Abu al-ʽAbbās Thaʽlab

Thaʽlab (ثعلب), whose kunya was Abū al-ʽAbbās Aḥmad ibn Yaḥyā (ابو العباس احمد بن يحيى) (815 – 904) was a renowned authority on grammar, a muhaddith (traditionist), a reciter of poetry, and first scholar of the school of al-Kūfah, and later at Baghdād. He was a keen rival of Al-Mubarrad, the head of the school of al-Baṣrah. Thaʽlab supplied much biographic detail about his contemporary philologists found in the biographical dictionaries produced by later biographers.

Abū al-ʽAbbās Thaʽlab (ابو العباس ثعلب) The Grammarian (النحوي)
Abū al-ʽAbbās Aḥmad ibn Yaḥyā ibn Zayd ibn Zaiyar Thaʽlab
Born	815 October Baghdād, Abbasid Caliphate
Died	2 April 904(904-04-02) (aged 88) Baghdād, Abbasid Caliphate (now Irāq)
Nationality	Caliphate
Other names	Aḥmad ibn Yaḥyā ibn Zayd ibn Sayyar Abū al-ʽAbbās Thaʽlab (احمد بن يحيى بن زيد بن سيار ابو العباس ثعلب)[n 1] and Abū al-ʽAbbās Aḥmad ibn Yaḥyā Thaʽlab[n 2]
Occupation(s)	Scholar of philology and educator
Years active	Abbāsid Era
Academic background
Influences	Al-Farraʽ, Al-Kisāʽī and Ibn al-Aʽrābī.
Academic work
School or tradition	Grammarians of Kufa
Main interests	Philology, Grammar, Lexicography, etc.
Influenced	Al-Akhfash al-Aṣghar, Abū Bakr ibn al-Anbārī and Ghulām Thaʽlab

Life

Abū al-Abbās Thaʽlab was born in Baghdād and Ibn al-Karāb in his Taʽrīkh ('History') gives his date of birth as October 815 [third month, 200 AH], others give 816 or 819 [201 AH or 204 AH]. Thaʽlab recalled seeing, as a child of four years, the caliph al-Maʽmūn arriving back to the city from Khurāsān in 819/20 (204 AH). The Caliph processed from the Iron gate towards the Palace of al-Ruṣāfah, and the crowds were lined up as far as al-Muṣalla.^{[n 3][3]} Thaʽlab remembered clearly the occasion when the caliph raised him up from his father's arms and said, 'This is al-Maʽmūn.'^[4]

Thaʽlab was adopted by the military-leader-come-poet Maʽn ibn Zāʽidah,^{[n 4][7][8]} of the Banū Shaybān, and became a grammarian, philologist, and traditionist of the Kūfah school.

Thaʽlab recalled his interest in Arabic studies, poetry, and language had begun in 831 (216 AH) at age sixteen and that he had memorised to the letter all of al-Farrāʽs works, including Al-Hudūd, by the age of twenty-five. ^[8] His primary focus was on grammar, poetry, rhetoric, and Al-Nawadir (Strange Forms). He associated with, and counselled, Ibn al-Aʽrābī for about ten years.

Thaʽlab describes an occasion being at the home of Aḥmad ibn Saʽīd with a group of scholars, amongst whom were al-Sukkarī^{[n 5]} and Abū al-ʽĀliyah^{[n 6]}. Critiquing the meaning of a poem by al-Shammākh, Ibn al-A'rābī and Aḥmad ibn Saʽīd showed surprise at Thaʽlab's confidence.

In another anecdote, related by Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn Mūsā ibn Mujāhid al-Mukri, Thaʽlab once expressed concern for his soul as a disciple of Abū Zayd Saʽid ibn Aws al-Anṣārī (d.830) and Abū Amr ibn al-ʽAlā (d.770), over the exegetes, traditionists and fuqaha (jurists). Ibn Mujahid then told him of his dream in which Muhammad had sent a message to Thaʽlab that his was the superior science. Abū Abd Allāh al-Rūdbāri interpreted this to mean that the study of oral language is above all the other sciences – tafsir (exegesis), Ḥadīth (tradition), fiqh (Law) – as it perfects and connects these to discourse.

Thaʽlab, was invited but declined to take a commission by the vizier al-Qāsim to write a commentary on the book Compendium of Speech by Maḥbarah al-Nadīm,^{[n 7]} which the caliph Al-Muʽtaḍid had ordered. He offered instead to work on the Kitāb al-ʽAyn of al-Khalīl, and the commission went to Al-Zajjaj.^[11]

On 30 March or 6 April 904 (17 or 10 Jumada al-Awwal 291 AH), being quite deaf, he was knocked down by a horse while walking in the street and died the next day. He was buried in the vicinity of his house near the Damascus Gate in Baghdād.

