al-Maqasid al-Nahwiyya fi Sharh Shawahid Shuruh al-Alfiyya
- Author died
- 855 AH
- Editions
- Dar al-Salam lil-Tiba'ah wa-al-Nashr wa-al-Tawzi' wa-al-Tarjamah
al-Maqasid al-Nahwiyya fi Sharh Shawahid Shuruh al-Alfiyya (The Grammatical Objectives in Explaining the Evidence of the Alfiyya Commentaries) is a comprehensive Arabic grammatical commentary authored by Badr al-Din al-Ayni (d. 855 AH / 1451 CE) to elucidate the poetic citations (shawahid) used across the principal commentaries on Ibn Malik's grammatical poem, the Alfiyya . Commonly known as al-Shawahid al-Kubra (The Major Commentary on Evidence) or simply Sharh al-Shawahid, it is among the primary reference works dedicated to grammatical proof-texts .
Scope and Composition
Al-Ayni completed the composition of the work in Shawwal 806 AH . In his preface, he notes having laboured over its compilation over an extended period, consulting numerous reference works and poetic anthologies (diwans) . The book covers the poetic proof-texts cited in four major commentaries on the Alfiyya :
- The commentary of Ibn al-Nazim (Ibn al-Musannif, the author's son) .
- The commentary of Ibn Umm Qasim al-Muradi (Tawdih al-Maqasid wal-Masalik) .
- The commentary of Ibn Hisham al-Ansari (Awdah al-Masalik) .
- The commentary of Ibn 'Aqil .
The total number of poetic lines commented upon is recorded as 1,294 verses (and in other counts around 1,280 verses) .
Method and Structure
For each poetic line, al-Ayni adheres to a systematic method: he identifies the verse's author, notes conflicting attributions, specifies the poetic meter (bahr), names the ode (qasida) or fragment from which it is drawn along with its context (munasaba), clarifies unfamiliar vocabulary, provides full grammatical parsing (i'rab), and explains the grammatical rule or point of citation (wajh al-istishhad) . In his theoretical rulings, he predominantly leans toward the Basran school of grammar .
To indicate which of the four commentators cited each verse, al-Ayni devised an abbreviation system using initial Arabic letters :
- Zha' (ظ) for Ibn al-Nazim .
- Qaf (ق) for Ibn Umm Qasim al-Muradi .
- Ha' (هـ) for Ibn Hisham .
- 'Ayn (ع) for Ibn 'Aqil .
When all four commentators include the verse, he marks it with the combined symbol ZH-Q-H-'A (ظقهع), and he employs corresponding combinations of two or three letters when fewer share the citation, or single letters when a verse is cited by only one author .
Abridgment and Influence
Al-Ayni later prepared an abridgment of the work titled Fara'id al-Qala'id fi Mukhtasar Sharh al-Shawahid, known as al-Shawahid al-Sughra (The Minor Commentary on Evidence), in one volume, following requests from students who found the larger commentary exhaustive .
Al-Maqasid al-Nahwiyya served as an important source for later philologists . Abd al-Qadir al-Baghdadi relied on it extensively in his encyclopedic work Khizanat al-Adab, citing al-Ayni's commentary over 320 times, as well as in his commentary on the poetic verses of Mughni al-Labib . Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti likewise drew upon it in Sharh Shawahid al-Mughni .
Publication History
The work was printed in Cairo at the Bulaq Press in 1299 AH on the margins of Abd al-Qadir al-Baghdadi's Khizanat al-Adab across four parts . It was subsequently edited as an academic thesis by Ibrahim al-Sabih al-Tayyar at Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University in Riyadh (1406–1407 AH) in five volumes .
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