Sharh Shudhur al-Dhahab li-Ibn Hisham
- Author died
- 761 AH
- Editions
- al-Sharika al-Muttaḥida lil-Tawzī‘
Sharh Shudhur al-Dhahab fi ma'rifat kalam al-'Arab is an Arabic grammatical commentary written by the Egyptian grammarian Ibn Hisham al-Nahwi (708–761 AH / 1309–1360 CE) to elucidate his own foundational primer, Shudhur al-Dhahab fi ma'rifat kalam al-'Arab.
Purpose and Method
In the preface, Ibn Hisham explains that he composed the commentary to clarify the concise expressions of his original text, complete its evidentiary citations, gather its scattered issues, and facilitate the acquisition of its principles. He explicitly set out three methodological commitments:
- Parsing the syntax (i'rab) of every poetic verse cited in the original text.
- Explaining rare or unfamiliar vocabulary whenever encountered.
- Concluding every grammatical topic with a corresponding verse from the Quran, accompanied by its necessary syntactic parsing, exegesis (tafsir), and linguistic interpretation (ta'wil).
Through this approach, Ibn Hisham intended to train students in the practical application of grammar to the Quranic text. In the text, he separates his base work from his exposition using the phrases "I said" (qultu) for the root summary and "I say" (aqulu) for the commentary.
Structure and Scope
The base work and its commentary open with an introductory framework defining the word (al-kalimah) and its threefold division into noun (ism), verb (fi'l), and particle (harf), along with their distinguishing markers, followed by the definition and categories of speech (al-kalam). The text is organized into fourteen chapters covering the major topics of Arabic syntax, beginning with grammatical inflection (i'rab) and indeclinability (bina'), before proceeding through nominal and verbal governors and their dependents.
Reception and Supercommentaries
The commentary became a widely studied manual of Arabic grammar and generated numerous supercommentaries (hawashi) and pedagogical marginalia. Among the notable works written on it or addressing its text are:
- Nathr al-Zuhur 'ala Sharh al-Shudhur by Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti (d. 911 AH).
- Sharh al-Sudur bi-Sharh Zawa'id al-Shudhur, composed to explain additions in the base text that were left out of Ibn Hisham's commentary; it is attributed to Badr al-Din Hasan ibn Abi Bakr al-Qudsi (d. 836 AH) and also to Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Da'im al-Barmawi (d. 831 AH).
- Bulugh al-Arab bi-Sharh Shudhur al-Dhahab by Zakariyya al-Ansari (d. 926 AH).
- Hashiyat al-Amir al-Kabir by Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Sanbawi al-Amir (d. 1232 AH).
- Further glosses include those by Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Dasuqi (d. 1230 AH), Muhammad 'Ubadah al-'Adawi (d. 1193 AH), and Ibrahim ibn Muhammad al-Harim al-Rashidi (d. 1265 AH).
Print History
The work was first printed in Istanbul in 1253 AH (1837 CE). It was subsequently published in Cairo at Bulaq (1282 AH) and in later Egyptian editions, often accompanied by al-Amir al-Kabir's supercommentary. A widely circulated critical edition was prepared by Muhammad Muhyi al-Din 'Abd al-Hamid under the title Muntaha al-Arab bi-Tahqiq Sharh Shudhur al-Dhahab, which parses 239 poetic citations alongside the Quranic verses.
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