Thaʽlab's teachers

• Abū Naṣr Aḥmad ibn Ḥātim al-Bāhilī (d. 846)^[12]: 50
• Ibn al-Aʽrābī (d. 846)^[8]
• Al-Zubayr ibn Bakkār (d. 870)^[13][14]
• Aḥmad ibn Ibrāhīm^{[n 8]}, Abū al-Ḥasan, a calligrapher grammarian, not an author.^[15]

Works

Among his books there were:

• Kitāb al-Muṣūn fī al-Nahw wa-Jaʽalah Hudūdān (كتاب المصون في النحو وجعله حدودا) What is "Precious" (Preserved) in Grammar, which he wrote in the form of definitions (ḥudūd);
• Kitāb Ikhtilāf al-al-Naḥwīyīn (كتاب اختلاف النحوّيين) Points on which grammarians disagree;
• Kitāb Maʻānī al-Qurʼān (كتاب معانى القران) The Meaning of the Qurʽān;^[16]
• Kitāb al-Muwaffaqa Mukhtaṣir fī al-Nahw (كتاب الموفّقى مختصر في النحو) The Favoured, an abridgment of grammar;
• Kitāb mā yulaḥan fīhī al-ʽĀmma (كتاب ما يلحن فيه العامّة) Faulty Expressions in popular use;
• Kitāb al-Qirāʽāt (كتاب القراءات) Differences between the Seven Readings of the Qurʽān;
• Kitāb Maʻānī al-Šiʽr (كتاب معانى الشعر) Rare ideas in ancient Arabic poetry;
• Kitāb al-Taṣgīr (كتاب التصغير) Diminutive Nouns;
• Kitāb mā Yanṣarif wa mā lā Yanṣaruf (كتاب ما ينصرف وما لا ينصرف) What Is Declined and What Is Not Declined; Parts of Speech which form or do not form other functions;
• Kitāb mā Yujzā wa mā lā Yujzā (كتاب ما يجْزَى وما لا يجزى) What Is Grammatical and What Is Not Grammatical; Nouns of first declension;
• Kitāb al-Šawādd (كتاب الشواذّ) Exceptions;
• Kitāb al-Amthāl (كتاب الامثال) Similes; Collection of Proverbs;
• Kitāb al-Aiman wa al-Dawahā (كتاب الايمان والدواهى) Oaths and Calamities;
• Kitāb al-Waqf wa al-Ibtidāʽ (كتاب الوقف والابتداء) Start and End of Phrases;
• Kitāb al-Istikhraj al-Alfāz min al-Akhbār (كتاب استخراج الالفاظ من الاخبار) The Derivation of Expressions from Legends (Historical Traditions);
• Kitāb al-Hijāʽ (كتاب الهجاء) Spelling;
• Kitāb al-Awsat Ra'aītah (كتاب الاوسط رأيته) Grammar of medium extent;
• Kitāb Ghuraīb al-Qurʽān Laṭīf (كتاب غريب القرآن لطيف) The Excellent Book of the Strange in the Qurʽān;
• Kitāb al-Masāʽil (كتاب المسائل) Questions discussed;
• Kitāb ḥadd al-Nahw (كتاب حدّ النحو) Definitions of Grammar;
• Kitāb Tafsīr Kalām Ibnat al-Khusa (كتاب تفسير كلام ابنه الخسىّ) Exposition of the Statement of Ibnat al-Khus [Hind];^{[n 9]}
• Kitāb al-Faṣīḥ (كتاب الفصيح) Eloquent Style (ʽthe Pureʽ), on philology;^{[n 10] [18]}
• Kitāb al-Tafsīr al-Qurʽān (كتاب التفسير القرآن) Parsing the Qurʽān; ^[19]
• Kitāb al-Qirāʽāt li-Thaʽlab (كتاب القراءات لثعلب) Al-Qirāʽah of Thaʽlab (Qurʽānic Readings);^{[n 11][20]}

Legacy

Thaʽlab is cited as a source for biographies of the following

Grammarians of Baṣrah - Yūnus ibn Ḥabīb,^[21] Sībawayh^[22] Abū ʽUbaydah,^[23] al-Aṣmaʽī,^[24] Al-Athram,^{[n 12] [25]}

Grammarians of Kufa - al-Ruʽāsī,^[26] Al-Zajjāj ^[27] who wrote the commentary of the Compendium of Speech.

