Ibn Mālik

Ibn Maalik (* around 1,204 / 05 in Jaen , † 22 February 1274 in Damascus ) was a Spanish-Arabic scholar. Although he was also well versed in the Koran and Ḥadīṯ , the world knows him mainly as a grammarian and author of the Alfiyya , which is inextricably linked with his name.

biography

aṣ-Ṣafadī (1296–1363), the author of the largest biographical lexicon, wrote the following about him:

"The Sheikh Ǧamāl ad-Dīn ibn Mālik, (with first name) Muḥammad, the son of ʿAbdallāh ibn ʿAbdallāh ibn Mālik, the incomparably highly learned Imām , (with eponym ) Ǧamāl ad-Dīn (and kunya ) Abū ʿAbdallāhū from den -Ṭayyiʾ (الطائي aṭ-ṭāʾī ), who was born in Jaën (الجياني al-ǧayyānī ) and belonged to the Shāfiʿite school of law, the grammarian, was a resident of Damascus. He was born in the year (six hundred) one (approx. 1204–05 AD) and studied in Damascus with Mukarram and Abū Ṣādiq al-Ḥasan ibn Ṣabbāḥ as well as with Abū l-Ḥasan as-Saḫāwī and others. The high-level language (العربية al-ʿarabiyya ) he acquired himself from more than one (teacher). He attended the banquets at Ibn ʿAmrūn and others in Aleppo . He gained a reputation in Aleppo by teaching the high-level language and turned his pursuit of consolidating Altar Arabic (لسان العرب lisān al-ʿarab ) so that he finally reached the top and surpassed the most advanced. He became the leading expert in the Koranic reading variants (القراءات al-qirāʾāt ) and their justifications; In this subject he wrote a Qaṣīde rhyming with Dāl, which ... (مرموزة في قدر الشاطبية marmūza fī qadri š-šāṭibiyya ).

As for lexicography (لغة luġa ), he was the ultimate authority. The Sheikh Shihāb ad-Dīn Abū ṯ-Ṯanāʾ Maḥmūd the Imām, may God bless him, reported to me verbatim: ‹One ​​day he was sitting (in class) and explaining what the author of the muḥkam has to al-ʾAzharī in terms of lexical special property. And this, I think, is an astonishing thing because he wants to pass on both books ›. He also told me about him that when he had prayed in the ʿĀdiliyya - he was the imām of this madrasah - the chief judge Shams ad-Dīn Ibn Ḫallikān, out of deference to him, used to accompany him to his house.

The alfiyya of the Sheikh (Ibn Mālik), which is called the Ḫulāṣa, I recited (for the purpose of authorization) word for word before the mentioned Sheikh Shihāb ad-Dīn, and he had passed it on to me from him (Ibn Mālik). I passed them on with the authorization of Nāṣir ad-Dīn Šāfiʿ ibn ʿAbdaẓẓāhir and of Šihāb ad-Dīn ibn Ġānim, that is, under the authorization of both, which in turn was also confirmed by him (Sheikh Šihāb ad-Dīn Abū ṯā-Ṯanāʾ Maḥmūd der .

What inflection and sentence theory (نحو naḥw ) and the doctrine of the derivatives (تصريف taṣrīf ), he was a sea in them, the depth of which cannot be fathomed, and as regards his familiarity with ancient Arabic poetry , from which he quoted his references for inflection and sentence theory and lexicography, it was nothing short of a miracle; the leading, most famous scholars were in the habit of becoming perplexed before him. As for his expertise in the traditions, he was a role model in it (آية ʾĀya ). He documented a lot from the Koran, and if there was no document in it, (only then) did he fall back on the Ḥadīṯ. If nothing was found there either, he went back to ancient Arabic poetry.

