Grammar [IO Islamic 420]

Grammar.

This manuscript is now IO Islamic 420 in the India Office collections.

[metadata: Otto Loth, A Catalogue of the Arabic Manuscripts in the Library of the India Office, (volume 1), no. 888 here with further notations and hyperlinks].

GRAMMAR.

888.

420. Size 91/2 in. by 61/2 in.; foll. 211. Twenty-five lines in a page.

A remarkable work on Syntax, the author of which is not named. He is later than Zamakhsharî, but is wont to quote and compare the oldest authorities, such as Khalîl, Sîbawaih, Aḥfash, Mâzinî, and the schools of al-Baṣrah and al-Kûfah in general. Classical poetry is also frequently cited and explained in his work.

The title of it is not to be found, nor can anything be learnt from the preface, the beginning of which is, moreover, mutilated. The first words are: ... فالمكان ‘ و خالق الانس و الجان ‘ . Another passage, shortly after اما بعد, runs as follows: ... فضل علم النحو اذ هو آلة لفهم معانى كلام الله الخ.

The treatise begins with explanations of grammatical terms, such as اللفظ, القول, الكلام, etc. The first chapter commences as follows (fol. 5): باب و ينقسم الكلم الى معرب و مبنى الخ; the second (fol. 12) is inscribed باب المرفوعات ; the third (fol. 17) , باب المبتدأ و الخبر , etc.

Carefully written in a good hand. Of the seventh or the eighth century. Imperfect at the end. The first and last leaves are mutilated; several others are injured by insects and unskillfully mended. Foll. 11 and 14 should be transposed.

The book is wrongly inscribed مغنى ىر علم نحو, by a later hand.

[Johnson.]