al-Lubab fi Ilal al-Bina wa al-Irab
- Author died
- 616 AH
- Editions
- Dār al-Fikr
Al-Lubab fi Ilal al-Bina wa al-I'rab (The Core Concerning the Causes of Indeclinability and Inflection) is an Arabic grammatical work by the Baghdad-based grammarian and jurist Abu al-Baqa al-Akbari (538–616 AH / 1143–1219 CE) .
Subject and Scope
The treatise focuses on grammatical theory and linguistic causation (ilal al-nahw), examining the underlying rationales and principles that govern whether Arabic words are indeclinable (mabni) or declinable (mu'rab) .
Biographical sources record the work under slight variations of its title. While bibliographers and biographers commonly cite it as al-Lubab fi Ilal al-Bina wa al-I'rab, Ibn Khallikan mentions it under the title al-Lubab fi Ilal al-Nahw , and Ibn Kathir refers to it as Kitab al-Lubab fi al-Nahw .
Method of Composition
Having lost his eyesight to smallpox during his youth, al-'Ukbari relied on dictation when producing his writings . His general method of composition involved gathering the existing treatises on a topic, having students read them aloud to him, and subsequently dictating his own analysis, evaluations, and arguments .
Manuscript Transmission
Manuscript copies of the work have survived in several collections, including the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin, the Al-Qarawiyyin Library in Fez, the Al-Azhar Library and the National Library of Egypt (Dar al-Kutub) in Cairo, as well as the Al-Ahqaf Library in Tarim, Yemen .
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