al-Maqsur wa al-Mamdud li-Ibn Wallad

al-Maqsur wa al-Mamdud (The Shortened and the Extended [Nouns]) is a specialized grammatical and lexicographical treatise by the Egyptian grammarian Abu al-Abbas Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn al-Walid ibn Wallad (d. 332 AH / 944 CE) dedicated to distinguishing between nouns ending in an invariable alif (maqsur) and those ending in a hamzah preceded by an added alif (mamdud) al-Maqsur wa al-Mamdud li…+1.

Purpose and Organization

Ibn Wallad composed the work in alphabetical order (huruf al-mu'jam) to make word lookups straightforward and spare scholars and students the burden of searching through general dictionaries when distinguishing between ambiguous shortened and extended forms al-Maqsur wa al-Mamdud li…+1.

The text is divided into two primary parts:

• The Transmitted Section (al-Sama'i): The author placed non-analogical entries first because they lack encompassing morphological rules and depend entirely on heard transmission (sama'), making them the most frequently queried by students al-Maqsur wa al-Mamdud li…. Under each letter of the alphabet, he first lists words that possess both a shortened and an extended variant (or where the shortened noun has an extended counterpart), followed by shortened words without extended counterparts, and finally unique extended forms al-Maqsur wa al-Mamdud li….
• The Analogical Section (al-Maqis): After completing the alphabetical letters for transmitted words, Ibn Wallad outlines the analogical rules governing shortened and extended nouns, concluding with sections on their dualization, pluralization, and orthography (hija') al-Maqsur wa al-Mamdud li…+1.

Methodology

Ibn Wallad explicitly notes that he restricted his compilation to material transmitted from his teachers and authenticated by trustworthy philologists, deliberately omitting irregular anomalies (shadhdh) as well as sound words not definitively attested in his transmission al-Maqsur wa al-Mamdud li…. The text cites linguistic variants, poetry, and transmissions through earlier scholars such as al-Farra', Abu Ubaydah, and al-Jarmi al-Maqsur wa al-Mamdud li….

Transmission and Publication

The transmission chain (isnad) of the book was preserved in Andalusian bibliographical records, including the Fahrasah of Ibn Khayr al-Ishbili, who received it through chains going back to Ibn Wallad via Muhammad ibn Yahya al-Ribahi and Harun ibn Musa al-Nahwi Fihrisat Ibn Khayr.

The work was first edited by the orientalist Paul Brönnle and published in Leiden in 1900 Hashiyatan li-Ibn Hisham …+1. It was subsequently reprinted and corrected in Cairo by Muhammad Badr al-Din al-Na'sani through Maktabat al-Khanji in 1326 AH / 1908 CE Amali Ibn al-Shajari+1.