Abū 'Alī al-Fārisī (); surnamed Abū Alī al Ḥasan Aḥmad Abd al-Ghaffār Ibn Muḥammad ibn Sulaimān ibn Abān al-Fārisī (c. 901 – 987) ; was a leading grammarian of the
school of al-Baṣrah of mixed
Arab
The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...
and
Iranian
Iranian may refer to:
* Iran, a sovereign state
* Iranian peoples, the speakers of the Iranian languages. The term Iranic peoples is also used for this term to distinguish the pan ethnic term from Iranian, used for the people of Iran
* Iranian lan ...
heritage. He lived in Baghdād and later served at the courts of
Sayf al-Dawla
ʿAlī ibn ʾAbū l-Hayjāʾ ʿAbdallāh ibn Ḥamdān ibn al-Ḥārith al-Taghlibī ( ar, علي بن أبو الهيجاء عبد الله بن حمدان بن الحارث التغلبي, 22 June 916 – 9 February 967), more commonly known ...
at
Aleppo and
'Aḍud al-Dawlah at
Shiraz
Shiraz (; fa, شیراز, Širâz ) is the fifth-most-populous city of Iran and the capital of Fars Province, which has been historically known as Pars () and Persis. As of the 2016 national census, the population of the city was 1,565,572 p ...
. His nephew was Abi al-Hussein Muhammad Bin al-Hassan Bin Abd al-Wareth al-Faressi al-Nawawi, who instructed the celebrated theorist
al-Jurjānī on al-Fārisī's grammatical treatise, the ''Idah''.
Life
Abū 'Ali al-Ḥasan ibn Ahmad ibn al-Ghaffār al-Fārisī, was known as Abū Alī, or sometimes al-Fasawī. He was born in the town of
Fasa
Fasa ( fa, فسا, Fasā, also Romanized as Fassa) is a city and capital of Fasa County, Fars Province, Iran. At the 2016 census, its population was 110,825, in 33,379 families. Fasa is the fourth most populous city of the province. The city date ...
in
Fars province in 901. He was born to a
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
father and an
Arab
The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...
mother. In 919, he went to Baghdād to study. He travelled widely and spent a period with
Sayf ad-Dawlah ibn Hamdān, the
Hamdanid ruler at
Aleppo in 952/953, where he held conferences with the famous court poet
al-Mutanabbi
Abū al-Ṭayyib Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Mutanabbī al-Kindī ( ar, أبو الطيب أحمد بن الحسين المتنبّي الكندي; – 23 September 965 AD) from Kufa, Abbasid Caliphate, was a famous Abbasid-era Arab poet at th ...
(915-965). He continued on to Fars, and gained favour at the
Buyid court of
'Aḍud al-Dawlah ibn Buwaih in
Shirāz.
Ibn Khallikan
Aḥmad bin Muḥammad bin Ibrāhīm bin Abū Bakr ibn Khallikān) ( ar, أحمد بن محمد بن إبراهيم بن أبي بكر ابن خلكان; 1211 – 1282), better known as Ibn Khallikān, was a 13th century Shafi'i Islamic scholar w ...
recounts a grammatical contest at the
hippodrome
The hippodrome ( el, ἱππόδρομος) was an ancient Greek stadium for horse racing and chariot racing. The name is derived from the Greek words ''hippos'' (ἵππος; "horse") and ''dromos'' (δρόμος; "course"). The term is used i ...
