Sharh Qatr al-Nada wa Ball al-Sada
- Author died
- 761 AH
- Editions
- al-Maktabah al-Tijāriyyah al-Kubrā
Sharh Qatr al-Nada wa Ball al-Sada (Explanation of the Dewdrop and the Quenching of Thirst) is an Arabic grammatical commentary by the Egyptian grammarian Ibn Hisham al-Nahwi (708–761 AH / 1309–1360 CE) on his own introductory primer of the same name .
Overview and Purpose
Ibn Hisham composed the work as a self-commentary to clarify and expand upon his primer, Qatr al-Nada wa Ball al-Sada . In his introduction, he describes the commentary as concise notes (nukat) meant to lift the veil of the original text, substantiate its rules with textual evidence (shawahid), complete its pedagogical benefits, and serve the needs of students studying the Arabic language . The text has traditionally functioned as an intermediate manual in Arabic grammatical curricula, frequently studied after foundational primers such as al-Ajrumiyyah .
Content and Methodology
The commentary opens with the definition of the word (al-kalimah) as a single utterance (qawl mufrad) and establishes its tripartite division into noun (ism), verb (fi'l), and particle (harf) . It systematically analyzes inflection (i'rab) and indeclinability (bina'), the distinctive markers of nouns and verbs, the divisions of past, present, and imperative verbs, and core syntactic categories .
Throughout the text, Ibn Hisham provides syntactic analysis (i'rab) of illustrative examples, drawing upon Quranic verses and pre-Islamic and early Arabic poetic citations . He explains obscure vocabulary occurring within the poetic evidence and generally avoids convoluted grammatical disputes, prioritizing clear, accessible explanations suitable for learners .
Commentaries, Glosses, and Print History
The work has been the subject of numerous supercommentaries, glosses, and didactic adaptations:
- Mujib al-Nida ila Sharh Qatr al-Nada by Shihab al-Din Ahmad ibn al-Jamal al-Fakihi (completed in 924 AH; d. 972 AH) .
- A supercommentary (hashiyah) on al-Fakihi's work by Yasin ibn Zayn al-Din al-Himsi al-Shafi'i (d. 1061 AH) .
- Dalil al-Huda by Muhammad ibn Ali al-Hariri al-Harfushi (completed in 1047 AH; d. 1059 AH), written as a refinement of al-Fakihi's commentary .
- A manuscript gloss by Ahmad ibn Qasim al-Ibbadi (d. 994 AH), preserved in the Al-Azhar library .
- A gloss begun by Shihab al-Din Mahmud al-Alusi (d. 1270 AH) and completed by his son Nu'man al-Alusi (d. 1317 AH) under the title al-Tarif wa-l-Talid fi Ikmal Hashiyat al-Walid, printed in Jerusalem in 1320 AH .
- A gloss by Muhammad Ghawth ibn Muhammad ibn Nasir al-Din, printed in Madras, India, in 1302 AH .
- A metrical versification (nazm) of Qatr al-Nada by Abd al-Aziz al-Farghali al-Ansari .
The text was printed multiple times in Cairo at the Bulaq Press starting in 1253 AH, in Tunis in 1281 AH, and was published in Leiden in 1887 with a French translation by A. Goguyer .
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