Thaʽlab's disciples

Abū al-ʽAbbās Thaʽlab dictated his discourses on grammar, language, historical traditions, the tafsir (Qurʽānic exegesis), and poetry to his pupils who transmitted his works. Among these were:

Pupils

• Ibn Miqsam (ابن مقسم)^{[28][n 13]}; a grammarian and Qurʽānic reader who wrote The Sessions of Thaʽlab. ^[32]
• Al-Akhfash al-Asghar (d.927)^[33][34]
• Ibn Durustūyah (ابن درستويه) (ca.871 -958) wrote The Middle Ground between Thaʽlab and al-Akhfash al-Mujāshiʽī, about the meaning of the Qurʽān, and Refutation of Thaʽlab, concerning Thaʽlab's book “Disagreement of Grammarians”.^{[n 14] [35] [36]}
• Abū Bakr ibn al-Anbārī (ابو بكر ابن الانبارى) (885 - 940) learned grammar from Abū al-'Abbās Thaʽlab ^[37][38][8]
• Hārūn Ibn al-Ḥāʽik, a Jew from al-Ḥīrah was an outstanding student of grammatical studies at al-Kūfah and was a pupil of Thaʽlab. ^{[18][citation needed][39]}
• Abū Muḥammad ʽAbd Allāh al-Shamī (the Syrian) a member of the school of al- Kūfah who wrote Collected Questions. ^[18]
• Abū ʽUmar al-Zāhid al-Mutarriz (ابو عمر الزاهد), or al-Zāhid ʽThe Asceticʽ, who was nicknamed "Ghulām Thaʽlab"^{[n 15]} (870 - 957), wrote a commentary on Thaʽlab's Kitāb al-Faṣīḥ.^{[n 16] [40][8][41][42]}
• Al-Ḥāmiḍ ^{[n 17]} was a scholar of al-Baṣrah, a scribe, and close friend of Thaʽlab. ^[43]
• Nafṭuwayh^{[n 18]} (ca.858 - 935) learned from Thaʽlab and al-Mubarrad, Muḥammad ibn al-Jahm (d. 895), ʽUbayd Allāh ibn Isḥāq ibn Salām, and the associates of al-Madāʽinī (753 - 846). ^[44][45][46]
• Abū ʽAbd Allāh al-Yazīdī^{[n 19]} (ابو عبد الله اليزيدى) (d. 922) preceptor to Caliph Al-Muqtadir

Poets edited by Thaʽlab

• al-Aʽshā (الاعشى)^{[n 20] [49][50]}
• Al-Nābighatān (النابغتان)^{[n 21][51]}
• Ṭufayl (طفيل)^{[n 22][52][18]}
• Al-Ṭirimmāḥ (الطِرِمّاح),^{[n 23][53][54][55]} etc.

Further reading

• Bell, Richard (1904). "Observations on Thaʽlab's Faṣīḥ (transl. from MS in the British Museum)". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. London: Royal Asiatic Society of Britain and Ireland: 95–118.
• Flügel, Gustav Leberecht (1862). Fihrist (in German). Leipzig: Brockhaus.
• Flügel, Gustav (1862). Die Grammatischen Schulen der Araber (in Arabic and German). Vol. I. Leipzig: Brockhaus. pp. 63, 92, 129, 135–6, 166–8, 175, 196, 205, 210, 213–4, 222–3.
• Ḥamzah Baṣrī, ʻAlī ibn; Bell, Richard (1904). "Critical observations on the Mistakes of philologers. Part V : observations on the mistakes in the book called Ikhtiyar fasih al-kalam, composed by Abu'l-'Abbas Ahmad ibn Yahya Thaʽlab". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. London: Royal Asiatic Society: 95–118. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
• Le Strange, Guy (1922). Baghdād during the ʽAbbasid Caliphate. Oxford: Clarendon Press. p. 204.
• Marzūqī, Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad; ʻĀyid, Sulaymān ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad (2014). Sharḥ al-Faṣīḥ li-Thaʻlab. al-Riyāḍ: Jāmiʻat al-Malik Saʻūd. OCLC 936203520.
• Nadīm (al-), Abū al-Faraj Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq (1872). Flügel, Gustav (ed.). Kitāb al-Fihrist (in Arabic). Leipzig: F.C.W. Vogel. p. 648.
• Suyūṭī, Jalāl al-Dīn ʽAbd Al-Raḥmān (1909). Khānjī, Muḥammad Amīn (ed.). Bughyat al-Wuʽāt fī Ṭabaqāt al-Lughawīyīn wa-al-Nuḥāh (in Arabic). Vol. I. Cairo: Saʽādah Press. pp. 396–8.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
• Thaʽlab, Aḥmad ibn Yaḥyā (1950) [1949]. Hārūn, ʽAbd al-Salām Muḥammad (ed.). Majālis Thaʽlab (in Arabic). Cairo: Dār al-Maʽārif. pp. 544–5.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link); worldcat.org.
• Zubaydī (al-), Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan (1984). Ibrāhīm, Muḥammad (ed.). Ṭabaqāt al-Naḥwīyīn wa-al-Lughawīyīn (in Arabic) (2 ed.). Cairo: Dar al-Ma'arif. pp. 141–50.

