Quṭrub the Grammarian

Abū Alī Muḥammad ibn al-Mustanīr (أبو علي محمد بن المستنير), known as Quṭrub the Grammarian of al-Baṣrah, was a poet, a scientist, a scholar of Qur'anic exegesis (tafsir) and the leading philologist and linguist of his time. He wrote on a wide field of subjects and authored the first Kitāb al-Muthalath[1] ('Ternary'), of which several later and extended versions were produced. He died in 821/22 (206 AH).[2]

Quṭrub the Grammarian
Born
al-Baṣrah, Iraq
Died821
Baghdād, Iraq
Other namesAbū Alī Muḥammad ibn al-Mustanīr (ابو على محمد بن المستنير); Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad; al-Ḥasan ibn Muḥammad
Academic background
InfluencesSibawayh
Academic work
EraAbbasid Caliphate
School or traditionBaṣrah school of grammar
Notable worksKitāb al-Muthalath (The Ternary), tafsir

Life

Quṭrub[n 1] the Grammarian, Abū ‘Alī Muḥammad ibn al-Mustanīr, known also as Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad, or al-Ḥasan ibn Muḥammad[3]; he studied under Sibawayh[n 2][4] and the Baṣran philologists, rivals of the Kūfah school. Quṭrub, and later his son al-Ḥasan, taught the sons of Abū Dulaf al-Qāsim ibn Īsā.

Quṭrub was a native of Baṣrah and a mawlā (apprentice) of Salīm ibn Ziād. The polymath Muḥammad ibn Ḥabīb (d.859/860) [5] quoted Quṭrub along with Ibn al-A‘rābī, Abū ‘Ubaydah, Abū al-Yaqẓān, et al, who were among the scholars of genealogy, historical tradition, language, poetry and the tribes.[5] The ḥāfiẓ of Baghdād Hārūn Ibn ‘Alī al-Munajjim, of the famous Munajjim family, included verses by Quṭrub in his Kitāb al-Bārī. [3]

Works[6]

Among his written books were:

  • Ma’ānī al-Qur’ān (كتاب معانى القرآن) ‘Meaning of the Qur’ān’; (rhetorical figures of the Qur’ān) [7]
  • Kitāb al-Ishtiqāq (كتاب الاشتقاق) 'Derivations' (Etymology);
  • Kitāb al-Qawāfī (كتاب القوافى) (treatise on Rhymes);
  • Kitāb al-Nawādir (كتاب النوادر) 'Rare Forms' (book of anecdotes);
  • Kitāb al-Azmina (كتاب الازمنة) 'Periods' (Seasons);
  • Kitāb al-Muthalath[n 3] [10] (كتاب المثلث) The Ternary ‘Triple’;[n 4]
  • Kitāb al-Farq (كتاب الفرق) 'Distinguishing' (anthropological and zoological anatomical terms);[11][12]
  • Kitāb al-Aswāt (كتاب الاصوات) 'Voices' (Interjections);
  • Kitāb al-Sifāt (كتاب الصفات) 'Epithets' (Adjectives, Attributes);
  • Kitāb al-‘Ilal fī al-Nahwī (كتاب العلل في النحو) 'The Weak Letters in Grammar';
  • Kitāb al-Adhdād (كتاب الاضداد) 'Antonyms';
  • Kitāb al-Khulq al-Faras (كتاب خلق الفرس) 'Nature of the Horse';
  • Kitāb al-Khulq al-Insān (كتاب خلق الانسان) 'Nature of Man';
  • Kitāb al-Khulq Gharīb al-Ḥadīth (كتاب غريب الآثار) 'Rare Expressions in the Ḥadīth';[n 5][13]
  • Kitāb al-Radd ‘alā ‘l-Mulhidīn fī Mutashābu ‘l-Qur’ān (كتاب الردّ على الملحدين في متشابة القرآن) 'Refutation of the Heretics, about the metaphorical (anthropomorphic) interpretations in the Qur’ān';[14]
  • Kitāb al-Hamza (كتاب الهمز) 'The Letter Hamza';
  • Kitāb al-Fa‘ala wa-Af‘ala (كتاب فعل وافعل) 'Verbs in First and Fourth Class';
  • Kitāb I’rāb al-Qur’ān (كتاب اعراب القرآن) 'Inflection (Declension) of the Qur’ān'. [n 6]
  • Kitāb fī al-Anwā’ (كتاب في الانواء) 'Al-Anwā’' [15]

