Ibn Manzur
- Died
- 711 AH
- Born in
- -
Ibn Manzur (630–711 AH / 1232–1311 CE) was an Egyptian-Arab lexicographer, philologist, and chancery official, renowned as the compiler of the monumental Arabic dictionary Lisan al-Arab (The Tongue of the Arabs) .
Lineage and Early Life
His full name was Jamal al-Din Abu al-Fadl Muhammad ibn Mukarram ibn Ali—also recorded as Ridwan—ibn Ahmad ibn Abi al-Qasim ibn Habaqah ibn Manzur al-Ansari al-Ruwayfi'i al-Ifriqi al-Misri . He traced his descent to the Companion Ruwayfi' ibn Thabit al-Ansari, a lineage Ibn Manzur recorded himself under the root j-r-b in Lisan al-Arab . His grandfather originated from Ifriqiya (Tunisia) before settling in Cairo, where both his father and Ibn Manzur were born .
He was born in Cairo in Muharram 630 AH / October 1232 CE, though variant accounts mention Tripoli or Tunisia as his birthplace, and one later notice records his birth in 690 AH . He grew up in Cairo, where he received his education in Arabic philology, grammar, history, and jurisprudence .
Education and Public Career
Ibn Manzur studied and received hadith from several scholars, including Ibn al-Muqayyir, Murtada ibn Hatim, Abd al-Rahim ibn al-Tufayl, and Yusuf ibn al-Mukhayli . He achieved longevity and transmitted hadith extensively; among those who narrated from him were the historians al-Dhahabi and Taqi al-Din al-Subki, and the grammarian Abu Hayyan al-Gharnati, who also transmitted Ibn Manzur's poetry . Al-Dhahabi noted that he was distinguished in possessing high chains of transmission (al-'awali) .
Professionally, Ibn Manzur served as a scribe in the chancery bureau (Diwan al-Insha') in Cairo for much of his life . He was also appointed to the judgeship (qada') of Tripoli in the Levant following its recapture by Sultan Qalawun, before eventually returning to Cairo .
Scholarly Standing and Method
Ibn Manzur was widely recognized by contemporaries and subsequent biographers for his mastery of lexicography, grammar, history, epistolary composition, and poetry . He possessed a noted passion for condensing voluminous classical works; the biographer al-Safadi observed that he knew of almost no major literary or historical compendium that Ibn Manzur had not abridged, and his son Qutb al-Din attested that he left roughly five hundred volumes of such abridgments in his own handwriting . Among these was Mukhtasar Tarikh Dimashq, in which he condensed Ibn Asakir's vast chronicle to approximately one-quarter of its original length .
His most enduring achievement was Lisan al-Arab, a massive lexicon that brought together the material of major earlier dictionaries—chiefly Tahdhib al-Lughah by al-Azhari, al-Muhkam by Ibn Sidah, al-Sihah by al-Jawhari, al-Jamharah by Ibn Durayd, and al-Nihayah by Ibn al-Athir—organizing entries by final root radicals in the rhyme order of al-Sihah . In theological outlook, biographers describe him as holding moderate Shi'i inclinations without rejectionism (tashayyu' bi-la rafd) .
Later Life and Death
In his final years, Ibn Manzur lost his eyesight . He died in Sha'ban 711 AH / December 1311–January 1312 CE in Cairo at the age of eighty-one, and was buried in its Qarafah cemetery; isolated reports place his death in 716 AH or 771 AH .
Answer updated
List of Works
Nithar al-Azhar fi al-Layl wa al-Nahar is a thematic literary and adab work containing poetry, descriptions, and lore concerning the day, the night, and celestial bodies. It constitutes the first volume of an abridgment and reorganization of Ahmad ibn Yusuf al-Tifashi's encyclopedic compilation Fasl al-Khitab fi Madarik al-Hawass al-Khams li-Uli al-Albab.
Mukhtasar Tarikh Dimashq is a biographical and historical work that abridges Ibn Asakir's extensive chronicle, Tarikh Madinat Dimashq. Rather than following a strict traditionist format, it condenses the original material through selective omission, summarization, and editorial rearrangement.
Lisan al-Arab is an expansive Arabic lexicon that gathers classical Arabic vocabulary alongside grammatical, morphological, Quranic, hadith, and poetic attestations. Aimed at preserving the language, it compiles and organizes material from several foundational lexicographical works using a rhyme-order arrangement based on final radicals.