al-Shawarid = ma tafarrada bihi bad aimmat al-lugha
- Author died
- 650 AH
- Editions
- General Authority for Amiri Press Affairs
al-Shawarid (Arabic: الشوارد, also known as Mā tafarrada bihi baʿḍ aʾimmat al-lugha, "Linguistic Rarities: Singular Transmissions Recorded by Individual Authorities of Lexicography") is a specialized Arabic philological treatise by the Hanafi scholar and lexicographer al-Hasan ibn Muhammad al-Saghani (577–650 AH / 1181–1252 CE).
Subject and Scope
The work is devoted to rare, isolated, and exceptional lexical variants (shawārid and nawādir) in the Arabic language, specifically focusing on vocabulary items documented solely on the authority of individual lexicographical masters rather than broad linguistic consensus. In philological classification, shawārid (singular: shāridah) refers to archaic, anomalous, or solitary usages (ḥūshī, gharīb, and shawādhdh) that contrast with widespread, standard expressions (al-faṣīḥ). Siddiq Hasan Khan noted that early authorities frequently authored specialized works on rare forms (nawādir), describing al-Saghani's treatise as a concise and precise volume (kitāb laṭīf) on the uncommon phenomena of the language.
Transmission and Citations
al-Shawarid is recorded among al-Saghani's specialized monographs in classical biographical and bibliographical registers, including those of al-Safadi in al-Wafi bi-l-Wafayat, Hajji Khalifa in Kashf al-Zunun, and Murtada al-Zabidi in Taj al-Arus. Later scholars, such as Ahmad Taymur Pasha, drew upon the text for documented variants, such as non-standard verb forms and dialectal vocalizations. Manuscript copies of the text have been preserved in historical collections, cataloged under both al-Shawarid fi al-lugha and Ma tafarrada bihi ba'd aimmat al-lugha.
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