al-Alam al-Shantamari

Abu al-Hajjaj al-Alam al-Shantamari (410–476 AH / 1019–1084 CE) was an Andalusian Arabic grammarian, philologist, and commentator on classical Arabic poetry Siyar Aalam al-Nubala+1. He is best known for his commentaries on pre-Islamic verse and his philological exposition of the poetic evidentiary verses in Sibawayh's al-Kitab Majallat Jamiat Umm al-Qu…+1.

Lineage and Name

His full name was Yusuf ibn Sulayman ibn Isa, though some sources record his patronymic as Yusuf ibn Isa ibn Sulayman Tahsil Ayn al-Dhahab min …+1. His nisba, al-Shantamari, refers to Shantamariyyat al-Gharb (modern Faro, Portugal), located in southwestern al-Andalus between Silves and Seville Tahsil Ayn al-Dhahab min …+1. He was known by the epithet al-A'lam ("the cleft-lipped") due to a pronounced fissure in his upper lip Tahsil Ayn al-Dhahab min …+1.

Education and Scholarly Career

Born in Shantamariyyat al-Gharb in 410 AH (1019 CE), he traveled to Cordoba in 433 AH (1041/1042 CE) to pursue advanced studies in Arabic grammar, lexicography, and poetry Wafayat al-Ayan+1. There, he studied under leading scholars of the capital, including Abu al-Qasim Ibrahim ibn Muhammad ibn Zakariyya (known as al-Iflili), Abu Sahl Yunus ibn Ahmad al-Harrani, and Abu Bakr Muslim ibn Ahmad al-Adib Wafayat al-Ayan+1. During his studies, he also assisted his teacher al-Iflili in compiling his commentary on the Diwan of al-Mutanabbi Wafayat al-Ayan+1.

Al-Shantamari established himself as an authority in Arabic philology and poetic analysis, and scholars and students from across the region traveled to study under him Wafayat al-Ayan+1. He taught prominent students, including the hadith scholar Abu Ali al-Jayyani, the grammarian Ibn al-Tarawa, and Muhammad ibn Abi al-Afiyah al-Lakhmi Siyar Aalam al-Nubala+1. In his major philological work, Tahsil Ayn al-Dhahab, he explained the poetic evidentiary verses (shawahid) cited in Sibawayh's treatise, and in Ash'ar al-Shu'ara' al-Sitta al-Jahiliyyin, he compiled and commented on the corpuses of six major pre-Islamic poets, relying on established recensions such as that of al-Asma'i Siyar Aalam al-Nubala+1. He lost his eyesight toward the end of his life Wafayat al-Ayan+1.

Death

Al-Shantamari died in Seville in Shawwal 476 AH (1084 CE) Wafayat al-Ayan+1. The primary report places his death on 4 Shawwal in his sixties, though an alternative report gives the middle of the month, and another states he died at the age of eighty-four Siyar Aalam al-Nubala+1. When his close companion Muhammad ibn Shurayh passed away earlier in Shawwal of that year, al-Shantamari wept and predicted he would survive him by no more than a month, dying shortly thereafter; his son led the funeral prayer Siyar Aalam al-Nubala+1.