Ibn Sidah


Abū’l-Ḥasan ʻAlī ibn Ismāʻīl, known as Ibn Sīdah, or Ibn Sīdah'l-Mursī,, was a linguist, philologist and lexicographer of Classical Arabic from Andalusia. He compiled the encyclopedia and the Arabic-language dictionary Al-Muḥkam wa-al-muḥīt al-aʻẓam . His contributions to language, literature, and logic were considerable.

Life

Ibn Sīdah was born in Murcia in eastern Andalusia. The historian Khalaf ibn ʻAbd al-Malik Ibn Bashkuwāl in his book ' gives Ismāʻīl as the name of his father, in agreement with name given in the Mukhassas. However Al-Fath ibn Khaqan in mathmah al-anfus has the name Aḥmad. Yaqut al-Hamawi in The Lexicon of Literature, says Ibn Sīdah was his nickname. Remarkably both he and his father were blind. His father was a sculptor although it seems the disciplines he devoted his life to, philology and lexicography, had been in his family.
Mohammed ibn Ahmed ibn Uthman Al-Dhahabi's biographic encyclopedia ' is the main biographic source. He lived in the taifa principality of "Dénia and the Eastern Islands" under the rule of Emir Mujahid al-Amiri al-Muwaffaq and he travelled to Mecca and Medina. He studied in Cordova under the renowned grammarian Abu al-Sa'ad ibn al-Hasan al-Rubai al-Baghdadi exiled in Andalusia, and with Abu Omar al-Talmanki . He died in Dénia.

Works

  • al-Mukhaṣṣaṣ
  • Al-Muḥkam wa-al-muḥīt al-ʾaʿẓam ; Arabic dictionary, 11 vols. A principal source for the famous Lisān al-ʿArab dictionary by the great thirteenth-century lexicographer Ibn Manzur.
  • al-muḥkam wa al-muḥīṭ ul-ʾaʿẓam 'The Great Comprehensive Reference'
  • al-ʾunīq 'The Elegant'
  • šarʿ ʾiṣlāḥ al-Muntaq 'Commentary on the Reform of Logic'
  • šarʿ ma ʾaškāl min shaʿr al-Mutanabbī 'Commentary on Forms of al-Mutanabbi 's Poems'
  • al-ʿalām fi l-luġa ʿala al-ʾaǧnās 'Science of Languages of Nations'
  • al-ʿālam wa l-Mutaʿallam 'Knowledge and the Student'
  • al-Wāfī fi ʿalam ʾaḥkām al-Quwāfī 'Science of Rhyme Provision'
  • al-ʿawīs fi sharʿ ʾIslāḥ l-Munṭaq 'Sharp Explanation of Logic'
  • šarʿ Kitāb al-ʾAḫfash 'Commentary on Book of the Hidden'
  • as-samāʾ wa l-ʿālam 'Heaven and Earth'
  • al-ʿālam fi l-Luġah 'Philology'
  • šawāḏ al-Luġah 'Oddities of the Language'
  • Al-Muḥkam wa l-Muḥīt al-ʾAʿẓam 'The Great and Comprehensive Arbitrator'.