Ibn al-Arabi al-Lughawi
- Died
- 231 AH
- Born in
- Kufa
Ibn al-Arabi al-Lughawi (150–231 AH / 767–846 CE) was an Iraqi philologist, genealogist, and transmitter of classical poetry, renowned as one of the foremost authorities on the Arabic language.
Lineage and Early Life
His full name was Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Ziyad, known commonly as Ibn al-A'rabi. His father, Ziyad, was a Sindhi slave. He was a client (mawla) of Banu Hashim through al-Abbas ibn Muhammad ibn Ali ibn Abd Allah ibn al-Abbas, though alternative reports ascribe his clientage to Banu Shayban or Banu Mujalid, or note a claimed lineage in Banu Asad. He was born in Kufa in 150 AH (767 CE), reportedly on the night the jurist Abu Hanifa died in Rajab. He was squint-eyed (ahwal).
He was raised as the stepson of the philologist al-Mufaddal al-Dabbi, who had married his mother; under al-Mufaddal's tutelage, he studied, transmitted, and corrected classical poetic anthologies (diwans).
Education and Teaching
Alongside al-Mufaddal al-Dabbi, Ibn al-Arabi studied grammar and philology under al-Kisa'i, the judge al-Qasim ibn Ma'n, Abu Ma'awiya al-Darir, and Abu Ziyad al-Kilabi, in addition to directly gathering linguistic usages from the Bedouin tribes of Banu Asad and Banu Uqayl outside Kufa. He also served as a tutor to the sons of Sa'id ibn Salm.
His teaching sessions drew around one hundred attendees, where he dictated vast amounts of tribal poetry and answered queries entirely from memory without holding written manuscripts during class. His prominent disciples included Abu al-Abbas Tha'lab—who studied under him for nineteen years—as well as Ibn al-Sikkit, Ibrahim al-Harbi, Abu Ubayd al-Qasim ibn Sallam, Abu Ikrimah al-Dabbi, and Shamir ibn Hamdawayh.
Standing and Linguistic Views
Ibn al-Arabi was recognized for his scrupulous piety, reliability, and encyclopedic command of tribal history, genealogy, and rare vocabulary. Tha'lab remarked that the pinnacle of linguistic mastery and memory culminated in him, while al-Fadl ibn Muhammad al-Sha'rani observed that just as Sufyan al-Thawri led in Hadith, Abu Hanifa in legal analogy, and al-Kisa'i in Quranic recitation, Ibn al-Arabi stood unmatched in the language of the Arabs. Although trained in Kufa, he was regarded as the Kufan scholar closest to the rigorous transmission methods of the Basran school.
He frequently engaged in polemics against rival philologists, holding a low opinion of al-Asma'i and Abu Ubaydah; on one lexical point transmitted by al-Asma'i, he maintained having heard the opposite from a thousand Bedouins. In phonology, he held that the letters ḍād (ض) and ẓāʾ (ظ) could alternate interchangeably in standard Arabic speech. Among his compilations in philology and tribal lore are his extensive lexical work Kitab al-Nawadir (The Book of Rare Expressions) and the monograph Asma Khayl al-Arab wa Fursaniha (The Names of Arab Horses and Their Knights).
Death
Ibn al-Arabi died in Samarra in 231 AH (846 CE), with an alternative account dating his death to 230 AH. He was eighty-one years of age—specifically recorded as eighty-one years, four months, and three days—and his death is reported to have occurred on the 13th of Sha'ban.
Answer updated
List of Works
Asma Khayl al-Arab wa Fursaniha (The Names of Arab Horses and Their Knights) is a treatise on notable Arabian horses, their riders, and tribal lineages. Belonging to the early tradition of Arabic monographs dedicated to horses and their genealogies, the work documents famed mounts from the pre-Islamic and early Islamic eras, grouping them under their owners' tribes while citing historical battle encounters and poetic verses celebrating the horses.