Tathqif al-Lisan wa Talqih al-Janan
- Author died
- 501 AH
- Editions
- Dār al-Kutub al-‘Ilmiyyah
Tathqif al-Lisan wa Talqih al-Janan ("Cultivating the Tongue and Impregnating the Mind") is a treatise on linguistic correction and common speech errors by the Sicilian Andalusian grammarian and jurist Abu Hafs Umar ibn Khalaf ibn Makki al-Siqilli (d. 501 AH / 1107–1108 CE) .
Background and Purpose
Ibn Makki, who served as judge and preacher of Tunis, was prompted to write the work after observing widespread solecisms and textual corruptions creeping into everyday speech as well as scholarly literature . He noted in his introduction that linguistic mistakes had proliferated so extensively that they led to misreadings of well-known prophetic traditions, solecisms in classical Arabic poetry, and the composition of legal treatises containing grammatical errors .
To document these corruptions, Ibn Makki gathered errors directly from both scholars and common folk. He then presented his manuscript to his teacher Ibn al-Barr, who reviewed the text, validating what he approved and striking out what he rejected .
Structure and Contents
The book is arranged into fifty thematic chapters addressing various morphological, phonological, and semantic deviations :
- Morphological and Phonological Errors: Ibn Makki dedicated chapters to scribal misreadings (al-tashif), phonetic substitutions (al-tabdil), errors caused by adding or omitting letters in nouns and verbs, the improper easing of gemination (al-takhfif), and unwarranted doubling (al-tashdid) .
- Gender Confusion: Sections cover gender errors, such as using masculine forms for inherently feminine nouns or feminizing masculine ones .
- Disciplinary and Professional Solecisms: The treatise includes chapters focusing on specific groups, examining mistakes commonly committed by Quranic reciters, traditionists, jurists, and physicians .
- Semantic and Interpretive Errors: Chapter forty-one examines phrases and reports misinterpreted by scholars and laymen, such as misunderstandings of hadith texts .
Reception and Critique
Tathqif al-Lisan became a key reference in the literature on lahn al-ammah (common speech errors). The later scholar Al-Safadi praised it alongside al-Hariri's Durrat al-Ghawwas fi Awham al-Khawass as one of the essential works composed to rectify misreadings and linguistic corruptions .
The Andalusian grammarian Ibn Hisham al-Lakhmi examined the work critically in his treatise al-Madkhal ila Taqwim al-Lisan, dedicating a major section to refuting Ibn Makki's judgments . Ibn Hisham contended that Ibn Makki was overly rigid, demonstrating that several usages he had condemned as solecisms were genuine variants attested in classical Arabic dialects .
Editions
- Edited by Abd al-Aziz Matar and published in Cairo by the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (1386 AH / 1966 CE) .
- Edited by Mustafa Abd al-Qadir Ata and published in Beirut by Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyyah (1410 AH / 1990 CE) .
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