As previously mentioned, historians and grammarians agree that Abu al-Aswad al-Du’ali and his two students, Nasr ibn Asim and Abdul Rahman ibn Hormuz, laid the first foundations of grammar.
This was achieved through several chapters, the diacritical marking of the Quran, and the regulation of its words, marking their significant and profound contributions.
Abdullah ibn Abi Ishaq: One of the First Basra Grammarians
Abdullah ibn Abi Ishaq al-Hadrami, who passed away in 117 AH, is considered the first Basra grammarian in the precise sense of the word.
Ibn Sallam says of him, “He was the first to open up grammar, extend analogy, and explain the reasons.”
This positions him as the first founder of the science of grammar according to Ibn Sallam.
Contributions of Ibn Abi Ishaq in Developing Grammar
Ibn Abi Ishaq was the first to derive its rules and apply analogy.
He studied under Nasr ibn Asim and Yahya ibn Ya’mar. Abu Tayyib al-Lughawi states, “Abdullah ibn Abi Ishaq elaborated on grammar, founded it, and discussed the hamza (glottal stop) extensively, even dictating a book on it.
” It is narrated that Yunus ibn Habib asked him about the word “al-sawiq” (the fine flour of wheat), whether any Arabs pronounced it as “al-sawiq” with a sad instead of a sin. He responded affirmatively, citing the tribe of ‘Amr ibn Tamim.
He then advised, “Stick to the consistent rules of grammar.”
Al-Farazdaq and Ibn Abi Ishaq: A Clash Between Poetry and Grammar
Ibn Abi Ishaq frequently corrected Al-Farazdaq, which led Al-Farazdaq to satirize him in a poem, one verse of which reads:
Had Abdullah been a slave, I would have satirized him, but Abdullah is a master of masters.
As soon as Ibn Abi Ishaq heard him, he said, “You made a mistake, you made a mistake”—forgetting the satire and focusing on Al-Farazdaq’s error—”it should be ‘a master of a master,’ because the word ‘mawali’ is a defective noun whose final ‘ya’ is omitted in the nominative and genitive cases when indefinite, but Al-Farazdaq did not omit the ‘ya’.” Al-Farazdaq replied, “It is our job to compose and your job to interpret.”
From these debates and discussions between the Basra grammarians and the poets, we can conclude that no matter how eloquent a poet is, they should not deviate from consistent grammatical rules.
It seems that through his corrections of Al-Farazdaq, Ibn Abi Ishaq paved the way for later Basra grammarians to correct some eloquent poets, not only from the Islamic period but also from the pre-Islamic era, as we will see with his student Isa ibn Umar.
Ibn Abi Ishaq did not leave any written works on grammar; he would dictate to his students and lecture them.
The only attributed work is a book on the hamza, in which he seemingly addressed the issue of writing the hamza in cases of separation and connection, when it is eased, when it meets another hamza, and when it is connected with vowel letters.
This has relevance to the precision of writing in the Quran, especially since he was a distinguished reciter.
Isa ibn Umar al-Thaqafi: Building on Foundations and Expanding Rules
Following Ibn Abi Ishaq, Isa ibn Umar al-Thaqafi, known as Abu Umar, emerged.
A freedman of Khalid ibn al-Walid, he settled in Thaqif and became one of Ibn Abi Ishaq’s most prominent students, adhering to his method of analogy.
Sibawayh mentions that Isa would analogize the accusative case in “O rain” in the verse by Al-Ahwaz:
Peace be upon her, O rain, and not upon you, O rain.
He treated “rain” as an indefinite, non-specific term. Like his teacher, he critiqued even pre-Islamic poets, such as his correction of Al-Nabigha’s verse:
I spent the night as if contended by a small serpent, in whose fangs is deadly poison.
He pointed out that the rhyme should be accusative, as the predicate “small serpent” is preceded by the prepositional phrase, making “deadly” the predicate.
Ongoing Influence: Isa ibn Umar’s Students and the Solidification of Rules
It is reported that he diverged from most reciters in his reading of the Quranic verse:
(These are my daughters, they are purer for you) by reading “purer” in the accusative case, considering “they” a separating pronoun. He appeared to extensively estimate the omitted factors, as noted by Sibawayh in his pronunciation of the phrase “enter first then first,” raising the last two words based on an implied verb “let them enter.
” This approach instilled in his student Al-Khalil and subsequent Basra grammarians the idea of estimating omitted factors, which they applied widely. He also posited an important principle, indicating his linguistic sensitivity by favoring the accusative case for ease over the nominative, considering it fundamental.
Contributions of Isa ibn Umar al-Thaqafi in Developing Grammar
Isa ibn Umar al-Thaqafi is considered one of the Basra reciters and one of the most important Arabic and grammar scholars of his time.
He is perhaps the first to write two significant books on the subject, whose names have become famous even though no copies or remnants have survived.
It is narrated that his student Al-Khalil read, understood, and admired them, praising them with these lines:
All grammar has gone away,
Except what Isa ibn Umar innovated.
One is “Ikmal” and the other “Jami’,”
They are like the sun and the moon for people.
Sirafi comments on these two books, “People lost these two books a long time ago, and no one we know has seen them.”
Isa ibn Umar taught Al-Khalil, Sibawayh, and Abu Zayd al-Ansari, who were prominent Basra grammarians.
He also taught Abu Ja’far al-Ru’asi, who later became the head of the Kufans, succeeded by his students Al-Kisai and Al-Farra.
From this, we understand that Isa ibn Umar solidified grammar and established the rules adopted by his student Al-Khalil and subsequent Basra grammarians, whether through his lectures or dictations.
He passed away in 149 AH, leaving a significant grammatical legacy on which his students built, strengthening its foundations.
Author: Abdel Moneim Al-Abdo, Arabic language teacher at Masarat Initiative
