al-Tanbih ala Huduth al-Tashif
- Author died
- 360 AH
- Editions
- Dar Sader (with permission from the Arab Scientific Academy in Damascus)
al-Tanbih ala Huduth al-Tashif (Drawing Attention to the Occurrence of Misreading) is a philological treatise on orthographic errors and textual corruption in Arabic written by the historian and man of letters Hamza al-Isfahani (d. 360 AH / 970 CE). The work examines how the visual characteristics of early Arabic script caused misreadings (tashif) and lexical distortions (tahrif) across poetry, prose, Prophetic traditions, and administrative records.
Background and Purpose
Al-Isfahani composed the book in response to an inquiry asking him to explain why tashif occurred in Arabic script and how structural ambiguities in spelling created confusion until scribes and scholars were eventually compelled over time to introduce diacritical points and dotting (nuqat wa-i'jam). In his introduction, he notes that errors arising from unpointed or ambiguous script had exposed numerous prominent figures to public embarrassment during the Islamic era, including judges, scholars, scribes, princes, and reciters.
Structure and Contents
The work addresses the general phenomenon of tashif in both prose and verse. It outlines the characteristics and development of the Arabic script and demonstrates how leading scholars inadvertently fell into orthographic misreadings:
- Poetry and Philologists: The first chapter (al-Bab al-Awwal) is devoted to misreadings made by twenty-five prominent scholars and philologists when transmitting ancient Arabic poetry. These figures include Abu Ubayda, al-Asma'i, Abu Zayd al-Ansari, Abu Amr ibn al-Ala, Hammad al-Rawiya, al-Mufaddal al-Dabbi, Isa ibn Umar al-Thaqafi, al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi, Sibawayh, al-Akhfash al-Akbar, al-Akhfash al-Awsat, Ibn al-A'rabi, al-Kisa'i, al-Farra', Ibn al-Sikkit, Thalib, al-Mubarrad, and al-Jahiz.
- Hadith and Historical Reports: The author compiles numerous misreadings committed by traditionists and judges. Examples include misreading the command to pitch tents in the valley of al-Aqiq (takhayyamū bil-ʿAqīq) as an injunction to wear carnelian rings (takhattamū bil-ʿaqīq), or transposing words due to visual resemblance in unpointed writing.
- Qur'anic Recitation: The fourth chapter (al-Bab al-Rabi') provides a concise six-page treatment of variant readings and misreadings of words from the Qur'an.
- Chancery and Scribes: Al-Isfahani records misreadings that occurred in official state correspondence due to misplaced dots, including a caliphal order by Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik to register (iḥṣi) effeminate men (al-mukhannathūn) in Medina that was misread by a governor's scribe as an order to castrate them (ikhṣi), as well as embarrassing slips by viziers such as Ahmad ibn Abi Khalid al-Ahwal in the court of al-Ma'mun.
Reception and Refutations
The book is one of the earliest specialized monographs on tashif in Arabic literature. In Ibn al-Nadim's al-Fihrist, its title was itself recorded with a scribal error as al-Tanbih ala Huruf al-Mushaf.
The philologist Abu Nasr Ishaq ibn Ahmad ibn Shabib (also referred to as Ibn Shith, d. 405 AH) authored a dedicated critique titled al-Radd ala Hamza fi Huduth al-Tashif (Refutation of Hamza Regarding the Occurrence of Misreading), though the text has not survived. Later authors on tashif, such as Abu Ahmad al-Askari and al-Safadi, drew on and referenced al-Isfahani's work.
Publication History
The work was edited by Muhammad As'ad Talas, with review by Asma' al-Himsi and Abd al-Mu'in al-Malluhi, and published by the Arab Academy of Damascus in 1388 AH / 1968 CE. It was later reprinted in Beirut in 1992 in a single volume of approximately two hundred pages.
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