, ('Maidān') between Abū Alī and the prince 'Aḍud al-Dawlah, on a finer point of grammar over the use of the accusative case. In the expression:
The prince argued that 'Zaid' should be in the
nominative and not in the
accusative case. When Abū Alī maintained that the verb is understood in the ellipse and therefore 'Zaid' is governed by the accusative, the prince challenged: "Why not use the nominative to fill the ellipse as: Abū Alī conceded he was stumped by this remark saying;
However 'Aḍud is reported to have said:
Abū Alī dedicated his grammatical works, the ''Idāh'' (illustration) and ''Takmila'' (supplement), to 'Aḍud and composed a treatise on the subject of his debate with the prince which contained 'Aḍud ad-Dawlah's approbation. In his ''Idāh,'' he mentions that the exception is governed in the accusative by the verb which precedes (i.e. by the verb 'came'), in consequence of its corroboration by the word except. Ibn Khallikān relates another anecdote about a conversation between the poet
Abū 'l-Qāsim ibn Aḥmad al-Andalusī and Abū Alī. The grammarian had expressed envy of Abū 'l-Qāsim's genius in poetry and admitted to his own lack, despite, as a grammarian, having expertise in the scientific basis of poetry. He claimed then he had only ever composed three verses which run:
'Aḍud ad-Dawlat was fond of repeating a quote by
Abū Tammām, given in Abū Alī's treatise ''Idāh'' to explain the rule about the verb (),'to be':
Ibn Khallikān relates a dream he had while in Cairo that he met three pilgrims in an ancient funeral chapel in the village of
Kalyūb. One pilgrim mentioned that the sheikh Abū Alī 'l-Fārisī had lived there for many years; and that he had been a talented poet among other things. Ibn Khallikān had never came across any of his poetry. So in a sweet voice the man recited three verses. When he awoke the charming voice was still in his ears, but he could only recall this, the last verse:
He was suspected of being a
Mutazilite
Muʿtazila ( ar, المعتزلة ', English: "Those Who Withdraw, or Stand Apart", and who called themselves ''Ahl al-ʿAdl wa al-Tawḥīd'', English: "Party of ivineJustice and Oneness f God); was an Islamic group that appeared in early Islamic ...
.
He died at Baghdād on Sunday the 17th of
Rabi' al-thani
Rabiʽ al-Thani ( ar, رَبِيع ٱلثَّانِي, Rabīʿ ath-Thānī, lit=The second Rabi, also known as Rabi' al-Akhirah ( ar, رَبِيع ٱلْآخِرَة, link=no, Rabi' al-ʾĀkhirah, lit=The final Rabi), Rabi al-Akhir (), or Rabi' I ...
(some say
Rabi' al-awwal) 377 h. (Aug 987) He was interred in the cemetery of "Shūnīzi".
Works
*''Idāh'' (); 'Illustration' and ''Takmila'' (supplement); grammatical works;
* ''Kitāb al-masā'il al-maslahat yurwiha 'an az-Zajjāj wa-tu'raf bi-al-Aghfāl'' (); the Aghfāl (negligences), or 'Beneficial (Corrected) Questions', in which he refutes
al-Zajjāj in his ''Maāni'' (rhetoric);
* ''Kitāb ḥujja'' (); (Proof) Argument That the ''
Seven Readers
The Seven readers ( ar, القراء السبعة) are seven Qāriʾs who mastered the Qira'at and historically transmitted the Quran recitations in an approved and confirmed manner.
Presentation
The ''seven readers'' are the most famous Qāriʾs ...
'' Were the Imams of the Cities, as Designated by Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn Mūsā ibn al-'Abbās ibn Mujāhid;
* ''Kitāb taḍkira'' (); The Recollection (Remembrance), a large volume;
* ''Kitāb mukhtaṣir 'awāmil al'a'rāb'' (); Elucidation in Grammar;
*''Kitāb abyāt al-a'rāb'' (); Verses (Tents) of the Arabians;
*Digest of Governing Words in Declension (
Conjugation
Conjugation or conjugate may refer to:
Linguistics
* Grammatical conjugation, the modification of a verb from its basic form
* Emotive conjugation or Russell's conjugation, the use of loaded language
Mathematics
* Complex conjugation, the chang ...
);
*Questions discussed in
al-Baghdādī;
al-Ḥalabī;
al-Shirāzī and
al-Baṣrah
*Treatise on the short and long
Alif;
*The Hundred Agents (or governing parts of speech);
*Questions discussed at Conferences, etc.
Notes
References
Bibliography
*
*
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*
*
*
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Farisi (al-), Abu Ali
900s births
987 deaths
Year of birth uncertain
10th-century Muslim scholars of Islam
10th-century scholars
10th-century philologists
10th-century Arabic writers
10th-century linguists
10th-century Iranian writers
Scholars from the Abbasid Caliphate
Iranian Arabists
Scholars under the Buyid dynasty
Grammarians of Arabic
Grammarians of Basra
Medieval grammarians of Arabic
Iranian grammarians
Linguists from Iran
People from Fasa
People of the Hamdanid emirate of Aleppo
Iranian people of Arab descent
Sayf al-Dawla