al-Sharh al-Mukhtasar ala Nazm al-Maqsud
- Author died
- -
- Editions
- al-Sharh al-Mukhtasar ala Nazm al-Maqsud
al-Sharh al-Mukhtasar ala Nazm al-Maqsud ("The Abridged Commentary on the Versification of al-Maqsud") is a pedagogical commentary on Arabic morphology (sarf) by Ahmad ibn Umar al-Hazimi, transcribed from a ten-lecture series published on the author's official website.
Background and Selection of the Text
The work explains Nazm al-Maqsud, a 113-verse didactic poem composed by Ahmad ibn Abd al-Rahim al-Tahtawi (d. 1138 AH). The poem is a versification of al-Maqsud, a traditional prose treatise on Arabic morphology whose authorship is unknown; although historically attributed to Imam Abu Hanifa, al-Hazimi notes that this attribution is not historically sound because its style reflects the pedagogical methods of later scholars.
Al-Hazimi selected Nazm al-Maqsud as an introductory textbook for students of Islamic sciences in preference to Ibn Malik's widely used Lamiyyat al-Af'al. He justified this choice on pedagogical grounds, explaining that while Lamiyyat al-Af'al is written in the basit meter and features dense phraseology, Nazm al-Maqsud is composed in the simpler rajaz meter and employs clearer phrasing, making it easier for beginning students to memorize and understand as an instrumental discipline. In preparing his commentary, al-Hazimi also utilized earlier commentaries on the poem, particularly Hall al-Ma'qud min Nazm al-Maqsud by Muhammad ibn Ahmad Alish.
Structure and Content
The commentary is divided into ten lessons that systematically walk through the poem's morphological principles and chapters:
- Principles and Triliteral Verbs: The commentary opens with the ten fundamental principles (al-mabadi al-ashara) of morphology and the morphological scale (al-mizan al-sarfi), defining morphology conceptually and practically as the transformation of roots to express intended meanings. It then examines the conjugations and vowel patterns of the bare triliteral verb (al-thulathi al-mujarrad) in both past and present tenses.
- Derivations and Sound Conjugation: It covers the rules governing present-tense prefixes and vowels, the derivation of imperative verbs, active participles (ism al-fa'il), passive participles (ism al-maf'ul), and intensive active participles (amthilat al-mubalagha). It also details the regular fourteen conjugation paradigms of sound verbs and the rules governing emphatic nun affixes.
- Augmented Forms and Weak Verbs: The work explains augmented verbs (al-mazid), the criteria for identifying non-root letters, verb transitivity, and semantic nuances added by specific patterns, such as the meanings imparted by the prefix sin in istaf'ala. It concludes with weak verbs (al-mu'tallat)—including assimilated (mithal), hollow (ajwaf), defective (naqis), and doubled/hamzated verbs—explaining their conjugation paradigms and the underlying rules of vocalic alteration (i'lal) and assimilation (idgham).
Answer updated