Ibn al-Marzuban al-Bahith
al-Alfaz = al-Kitaba wa al-Tabir
- Author died
- 330 AH
- Editions
- Dār al-Bashīr
al-Alfāẓ (Arabic: كتاب الألفاظ, lit. 'The Book of Expressions'), also known under the expanded title al-Kitābah wa-l-Taʿbīr (Writing and Expression), is an Arabic literary and lexical work composed by the 4th-century AH scholar Ibn al-Marzubān al-Bāḥith (d. after 300 AH / 913 CE, ca. 330 AH / 942 CE) as part of his major compendium of epistolary and rhetorical arts .
Authorship and Context
The author of the work was Abū Manṣūr Muḥammad ibn Sahl ibn al-Marzubān, known as al-Bāḥith ("The Inquirer") or al-Bāḥith ʿan Muʿtāṣ al-ʿIlm ("The Inquirer into the Intricacies of Knowledge") . He hailed from Karaj (or al-Karkh) and was described by biographical sources as an accomplished prose stylist, eloquent writer, and litterateur . Ibn al-Nadīm recorded from an eyewitness that he had a paralyzed hand (ashall al-yad) .
While classical biographers like Yāqūt al-Ḥamawī noted that specific details of his biography and exact year of death were largely unrecorded, Yāqūt established that Ibn al-Marzubān quoted the literary theorist Ibn Ṭabāṭabā al-ʿAlawī (d. 322 AH / 934 CE) in his writings, placing his scholarly activity in the early 4th century AH . He died in Baghdad sometime after 300 AH .
Structure and Scope within al-Muntahā fī al-Kamāl
Kitāb al-Alfāẓ was conceived as an integral book within Ibn al-Marzubān's grand twelve-part compendium entitled al-Muntahā fī al-Kamāl (The Ultimate in Perfection) . As cataloged by Ibn al-Nadīm and subsequent bibliographers, the twelve constituent books of the compendium are:
- Kitāb Madḥ al-Adab (Praise of Belles-Lettres)
- Kitāb Ṣifat al-Balāghah (Description of Eloquence)
- Kitāb al-Duʿāʾ wa-l-Taḥāmīd (Supplications and Praises)
- Kitāb al-Shawq wa-l-Firāq (Longing and Separation)
- Kitāb al-Ḥanīn ilā al-Awṭān (Nostalgia for Homelands)
- Kitāb al-Tahānī wa-l-Taʿāzī (Congratulations and Condolences)
- Kitāb al-Amal wa-l-Maʾmūl (Hope and the Hoped-For)
- Kitāb al-Tashbībāt wa-l-Ṭalab (Love Preludes and Petitions; also recorded as al-Tanbīhāt or al-Tasbībāt)
- Kitāb al-Ḥamd wa-l-Dhamm (Praise and Blame)
- Kitāb al-Iʿtidhārāt (Apologies)
- Kitāb al-Alfāẓ (Expressions)
- Kitāb Nafāʾis al-Ḥikam (Precious Maxims of Wisdom)
Within this framework, Kitāb al-Alfāẓ was designed to provide writers and scribes with lexical and stylistic repertories, synonyms, and expressive phrases needed for rhetorical and epistolary composition (al-kitābah wa-l-taʿbīr) .
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