Tahqiq al-Fawaid al-Ghiyathiyya
- Author died
- 786 AH
- Editions
- Maktabat al-‘Ulūm wa-al-Ḥikam
Tahqiq al-Fawaid al-Ghiyathiyya (The Verification of the Ghiyathian Benefits) is a classical commentary on Arabic rhetoric by the scholar Shams al-Din al-Kirmani (d. 786 AH / 1384 CE) . It provides an extensive line-by-line exposition of al-Fawaid al-Ghiyathiyya, a concise rhetorical manual authored by his teacher Adud al-Din al-Iji (d. 756 AH / 1355 CE), which itself was an abridgment of the third section of Siraj al-Din al-Sakkaki's Miftah al-Ulum (The Key to the Sciences) .
Background and Composition
Al-Kirmani was one of al-Iji's closest disciples, having accompanied him over an extended period and studied most of his works under his direction . According to the author's son, Yahya ibn Muhammad al-Kirmani, in the introduction to his work Majma' al-Bahrayn, this commentary was the very first book composed by his father, written prior to his commentaries on al-Iji's theological texts .
The base text, al-Fawa'id al-Ghiyathiyya, was originally prepared by al-Iji for the vizier Ghiyath al-Din, who had been studying al-Sakkaki's Miftah al-'Ulum with him and requested a compilation of the supplementary points and insights that arose during their lessons .
Contents and Scope
The book addresses the three standard branches of Arabic rhetoric (balagha):
- Semantics ('Ilm al-Ma'ani): Begins with the definition and objective of the discipline, followed by detailed discussions of declarative speech (al-khabar), truth and falsehood, purposes of communication and departure from apparent meanings, the grammatical and semantic states of the subject (al-musnad ilayh) and predicate (al-musnad), verb complements, restriction (al-qasr), joining and disjoining (al-fasl wa-al-wasl), conciseness, prolixity, and equality (al-ijaz wa-al-itnab wa-al-musawah), and non-declarative demand sentences (al-talab) .
- Exposition ('Ilm al-Bayan): Covers the core topics of figurative language, comparison, metaphor, and metonymy .
- Embellishment ('Ilm al-Badi'): Addresses selected categories of verbal and semantic rhetorical figures and devices .
Method and Characteristics
Al-Kirmani structured the work as an integrated commentary (sharh mamzuj), seamlessly embedding the entirety of al-Iji's base text within his own prose without omitting any of its wording . Throughout the explanation, he consistently refers to al-Iji as "the Master" (al-Ustadh) .
A distinctive feature of the commentary is its preservation of al-Iji's personal teachings and nuanced views, including around twenty specific scholarly points that al-Iji added beyond what was present in al-Sakkaki's Miftah al-'Ulum, which al-Kirmani explicitly identifies in the text .
Modern Edition
The work was edited and studied by Ali ibn Dakhilallah al-'Awfi and published by the Deanship of Scientific Research at the Islamic University of Madinah in 1425 AH (2004 CE) .
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