al-Masa'il al-Basriyat
- Author died
- 377 AH
- Editions
- Matba'at al-Madani
al-Masa'il al-Basriyat (The Basran Questions) is a work on Arabic grammar and morphology by the grammarian Abu Ali al-Farisi (d. 377 AH / 987 CE), consisting of grammatical inquiries and responses dictated at the Great Mosque of Basra.
Overview and Composition
The book belongs to a series of regional question-and-answer works produced by Abu Ali al-Farisi during his travels across various cities, alongside collections such as al-Masa'il al-Baghdadiyat, al-Masa'il al-Halabiyat, al-Masa'il al-Shiraziyat, al-Masa'il al-Askariyat, and al-Masa'il al-Mayyafariqiniyat. Al-Farisi delivered the text through oral dictation (imla') in the Great Mosque of Basra.
In early transmission records, the book was preserved in a single volume (sifr). Ibn Khayr al-Ishbili recorded an isnad for the work traced through Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Abd al-Rahman ibn Mu'ammar al-Madhhiji, from Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Hisham al-Mushafi, from Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Ibrahim al-Tabrizi, from Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Isa al-Rummani, directly from the author.
Content and Method
The work addresses detailed grammatical, syntactic, and morphological issues through distinct numbered problems (masa'il). Al-Farisi analyzes grammatical rules, syntactic positions (mawdi'), and inflectional governance, often evaluating the opinions of earlier authorities such as al-Akhfash and Abu Uthman al-Mazini, while contrasting them with the doctrines of the Baghdadi grammarians. The topics treated in the work include the rules of conjunction (atf) between clauses, the phonology and behavior of the connecting hamza (hamzat al-wasl), and morphological rules governing diminutive forms (tasghir).
Publication
al-Masa'il al-Basriyat was edited by Muhammad al-Shatir Ahmad and published in Cairo by Matba'at al-Madani in a first edition in 1405 AH (1985 CE).
Answer updated