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Arab grammarian of Abbasid era From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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 88) | (aged
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 |
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.
Among his books there were:
Thaʽlab is cited as a source for biographies of the following
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:
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