Al-Farra'

For the 11th-century Persian hadith scholar, see al-Baghawi.

Al-Farrāʼ (الفراء), he was Abū Zakarīyāʼ Yaḥyā ibn Ziyād ibn ʽAbd Allāh ibn Manṣūr al-Daylamī al-Farrāʼ (أبو زكريا يحيى بن زياد بن عبد الله بن منصور الدَّيْلميّ الفراء), was a Daylamite scholar and the principal pupil of al-Kisā’ī (الكساءى). He is the most brilliant of the Kūfan scholars. Muḥammad ibn Al-Jahm^[1] quotes Ibn al-Quṭrub that it was al-Farrā’s melodic eloquence and knowledge of the pure spoken Arabic of the Bedouins and their expressions that won him special favour at the court of Hārūn al-Rashīd. He died on the way to Mecca, aged about sixty, or sixty-seven, in 822 (207 AH). ^[2]

Al-Farrāʼ (الفراء)
Born	761
Died	822
Other names	Abū Zakarīyāʼ Yaḥyā ibn Ziyād ibn ʽAbd Allāh ibn Manṣūr al-Daylamī al-Farrāʼ. (أبو زكريا يحيى بن زياد بن عبد الله بن منصور الدَّيْلميّ الفراء)
Academic background
Influences	Sībawayh, Al-Kisā’ī, Yūnus ibn Ḥabīb
Academic work
Main interests	philology, Arabic language, Bedouin poetry and idioms
Notable works	Al-Hudūd

Life

Abū Zakarīyah ibn Ziyād al-Farrā’ was born in al-Kūfah into a family of Iranian Daylamī origin.^[3] He was a mawla (client, or, apprentice) of the Banū Minqar (بنى مِنْقَر), although Salamah ibn ‘Āṣim said he was called al-‘Absī (العبسى), i.e. of the Banū Abs. Abū ‘Abd Allāh ibn Muqlah (ابى عبد الله ابن مقلة) claimed Al-Yūsufī ^{[n 1]} called him Yaḥyā ibn Ziyād ibn Qāwī-Bakht^{[n 2]} ibn Dāwar ibn Kūdanār. ^{[2] [4]} The main details of his life come from Tha‘lab (ابوالعباس ثعلب) who quotes Aḥmad ibn Yaḥyā saying: “If the expression spoils the meaning it is not the words of the Bedouin Arabs, or ‘pure’. But al-Farrā’ says it correctly because he based Arabic and grammar on the spoken language of the Arabs. He (al-Farrā) said: When the expression agrees with its meaning, the expression is correct. Sībawayh errs because his etymological work is not founded in the expressions of the 'Desert Arabs' (Bedouin) and is without knowledge of their oral language and their poems, but instead relies on the poems of the urban Arabs and the pharaohs and applies the expression to the meaning.” Al-Farrā’ was said to be called Farrā’ because he was 'free to speak'.

He knew the grammarians of al-Kūfah after the time of al-Kisā’ī's, whom he adopted. The Kūfans claimed that he borrowed much from Yūnus ibn Habīb^[6] but this was denied by the Baṣrans. He loved to speak and yet was retiring and pious. He was a zealous adherent of Sībawayh, writing under his leadership. In his Al-Hudud he used philosophical terminology.

Tha'lab relates that al-Farrā’s was a friend of ‘Umar ibn Bukayr (عمر بن بكير), the preceptor to the vizier of the caliph Al-Ma'mūn, who was called Āmir al-Ḥasan ibn Sahl (الحسن بن سهل). Al-Farrā taught in the mosque next to his house. Umar approached him for exegetic advice on teaching Qur'ānic studies to the vizier, and so al-Farrā' dictated the book Ma‘ānī aI-Qur’ān for his students to copy out.^[8] At the request of the caliph al-Ma'mun he dictated his Kitāb al-Ḥudūd (كتاب الحدود), 'Classifications' (in poetry and grammar), as a project to instruct the students of al-Kisā’ī. Over the sixteen year period it took to complete, a muezzin reader read while al-Farrā’ explained the entire Qur’ān. He continued dictating long after most students had lost interest and only two remained. ^[9] Instruction without recourse to a text book was a good proof of memory and the mark of a great scholar. Tha'lab makes a point of saying that al-Farrā’ was only once seen with a book and that was his dictation from a manuscript of the chapter ‘Mulāzim’.^{[n 3]} A neighbour of Al-Farrā’s, named al- Wāqidī (الواقدى), remarked on al-Farrā’ particular use of philosophical terms in his literary dictations. Al-Farrā’ lived most of his life at Baghdād^[9] and was very frugal, and even hunger did not concern him. He spent forty days annually at al-Kūfah, his native town, and distributed most of his considerable earnings from teaching among his people.^[10]

