al-Azhari
- Died
- 370 AH
- Born in
- Herat
Abu Mansur al-Azhari (282–370 AH / 895–980 CE; with alternate reports giving his birth in 302 AH and death in 371 AH) was a prominent lexicographer, grammarian, and Shafi'i jurist from Herat, best known for his monumental Arabic dictionary Tahdhib al-Lugha (The Refinement of Language).
Lineage and Early Life
His full lineage is Abu Mansur Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn al-Azhar ibn Talha ibn Nuh ibn al-Azhar ibn Nuh ibn Hatim al-Azhari al-Harawi. His nisba al-Azhari derives from his ancestor Azhar. He was born in Herat in Khurasan in 282 AH (895 CE), though a manuscript of Abu Yaqub Ibrahim ibn Muhammad ibn al-Furat's chronicle recorded his birth in 302 AH. In his early education, he devoted himself primarily to Islamic jurisprudence before philology and the study of the Arabic language became his principal focus.
Education and Travels
Al-Azhari began his studies in Herat, hearing hadith and legal texts from al-Husayn ibn Idris, Muhammad ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Sami, and others. He then traveled widely across the Arab lands in pursuit of linguistic knowledge and arrived in Baghdad. In Baghdad, he studied under Abu al-Qasim al-Baghawi, Ibn Abi Dawud, Niftawayh, Ibn al-Sarraj, and Abu al-Fadl al-Mundhiri, transmitting extensively through the latter from Abu al-Abbas Tha'lab. Although he met the famed lexicographer Ibn Durayd in Baghdad, he refused to transmit from him out of religious scrupulousness after finding him intoxicated in his old age. He also saw Abu Ishaq al-Zajjaj and Ibn al-Anbari in Baghdad, but did not transmit directly from either.
A defining episode of his life occurred when he was captured by the Qarmatians while returning from the Hajj pilgrimage when they attacked the pilgrims at al-Habir. He was apportioned as a captive to nomadic Bedouins who spoke uncorrupted classical Arabic devoid of solecisms. Living among them through seasonal migrations—wintering in al-Dahna, spending the spring in al-Suman, and pasturing in the summer—he recorded countless pure Arabic terms and expressions directly from their speech, which later served as primary empirical material for his scholarly work.
Teaching and Scholarly Impact
Al-Azhari taught and transmitted in Herat, where scholars gathered to study under him. His most prominent students included Abu Ubayd al-Harawi (author of Kitab al-Gharibayn), Abu Yaqub al-Qarrab, Abu Dharr al-Harawi, Sa'id ibn Uthman al-Qurashi, and al-Husayn ibn Muhammad al-Bashani.
His primary scholarly contribution was the compilation of Tahdhib al-Lugha, which he completed after reaching the age of seventy; organized phonetically according to points of articulation starting with the letter 'ayn, it came to be regarded as one of the most reliable lexicons of the Arabic language and formed a primary source for later works such as Ibn Manzur's Lisan al-Arab. Applying his lexicographical expertise to Shafi'i jurisprudence, he also composed al-Zahir fi Gharib Alfaz al-Shafii to elucidate the rare and obscure legal terms found in the Mukhtasar of Isma'il ibn Yahya al-Muzani.
Standing
Scholars and biographers praised al-Azhari for his reliability, piety, high chains of transmission, and mastery of both lexicography and law. Ibn Khallikan described him as an agreed-upon authority of immense erudition, trustworthiness, discernment, and piety. Shams al-Din al-Dhahabi commended him as a leading scholar of language and fiqh who was reliable, firm in transmission, and deeply observant.
Death
Al-Azhari died in Herat in Rabi' al-Akhir 370 AH (980 CE), at the age of nearly ninety. A variant transmission recorded his death in 371 AH.
Answer updated
List of Works
Maani al-Qiraat (The Meanings of the Qur'anic Variant Readings) is a 4th-century AH treatise on Qur'anic variant readings and their grammatical and linguistic justifications (tawjih al-qiraat).
Tahdhib al-Lugha (The Refinement of Language) is a comprehensive Arabic dictionary and one of the largest early lexicons of classical Arabic lexicography.
al-Zahir fi Gharib Alfaz al-Shafii (The Radiant on the Rare Terms of al-Shafi'i) is a specialized legal-lexicographical work dedicated to explaining the difficult and rare terms found in Shafi'i jurisprudence.