Kitab al-Shiar aw Sharh al-Abyat al-Mushkila al-Irab
- Author died
- 377 AH
- Editions
- Maktabat al-Khānjī
Kitab al-Shi'r aw Sharh al-Abyat al-Mushkila al-I'rab (The Book of Poetry, or Commentary on Grammatically Difficult Verses) is a grammatical treatise by the grammarian Abu Ali al-Farisi (d. 377 AH / 987 CE), focusing on the parsing and grammatical explanation of complex and problematic Arabic poetic verses.
Titles and Identification
The book is recorded under several variant titles across classical bibliographical sources and manuscript copies. In his al-Fihrist, Ibn al-Nadim listed it as Kitab Sharh al-Abyat al-Mushkila al-I'rab and Kitab Idah al-Shi'r. Yaqut al-Hamawi cited it among al-Farisi's works as Kitab Abyat al-I'rab and Kitab al-Idah al-Shi'ri. It is also cited in historical references and manuscript traditions as al-Shi'r al-'Adudi and Sharh al-Abyat al-Mushkila al-I'rab min al-Shi'r.
Content and Influence
The work provides rigorous syntactic analysis (i'rab) and grammatical justification for challenging poetic citations (shawahid) in the Arabic linguistic tradition. Later grammarians drew extensively on al-Farisi's analyses and solutions, and the text became a subject of scholarly summarization; the Baghdad grammarian Abu al-Baqa al-Ukbari (d. 616 AH / 1219 CE) compiled an abridgment of the work titled Talkhis Abyat al-Shi'r li-Abi Ali.
Modern Editions
The work has been edited and published in modern scholarship:
- Edited by Hasan Hindawi under the title Sharh al-Abyat al-Mushkila al-I'rab (Idah al-Shi'r) (Dar al-Qalam, Damascus / Dar al-Ulum wa-al-Thaqafa, Beirut, 1407 AH / 1987 CE).
- Edited by Mahmud Muhammad al-Tanahi under the title Kitab al-Shi'r aw Sharh al-Abyat al-Mushkila al-I'rab (Maktabat al-Khanji / Matba'at al-Madani, Cairo, 1988 CE).
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