Ithaf al-Fadil bil-Fiil al-Mabni li-Ghayr al-Fail
- Author died
- 1057 AH
- Editions
- Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyyah
Ithaf al-Fadil bil-Fiil al-Mabni li-Ghayr al-Fail (A Gift to the Virtuous on Verbs Built for Other Than the Agent) is a specialized Arabic linguistic dictionary of passive verbs by the Meccan scholar Ibn Allan (996–1057 AH / 1588–1647 CE) .
Background and Composition
The work was composed as an expanded supplement (tadhyil) to al-Manhal al-Mahul fi al-Fil al-Mabni lil-Majhul, a pioneering treatise on passive verbs by the Meccan Shafi'i judge Khayr al-Din Abu al-Khayr Muhammad ibn Abi al-Su'ud ibn Zahirah . While Ibn Allan praised Ibn Zahirah's treatise as a unique work in its field, he noted that it had omitted a substantial number of passive verbs . To fill these gaps, Ibn Allan compiled the original text alongside extensive additions, drawing the majority of his supplementary entries from two classical treatises on verbs (Kutub al-Af'al): one by Abu Marwan Abd al-Malik ibn Tarif al-Andalusi and the other by Ibn al-Qutiyyah . Ibn Allan credited his associate, the Meccan-resident Sharif Ali ibn Yahya al-Hasani al-Idrisi al-Fasi, with tracing and extracting the relevant material from these two source texts .
Contents and Method
The dictionary focuses on verbs that are constructed in the passive voice (al-mabni lil-majhul or li-ghayr al-fail), particularly those occurring primarily or exclusively in that form (mulazama lil-majhul) .
Ibn Allan opens with a brief grammatical introduction addressing whether the passive form is derived from the active voice or if both are independent primary forms, noting the divergent views of the Kufan grammarians, al-Mubarrad, and Ibn al-Tarrawah, as well as arguments cited from a Yemeni work titled Tuhfat al-Athbat .
In the dictionary proper, Ibn Allan merged Ibn Zahirah's base entries with his own additions into a single alphabetical arrangement according to the first letter of the root . To distinguish his contributions from the base work, he placed the letter mim (م) over every entry added beyond Ibn Zahirah's original text . When quoting both Ibn Tarif and Ibn al-Qutiyyah together, he frequently used the dual formula qalaha ("both of them stated") or cited them individually by name .
Editions and Influence
The text remained a primary comprehensive reference on passive verbs through the early modern era . It was published in Damascus in 1348 AH (reissued in 1384 AH by Maktabat al-Qudsi wa-al-Budayr) and in Beirut in 1407 AH / 1987 CE edited by Yusri Abd al-Ghani Abd Allah, with another Beirut edition edited by Ibrahim Shams al-Din in 2001 . Along with al-Manhal al-Mahul, its lexical material served as a principal source for modern lexicographical surveys of passive verbs in Arabic, such as Asma Abu Bakr Muhammad's Qamus al-Af'al al-Mabniyyah lil-Majhul .
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