al-Intikhab fi Sharh Adab al-Kitab
- Author died
- 597 AH
- Editions
- Markaz al-Imām al-Thaʿālibī lil-Dirāsāt
al-Intikhab fi Sharh Adab al-Kitab (The Selection in Commenting on the Scribe's Etiquette) is an Andalusian Arabic philological commentary by the grammarian and jurist Ahmad ibn Dawud al-Judhami (d. 597 AH / 1201 CE, or 598 AH) on the classic manual Adab al-Kitab (or Adab al-Katib) by Ibn Qutaybah (d. 276 AH / 889 CE) .
Purpose and Scope
Al-Judhami explained in his introduction that he compiled the work to gather the linguistic and grammatical observations of earlier scholars on Ibn Qutaybah's text, explain its poetic evidence, and correct textual and linguistic errors, intending it as a concise personal reference and study aid rather than composing it at the behest of a ruler or patron .
The commentary covers Ibn Qutaybah's opening preface as well as the chapters comprising the four constituent books of Adab al-Kitab: Kitab al-Ma'rifah (The Book of Knowledge), Kitab Taqwim al-Yad (The Book of Orthographic Rectification), Kitab Taqwim al-Lisan (The Book of Linguistic Rectification), and Kitab al-Abniyah (The Book of Morphological Patterns) . Unlike earlier Andalusian commentators such as Ibn al-Sid al-Batalyawsi—who separated the preface, linguistic lexicon, and poetic citations into distinct sections in his commentary al-Iqtidab—al-Judhami integrated linguistic explanations directly alongside the poetic evidence within each chapter .
Methodology and Sources
Al-Judhami's method is marked by systematic collation, source critical citation, and grammatical analysis:
- Textual Recensions: He collated multiple manuscripts of Ibn Qutaybah's text, identifying distinct transmission strands such as the recension transmitted by Abu Nasr Harun ibn Musa from Abu Ali al-Qali, the recension of Isa ibn Muhammad ibn Sahib al-Ahbas, and the copy of Abu Ja'far ibn Qutaybah transmitted from his father .
- Source Material and Abbreviations: To keep the exposition concise, al-Judhami devised single-letter abbreviations for his principal sources, such as the letter ta (ط) for Ibn al-Sid al-Batalyawsi and dal (د) for his teacher Dawud ibn Yazid al-Sa'di . The book preserves over four hundred citations and marginal notes from Dawud al-Sa'di and more than three hundred from Abu Ali al-Qali that are otherwise unpreserved in independent works .
- Reference Works: He drew upon major Eastern and Andalusian works, including Ibn al-Quttiyyah's Kitab al-Af'al, Abu Bakr al-Zubaydi's Mukhtasar al-'Ayn and Tabaqat al-Nahwiyyin wa-l-Lughawiyyin, Qasim ibn Thabit's al-Dala'il, Ibn Sidah's al-Muhkam, Ibn al-Sikkit's Islah al-Mantiq, and commentaries by al-Zajjaji and al-Jawaliqi .
Reception and Manuscripts
The work earned praise from Andalusian and Maghrebi biographers. Ibn al-Abbar described it in al-Takmilah as a useful work on Ibn Qutaybah's text, and Ibn Abd al-Malik al-Marrakushi recorded that al-Judhami excelled in its composition .
al-Intikhab has survived in a unique manuscript preserved at the Sabihiyyah Library in Sale (MS 477/1010, 114 folios) . The colophon notes that it was transcribed directly from the author's final autograph draft (mubayyadah) by the copyist Shuja' ibn Muhammad on 23 Rajab 686 AH . The text was edited in a collaborative two-part doctoral project by Sa'diyyah Bukharayt and Aminah Bil-'Arabi, and published by Markaz al-Imam al-Tha'alibi in conjunction with Dar Ibn Hazm .
Answer updated