al-Intisar li-Sibawayh ala al-Mubarrad
- Author died
- 332 AH
- Editions
- Mu'assasat al-Risalah
al-Intisar li-Sibawayh ala al-Mubarrad (The Vindication of Sibawayh against al-Mubarrad) is a 4th-century AH grammatical treatise written by the Egyptian grammarian Ibn Wallad (d. 332 AH / 944 CE) in defense of Sibawayh against the criticisms leveled at him by al-Mubarrad (d. 285 AH / 898 CE).
Background and Purpose
The book is also known as Kitab al-Intisar or Naqd Ibn Wallad ala al-Mubarrad. It was composed to counter a work written by the prominent Basran scholar al-Mubarrad, alternately titled al-Radd ala Sibawayh or Masa'il al-ghalat (Issues of Error), which al-Mubarrad was reported to have authored during his youth to challenge positions in Sibawayh's foundational work, al-Kitab. In his introduction, Ibn Wallad states that his objective is to address every point in which al-Mubarrad alleged that Sibawayh had erred, clarify the grammatical issues, and refute the doubts surrounding them.
Content and Method
Because al-Mubarrad's original refutation has not survived as an independent text, al-Intisar serves as the primary preserved record of its contents. Through Ibn Wallad's text, it is known that al-Mubarrad raised objections to 134 grammatical and linguistic issues in al-Kitab. These disputes reflected divergent analytical methods and analogical reasoning (qiyas); for instance, while Sibawayh prohibited prefixing the definite article to expressions such as al-saqy laka because such usage was unrecorded among the Arabs, al-Mubarrad permitted it by analogy with phrases like al-hamdu lillah.
Ibn Wallad adopted an analytical approach that combined firm defense of Sibawayh with scholarly respect for al-Mubarrad. He acknowledged benefiting from al-Mubarrad's objections because they stimulated inquiry and highlighted points of doubt, while maintaining that al-Mubarrad had opposed Sibawayh based only on his personal reasoning and the opinions of scholars inferior in standing to Sibawayh.
Reception and Editions
The treatise was praised by biographical authorities as one of the finest grammatical works of its kind. The prominent grammarian Abu Ali al-Farisi (d. 377 AH) engaged with the work by writing an explanatory gloss (ta'liqah) upon it. A complete manuscript of the work is preserved in the Taymuriyyah collection at the National Library of Egypt (Dar al-Kutub). al-Intisar was edited by Zuhayr Abd al-Muhsin Sultan and published by Mu'assasat al-Risalah in 1416 AH / 1996 CE.
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