Abniyat al-Asma wa al-Afal wa al-Masadir
- Author died
- 515 AH
- Editions
- Dar al-Kutub wa-al-Watha'iq al-Qawmiyyah
Abniyat al-Asma wa al-Afal wa al-Masadir (The Morphological Patterns of Nouns, Verbs, and Verbal Nouns) is a morphological and lexicographical treatise by the Andalusian-Sicilian philologist Ibn al-Qatta al-Siqilli (d. 515 AH / 1121 CE) . The single-volume work provides an exhaustive compilation of the morphological templates and word patterns (abniya) used in the Arabic language for nominals, verbs, and verbal nouns .
Purpose and Scope
Ibn al-Qatta completed the compilation of the book in Rajab 513 AH (a later report mentions 523 AH) . In his preface, he explained that although earlier grammarians and lexicographers had compiled morphological patterns, none had gathered them exhaustively or systematized them fully . He noted that Sibawayh was the first to record them, listing 308 noun patterns in his al-Kitab under the impression that he had encompassed them all . Later scholars made slight additions: Abu Bakr Ibn al-Sarraj added 22 patterns, while Abu 'Amr al-Jarmi and Ibn Khalawayh each added a few more, yet they still omitted far more than they recorded and fell into disorder .
Through extensive examination of lexicographical lexicons and rare transmitted texts (kutub al-lugha wa al-nawadir), Ibn al-Qatta expanded the inventory of noun patterns to a total of 1,210 templates . Similarly, while Sibawayh and Ibn al-Sarraj had cataloged only 36 patterns for triliteral verbal nouns (masadir al-thulathi), Ibn al-Qatta brought the total to 100 comprehensive patterns .
Method and Reception
The book systematically presents bare and augmented noun patterns across triliteral, quadriliteral, and quinqueliteral roots, verbal patterns, and verbal noun derivations, documenting attested lexical examples and dialectal vocalizations . The bibliographer Hajji Khalifa praised the work, stating that Ibn al-Qatta collected the patterns exhaustively and excelled in doing so . Its findings were cited by later scholars, including Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti in his linguistic encyclopedia al-Muzhir fi Ulum al-Lugha wa Anwa'iha .
The text was edited as an academic dissertation by Ahmad Muhammad 'Abd al-Da'im at Cairo University (1400 AH / 1980 CE) and later published by Dar al-Kutub al-Misriyya in Cairo (1999 CE) .
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