Tashih al-Tashif wa Tahrir al-Tahrif
- Author died
- 764 AH
- Editions
- Maktabat al-Khānjī
Tashih al-Tashif wa Tahrir al-Tahrif (Correction of Misreadings and Emendation of Distortions) is a specialized treatise on Arabic philology and lexical errors by the Mamluk author and historian al-Safadi (696–764 AH / 1296–1363 CE) . The book identifies common misreadings (tashif, errors in diacritical dots) and vocalic or structural distortions (tahrif) occurring in words and literary phrases .
Content and Methodology
In the prologue, al-Safadi notes that hardly any scholar has been entirely free of tashif and tahrif, especially when relying on written transmission or uncritically imitating predecessors . He illustrates this by recalling that even early masters of the Arabic language in Basra—such as al-Khalil ibn Ahmad, Abu 'Amr ibn al-'Ala', 'Isa ibn 'Umar, Abu Ubaydah Ma'mar ibn al-Muthanna, al-Akhfash, and al-Jahiz—were reported to have slipped into misreadings .
The work is organized as an alphabetical dictionary of problematic words . It opens under the entry of the letters hamza and ba', correcting the colloquial gemination of terms like al-abb and al-akh by clarifying that they are properly ungeminated (takhfif) . Al-Safadi also includes poetic treatments and wordplay on the theme of tashif, incorporating verses by the scribe Siraj al-Din 'Umar ibn Muhammad al-Warraq, lines recited directly to him by Safi al-Din al-Hilli, and verses composed by al-Safadi himself .
Al-Safadi remarks in his introduction that misreadings specific to Ismail ibn Hammad al-Jawhari's lexicon al-Sihah were excluded from this volume, as he had already compiled them comprehensively in a dedicated treatise titled Nufudh al-Sahm fima Waqa'a li-l-Jawhari min al-Wahm (The Arrow's Penetration Concerning al-Jawhari's Errors) .
Sources
The work serves as a critical evaluation and synthesis of nine earlier works on solecisms and lexical correction . Among its principal source texts are treatises by al-Hariri, al-Jawaliqi (including his Dhayl al-Durrah), Ibn Makki al-Siqilli (author of Tathqif al-Lisan), Abu Bakr al-Zubaydi, and Ibn al-Jawzi (author of Taqwim al-Lisan) .
Manuscripts and Publication
A manuscript of the work is preserved at Dar al-Kutub in Cairo, and an analytical study of this copy was published by 'Abd al-Qadir al-Maghribi in the Damascus journal Majallat al-Majma' al-'Ilmi al-'Arabi in 1950 . The text was edited by al-Sayyid al-Sharqawi (with Ramadan 'Abd al-Tawwab) and published in Cairo by Maktabat al-Khanji in 1407 AH (1987 CE) in a single volume of 568 pages .
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