Kitab al-Alfaz li-Ibn al-Sikkit
- Author died
- 244 AH
- Editions
- Maktabat Lubnān Nāshirūn
Kitab al-Alfaz (The Book of Expressions) is an early thematic lexicon of the Arabic language composed by the Kufan philologist and grammarian Ibn al-Sikkit (d. 244 AH / 858 CE) . It is considered one of his two principal large works alongside Islah al-Mantiq (The Correction of Speech) .
Structure and Method
The work is organized thematically into semantic categories (abwab al-ma'ani) rather than by alphabetical roots . It comprises 150 thematic chapters covering essential vocabulary and expressions transmitted on the authority of early linguistic authorities, supported extensively by poetic citations (shawahid) from ancient Arab poets . Among its chapter headings are sections devoted to meaning, fertility and abundance (al-khisb), poverty and drought (al-faqr wa-al-jadb), and multitudes or groups (al-jama'ah) .
Reception and Influence
Kitab al-Alfaz served as a foundational model for subsequent thematic lexicography in Arabic . Ibn Qutaybah (d. 276 AH) followed its structural model in Adab al-Katib (Etiquette of the Scribe), incorporating most of the thematic chapters established by Ibn al-Sikkit in Kitab al-Alfaz and Islah al-Mantiq . The same thematic framework was later adopted by 'Abd al-Rahman ibn 'Isa al-Hamadhani (d. 320 AH) in al-Alfaz al-Kitabiyyah, by Abu Mansur al-Tha'alibi (d. 429 or 430 AH) in Fiqh al-Lughah, and culminated in the comprehensive thematic dictionary al-Mukhassas by Ibn Sidah (d. 458 AH) .
The transmission of the text was preserved across scholarly centers; in al-Andalus, it was transmitted through chains reaching back via Abu Bakr ibn al-Anbari and his father from Ibn al-Sikkit’s copyist (mustamli), Abu Muhammad 'Abd Allah ibn Muhammad ibn Rustam .
Commentaries and Editions
The text was the subject of early philological commentaries:
- Sharh Abyat Kitab al-Alfaz by Ibn al-Sirafi (d. 385 AH / 995 CE), which has not survived .
- Tahdhib al-Alfaz (The Refinement of Expressions) by Al-Khatib al-Tibrizi (d. 502 AH / 1109 CE), an extensive redaction and commentary providing explanations of the text and its poetic verses .
Manuscripts of the work and its recension survive in several libraries, including the al-Qarawiyyin Library in Fez, the General Library in Rabat, the Bibliothèque nationale in Paris, the British Library (India Office Collection) in London, and Leiden University Library .
The text was first edited by Father Louis Cheikho alongside al-Tibrizi's commentary under the title Kanz al-Huffaz fi Kitab Tahdhib al-Alfaz, printed at the Catholic Press in Beirut between 1895 and 1898 based on the Leiden and Paris manuscripts, and reprinted in Beirut in 1976 . Cheikho subsequently issued the core text separately with minor additions under the title Mukhtasar Tahdhib al-Alfaz in Beirut in 1897 .
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