In all of this he was religious and pious, sincere and often walked two miles instead of one, was of pleasant demeanor and the highest intellect, and stood out from the other Maghrebians by two qualities: generosity and belonging to the school of aš-Šāfiʿī. He stayed in Damascus for quite a while, writing books and working (as a teacher) in the mosque and mausoleum of al-ʿĀdiliyya. Writing poems was easy for him, be it Raǧaz, be it Ṭawīl, be it Basīṭ. He wrote theكتاب تسهيل الفوائد kitāb tashīl al-fawāʾid , whom Saʿd ad-Dīn Muḥammad ibn ʿArabī praised in the highest tones in pretty verses. "

Web links

Wikisource: ألفية ابن مالك  - Sources and full texts (Arabic)

Sources and explanations

1. ↑ Bibliotheca Islamica , ed. von Hellmut Ritter, Damascus 1956, vol. 3, p. 359 ff.
2. ↑ In today's southern Spain, about 70 km north of Granada .
3. ↑ In aṣ-Ṣafadī's text it actually only saysسنة إحدى sanata ʾiḥdā 'in the year one', which is corrected to this number in modern lexicons.
4. ↑ Lexicographer, unknown dates of life; his son Ibn Mukarram was named Ibn Manzūr (630-711 / 1233-1311) author of the famous lisān al-ʿarab , cf. Edward W. Lane, An Arabic-English Lexicon, London 1863, Volume 1 (foreword) p. xvi, (Reprinted ibid. 2003: The Islamic Texts Society ).
5. ↑ According to another version of the text: Waḍḍāḥ.
6. ↑ An unclear passage. I am grateful for advice on how to understand this, i. Ü.
7. ↑ Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn (Aḥmad) ibn Ismāʿīl, called Ibn Sīda or Sīduh (d. 485/1066), a blind scholar born in Murcia , Andalusia (cf. Encyclopaedia of Islam, new ed. III 940). An edition of the muḥkam organized by Dār al-kutub al-ʿilmiyya in 1421/2000 comprises ten volumes. On the reputation this dictionary enjoyed, cf. Lane, op. Cit. S. xv.
8. ↑ Author of theتهذيب اللغة tahḏīb al-luġa : Abū Manṣūr Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn al-ʾAzhar (282-329 / 895-940), lexicographer from the Persian Harāt , who spent two years of his life in captivity with Bedouins in Baḥrain, whose dialect he studied; not to be confused with the commentator of the same name of Alfiyya Ibn Māliks who died in 905/1499. According to R. Blachère (cf. Encyclopaedia of Islam, new ed. I 822), the tahḏīb was available in ten volumes during Ibn Mālik's lifetime.
9. ↑ The Sheikh is astonished that Ibn Mālik not only masters the special property of one, but also the material of both books by heart. Alternatively, he might be surprised that Ibn Mālik received the special property (ما انفرد به mā nfarada bihī ), but then considers both books to be worthy of tradition without any judgment.
10. ↑ Abū l-ʿAbbās amsams ad-Dīn Aḥmad ibn Ibrāhīm ibn abī Bakr ibn Ḫallikān ibn Bāwak ibn Šākal ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn Mālik ibn Ǧaʿfar ibn Yaḥyā ibn Barmak, 12. 608-821 / authors of another famous lexicon :وفيات الأعيان wafayāt al-ʾaʿyān ; "Ibn Khallikân's Biographical Dictionary. Translated from the Arabic by Baron MacGuckin de Slane ". 4 volumes, London 1847.
11. ↑ Here we get an insight into how information was stored, transmitted and verified in the Middle Ages. Although writing down has also been customary since the earliest times: in principle, a scholar presented the material to his pupil orally (روى إليه rawā ʾilayhī ) until he could recite it word for word (من لفطه min lafẓihī ). He had to prove this by reciting the material in front of the teacher's ears (أقرأ عليه ʾAqraʾa ʿalayhī ) until the version satisfied him. Then the teacher provided him with a written license (إجازة ʾIǧāza ), who authorized him to pass this text on to others.
12. ↑ Three of the total of seventeen standard meters of classical Arabic poetry.