Mahmud Safi
- Died
- 1405 AH
- Born in
- -
Mahmud Safi (d. 1405 AH / 1985 CE) was a Syrian grammarian and scholar of Qur'anic sciences, best known for his comprehensive grammatical and morphological analysis of the Qur'an, al-Jadwal fi I'rab al-Qur'an wa-Sarfihi.
Life and Scholarly Work
Mahmud ibn 'Abd al-Rahim Safi was based in Homs, Syria. He dedicated approximately six years to composing his parsing of the Qur'anic text, consulting major commentaries, Arabic lexicons, and classical Arabic grammar manuals. He completed the original manuscript of al-Jadwal in Homs on 8 Shawwal 1399 AH / 30 August 1979 CE.
Safi designed his work using a simplified pedagogical approach intended to facilitate study for students of Arabic and Islamic sciences. Methodologically, he restricted his parsing to the single canonical reading of Hafs 'an 'Asim to prevent beginners from becoming disoriented by variant readings. When a word admitted multiple grammatical interpretations, he selected the parsing aligned with the most apparent meaning and relegated alternative analyses to footnotes. In addition to syntax, he appended a morphological and derivational analysis to each verse, addressing root structures, metrical patterns, and phonetic alterations such as assimilation and deletion.
Death and Reception
Safi died around the time preparations began for the publication of his work; an introductory preface dated 21 Dhu al-Hijjah 1405 AH / 6 September 1985 CE refers to him as deceased (while an isolated modern bibliographical entry records his death date as 1376 AH). Following his death, the publishing house Dar al-Rashid commissioned specialized scholars to expand subsequent editions with supplemental sections on rhetoric (al-balaghah) and explanatory grammatical notes (fawa'id), issuing the expanded text under the title al-Jadwal fi I'rab al-Qur'an wa-Sarfihi wa-Bayanihi.
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List of Works
al-Jadwal fi I'rab al-Qur'an is a modern reference work dedicated to the comprehensive grammatical parsing and morphological analysis of the Quran. Designed in a simplified pedagogical style for students of the language and religious sciences, it provides a full verse-by-verse analysis of the Quranic text according to the recitation of Hafs from 'Asim.