Sibawayh
Encyclopedia
Abū Bishr ʻAmr ibn ʻUthmān ibn Qanbar Al-Bishrī , commonly known as Sībawayh (Sibuyeh in Persian
, سيبويه Sībawayh in Arabic
, سیبویه), was an influential linguist and grammarian of the Arabic language
. He was of Persian origin born ca. 760 in the town of Bayza
(ancient Nesayak) in the Fars province of Iran
.
He died in Shiraz
, in Fars, around .
, the Abbasid
vizier Yahya ibn Khalid
held a debate on Bedouin Arabic usage between Sibawayh, representing the Basra school, and Kisa'i
, the leading figure in the rival school of Kufa
. Sibawayh emerged from this contest totally dejected.
Sībawayh is said to have left Iraq and retired to Shīrāz after the debate.
s to understand the Qur'an properly and thoroughly; the Qur'an, which is composed in a poetic language that even native Arabic speakers must study with great care in order to comprehend thoroughly, is even more difficult for those who, like Sibawayh, did not grow up speaking Arabic. Additionally, because Arabic does not necessarily mark all pronounced vowel
sounds, as the erroneous Arab misreading Sibawayh of what obviously should be interpreted as Sibuyeh illustrates, it is possible to misread a text aloud (See Short vowels in Arabic
); such difficulty was particularly troublesome for Muslims, who regard the Qur'an as the literal word of God to man and as such should never be mispronounced or misread.
Persian language
Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...
, سيبويه Sībawayh in Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
, سیبویه), was an influential linguist and grammarian of the Arabic language
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
. He was of Persian origin born ca. 760 in the town of Bayza
Bayza
Beyza is a city in and the capital of Beyza District, in Sepidan County, Fars Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 3,593, in 845 families....
(ancient Nesayak) in the Fars province of Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
.
He died in Shiraz
Shiraz, Iran
Shiraz is the sixth most populous city in Iran and is the capital of Fars Province, the city's 2009 population was 1,455,073. Shiraz is located in the southwest of Iran on the Roodkhaneye Khoshk seasonal river...
, in Fars, around .
Debates
In BaghdadBaghdad
Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...
, the Abbasid
Abbasid
The Abbasid Caliphate or, more simply, the Abbasids , was the third of the Islamic caliphates. It was ruled by the Abbasid dynasty of caliphs, who built their capital in Baghdad after overthrowing the Umayyad caliphate from all but the al-Andalus region....
vizier Yahya ibn Khalid
Yahya ibn Khalid
Yahya ibn Khalid , yaḥyā bin ḫālid) was a member of the powerful Persian Barmakids family, son of Khalid ibn Barmak. Around 765, he was appointed to Azerbaijan by the Caliph Al-Mansur. Yahya's son Fadl ibn Yahya was born at Ar-Reiy, at the same time as Caliph al-Mahdi's son Harun...
held a debate on Bedouin Arabic usage between Sibawayh, representing the Basra school, and Kisa'i
Kisa'i
Kisa'i , known also as Muhammad b. Abdullah al-Kisa'i, is the name attributed in Islam to the otherwise unknown author of one of the collections of Stories of the Prophets, which includes information not found in other collections nor repeated in later exegesis...
, the leading figure in the rival school of Kufa
Kufa
Kufa is a city in Iraq, about south of Baghdad, and northeast of Najaf. It is located on the banks of the Euphrates River. The estimated population in 2003 was 110,000....
. Sibawayh emerged from this contest totally dejected.
Sībawayh is said to have left Iraq and retired to Shīrāz after the debate.
Legacy
Sibawayh, a non-Arab, was the first to write on Arabic grammar and in passing the first one to explain Arabic grammar from a non-Arab perspective. Much of the impetus for this work came from the desire for non-Arab MuslimMuslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
s to understand the Qur'an properly and thoroughly; the Qur'an, which is composed in a poetic language that even native Arabic speakers must study with great care in order to comprehend thoroughly, is even more difficult for those who, like Sibawayh, did not grow up speaking Arabic. Additionally, because Arabic does not necessarily mark all pronounced vowel
Vowel
In phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language, such as English ah! or oh! , pronounced with an open vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis. This contrasts with consonants, such as English sh! , where there is a constriction or closure at some...
sounds, as the erroneous Arab misreading Sibawayh of what obviously should be interpreted as Sibuyeh illustrates, it is possible to misread a text aloud (See Short vowels in Arabic
Harakat
The Arabic script has numerous diacritics, including ijam ⟨⟩ , and tashkil ⟨⟩...
); such difficulty was particularly troublesome for Muslims, who regard the Qur'an as the literal word of God to man and as such should never be mispronounced or misread.
External links
- Sibawayhi Project contains all significant printed editions of Chapters 1-7, 285-302, and 565-571 of the Kitāb, together with published translations into French and German.
- Sibawayh's Kitāb online in Arabic at al-eman.com.
- Download the Kitāb in scanned format from Internet Archive or Arabic Wikisource