Irtishaf al-Darb min Lisan al-Arab
- Author died
- 745 AH
- Editions
- Maktabat al-Khānjī
Irtishaf al-Darb min Lisan al-Arab (Sipping the Pure Honey from the Tongue of the Arabs) is an encyclopedic treatise on Arabic grammar and morphology by the Andalusian grammarian Abu Hayyan al-Andalusi (654–745 AH / 1256–1345 CE).
Background and Purpose
Abu Hayyan compiled the work as a comprehensive independent manual spanning six volumes, alongside a two-volume abridgment. It was drafted to present the comprehensive grammatical rulings and variants established in his extensive commentary on Ibn Malik's Tashil al-Fawa'id wa-Takmil al-Maqasid, titled al-Tadhyil wa-l-Takmil, while stripping out the lengthy rationale and tangential justifications of the commentary. In his introduction to the book, Abu Hayyan remarks that the study of Arabic grammar is demanding and that earlier treatises derived from Sibawayh's al-Kitab lacked completeness and precision, leaving out numerous essential chapters and rules.
Content and Method
The work begins with an analysis of phonetics and the components of speech (mawadd al-kalim), focusing on the Arabic letters of the alphabet, their number, phonetic attributes, and articulatory points (makharij al-huruf), before proceeding systematically through the branches of Arabic syntax and morphology. Throughout the text, Abu Hayyan documents disparate scholarly positions, divergent dialectal variations, and disagreements among grammarians across earlier centuries.
Reception and Influence
Irtishaf al-Darb is widely recognized as one of the most comprehensive reference works in the grammatical tradition. Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti stated in Bughyat al-Wu'at that no work in the Arabic language was authored that was greater, more comprehensive, or more thorough in recording grammatical differences than Irtishaf al-Darb and its abridgment, noting that he relied heavily on both when composing his own work Jam' al-Jawami'. In the preface to his commentary Ham' al-Hawami', al-Suyuti explicitly noted that his compilation encapsulates the core material of Ibn Malik's al-Tashil and Abu Hayyan's Irtishaf al-Darb.
Printed Editions
The text has been published in multiple critical editions, including:
- An edition edited by Mustafa Ahmad al-Nammas (Cairo, 1404 AH / 1984 CE).
- An edition edited and studied by Rajab Uthman Muhammad and reviewed by Ramadan Abd al-Tawwab, published by Maktabat al-Khanji (Cairo, 1418 AH / 1998 CE).
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