al-Anshuta fi al-Nahw
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- al-Anshuta fi al-Nahw
Al-Anshuta fi al-Nahw (The Slipknot in Grammar) is a concise Arabic grammar treatise composed by Hazem Khanfar in 1437 AH / 2016 CE, designed to clarify grammatical principles with accessible rules and illustrative examples.
Background and Title
Hazem Khanfar dated the preface of the work to 1 Jumada al-Ula 1437 AH (10 February 2016 CE). The author intended the treatise to rectify Arabic speech by gathering rules, explanations, and examples without tedious elaboration or deficient brevity.
He explained the title by noting that an anshūṭah is a two-ended loop or slipknot in a cord that can be untied effortlessly by pulling one of its ends, in contrast to a tight knot (ʿuqdah). Comparing earlier grammar books to knots, Khanfar styled his work as the loop that untangles grammatical complexity without hardship. Khanfar also abridged the text for beginners into a shorter primer titled al-Burʿumah fi al-Nahw, reducing it to approximately half the size of al-Anshuta and comparable in length to al-Ajjurrumiyya.
Content and Structure
The book presents core grammatical concepts systematically:
- Inflection and Invariability (al-iʿrāb wa-l-bināʾ): Defining both states and detailing the four categories of inflection (nominative, accusative, genitive, and jussive) alongside the four categories of indeclinability (ending in dammah, fathah, kasrah, or sukūn).
- Verbal States: The rules of indeclinability governing past-tense (māḍī), imperative (amr), and present-tense (muḍāriʿ) verbs, as well as the inflectional states of sound, defective, and the five verbs (al-afʿāl al-khamsah).
- Governing Particles for Verbs: Subjunctive particles (nawāṣib)—including an, lan, idhan, kay, and causal fāʾ—and jussive particles (jawāzim), dividing them into those governing one verb and conditional tools governing two verbs.
- Nominal Inflection and Diptotes: The inflectional behavior of singular nouns, duals, sound masculine and feminine plurals, the five nouns (al-asmāʾ al-khamsah), and diptotes (al-mamnūʿ min al-ṣarf), detailing proper names and adjectives barred from nunation.
- Genitives and Definiteness: Prepositions, the construct state (al-iḍāfah), and the division of nouns into indefinite (nakirah) and seven categories of definite nouns (maʿrifah).
Reception
The revised edition (al-Nuskhah al-Munaqqahah) includes a foreword by Abd al-Aziz ibn Ali al-Harbi, professor at Umm al-Qura University and president of the Arabic Language Academy on the World Wide Web, dated 15 Jumada al-Ula 1437 AH (24 February 2016 CE). Al-Harbi praised the treatise for its ease of expression, pleasant approach, and solid composition, highlighting its contribution to simplifying grammar and facilitating study.
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