Mawsil al-Tullab ila Qawaid al-Irab
- Author died
- 905 AH
- Editions
- Al-Risālah
Mawsil al-Tullab ila Qawaid al-Irab (The Conduit of Students to the Rules of Parsing) is a classical grammatical commentary composed by the grammarian Khalid al-Azhari (d. 905 AH / 1499–1500 CE) . It is an explanatory work on al-I‘rab ‘an Qawa‘id al-I‘rab (widely known as Qawa‘id al-I‘rab), a foundational primer on Arabic syntax and sentence analysis by Ibn Hisham al-Ansari (d. 761 AH / 1360 CE) .
Background and Purpose
Al-Azhari composed the treatise in response to requests from colleagues and students who sought a concise and accessible commentary on Ibn Hisham's primer . In his introduction, the author describes the work as an unburdensome commentary (sharh latif) designed to untangle grammatical structures (yahuillu al-mabani) and elucidate underlying meanings (yubayyinu al-ma‘ani) . He named it Mawsil al-Tullab ila Qawa‘id al-I‘rab to reflect its function as a pedagogical guide leading students toward mastery of syntactic rules .
Structure and Contents
Following the arrangement of Ibn Hisham's original base text, the book is organized into four main chapters (abwab):
- The Sentence and Its Rulings (al-Jumlah wa-Ahkamuha): Covers the definition of the sentence (jumlah) versus speech (kalam), the distinction between nominal (ismiyyah) and verbal (fi‘liyyah) sentences, compound structures such as major (kubra) and minor (sughra) sentences, and the categories of sentences that possess or lack an independent syntactic locus (mahall min al-i‘rab) .
- Prepositional Phrases (al-Jar wa-l-Majrur): Examines the rules governing prepositions and their genitive complements, specifically their syntactic attachment (ta‘alluq) to verbs or verbal derivatives, and instances where such attachment is required or omitted .
- Explanation of Individual Words (Tafsir Kalimat): Addresses the syntactic functions and meanings of twenty frequently encountered words and particles essential for analysts of Arabic texts .
- Refined Grammatical Expressions (al-Isharah ila ‘Ibarat Muharrarah): Outlines precise terminology and technical distinctions to caution grammarians against imprecise or erroneous parsing formulas .
Methodology and Sources
The work is composed in the blended commentary format (sharh mamzuj), where Ibn Hisham's original phrases are seamlessly interwoven with al-Azhari's explanations and syntactic analyses . Al-Azhari clarifies technical definitions, explains grammatical terminology, and illustrates concepts using Quranic verses and lines of classical poetry . Throughout the commentary, he engages with classical authorities and reference works, citing figures such as Sibawayh, al-Zamakhshari, and Ibn Umm Qasim al-Muradi .
Reception and Publication
Mawsil al-Tullab achieved recognition as an instructional manual in traditional curricula and was cataloged by bibliographers such as Haji Khalifa in Kashf al-Zunun among the notable commentaries on Ibn Hisham's text . It was published in Cairo by the Ottoman Printing House (al-Matba‘ah al-‘Uthmaniyyah al-Misriyyah) and has seen various subsequent editions and printings .
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