al-Bahja al-Wafiya bi-Hujjat al-Khulasa al-Alfiya
- Author died
- 984 AH
- Editions
- Dār al-Kutub al-ʻIlmīyah
al-Bahja al-Wafiya bi-Hujjat al-Khulasa al-Alfiya is an extensive versified commentary on Ibn Malik's (d. 672 AH / 1274 CE) grammatical poem al-Alfiya, composed in the rajaz meter by the Shafi'i scholar Badr al-Din al-Ghazzi (904–984 AH / 1499–1577 CE).
Composition and Context
While the vast majority of commentaries on Ibn Malik's al-Alfiya were written in prose, al-Ghazzi authored three distinct commentaries on the work: one in prose and two in verse, of which al-Bahja al-Wafiya is his major versified commentary (al-sharh al-manzum al-kabir). In the book's opening lines, the author records its title as al-Bahja al-Wafiya bi-Hujjat al-Khulasa al-Alfiya, whereas in the closing lines he phrases it as al-Bahja al-Wafiya bi-Hujjat al-Alfiya al-Nahwiyya. The composition spans roughly ten thousand verses—amounting to over 10,050 lines—and was completed on the night of the middle of Sha'ban in the year 940 AH (1534 CE).
Structure and Method
The work opens with an introduction followed by a prefatory overview of essential grammatical principles. It then proceeds sequentially through the text of al-Alfiya, beginning with the explanation of the Basmala and closing with a commentary on Ibn Malik's epilogue, followed by an epilogue for the commentary and a conclusion for the entire work.
Al-Ghazzi's pedagogical method involves seamlessly integrating Ibn Malik's verses into his own rajaz versification. Throughout the commentary, he frequently provides explicit rationales for Ibn Malik's arrangement of chapters and sections—such as explaining why the chapter on the diminutive (al-tasghir) follows broken plurals (al-taksir), or why deletion (al-hadhf) succeeds phonological substitution (al-ibdal). In elucidating Ibn Malik's grammatical doctrines, al-Ghazzi relies extensively on Ibn Malik's earlier, larger didactic poem al-Kafiya al-Shafiya and its commentary, occasionally citing lines directly from it when they offer superior concision and clarity.
Modern Edition
The text was edited and published in two large volumes based on manuscript witnesses by Hamza Mustafa Hasan Abu Tuha.
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