty.

Selected Works
  • Kitāb mā fassarahu min jāmi‘ an-nuṭq (كتاب ما فسّرة من جامع النطق); ‘Exposition of the "Compendium of Speech". Ibn Khallikān describes this as "Extracts from his complete Treatise on Logic with his own commentary";[n 10] [2]
  • Kitāb ma’ānī al-Qur’ān (كتاب معانى القرآن), ‘Meaning of the Qur’ān’; tafsir (exegesis) of ambiguities, metaphors and figurative expressions.[18]
  • Kitāb al-Ishtiqāq (كتاب الاشتقاق); Etymology[n 11]
  • Kitāb al-Qawāfī (كتاب القوافى);[n 12]
  • Kitāb al-‘Arūḍ (كتاب العروض); Prosody
  • Kitāb al-farqu (كتاب الفرق); Differentiation[n 13]
  • Kitāb kulq al-Insān (كتاب خلق الانسان); The nature of Man
  • Kitāb kulq al-faris (كتال خلق الفرس); The nature of the Horse
  • Kitāb mukhtaṣir nuḥw (كتاب مختصر نحو); Abridgment of Grammar
  • Kitāb Fa‘altu wa-Af‘altu (كتاب فعلت وافعلت); on the first and fourth Arabic verb forms
  • Kitāb mā yunṣarif wa-mā lā yunṣarif (كتاب ما ينصرف وما لا ينصرف); ‘What Is Inflected and What Is Not Inflected’[n 14]
  • Kitāb ṣahr abyāt Sībawayh (كتاب شرح ابيات سيبويه); Commentary on the verses in the grammar of Sībawayh;
  • Kitāb an-nawādir (كتاب النوادر); Book of Rare Forms. [19]
  • Book of Anecdotes;
  • Treatise on the influence of the constellation upon the weather[22][n 16]

Abū Alī al-Fārisī wrote a treatise in refutation of al-Zajjāj, titled Kitāb al-masā’il al-maslahat yurwiha ‘an az-Zajjāj wa-tu’raf bi-al-Aghfāl (كتاب المسائل المصلحة يرويها عن الزجاج وتعرف بالاغفال); the Aghfāl (‘Negligences’, or ‘Beneficial (Corrected) Questions’), in which he refutes al-Zajjāj in his book Maāni (Rhetoric).[23][24][25]

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See also
  • List of Arab scientists and scholars

Notes
  1. Al-Zubaydī gives his date of death as 316/928.
  2. Abū Fahd wrote a book about grammar titled "The Exposition".
  3. Al-Qāsim became vizier to both al-Mu’taḍid and his successor al-Muktafi, in whose reign he died. He was a skilled a politician.[6]
  4. Vizier to al-Mu’taḍid, and an able statesman, d. 901 (288 h.)
  5. Maḥbarah was the laqab (nickname) of Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā ibn Abī ‘Abbād, Abū Ja’far al-Nadim, the court companion of al-Mu’taḍid.[7]
  6. This library was destroyed probably in 945/46 when Aḥmad ibn Buwayh captured Baghdād and blinded caliph al-Mu’taḍid, who later died, perhaps from poisoning. However, the fact that Muḥammad ibn Isḥaq al-Nadīm writes that he, and his circle of scholars, had seen the manuscript on fine paper, suggests it may have escaped destruction.
  7. Abū ‘l-Qāsim Abd ar-Raḥmān was called al-Zajjājī after him.[10]
  8. Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn ‘Alī al-Marāghī was a scholar of philology and religion from the city of al-Marāghah at the time the capital of Maragheh County, East Azerbaijan Province, Iran. Although al-Marāghī stayed at al-Mawṣil, he was al-Zajjāj’ pupil. He wrote; "Abridgment of Grammar"; "Exposition and Interpretation of the Arguments of Sībawayh", [12]
  9. Perhaps this was al-Mubarrad Abū al-‘Abbās [13][14]
  10. Probably taken from al-Zajjāj’s treatise titled 'Jāmi al-munṭaq' (جامع المنطق), mentioned in Kaşf az-Zunūn ‘an 'asāmī ‘l-Kutub wa-l’fanūn, the biblio-bibliographical dictionary of Hajji Khalifa
  11. Khallikān calls this "Different treatises on etymology".
  12. Listed by al-Nadīm but not Ibn Khallikān
  13. Ibn Khallikān gives the title "Muslim Sects".
  14. Ibn Khallikān gives the title "On Nouns of the First or Second Declension"
  15. Dictates (امالي);[20][21][2] The last three titles are omitted by al-Nadīm.
  16. Hajji Khalifa remarks that a considerable number of works has been written on the subject.

References
  1. Zubaydī (al-) 1984, p. 112, §9 (#39).
  2. Ibn Khallikān 1843, p. 28, I.
  3. al-Nadīm 1970, pp. 77, 131—33, 135, 139, 178, 185, 187, 191.
  4. Zubaydī (al-) 1984, pp. 111-112, §9 (#39).
  5. al-Nadīm 1970, p. 185.
  6. Ibn Khallikān 1843, p. 29, n.4.
  7. al-Mas‘ūdī 1874, p. 205, viii.
  8. al-Nadīm 1970, p. 132.
  9. al-Nadīm 1970, p. 133.
  10. Ibn Khallikān 1843, p. 29, I.
  11. al-Nadīm 1970, p. 135.
  12. al-Nadīm 1970, p. 187.
  13. Ibn Khallikān 1868, p. 31, III.
  14. al-Ḥamawī 1907, p. 137, l. 15, VI (7).
  15. al-Suyūṭī 1909, p. 19.
  16. Zubaydī (al-) 1984, pp. 111-112, §9 (#38).
  17. al-Nadīm 1970, p. 178.
  18. al-Nadīm 1970, pp. 76-77.
  19. Flügel 1907, p. 661 (61).
  20. de Sacy 1829, p. 137.
  21. Flügel 1835, p. 427, I.
  22. Pococke 1806, p. 168.
  23. al-Nadīm 1970, p. 140.
  24. Flügel 1872, p. 658.
  25. Ibn Khallikān 1843, p. 381, I.

Bibliography
  • al-Ḥamawī, Yāqūt Shihāb al-Dīn ibn ‘Abd Allāh (1907). Margoliouth, D. S. (ed.). Irshād al-Arīb alā Ma'rifat al-Adīb (in Arabic). Leiden: Brill.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Zajjāji, ʻAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Isḥāq (1983). Hārūn, ʻAbd al-Salām Muḥammad (ed.). Majālis al-ʻulamāʼ (in Arabic). al-Qāhirah: Maktabat al-Khānjī.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
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