al-Jawaliqi
- Died
- 540 AH
- Born in
- Baghdad
Abu Mansur al-Jawaliqi (465/466–540 AH / 1073–1145 CE) was an Arabic philologist, grammarian, and teacher from Baghdad who served as prayer leader and tutor to the Abbasid caliph al-Muqtafi .
Lineage and Early Life
He was Mawhub ibn Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn al-Khadir ibn al-Hasan al-Jawaliqi, Abu Mansur . His nisba derives from jawaliq (the plural of juwaliq, large sacks or bags), probably because an ancestor manufactured or sold them . He was raised in Baghdad in the quarter of Bab al-Maratib . Sources record slight differences regarding his birth: in Dhu al-Hijjah 465 AH, in 466 AH, or in late 465/early 466 AH .
Education and Career
Al-Jawaliqi studied Arabic language and literature under Abu Zakariyya Yahya al-Tibrizi for seventeen years, continuing in his company until he achieved mastery . He also studied Hadith under Abu al-Qasim ibn al-Busri, Abu Tahir ibn Abi al-Saqr, Tirad ibn Muhammad al-Zaynibi, Nasr ibn al-Batar, and Abu al-Husayn ibn al-Tuyuri .
Following al-Tibrizi's death, al-Jawaliqi succeeded him in teaching Arabic at the Nizamiyya Madrasa of Baghdad for a period . When Caliph al-Muqtafi assumed the caliphate, he selected al-Jawaliqi as his personal prayer leader; the caliph read books under his direction, and the influence of this instruction became apparent in al-Muqtafi's written decrees .
Among those who transmitted from him and studied under him were Ibn al-Jawzi, Abu Sa'd al-Sam'ani, Abu al-Barakat al-Anbari, Abu al-Yumn al-Kindi, Yusuf ibn Kamil, as well as his daughter Khadijah and his son Isma'il .
Scholarly Standing and Views
Al-Sam'ani described him as a trustworthy, devout, and scrupulous scholar possessing superior intellect, fine handwriting, and exacting manuscript precision . Ibn al-Jawzi recorded that al-Jawaliqi was humble in demeanor, practiced long periods of silence, verified matter thoroughly before speaking, and frequently said "I do not know" when questioned until he was certain .
In grammatical theory, Abu al-Barakat al-Anbari noted that al-Jawaliqi held some unusual positions; he adopted the Kufan view that the noun following lawla is put into the nominative case by lawla itself, and argued that the definite article in the phrase ni'ma al-rajul indicates specific reference ('ahd) rather than generic classification (jins) . His scholarship produced al-Mu'arrab, a major study of Arabized loanwords, as well as a commentary on Ibn Qutaybah's Adab al-Katib and al-Takmila fima Yalhan fihi al-'Amma on common linguistic errors .
Death
Al-Jawaliqi died at dawn on Sunday, 15 Muharram 540 AH in Baghdad; other reports record his death in 539 AH or 541 AH . His funeral prayer was led at the Qasr Mosque by Chief Judge Abu al-Qasim al-Zaynibi and attended by state dignitaries and scholars, after which he was buried next to his father at Bab Harb .
Answer updated
List of Works
This linguistic treatise on common speech errors serves as a supplementary appendix (dhayl) to al-Hariri's work on elite linguistic solecisms, Durrat al-Ghawwas fi Awham al-Khawass. It is also known by the titles al-Takmila fima Yalhan fihi al-Amma and Takmilat Islah ma Taghlat fihi al-Amma.
This Arabic philological treatise, also cited simply as Faaltu wa-Afaltu, is devoted to documenting verbs where the base trilateral pattern (fa'ala / fa'altu) and the augmented form prefixed with a hamzah (af'ala / af'altu) share an identical meaning in Arabic usage without any semantic divergence.
This Arabic philological commentary is written on the scribal manual Adab al-Katib by Ibn Qutaybah. It provides an exposition of the original work's prologue, interprets its poetic citations, clarifies its difficult passages, and explains points on which Ibn Qutaybah had been challenged or refuted.