Iqti taf al-Azahir wa Iltiqat al-Jawahir
- Author died
- 779 AH
- Editions
- Abd Allah Hamid al-Nimri
Iqtitaf al-Azahir wa Iltiqat al-Jawahir (Plucking the Blossoms and Gathering the Jewels) is a specialized treatise on Arabic morphology and lexicology by the Andalusian scholar Abu Ja'far al-Ru'ayni (d. 779 AH / 1377 CE), examining triliteral verbs that take variable vowel patterns in the imperfect tense.
Subject and Purpose
In the introduction to the work, Ahmad ibn Yusuf ibn Malik al-Ru'ayni al-Gharnati explains that verbs following the pattern fa‘ala (with an open medial radical) constitute the most common verbal forms in Arabic speech. He compiled the treatise specifically to gather verbs of this measure whose imperfect form (mudari‘) is vocalized with both a dammah (yaf‘ulu) and a kasrah (yaf‘ilu), treating instances where the two forms share identical meanings as well as cases where their meanings differ. Observing that isolating this precise category serves significant practical utility, he prepared the collection and dedicated it to the royal library (al-khizanah al-sharifah).
Structure and Method
The work is organized alphabetically according to the Arabic letters (huruf al-mu‘jam). Al-Ru'ayni adopted a systematic framework within each chapter:
- He opens each alphabetical section with verbs whose alternate imperfect vocalizations share identical meanings, intending to facilitate ease of use for readers, before addressing those whose meanings diverge.
- The lexical entries are preceded by an introduction (muqaddimah) detailing the morphological rules of fa‘ala, its transitivity and derivation (naql), and its sound and weak root variations.
- The book concludes with a dedicated chapter (fasl) covering verbs that shift between transitivity and intransitivity depending on context (ma yata‘adda min al-af‘al marratan duna marrah).
Reception and Transmission
The book served as a reference for later lexicographers; Murtada al-Zabidi frequently cites al-Ru'ayni's morphological discussions from Iqtitaf al-Azahir wa Iltiqat al-Jawahir in his expansive lexicon Taj al-Arus. The text was edited by Abdullah Hamid al-Nimri as a master's thesis at Umm al-Qura University in 1402 AH (1982 CE).
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