Tashil al-Fawaid wa Takmil al-Maqasid
- Author died
- 672 AH
- Editions
- Dār al-Kātib al-‘Arabī lil-Ṭibā‘ah wal-Nashr
Tashil al-Fawaid wa Takmil al-Maqasid (Facilitating Benefits and Completing Objectives) is a comprehensive manual of Arabic grammar and morphology written by Ibn Malik (d. 672 AH / 1274 CE) .
Overview and Purpose
In his opening preface, Ibn Malik stated that he composed the book in Damascus to provide an exhaustive treatment of the foundational rules, chapters, and subdivisions of Arabic grammar, entitling it Tashil al-Fawaid wa Takmil al-Maqasid . He noted that although grammatical principles had been elaborated across generations, later scholars could still attain specialized insights that had eluded many predecessors . The text represents the culmination of Ibn Malik's grammatical thought, gathering a vast range of standard and rare grammatical principles into a single prose work .
Method and Style
The book is structured with extreme conciseness and condensation, employing precise technical terminology and assembling rare syntactic questions and divergent scholarly opinions across the Basran, Kufan, and Andalusian traditions . Because of its dense phrasing and unconventional formulations, later commentators noted that the work presented substantial interpretive challenges for instructors and students alike, which prompted the author and subsequent grammarians to compose extensive commentaries to unpack its formulations . Ibn Malik continually revised and refined the manuscript during his lifetime, which produced variations across circulating copies before he embarked on authoring his own explanatory commentary .
Commentaries
A large body of commentaries was written to elucidate the text:
- Ibn Malik's Commentary (Sharh al-Tashil): Begun by the author in response to scholarly requests to clarify its concise and difficult points . Ibn Malik completed his commentary up to the chapter on non-trilateral verbal nouns (masadir ghayr al-thulathi) before his death, after which the remainder was completed by his son Badr al-Din Muhammad (d. 686 AH) .
- Al-Tadhyil wa-l-Takmil fi Sharh Kitab al-Tashil: An extensive commentary by Abu Hayyan al-Andalusi (d. 745 AH) .
- Al-Musa'id 'ala Tashil al-Fawaid: An explanatory work by Baha' al-Din Ibn 'Aqil (d. 769 AH), who interwoven his remarks with Ibn Malik's original text .
- Tamhid al-Qawa'id bi-Sharh Tashil al-Fawaid: A comprehensive commentary composed by Nazir al-Jaysh (d. 778 AH) .
- Ta'liq al-Fara'id 'ala Tashil al-Fawaid: A detailed commentary written by Badr al-Din al-Damamini .
Other scholars who wrote commentaries or studies on the text include Muhammad ibn 'Ali ibn Hani al-Sabti (d. 733 AH), Muhammad ibn 'Ali al-Irbili al-Mawsili (d. 736 AH), Shams al-Din Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Qudamah al-Maqdisi (d. 744 AH), Ibn Umm Qasim al-Muradi (d. 749 AH), Al-Samin al-Halabi (d. 756 AH), and Ibn Hisham al-Ansari (d. 761 AH) .
Reception and Influence
Alongside Ibn Malik's versified Alfiyyah, Tashil al-Fawaid became a central reference work in Arabic grammatical scholarship . Major later grammarians drew heavily upon its materials, including Ibn Hisham in Mughni al-Labib, Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti in Ham' al-Hawami' and al-Ashbah wa-l-Naza'ir, and Ali ibn Muhammad al-Ushmuni in his commentary on the Alfiyyah .
The text has been published in modern scholarly editions, including an edition edited by Muhammad Kamil Barakat .
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