Tarikh al-Ulama al-Nahwiyyin lil-Tanukhi
- Author died
- 442 AH
- Editions
- Hajar lil-Ṭibā‘ah wa-al-Nashr wa-al-Tawzī‘ wa-al-I‘lān
Tarikh al-Ulama al-Nahwiyyin (History of the Grammarian Scholars) is a biographical dictionary of Arabic grammarians and philologists compiled by the Hanafi jurist and judge Abu al-Mahasin al-Tanukhi (d. 442 AH / 1050 CE) .
Author and Title
The author was al-Mufaddal ibn Muhammad ibn Mis'ar al-Tanukhi al-Ma'arri, known by the kunya Abu al-Mahasin (d. 442 AH / 1050 CE; another report gives 443 AH) . Originally from Ma'arrat al-Nu'man, he travelled to Baghdad, where he studied jurisprudence under Abu al-Husayn al-Quduri and grammar and literature under Ali ibn Isa al-Raba'i . He served as a judge in Baalbek and as a deputy judge in Damascus, where he died .
The full title of the work as attested in bibliographical and manuscript sources is Kitab Tarikh al-Ulama al-Nahwiyyin min al-Basriyyin wal-Kufiyyin wa-Ghayrihim (The History of the Grammarian Scholars Among the Basrans, Kufans, and Others) . It is also cited in classical biographical dictionaries by shorter designations, including Tarikh al-Nuhat and Akhbar al-Nahwiyyin .
Content and Scope
The book is devoted to biographies of Arabic grammarians, lexicographers, jurists, and Quranic reciters . It contains over eighty biographical entries covering scholars associated with the grammatical schools of Basra and Kufa, as well as scholars from other regions .
Reception and Citations
The work served as an early source for later biographical compendia of Arabic philologists. Yaqut al-Hamawi cited it in his dictionary Mu'jam al-Udaba under the title Tarikh al-Ulama al-Nahwiyyin lil-Qadi Abi al-Mahasin ibn Mis'ar al-Tanukhi . Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti also utilized the work and recorded in his biographical dictionary Bughyat al-Wu'ah that he had directly examined it .
Manuscripts and Editions
A surviving manuscript copy of the text is preserved in the al-Ahqaf collection in Yemen, within the private library of Husayn ibn Sahl (MS 192, fols. 71a–88b), copied in 731 AH .
The work was edited by Abd al-Fattah Muhammad al-Hilw and published by the Scientific Council of Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University in Riyadh (1401 AH / 1981 CE), with a subsequent second edition issued by Dar Hajar in Cairo (1412 AH / 1992 CE) .
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