al-Latifa al-Bakriya wa al-Natija al-Fikriya fi al-Muhimmat al-Nahwiya - dimn "Athar al-Muallimi
- Author died
- 1386 AH
- Editions
- Dār ‘Ālam al-Fawā’id lil-Nashr wa-al-Tawzī‘
al-Latifa al-Bakriya wa al-Natija al-Fikriya fi al-Muhimmat al-Nahwiya (The Prime Subtlety and Intellectual Outcome Regarding Grammatical Essentials) is a concise Arabic grammatical treatise written by the Yemeni scholar Abd al-Rahman al-Muallimi al-Yamani (1312–1386 AH / 1894–1966 CE) .
Composition and Sources
The treatise was written as an answer to an inquiry requesting al-Mu'allimi to explain indeclinable nouns (al-ism al-mabni) and semi-declinable nouns (al-mamnu' min al-sarf / diptotes) . It is considered one of his earliest compositions, written when he was in his twenties, as its surviving manuscript copy was completed in 1337 AH (1918–1919 CE), and the word al-Bakriya in the title alludes to a maiden or first endeavor .
On the title page of the manuscript, al-Mu'allimi appended an explicit declaration stating that all the material in the treatise was drawn directly from five classical reference works :
- Ham' al-Hawami' by al-Suyuti
- Sharh al-Kafiya by Radi al-Din al-Astarabadhi
- The supercommentary (hashiya) of al-Sabban on the commentary to Ibn Malik's Alfiyya
- The supercommentary of Muhammad al-Khudari on the commentary to the Alfiyya
- The treatise on indeclinable nouns (al-Mabniyyat) by Ahmad Zayni Dahlan
In that note, the author urged any reader who suspects an error to verify against those source texts before passing judgment .
Content and Structure
Although occasioned by questions on indeclinability and diptotes, al-Mu'allimi broadened the scope with brief pointers and allusions to various foundational grammar concepts to maximize the text's utility .
The work opens with an introduction covering fundamental grammatical definitions: defining grammar (nahw) as the knowledge of principles derived from the speech of the Arabs to understand the state of words in syntax, followed by definitions of inflection (i'rab), indeclinability (bina'), and the importance of grammar in safeguarding meaning and comprehension . It proceeds to detailed discussions of the types and causes of indeclinable nouns as well as the causes preventing noun nunation and genitive inflection (al-mamnu' min al-sarf), detailing the phonetic and semantic secondary causes (al-'ilal al-lafziyya wa al-ma'nawiyya) that liken a noun to a verb .
Publication
The treatise was first published with editing and brief explanatory notes by Usama ibn Muslim al-Hazimi through Dar Alam al-Fawa'id around 1421 AH . It was subsequently re-edited by al-Hazimi and published as the opening work in Volume 20 (devoted to grammatical and linguistic treatises) of Athar al-Mu'allimi (The Works of Abd al-Rahman al-Muallimi al-Yamani) .
Answer updated