al-Shafiya fi Ilmay al-Tasrif wa al-Khatt
- Author died
- 646 AH
- Editions
- Maktabat al-Adab
al-Shafiya fi Ilmay al-Tasrif wa al-Khatt (The Healing Guide in the Two Sciences of Morphology and Orthography) is an introductory treatise on Arabic morphology (tasrif) and orthography (khatt) by the Maliki jurist and grammarian Ibn al-Hajib (570–646 AH / 1174–1249 CE) .
Scope and Method
Ibn al-Hajib authored the work drawing upon the contributions of earlier linguists, employing an exacting approach of condensation and abridgment to produce a comprehensive introduction of small volume but substantial content . He gathered the core principles of morphology and orthography into a few folios, omitting nothing essential for the student of literature while noting scholarly disputes and dialectal variants of the Arabs . In doing so, he restricted the treatise to morphology and orthography, complementing his renowned sister work on syntax (nahw), al-Kafiya .
Commentaries and Adaptations
Due to its conciseness and scholarly density, the work attracted extensive pedagogical interest, leading to numerous commentaries, supercommentaries, and versifications . Ibn al-Hajib himself composed a commentary on it . Among the most prominent commentaries are:
- A comprehensive commentary by Radi al-Din al-Astarabadhi (d. 686 AH), for which Abd al-Qadir al-Baghdadi (d. 1093 AH) later authored a commentary on its poetic citations .
- A widely circulated commentary by Fakhr al-Din Ahmad ibn al-Hasan al-Jarabardi (d. 746 AH), written at the request of the vizier Muhammad ibn 'Ali al-Sawi . Al-Jarabardi's work became the subject of supercommentaries by scholars including Izz al-Din Ibn Jama'a (d. 819 AH), titled al-Durar al-Kafiya fi Hall Sharh al-Shafiya, as well as Badr al-Din al-Ayni (d. 855 AH) and Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti .
- A commentary by Rukn al-Din al-Astarabadhi (d. 715 AH; also reported as 717 AH) .
- A two-volume commentary by Ibn Hisham al-Ansari (d. 762 AH) titled Umdat al-Talib fi Tahqiq Tasrif Ibn al-Hajib .
- Further Arabic commentaries by Nizam al-Din al-A'raj al-Nisaburi, Nuqrakar (d. c. 776 AH), and Zakariyya al-Ansari (d. 926 AH), who titled his text al-Manahij al-Kafiya fi Sharh al-Shafiya .
- Non-Arabic commentaries and translations, such as a Persian commentary by Ali al-Qushji (d. 879 AH) and Turkish commentaries by Sudi and others .
The text was also rendered into verse by poets including Abu al-Naja ibn Khalaf al-Ma'arri (b. 849 AH), Yusuf ibn 'Abd al-Malik (under the title al-Safiya), and Ibrahim ibn Husam al-Karmiyani (d. 1016 AH), who wrote a ta'iyya poem and subsequently commented on it in al-Fawa'id al-Jaliyya .
Publication History
The treatise and its various commentaries have been printed in multiple editions across several regions, including early publications in Calcutta (1805 CE), Istanbul (1850 CE), Delhi, Kanpur, and Cairo . Modern critical editions include the four-volume printing of Radi al-Din al-Astarabadhi's commentary edited by Muhammad Nur al-Hasan, Muhammad al-Zafzaf, and Muhammad Muhyi al-Din 'Abd al-Hamid .
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