Hamad bin Muhammad al-Saidi
- Died
- 1250 AH
- Born in
- -
Hamad bin Muhammad al-Saidi (fl. c. 1170–1250 AH / 1757–1834 CE) was an Egyptian Maliki scholar and grammarian best known for his morphological commentary Fath al-Muta'al 'ala al-Qasida al-Musamma bi-Lamiyyat al-Af'al.
Identity and Period
His full name is recorded as Hamad bin Muhammad al-Ra'iqi al-Sa'idi al-Maliki. Classical biographical dictionaries do not preserve an independent entry for him, but his legal affiliation and nisba associate him with Upper Egypt (Sa'id Misr), where the Maliki school was prominent. Carl Brockelmann noted his commentary in Geschichte der arabischen Litteratur, recording his nisba with the variant spelling al-Sa'idi (with sin).
His approximate period of activity is placed between 1170 and 1250 AH (c. 1757–1834 CE), deduced from internal citations in his writing and manuscript records. In his gloss, he quotes Ahmad ibn Ahmad al-Suja'i (d. 1197 AH) from Fath al-Jalil, describing him as an authority, and cites Muhammad al-Amir al-Kabir (d. 1233 AH) without explicitly naming him as "one of the verifiers" (ba'd al-muhaqqiqin), indicating he was younger than al-Suja'i and contemporary with al-Amir al-Kabir. A known manuscript of his commentary was copied in 1248 AH from an earlier transcription.
Scholarly Contribution
Al-Saidi is recognized for his commentary Fath al-Muta'al 'ala al-Qasida al-Musamma bi-Lamiyyat al-Af'al, composed as an explanatory gloss on Ibn Malik's didactic poem on Arabic morphology, Lamiyyat al-Af'al. In the work, he set out to clarify the poem's vocabulary, explicate its underlying grammatical meaning, and point out morphological matters omitted in the verses. He relied extensively on the major commentary by Bahraq al-Yamani, whom he designated simply as "the commentator" (al-sharih) when unspecified, alongside additions from other grammatical authorities. A manuscript copy of the work is preserved in Munich (MS 719).
Answer updated
List of Works
Fath al-Mutaal ala al-Qasida al-Musamma b-Lamiyyat al-Afal (The Opening of the Exalted over the Poem Named Lamiyyat al-Afal) is a commentary on Ibn Malik's didactic poem on Arabic morphology, Lamiyyat al-Afal. Designed as a concise gloss, it elucidates the poem's vocabulary, clarifies its underlying meaning, and highlights omissions in its presentation of morphological rules by interweaving the poetic verses directly into continuous prose explanations.