al-Kunash fi Fannay al-Nahw wa al-Sarf

al-Kunash fi Fannay al-Nahw wa al-Sarf (The Notebook on the Two Disciplines of Grammar and Morphology) is an Arabic linguistic compendium composed by the Ayyubid ruler and scholar Abu al-Fida (672–732 AH / 1273–1331 CE), who completed it in 727 AH (1327 CE) al-Kunash fi Fannay al-Na…+1. The work gathers, organizes, and explains the core principles of Arabic grammar, inflection, and orthography al-Kunash fi Fannay al-Na…+1.

Background and Conception

The term kunāsh denotes a personal notebook or compendium compiled to collect disparate knowledge and retain essential rules al-Kunash fi Fannay al-Na…+1. In the opening preface, Abu al-Fida outlined an ambitious project intended to span multiple volumes covering several distinct fields, including grammar and morphology, jurisprudence, medicine, history, ethics and statecraft, and poetry al-Kunash fi Fannay al-Na…+1. Al-Kunash fi Fannay al-Nahw wa al-Sarf constitutes the first independent part of this planned grand compendium al-Kunash fi Fannay al-Na…+1.

Sources and Methodology

The work serves primarily as an analytical synthesis and commentary on select portions of three canonical treatises: al-Mufassal by al-Zamakhshari, alongside al-Kafiyah and al-Shafiyah by Ibn al-Hajib al-Kunash fi Fannay al-Na…+1. For grammatical issues, Abu al-Fida relied heavily on Ibn al-Hajib's own commentary, al-Wafiyah al-Kunash fi Fannay al-Na…+1.

Rather than strictly adhering to the sequential order of his base texts, Abu al-Fida exercised flexibility suitable to a kunāsh al-Kunash fi Fannay al-Na…+1. For example, he placed morphological nouns of time, place, and instrument alongside operative derived nouns rather than subordinating them strictly to traditional morphological groupings al-Kunash fi Fannay al-Na…+1. He structured topics using introductory formulas such as dhikr, fasl, and al-qawl 'ala, frequently illustrating complex grammatical categorizations with circular charts and tables al-Kunash fi Fannay al-Na…+1.

Structure

The treatise is organized into four main sections followed by an orthographic appendix:

1. The Noun (al-Ism): Covering structural classifications, declension, governing nouns, and non-governing nominal forms al-Kunash fi Fannay al-Na…+1.
2. The Verb (al-Fi'l): Treating verbal inflection, stems, conjugation patterns, and governing dynamics al-Kunash fi Fannay al-Na…+1.
3. The Particle (al-Harf): Addressing the functions and classifications of semantic particles al-Kunash fi Fannay al-Na….
4. Shared Issues (al-Mushtarak): Covering broader grammatical and morphological topics common to multiple word classes, drawing directly on al-Mufassal al-Kunash fi Fannay al-Na….

The book concludes with a specialized chapter dedicated to calligraphy and orthography (al-khatt wa-al-imla'), closely following the arrangement of Ibn al-Hajib's al-Shafiyah al-Kunash fi Fannay al-Na….

Reception and Preservation

Later grammarians rarely quoted or cited al-Kunash, a neglect attributed to its scarcity as well as the perception that kunāsh compilations served mainly as personal aide-mémoires rather than standard textbooks al-Kunash fi Fannay al-Na…. The Syrian historian Ahmad al-Sabuni noted its rarity in Tarikh Hamah, describing it as extremely scarce al-Kunash fi Fannay al-Na…. The text has survived in a single authorial manuscript al-Kunash fi Fannay al-Na…+1. A critical edition by Riyad ibn Hasan al-Khawwam was published in two volumes by al-Maktabah al-'Asriyyah in Beirut in 1420 AH (2000 CE) al-Kunash fi Fannay al-Na…+1.