Notes

1. This name is given by Ibn al-Kūfī.
2. Name given by Abū ʽAbd Allāh al-Ḥasan ibn ʽAlī ibn Muqlah.
3. Sites in the old city of Baghdād on the West Bank of the Tigris. The Bāb al-Ḥadīd (Iron Gate) was a city gate in Baghdād close to a bridge. The Palace of al-Ruṣāfah was built by the Caliph al-Manṣūr for his son, al-Mahdī, completed in 775. The Muṣallā was a place of religious assembly, while the Bāb al-Shām (Damascus Gate), was the double gate on the west side of al-Manṣūr's Round City.^[1][2]
4. Maʽn ibn Zāʽidah Abū al-Walīd al-Shaybānī. ^[5][6]
5. Abū Saʽīd al-Ḥasan ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Sukkarī (d.888/9). The name is illegible in the Beatty MS of Al-Fihrist, Flügel correctly gives al-Sukkarī. Loosely translated. Aḥmad ibn Saʽīd was probably Ibn Shāhīn of al-Baṣrah, who like Ibn al-Aʽrābī was older than Thaʽlab.
6. Abū al-ʽĀliyah al-Ḥasan ibn Mālik al-Shāmī, 9th-century Syrian poet.^[9][10]
7. Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā ibn ʽAbī ʽAbbād, Abū Jaʽfar al-Nadīm, a courtier of Al-Muʽtaḍid.
8. The name Aḥmad ibn Ibrāhīm is confused with al-Tirmidhī al-Saghīr in Flügel edition of Al-Fihrist.
9. Hind bint al-Khus al-Iyādīyah was called al-Faṣāhat and was famous for her poetry and wisdom ^[17]
10. Title omitted in Beatty MS. The others from Beatty MS and differ from Flügel text.
11. Al-Qirāʽah interpretative method of Qurʽānic reading and recital. Circa 900 the viziers Muḥammad ibn ʽAlī ibn Muqlah and ʽAlī Ibn ʽĪsā authorised the methods of the Seven Readers and those of other scholars were deemed illegal. Cf Ibn Khaldūn Muqaddimah II, 440.
12. Al-Athram was a disciple of al-Aṣmaʽī and Abū ʽUbaydah.
13. Ibn Miqsam, Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan ibn Miqsam ibn Yaʽqūb (d. 944),^[29][30][31]
14. The book Disagreement of Grammarians by Thaʽlab.
15. Abū ʽUmar Muḥammad ibn ʽAbd al-Wāḥid ibn Hāshim al-Mutarriz, known as al-Zāhid.
16. The Kitāb al-Faṣīḥ is not listed in the Beatty MS is listed last in Flügel. Yāqūt Irshād VI (2), 153 says the composition of al-Ḥasan ibn Dāʽūd al-Raqqī was ascribed to Thaʽlab, who only transcribed it. Suyūṭī Bughyat, p. 173 ascribed it both to al-Ḥasan al-Raqqī and Ibn al-Sikkīt.
17. Abū Mūsā Sulaymān ibn Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Ḥāmiḍ may have been a copyist apprentice, and bookshop owner, who authored some books and probably transcribed for Thaʽlab.
18. Nafṭuwayh, or Nifṭawayh, Abū ʽAbd Allāh Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad ibn ʽUrfah ibn Sulaymān ibn Mughayrah ibn Ḥabīb ibn al-Muhallab al-ʽAtakī al-Azdī.
19. Al-Yazīdī, Abū ʽAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn al-ʽAbbās ibn Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā ibn Mubārak ^[47][48]
20. Al-Aʽshā al-Kābir, Maymūn ibn Qays, Abū Baṣīr, poet who joined Muḥammad.^{[clarification needed]} He died at Yamāmah.
21. Al-Nābighatān, “the two Nābighahs”; Al-Nābighah al-Dhubyānī and Al-Nābighah al-Jaʽdi.
22. Ṭufayl ibn ʽAwf al-Ghanawī, poet of the Jahiliyyah.
23. Al-Ṭirimmāḥ ibn Ḥakīm, 8th-century poet from Damascus who lived at al-Kūfah.