Ibn Muti al-Zawawi


Ibn Mu‘ṭī al-Zawāwī 'Abū 'l-Ḥusayn Yaḥyā ibn ‘Abd al-Nur Zayn al-Dīn al-Zawāwī, or Abū Zakarīyā’ Yaḥyā ibn ‘Abd al-Mu’ṭī ibn ‘Abdannūr az-Zawāwī' ; was a Ḥanafī faqīh, grammarian, poet and philologian of the Maghreb and the author of first versified grammatical work, the Alfiyya, commentaries on grammatical treatises and versified lexicographic works. He also wrote numerous works on various scholarly categories. He was one of the foremost medieval grammarians.

Life

Ibn Mu’ṭī al-Zawāwī was born in Béjaïa in 1168 into the Berber Zawāwa tribe hence his nisba “al-Zawāwī”. He grew up during the scientific and cultural efflorescence of the Islamic Maghreb. The region centred on the city of Béjaïa was at the pinnacle of its prosperity. He studied under Abu Musa al-Jazuli. He memorised Al-Ṣiḥāḥ fī al-lughah of al-Jawhari
He received early education in Béjaïa. In 1227 he travelled East to Damascus with a delegation, and was welcomed by the Ayyubid ruler, Al-Mu'azzam Isa. He then spent many years teaching philology in the mosques of Damascus. In this period he simplified the teaching of language, literature and grammar.
When al-Mu'azzam Īsā al-Ayyūbī died, the sultan's son, al-Naṣr Dā’ūd, was quickly deposed by his two uncles al-Kāmil and al-Ashraf. The new sultan al-Kāmil honoured Ibn Mu’ti and persuaded him to accompany him to Cairo where he was given a salary and appointed lecturer in grammar and literature at the Mosque of Amr ibn al-As, also known as ‘al-Jamī ‘l-Atīk’.
He composed a number of works on grammar as well as a collection of orations, a diwan of poetry and a treatise on the readings of the Quran. The most important out of the works he produced is ad-Durra al-alfiyya which was a pedagogical grammar of the Arabic language composed in verse totalling one thousand lines, several commentaries were written on it. This work appears frequently in the list of works studied of memorised by the ulama of the Mamluk period. His work was also the model for a new genre of compositions as many subsequent scholars would try their hands at writing alfiyyat.
Ibn Mu’ṭī died in Sept 1231, his funeral was attended by the Ayyubid Sultan and he was buried near the mausoleum of imām al-Shāfī by the Khandak.

Teachers

Ibn Mu‘ṭī studied fiqh ḥadīth, jurisprudence and language with distinguished scholars each famous in his field:
  • Abū Mūsā al-Jazūlī
  • Al-Qāsim Ibn Asakir, d.1204/600 AH
  • Taj al-Dīn al-Kindi
  • Mamluk al-Kindi d.1258/656 AH

    Pupils

d. 1247
As-Suwaydi
Ibn al-Anbārī

Works

  • Al-Durra al-alfiyya fi Ilm al-‘arabiyya ; produced 3. Nov. 1198 AD the first grammatical treatise in one thousand verses. Numerous scholars wrote commentaries of it and ed., K. V. Zetterstéen produced a critical edition. Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Andalusī Bakri al-Sharīshī wrote a commentary titled Al-Ta'liqāt al-Wafīyāt. The later Alfiyya of Ibn Mālik eclipsed its fame.
  • *Sharh li Alfiyya Ibn Mu‘ṭī by Jamal al-Dīn a. Muḥ. Ḥusayn b Ayāz al-Baghdādī
  • Kitāb al-Fuṣūl —‘Book of aphorisms’; grammatical prose treatise numerous commentaries.
  • Al-Fuṣūl al-khamsīn . E. Sjögren chaps., 1-2.
  • Al-Badī' fī ṣinā'at ash-shi'r
  • Al-‘uqud wa’l-qawanīn fī al-naḥw ; ‘Contracts and laws of grammar’
  • Kitāb ḥawāšin ‘alā 'uṣul Ibn al-Sarrāj fī al-naḥw ; ‘Commentary on the origins of Ibn al-Sarrāj on grammar’.
  • Kitāb šarḥ al-jumal fī al-naḥw ; Phrasal Syntax Analysis
  • Kitāb šarḥ 'abyāt Sībawayh naẓm ; Analysis of Sībawayh's verse systems
  • Kitāb dīwān khaṭib ; Dīwān of Sermons
  • Qaṣida fī al-qara'a al-sabah ‘Poem on the Seven Readings
  • Naẓm Kitāb al-ṣiḥāḥ li’l-Jauharī fī al-lughah ; ‘Edited Al-Jauharī’s Al-Ṣiḥāḥ, on the essence of language’.
  • Naẓm Kitāb al-Jamharah li Ibn Duraid fī al-lughah ; Method of Jamhara fi 'l-Lughat by Ibn Duraid on the science of language
  • Naẓm Kitāban fī al-‘arud ; Systems of ‘arūḍ.
  • Kitāb al-muthlath ; ‘Book of the Triangle’

    Primary sources

Secondary sources

Category:1160s births
Category:1231 deaths
Category:12th-century Berber people
Category:12th-century jurists
Category:12th-century philologists
Category:12th-century poets
Category:12th-century writers
Category:13th-century Berber people
Category:13th-century jurists
Category:13th-century philologists
Category:13th-century poets
Category:13th-century writers
Category:Arabic grammar
Category:Berber grammarians
Category:Berber poets
Category:People from Béjaïa