al-Taliqa ala Kitab Sibawayh
- Author died
- 377 AH
- Editions
- Dr. ʿAwaḍ ibn Ḥamad al-Qūzī
al-Taliqa ala Kitab Sibawayh (The Marginal Commentary on the Book of Sibawayh) is a seminal Arabic grammatical commentary composed by the grammarian Abu Ali al-Farisi (d. 377 AH / 987 CE) on the founding treatise of Arabic grammar, al-Kitab by Sibawayh (d. 180 AH / 796 CE).
Nature and Method
The work belongs to the genre of taʿālīq (analytical glosses and lecture notes) in the Arabic linguistic tradition. In older bibliographical notices, it is also recorded under the title Taʿlīq Sībawayh in two volumes.
The text provides systematic grammatical commentary on Sibawayh’s original chapters, beginning with the opening section of al-Kitab, Bāb ʿilm mā al-kalim ("Chapter on Knowing What Words Are"). In his explanations, al-Farisi examines the grammatical construction and voweling of Sibawayh’s phrasing—such as whether the word ʿilm takes nunation (tanwīn), the syntactic role of mā as an interrogative pronoun, and the breakdown of transitivity (taʿaddī) and syntactic governance.
Publication
The work remained in manuscript form until it was edited by Awad ibn Hamad al-Qawzi. The critical edition was published in Cairo by Matbaʿat al-Amana and in Riyadh by King Saud University, appearing in six volumes including indices across successive printings from 1410 AH (1990 CE) to 1417 AH.
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