al-Wafiya bi-Ikhtisar al-Alfiya
- Author died
- 911 AH
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- Mu’assasat «‘Ilm» li-Iḥyā’ al-Turāth wa-al-Khadamāt al-Raqmiyyah
al-Wafiya bi-Ikhtisar al-Alfiya (Arabic: الوفية باختصار الألفية, The Fulfilling in Abridging the Alfiya) is a didactic poem on Arabic grammar by al-Jalal al-Suyuti (d. 911 AH / 1505 CE), composed as a versified condensation of the Alfiya of Ibn Malik (d. 672 AH / 1274 CE).
Composition and Structure
Al-Suyuti listed the work under this title in his autobiography al-Tahadduth bi-Ni‘mat Allah and in his index of his own writings, describing it as an abridgment comprising six hundred verses. In his bibliographical dictionary Kashf al-Zunun, Hajji Khalifa recorded it under the title al-Wafiya as an abridgment of the Alfiya in 630 verses. The verified count of the text is 635 verses, spanning roughly two-thirds of the size of Ibn Malik’s thousand-line original.
The poem opens with the line:
يَقُولُ رَاجِي رَحْمَةِ العَلِيِّ ... عَبْدٌ لِرَحْمَنَ بْنِ السُّيُوطِي Says he who hopes for the mercy of the Exalted, ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn al-Suyuti...
In its concluding verses, al-Suyuti notes its scope:
نَظَمْتُهَا فِي نَحْوِ ثُلْثَيْ أَصْلِهَا ... وَلَنْ تَرَى مُخْتَصَرًا كَمِثْلِهَا I composed it in about two-thirds of its original, and you will not see an abridgment quite like it.
Method and Content
The work condenses grammatical rules into more concise phrasing while preserving their core substance, and it occasionally incorporates details and theoretical disputes not found in Ibn Malik's original verses. Among these additions, al-Suyuti records grammatical views such as that of al-Farra (Yahya ibn Ziyad) regarding the omission of the protective nūn (nūn al-wiqāya) in certain sister particles of inna, as well as disputes concerning the status of the definite article in the name of God (Allah).
Relationship with al-Farida
The text shares extensive textual correspondence with al-Suyuti’s broader grammatical poem al-Farida fi al-Nahw wa-al-Sarf. When explaining al-Farida in his commentary al-Matali‘ al-Sa‘ida, al-Suyuti stated that he had condensed Ibn Malik’s Alfiya into six hundred lines and then added four hundred lines of original rules and nuances to form al-Farida. Because al-Wafiya served as the basis for that condensation, numerous lines and full chapters across the two works are nearly identical.
Manuscript and Transmission
A manuscript of al-Wafiya is preserved in the library of El Escorial in Spain. This copy was penned in the handwriting of al-Suyuti’s student Muhammad ibn Ali al-Dawudi (author of Tabaqat al-Mufassirin). The text was edited and studied by Hamzah Mustafa Hasan Abu Tuha.
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