His father Ziad had his hand cut off in the war with Abī Tharwan and Abū Tharwan the mawla of the Banū Abs. Ibn al-Nadīm lists Al-Farrā's associates as Ibn Qādim^{[n 4][11]} and Salamah ibn Āṣim, who was with him in his final illness, when his mind had gone. Those who quoted him listed by Suyūṭī were; Qais ibn al-Rabī, Mandal ibn ‘Alī al-Kisā’ī, Salamah ibn Āṣim and Muḥammad ibn Jahm al-Samari, who transmitted his books.^[4]

Salamah ibn Āṣim said it was al-Ṭuwāl (الطوال) who preserved his only extant poetry in some verses quoted by Abū Ḥanīfah al-Dīnawarī (ابو حنيفة الدونورى):

Oh, governor over a jarīb of land^{[n 5]}, with nine doorkeepers, ^{[n 6][12]}

Seated in the midst of a ruin, in which he is served by a doorkeeper,

Never before have we heard of the doorkeeper of a ruin;

Eyes shall not disclose me to you at a door,

For one like me does not endure the repulse of doorkeepers.

— Nadīm (al-), 1970

Works

• Al-'a’rāb fī Aswal al-‘Arabīya (حدّ الاعراب في اصول العربيّة) ‘The Arabians, about Arabic Roots’;
• Al-Naṣb al-Mutwallad min al-Fa’al (حدّ النصب المتولّد من الفعل) ‘Al-Naṣb [form of relation] Derived from the Verb’;
• Al-Ma’rifat wa-l-Nakira (حدّ المعرفة والنكرة) ‘The Definite and the Indefinite’;
• Min wa-Rubb (حدّ من ورب) “‘From’ and ‘Perhaps’”;^{[n 7]}
• Al-‘Adad (حدّ العدد) ‘Numbers’;
• Mulāzamah wa-Ḥall (حدّ ملازمة وحل) ‘Invariable and Variable’;^{[n 8]}
• ‘Al-‘Imād (حدّ العماد) ‘Pronoun between subject and predicate’;
• Al-fi’l al-Wāqi‘ (حدّ الفعل الواقع) ‘The Transitive Verb’;
• Inna wa 'Akhwatuha (حدّ ان وأخواتها) ‘"Inna" [a particle] and Its Sister Particle’;
• Kay wa-Kay-la (حدّ كى وكيلا) “‘In Order that’ and ‘Lest’”;
• Ḥattā (حدّ حتى) “‘Until,’ ‘So That’”;
• Al-Ighrā' (حدّ الاغراء) ‘Instigating’;
• Al-Du‘ā’ (حدّ الدعاء) ‘Calling, Addressing [as in prayer]’;
• Al-Nūnīn al-shadīdat wa-l-Khafīfa (حدّ النونين الشديدة والخفيفة) ‘The Two Forms of Nūn (N), Heavy and Light; ^{[n 9]}
• Al-Istifhām (حدّ الاستفهام) ‘Interrogation’;
• Al-Jazā’ (حدّ الجزاء) ‘Division’;
• Al-Jawāb (حدّ الجواب) ‘The Answer’;
• Alladhī, Man, wa-Mā (حدّ الذى ومن وما) “‘Who,’ ‘Who?,’ and ‘What’”;
• Rubb wa-Kam (حدّ ربّ وكم) ‘‘Perhaps’ and ‘How Many?’’;
• Al-Qasam (حدّ القسم) ‘The Oath’;
• Tanawīya wa-l-muthannā (حدّ الثنوية والمثنى) ‘Double and Dual’;^{[n 10]}
• Al-Nidā’ (حد النداء) ‘The Call’ (Proclamation).
• Al-Nudba (حدّ الندبة) ‘The Elegy’;
• Al-Tarkhīm (حدّ الترخيم) ‘Dropping the last letter of a noun’;
• An al-Maftūḥa (حدّ ان المفتوحة) ‘An (‘That') Spelled with Alif (open)’
• Idh, Idhā, and Idhan (حدّ اذ واذَا واذًا) ‘forms of ‘if’’;
• Ma lam yasm fā’ilhu (حدّ ما لم يسمّ فاعله) ‘What Does Not Mention Its Subject’;
• Law (لو) ‘"If", or "Notwithstanding", in Construction and Separate’;^{[n 11]}
• Al-Ḥikāya (حدّ الحكاية) ‘Narrative’;
• Al-Taṣghīr(حدّ التصغير) ‘Making the Diminutive’;
• Al-Tathnīyah (حدّ التثنية) ‘Forming the Dual’;^{[n 12]}
• Al-Hujā’(حدّ الهجاء) ‘Spelling’;
• Rāja’ al-Dhikar (حدّ راجع الذكر) ‘Referring Back’;
• Al-Fa’al al-Rabā’ī (حدّ الفعل الرباعى) ‘Verb with Four Consonants’;
• Al-Fa’al al-Thalāthī (حدّ الفعل الثلاثى) ‘Verb with Three Consonants’;
• Al-Mu’rab min Makānīn (حدّ المعرب من مكانين) ‘A Word Declined from Two Places;^{[n 13]}
• Al-Adghām (حدّ الادغام) ‘Making a Double Letter (Incorporation Together)’;
• Al-Hamza (حدّ الهمز) ‘Marking with a Ḥamzah’;
• Al-Ibnīya (حدّ الابنية) ‘Structures’;
• Al-Juma’ (حدّ الجمع) ‘The Plural’;
• Al-Maqsūr wa-al-Mamdūd (حدّ المقصور والممدود) ‘The Shortened and the Lengthened’;
• Al-Mudhakar wa al-Mu’anith (حدّ المدكر والمؤنث) ‘Masculine and Feminine’;
• Fa‘ala wa-Af‘ala’ (حدّ فعل وافعل) Verbs and verbal forms;
• Al-Nuhī (حدّ النهى) ‘The Interdiction’;
• Al-Ibtidā’ wa-al-Qaṭa’ (حدّ الابتداء والقطع) ‘Stopping and Starting’;
• Mā Yajrā wa-ma lā Yajrā (حدّ ما يجرى وما لايجرى) ‘What [Form] Is Current and What Is Not Current.’^{[n 14]}

