Lamiyat al-Afal
- Author died
- 672 AH
- Editions
- t al-Qasim
Lamiyat al-Af'al is a didactic poem on Arabic morphology composed by Ibn Malik (d. 672 AH / 1274 CE) . Composed in the basit meter and rhyming in the letter lam, the work comprises 114 verses and serves as a concise treatise on verb structures and related nominal derivations .
Purpose and Scope
The poem was designed to summarize the rules of Arabic morphology (al-tasrif), defining analogical standards while listing anomalous forms . It serves as a supplement to Ibn Malik's grammatical didactic poem, al-Alfiyyah, treating aspects of verbal morphology that were omitted or condensed in the larger work . Although titled Lamiyat al-Af'al ("The Lam-Rhyming Poem on Verbs"), the naming reflects the predominance of verbal forms rather than an exclusive focus on verbs, as it also addresses nominal derivations connected to verbal actions .
Structure and Contents
The text begins with an opening preamble on the importance of mastering verbal morphology and is arranged into several thematic topics :
- Unaugmented Verbs (al-Mujarrad): The patterns of bare triliteral and quadriliteral verbs, detailing the vocalization of the middle radical ('ayn) in the imperfect (al-mudari'), alongside the rules governing the voweling with dammah, kasrah, and fathah, and their rare variants .
- Hollow Verbs and Pronominal Attachment: The phonetic and structural alterations occurring in hollow verbs when connected to vocalized nominative subject pronouns .
- Augmented Verbs (al-Mazid Fih): The stems of derived verbs augmented for meaning or structure, including rare and anomalous forms .
- Imperfect, Passive, and Imperative Forms: The prefixes of the imperfect (huruf al-mudaara'ah), the vocalization of the prefixes and the penultimate letter, the construction of the passive voice (al-mabni lil-maf'ul), and the formation of imperative verbs (fi'l al-amr) .
- Derived Nominals: The patterns of active participles (ism al-fa'il), passive participles (ism al-maf'ul), and adjectives assimilated to participles (al-sifah al-mushabbahah); verbal nouns (al-masadir) from triliteral and derived verbs; nouns of instance (al-marrah) and manner (al-hay'ah); nouns of place and time on the forms maf'al and maf'il; forms on maf'alah expressing local abundance; and instrument nouns (ism al-alah) .
The poem omits certain general morpho-phonological topics, such as the morphological balance (al-mizan al-sarfi), affixation (al-ilhaq), and derivation (al-ishtiqaq), as well as noun-specific topics like diminutives, broken plurals, and nominal gender .
Commentaries and Supplements
Lamiyat al-Af'al generated numerous commentaries and scholarly additions:
- Badr al-Din Ibn al-Nazim (d. 686 AH), the author's son, composed an early commentary .
- Muhammad b. 'Abbas al-Tilimsani authored Tahqiq al-Maqal wa-Tashil al-Manal, completed in 751 AH .
- Muhammad b. Dihqan al-Nasafi (d. 818 AH) wrote a commentary on it .
- Muhammad b. 'Abd al-Da'im al-Barmawi (d. 831 AH) authored a dedicated commentary .
- Bahraq al-Yamani (d. 930 AH) authored two commentaries: an extensive one titled Fath al-Aqfal wa-Hall al-Ishkal (known as al-Sharh al-Kabir) and an abridged one (al-Sharh al-Saghir) .
- 'Abd al-Karim b. Muhammad al-Fakkun al-Qasantini and Ya'qub b. Sa'id al-Maklati each authored commentaries preserved in manuscript collections .
- Hamad b. Muhammad al-Sa'idi al-Maliki wrote Fath al-Muta'al, drawing primarily on Bahraq's large commentary .
The Mauritanian scholar Al-Hasan b. Zayn (d. c. 1320 AH) composed a verse addendum (istidrak) that interleaved supplementary lines directly into Ibn Malik's text to supply omitted morphological rules .
Answer updated