Risalat al-Tilmidh - ضمن Nawadir al-Makhtutat
- Author died
- 1093 AH
- Editions
- Sharikat Maktabat wa-Matba'at Mustafa al-Babi al-Halabi wa-Awladuhu
Risalat al-Tilmidh (Arabic: رسالة التلميذ, lit. 'Treatise on the Pupil') is a short linguistic treatise by the Ottoman-era scholar Abd al-Qadir al-Baghdadi (1030–1093 AH / 1621–1682 CE), dedicated to the etymology, lexical definition, morphology, and literary attestations of the word al-tilmīdh (meaning disciple, student, or apprentice) .
Background and Purpose
Al-Baghdadi stated that he was prompted to compose the treatise while reading Ibn Hisham's grammatical manual Mughnī al-Labīb . In its fifth chapter, the text mentioned a teacher parsing a verse for his tilmīdh, prompting its commentator Ibrāhīm ibn al-Mullā al-Ḥalabī (d. 979 AH) to remark that al-tilmīdh denotes someone reading before a master, while noting that he could not find the term documented in standard reference lexicons such as al-Ṣiḥāḥ or al-Qāmūs . Motivated by its widespread occurrence in scholarly writings despite its apparent absence under its primary expected entry in major dictionaries, al-Baghdadi set out to trace its classical occurrences and grammatical status .
Lexicographical and Morphological Arguments
Al-Baghdadi noted that standard Arabic dictionaries—such as Ibn Durayd's Jamharat al-Lughah, al-Jawhari's al-Ṣiḥāḥ, Ibn Sida's al-Muḥkam, al-Saghani's al-ʻUbāb, and al-Firuzabadi's al-Qāmūs al-Muḥīṭ—did not list the term under the quadrilateral root t-l-m-dh, whereas Ibn Manzur's Lisān al-ʻArab recorded al-talāmīdh under that root as meaning servants and followers (al-khadam wa-l-atbāʻ) .
To establish the term's classical provenance, al-Baghdadi cited early literary sources :
- Abu Hanifa al-Dinawari's Kitāb al-Nabāt, which cited a verse by the companion Labid ibn Rabi'a using al-talāmīdh, glossed as craftsmen's apprentices (ghilmān al-ṣunnāʻ) .
- Verses by the pre-Islamic and early Islamic poet Umayya ibn Abi al-Salt, where the word talāmīdh appeared with commentators defining them as servants, specifically referring to angels .
- The first maqāmah of al-Hariri's Maqāmāt alongside al-Sharishi's commentary, which defined al-tilmīdh as an apprentice learning a craft, a servant, and, by extension, students of knowledge relative to their master .
Morphologically, al-Baghdadi argued that the initial letter tāʾ is a radical root consonant, placing the noun on the pattern fiʻlīl (فِعْلِيل) with an active quadriliteral verb talmadha (تَلْمَذَ, to serve someone) . He explained that applying the word to students of craft or reading originated because a student typically serves his teacher . He deemed the colloquial construction talmadha lahu (with a doubled mīm) incorrect, asserting that the proper root for gradual learning is talammaẓa (تلمّظ) .
Regarding its plural, he stated that the standard plural is talāmīdh (تلاميذ, on the pattern faʻālīl), whereas talāmidhah (تلامذة, with a terminal hāʾ) arose from the mistaken presumption that the word was a foreign loanword (ism aʻjamī) . He concluded by examining the apocopated poetic form al-talām (التَّلام) found in the poetry of al-Tirimmāḥ and Ghaylān ibn Salamah al-Thaqafī, reviewing critiques by Abu Ali al-Farisi in al-Masāʾil al-ʻAskariyyah, Ibn Barri, and al-Fīrūzābādī .
Manuscripts and Publication
The text was preserved in three manuscript copies at the Egyptian National Library (Dār al-Kutub al-Miṣriyyah, classified under nos. 6 Majāmīʻ Shīn, 181 Majāmīʻ, and 122 Majāmīʻ), along with an autograph transcription by the bibliophile Ahmad Taymur Pasha dated 1322 AH .
The treatise was edited by Abd al-Salam Harun, who initially published it in the Egyptian journal al-Muqtaṭaf in March 1945 . Harun subsequently re-edited and included it as the ninth entry of the second collection in his multi-volume anthology Nawādir al-Makhṭūṭāt . Following modern debates raised by Aḥmad ʻAbd al-Ghafūr ʻAṭṭār regarding whether classical lexicons contained the word under the triconsonantal root t-l-m, Harun noted that al-Baghdadi's primary point was its absence under the expected quadrilateral entry t-l-m-dh .
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