al-Intikhab li-Kashf al-Abyat al-Mushkila al-Irab
- Author died
- 666 AH
- Editions
- Mu'assasat al-Risalah
al-Intikhab li-Kashf al-Abyat al-Mushkila al-Irab (The Selection for Clarifying Verses of Difficult Grammatical Analysis) is a grammatical treatise by the scholar and cryptanalyst Ali ibn Adlan (583–666 AH / 1187–1267 CE) dedicated to resolving syntactically ambiguous and riddle-like Arabic poetic verses .
Background and Purpose
Ibn Adlan, a native of Mosul who later taught in Cairo, was widely recognized for his expertise in grammar, literary riddles, and cryptanalysis . In the introduction to the work, he emphasized the preeminence of the Arabic language as the foundation of religious and intellectual sciences and the necessity of safeguarding its grammatical structures against corruption . He composed the treatise for the library of the dignitary Izz al-Din Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Mubadir, citing the patron's dedication to Arabic philology and desire to uncover the subtleties of grammatical analysis .
Structure and Method
The treatise is organized alphabetically according to the rhyme letter of the poetic lines, beginning with the letter alif and proceeding through the rest of the Arabic alphabet . Under each alphabetical section, Ibn Adlan selects specific lines of poetry characterized by syntactic obscurity, enigmatic phrasing (alghaz), or intricate word order .
His method centers on conciseness, deliberately avoiding overly lengthy digressions and excessive citations . For each verse, he:
- Analyzes the governing grammatical agents and the underlying syntactic estimation (taqdir) .
- Outlines competing parsing possibilities (wujuh al-i'rab) and weighs their relative strength or weakness .
- Explains instances of poetic necessity (darurat al-shi'r), such as non-standard word separation and irregular apocopation (tarkhim) .
- Unravels structural wordplays and scribal disjunctions crafted intentionally by poets to confound the reader .
The material incorporates both classical lines—including verses by al-Farazdaq and Jarir—and verses composed by later poets (muhdathun) .
Transmission and Publication
The primary surviving witness of the text is preserved in the Cambridge University Library (MS 996/81), transcribed in 720 AH, with photographic copies held in institutional collections such as Dar al-Kutub al-Misriyya . The text was edited by Hatim Salih al-Damin and published in the Iraqi journal al-Mawrid (1983), before appearing in a separate edition issued by Mu'assasat al-Risala in Beirut (1405 AH / 1985 CE) .
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