al-Muhkam wal-Muhit al-Azam
- Author died
- 458 AH
- Editions
- Dār al-Kutub al-‘Ilmīyah
al-Muhkam wal-Muhit al-Azam (Arabic: المحكم والمحيط الأعظم, lit. 'The Precise and Greatest Comprehensive [Lexicon]'), commonly known as al-Muhkam, is a major classical Arabic dictionary compiled by the Andalusian linguist and grammarian Ibn Sidah (398–458 AH / 1007–1066 CE; also reported d. 448 AH) . It is considered one of the final and most extensive lexicons structured on the phonetic and anagrammatic system established in early Arabic lexicography .
Structure and Arrangement
The dictionary follows the phonetic and permutational system pioneered by al-Khalil ibn Ahmad in Kitab al-Ayn, grouping roots according to their points of articulation rather than standard alphabetical order . Ibn Sidah organized the letters starting from the deepest throat sounds (al-huruf al-halqiyyah) and proceeding outward through the mouth and lips: 'ayn, ha', ha', kha', ghayn, qaf, kaf, jim, shin, dad, sad, sin, zay, ta', dal, ta', za', dhal, tha', ra', lam, nun, fa', ba', and mim, concluding with the weak letters alif, ya', and waw .
To aid students in memorizing this sequence, scholars recorded mnemonic verses whose word-initial letters represent the ordering of al-Muhkam, including a set of verses beginning with «علقت حبيبًا هنت خيفة غدره...» and another composition by Nasir al-Din Muhammad ibn Qarnas beginning with «عليك حروفًا هنَّ خير غوامض...» .
Ibn Sidah refined al-Khalil's phonetic scheme in several key respects :
- Al-Khalil had merged the hamzah into the section of weak letters, whereas Ibn Sidah treated hamzah as an independent consonant .
- Al-Khalil had counted the soft alif (al-alif al-layyinah) as an independent radical, while Ibn Sidah discarded it from the root consonants, adhering to morphological rules according to which long alif in root positions derives originally from either waw or ya' .
- Regular grammatical derivatives were systematically omitted to avoid redundant material, while irregular and anomalous forms were highlighted .
Method and Sources
In his extensive introduction, Ibn Sidah stated that full comprehension of the work requires proficiency in inflectional grammar (i'rab), metrics ('arud), and rhyme (qawafi) . The lexicon is characterized by its deep integration of morphological and grammatical rationale (ta'lil al-lughah) .
Ibn Sidah incorporated the theoretical and explanatory treatises of eastern grammarians, explicitly drawing on the works of Abu Ali al-Farisi (such as al-Halabiyyat, al-Baghdadiyyat, al-Ahwaziyyat, al-Tadhkirah, al-Hujjah, al-Ighfal, and al-Idah) and Ibn Jinni (including al-Mu'rab, al-Tamam, his commentary on the poetry of al-Mutanabbi, al-Khasa'is, Sirr Sina'at al-I'rab, al-Ta'aqub, and al-Muhtasib) .
Among the specific linguistic discussions treated in the text are the differentiation between collective nouns (asma' al-jumu') and plurals (jumu'), notes on compound plurals (al-jam' al-murakkab), the distinction between metathesis (qalb) and morphological substitution (badal), and the contrast between substitutionary phonological weakening (al-takhfif al-badali) and rule-based weakening (al-takhfif al-qiyasi) . It also includes comprehensive treatments of irregular relative adjectives (shadhdh al-nasab), diminutives, irregular verbal nouns, defective verbs, imalah, and assimilation (idgham) .
Reception and Influence
al-Muhkam earned a central place in the Arabic lexicographical tradition and served as a foundational source for later compilations . Ibn Manzur relied on it as one of the primary references for Lisan al-Arab . al-Fayruzabadi initially set out to write an exhaustive sixty-volume lexicon combining al-Muhkam with al-Saghani's al-'Ubab, which he subsequently abridged and condensed into al-Qamus al-Muhit .
The British orientalist Edward William Lane praised al-Muhkam in the introduction to his Arabic-English Lexicon (Madd al-Qamus), describing it as unsurpassed among post-Sihah dictionaries in its accuracy, critical remarks, and rich citation of authentic classical Arabic poetic evidence, noting that he relied upon it heavily .
Abridgment and Transmission
In the 7th century AH, the scholar Muhammad ibn al-Husayn al-Ansi produced an abridgment entitled Khulasat al-Muhkam . Al-Ansi restricted his summary to commonly used vocabulary, removed extraneous morphological discussions, and reorganized the entries in rhyming alphabetical order by root endings (nizam al-qafiyah) rather than phonetic permutations .
Manuscript copies of al-Muhkam survive in collections including the British Museum, Dar al-Kutub in Cairo, the Köprülü and Şehid Ali libraries in Istanbul, the Qarawiyyin Library in Fez, al-Zaytuna in Tunis, and Princeton University . The work has been printed in several multi-volume editions, including those prepared under the auspices of the League of Arab States' Institute of Arabic Manuscripts and an edition edited by Abd al-Hamid Hindawi .
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