Shadha al-Urf fi Fann al-Sarf
- Author died
- 1351 AH
- Editions
- Maktabat al-Rushd
Shadha al-Urf fi Fann al-Sarf (The Fragrance of Scent in the Art of Morphology) is a manual on Arabic morphology composed by the Egyptian linguist Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Hamlawi (1273–1351 AH / 1856–1932 CE) .
Background and Composition
Al-Hamlawi composed the work to meet the instructional needs of students at Dar al-Ulum, where he taught Arabic language sciences . Confronted by students seeking a comprehensive yet accessible synthesis of Arabic morphology, he gathered scattered grammatical and morphological rulings from earlier sources, refining and clarifying the subject matter with textual evidence . The book was first published in 1312 AH (1894 CE) .
Structure and Content
The author organized the book into an introductory section and three primary chapters (abwab) :
- Introduction (al-Muqaddimah): Covers foundational concepts indispensable for studying morphology, including the linguistic and technical definitions of the discipline, its subject matter, canonical origins, the divisions of words into nouns, verbs, and particles, and the morphological scale (al-mizan al-sarfi) along with morphological metathesis (al-qalb al-makani) .
- Chapter One (al-Bab al-Awwal): Focuses exclusively on verbs (al-fi'l), examining their root patterns, augmentations, and classifications .
- Chapter Two (al-Bab al-Thani): Dedicated to nouns (al-ism), detailing nominal forms, derivatives, and associated morphological rules .
- Chapter Three (al-Bab al-Thalith): Examines universal morphological rules and processes shared between verbs and nouns (ahkam ta'ummuhuma) .
Reception and Editions
Upon its initial publication, the work received laudatory appraisals (taqariz) from leading contemporary scholars and educators in Egypt . Among them, the poet and former chief proofreader at al-Matba'a al-Amiriyya, Taha Qatariyyah, commended it in verse and recorded its initial publication chronogram for 1312 AH . It was also praised by al-Azhar instructors Ali Ghazal and Sulayman al-Abd, who lauded its organization and clarity .
The book has been republished across numerous educational editions, frequently accompanied by biographical notes and annotations prepared by al-Hamlawi's student Mustafa al-Saqqa, as well as subsequent editors such as Nasrullah Abd al-Rahman al-Azzawi .
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