See also

• List of Iranian scientists and scholars

Notes

1. Abū al-Ṭayyib Muḥammad ibn ‘Abd Allāh al-Yūsufī (اليوسفى يحيى بن زياد بن قوابخت) (fl. late C9th), scholar.
2. These Persian names are likely loose Arab transliterations. Cf Suyūṭī, Bughyat, p. 411.
3. ‘Mulāzim’; probably chapter six of Kitāb Al-Ḥudūd.
4. Abū Ja‘far Muḥammad ibn Qādim tutored Al-Mu'tazz as a boy, who disliked him for his disciplinarian teaching style, so when Al-Mu'tazz became caliph in 866 (251 AH) Abū Ja‘far fled into exile. Ibn Qādim had a good grasp of ‘ilal, (causes, or defects). He wrote books titled ‘Sufficiency' about grammar, ‘The Strange in the Ḥadīth’ and ‘Abridgment of Grammar.’
5. jarīb, an area equal to 144sq. yards.
6. ḥājib (pl., ḥujjāb), either ‘doorkeepers’ or ‘chamberlain.’ Cf. the free translation in Khallikān, IV, 67.
7. Beatty MS unclear.
8. Flügel gives a legal term mulāzamat rajl (حدّ ملازمة رجل), which seems improbable. Beatty MS unclear, perhaps mulāzamah wa-ḥall, translatable as "invariable and free to change.”
9. Beatty MS omits “and light."
10. “Double" unclear in Beatty MS.
11. Omitted in Flügel, unclear in Beatty MS.
12. Beatty MS gives (حدّ النصبة) ‘Al-Nisbah’ ‘Relationship’.
13. Either mu‘rab, or mu‘arrab, probably “declined", perhaps “Arabicized.”
14. Note for “current”; yajzā, ‘substitution’ in Flügel; yajrā, ‘in use,’ Beatty MS.

References

1. Suyūṭī 1909, p. 333, II.
2. Nadīm (al-) 1970, p. 145.
3. Blachère 2012.
4. Suyūṭī 1909, p. 333, 2.
5. Nadīm (al-) 1970, p. 1129.
6. Yūnus ibn Ḥabīb, Abū 'Abd al-Raḥmān (708-798) a great philologist of the Grammarians of Basra^[5]
7. Nadīm (al-) 1970, p. 146, n.18.
8. Instruction in a mosque was customary in medieval times. ^[7]
9. Nadīm (al-) 1970, p. 146.
10. Nadīm (al-) 1970, p. 147.
11. Nadīm (al-) 1970, p. 149.
12. Flügel 1872, p. 655-6.

Bibliography

• Baghdādī (al-), al-Khaṭīb Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn ‘Alī (1931). Ta'rīkh Baghdād. Cairo: Al-Sa’ādah Press.
• Blachère, R. (2012). "al-Farrāʾ". Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Brill Online. doi:10.1163/1573-3912_islam_SIM_2293.
• Flügel, Gustav Leberecht (1872). J. Roediger; A. Mueller (eds.). Al-Fihrist (in Arabic). Leipzig: F.C.W. Vogel.
• Khallikān (Ibn), Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad (1871). Ibn Khallikān's Biographical Dictionary (translation of Wafayāt al-A'yān wa-Anbā'). Vol. IV. Translated by MacGuckin de Slane. London: Oriental Translation Fund of Britain and Ireland. pp. 63–70.
• 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.
• Suyūṭī, Jalāl al-Dīn ‘Abd Al-Raḥmān (1909). Khānjī, Muḥammad Amīn (ed.). Bughyat al-Wu'āt fī Ṭabaqāt al-Lughawīyīn wa-al-Nuḥāh (in Arabic). Vol. 2. Cairo: Sa’ādah Press. p. 333.
• Zubaydī (al-), Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan (1984). "§60". In Ibrāhīm, Muḥammad (ed.). Ṭabaqāt al-Naḥwīyīn wa-al-Lughawīyīn (in Arabic) (2 ed.). Cairo: Dar al-Ma'arif. pp. 131–3.