Bibliography
  • Flügel, Gustav (1862). Die Grammatischen Schulen der Araber (in German). Leipzig: Brockhaus. p. 65.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Khallikān (Ibn), Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad (1868). Ibn Khallikān’s Biographical Dictionary (translation of Wafayāt al-A’yān wa-Anbā’). III. Translated by MacGuckin de Slane. London: Oriental Translation Fund of Britain and Ireland. p. 29-30.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Nadīm (al-), Abū al-Faraj Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq Abū Ya’qūb al-Warrāq (1970). Dodge, Bayard (ed.). The Fihrist of al-Nadim; a tenth-century survey of Muslim culture. New York & London: Columbia University Press.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Vilmar, Eduard (1856), De Qutrubo, antiquissimo Arabum lexicographo commentatio adiecta carminis de vocibus Tergiminis, quod ad illum auctorem refertur e codicibus manuscriptis editi (Thesis/dissertation) (in Latin), MarburgCS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Vilmar, Eduard (1857). Carmen de vocibus tergeminis Arabicis ad Qutrubum : auctorem relatum e codicibus manuscriptis (in Latin). Marburgi Cattorum.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
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See also
  • List of Arab scientists and scholars

Notes
  1. Quṭrub: field-mouse; owl; water insect; elf or goblin.
  2. Sībawayh nicknamed him ‘Quṭrub’ as he came earliest to class.
  3. Al-Muthalath or the Ternary a philological treatise from which Ibn al-Sīd al-Baṭalyawsī [8] Tibrīzi (Tauris) wrote extended versions. Also attributed to Abū al-Abbās Thalab. [9]
  4. Three consonants, three dots, or some other meaning connected with linguistics.
  5. On unusual colloquialisms in the Ḥadīth; ‘’See’’ notes Bayard Dodge (ed.); Fihrist, I, 190, n88.
  6. This title is omitted in the Beatty MS.

References
  1. Quṭrub, Muḥammad ibn al-Mustanīr (2012), Kitāb al-Muthallath, Middle Eastern Manuscripts Online 2: The Ottoman Legacy of Levinus Warner (in Arabic and Turkish), Leiden University Library: BrillCS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  2. Nadīm (al-) 1970, p. 1081.
  3. Khallikān (Ibn) 1868, p. 30, III.
  4. Flügel 1862, p. 65.
  5. Nadīm (al-) 1970, p. 234.
  6. Nadīm (al-) 1970, p. 115.
  7. Nadīm (al-) 1970, p. 76.
  8. Khallikān (ibn) 1843, p. 61, II.
  9. Khallikān (ibn) 1843, p. 65, 84, II.
  10. Khallikān (ibn) 1843, p. 63, II.
  11. Quṭrub, Muḥammad ibn al-Mustanīr (1988). Laʻṭiya, Ḫalīl Ibrāhīm (ed.). Kitāb Al-farq fī l-luġa (in Arabic). Al-Qāhira: Maktabat al-T̲aqāfa al-Dīnīya.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  12. Quṭrub, Muḥammad ibn al-Mustanīr (1995). Tamīmī, Ṣubayḥ (ed.). Kitāb al-Farq (in Arabic) (2 ed.). Bayrūt,Lubnān: Muʼassasat al-Ashraf.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  13. Nadīm (al-) 1970, p. 190.
  14. Nadīm (al-) 1970, p. 83.
  15. Nadīm (al-) 1970, p. 191.
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