Abu Ishaq al-Zajjaj

Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Sarī al-Zajjāj (Arabic: أبو إسحاق إبراهيم بن محمد بن السري 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
Born	c. 842
Died	13 October 922(922-10-13) (aged 80) Baghdad
Other names	‘The Glassman’
Occupation	Grammarian
Years active	caliph al-Mu’taḍid
Academic work
Era	Abbāsid
School or tradition	School of Baṣrah
Main interests	philology, theology, philosophy, linguistics, natural science
Notable works	Kitāb 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.{{refn|group=n|Perhaps this was al-Mubarrad Abū al-‘Abbās^{[citation needed]}

Al-Zajjāj had a dispute with al-Khayyāṭ,^[13][14] a grammarian-theologian of Samarqand, whom he met in Baghdād.^[15]

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 9] [2]}

• Kitāb ma’ānī al-Qur’ān (كتاب معانى القرآن), ‘Meaning of the Qur’ān’; tafsir (exegesis) of ambiguities, metaphors and figurative expressions.^[16]

• Kitāb al-Ishtiqāq (كتاب الاشتقاق); Etymology^{[n 10]}

• Kitāb al-Qawāfī (كتاب القوافى);^{[n 11]}

• Kitāb al-‘Arūḍ (كتاب العروض); Prosody

• Kitāb al-farqu (كتاب الفرق); Differentiation^{[n 12]}

• 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 13]}

• 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.^{[citation needed]}

• Book of Dictates;^{[n 14]}

• Book of Anecdotes;

• Treatise on the influence of the constellation upon the weather^{[19][n 15]}

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).^[20][21][22]

See also

• List of Arab scientists and scholars

Further reading

• 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.
• Zajjāji, ʻAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Isḥāq (1983). Hārūn, ʻAbd al-Salām Muḥammad (ed.). Majālis al-ʻulamāʼ (in Arabic). al-Qāhirah: Maktabat al-Khānjī.
• Zajjāji, ʻAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Isḥāq (1995). Versteegh, C H M (ed.). The explanation of linguistic causes : az-Zaǧǧāǧī's theory of grammar : introduction, translation, commentary. Amsterdam, Philadelphia: J. Benjamins.
• Zajjāji, ʻAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Isḥāq (1957). Cheneb, Mohammed Ben (ed.). al-Gumal, précis de grammaire arabe. Paris: C. Klincksieck. OCLC 793425520.
• Zajjāji, ʻAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Isḥāq (1984). Ḥamad, ʻAli Tawfīq (ed.). Kitāb ḥurūf al-maʻānī (in Arabic). Bayrūt, Irbid, al-Urdun: Muʼassasat al-Risālah, Dār al-Amal.

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. 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
10. Khallikān calls this "Different treatises on etymology".
11. Listed by al-Nadīm but not Ibn Khallikān
12. Ibn Khallikān gives the title "Muslim Sects".
13. Ibn Khallikān gives the title "On Nouns of the First or Second Declension"
14. Dictates (امالي);^[17][18][2] The last three titles are omitted by al-Nadīm.
15. Hajji Khalifa remarks that a considerable number of works has been written on the subject.

References

Citations

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. al-Suyūṭī 1909, p. 19.
14. Zubaydī (al-) 1984, pp. 111–112, §9 (#38).
15. al-Nadīm 1970, p. 178.
16. al-Nadīm 1970, pp. 76–77.
17. de Sacy 1829, p. 137.
18. Çelebi 1835, p. 427, I.
19. Pococke 1806, p. 168.
20. al-Nadīm 1970, p. 140.
21. Flügel 1872, p. 658.
22. Ibn Khallikān 1843, p. 381, I.

Bibliography

• Flügel, Gustav Leberecht (1872). J. Roediger; A. Mueller (eds.). Al-Fihrist (in Arabic). Leipzig: F.C.W. Vogel.
• Çelebi, Kâtip (1835). Flügel, Gustav Leberecht (ed.). Kashf al-zunun (Lexicon Bibliographicum et Encyclopaedicum) (in Arabic and Latin). Vol. 1. London: Oriental Translation Fund.
• Ibn Khallikān (1843). Mac Guckin de Slane, William (ed.). Wafayāt al-A'yān wa Anbā' (Ibn Khallian's Biographical Dictionary). Vol. 1. Paris & London: W. H. Allen.
• al-Mas‘ūdī, Abū al-Ḥasan ‘Alī ibn al-Ḥusayn (1874) [1861]. Kitāb Murūj al-Dhahab wa-Ma'ādin al-Jawhar/Les Prairies d'or (in Arabic and French). Vol. VIII. Translated by Meynard (de), C. Barbier. Paris: Imprimerie impériale.
• al-Nadīm, 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.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Pococke, Edward (1806). Specimen historiae Arabum (in Arabic and Latin). London: Clarendon Press.
• de Sacy, Antoine Isaac Silvestre (1829). Anthologie grammaticale arabe (Morceaux choisis de divers grammairiens et scholiastes arabes, with introduction and notes in French) (in Arabic and French). Paris: Imprimé par autorisation du Roi, al'Imprimerie Royale.
• al-Suyūṭī, Jalāl al-Dīn ‘Abd al-Raḥmān (1909). Bughyat al-Wu'āt fī Ṭabaqāt al-Lughawīyīn wa-al-Nuḥāh. Cairo: Sa‘ādah Press.
• Zubaydī (al-), Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan (1984) [1954]. Ibrāhīm, Muḥammad (ed.). Ṭabaqāt al-Naḥwīyīn wa-al-Lughawīyīn (in Arabic). Cairo: Al-Khanjī.