Takhlis al-Shawahid wa Talkhis al-Fawaid
- Author died
- 761 AH
- Editions
- Dār al-Kitāb al-‘Arabī
Takhlis al-Shawahid wa Talkhis al-Fawaid (تخليص الشواهد وتلخيص الفوائد, Elucidating the Evidentiary Verses and Summarizing the Benefits) is a grammatical treatise by the grammarian Ibn Hisham al-Nahwi (708–761 AH / 1309–1360 CE) dedicated to explaining the poetic evidentiary verses (shawahid) cited in Ibn al-Nazim's (d. 686 AH) commentary on the Alfiyyah of Ibn Malik.
Purpose and Composition
Ibn Hisham composed the work after a group of students studying grammatical analysis (i'rab) complained to him about the difficulty and obscurity of the poetic citations found in Ibn al-Nazim's commentary on the Alfiyyah, expressing their need for a dedicated text that would resolve these obscurities and collect the necessary grammatical explanations. Ibn Hisham, however, did not complete the composition of the entire work.
Method and Scope
The book is structured into individual grammatical issues (mas'ala by mas'ala) using concise phrasing. In treating the citations, Ibn Hisham's method involves:
- Defining difficult vocabulary (tafsir lafziha) and establishing the accurate vocalization and readings of words (tahrir dabtiha).
- Clarifying the specific point of grammatical evidence (bayan al-shahid) and discussing differing interpretations or errors made by previous grammarians and commentators.
- Quoting preceding or following lines of poetry to provide textual context, as well as including passages of love or introductory verse (nasib or ghazal).
- Expanding beyond the scope of Ibn al-Nazim's original commentary by introducing numerous additional poetic evidentiary lines (shawahid) not found in it, along with supplementary grammatical questions neither stated nor alluded to by Ibn al-Nazim.
Reception and Editions
The work is recognized in grammatical literature as one of the specialized commentaries on poetic citations, and it served as a source for later scholars such as Badr al-Din al-Ayni in his commentary on the Alfiyyah citations.
The text was edited by Abbas Mustafa al-Salihi and published by Dar al-Kitab al-Arabi in Beirut (1406 AH / 1986 CE).
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