Abū ‘Amr Isḥaq ibn Mirār al-Shaybānī (d. 206/821, or 210/825, or 213/828, or 216/831) was a famous
lexicographer
Lexicography is the study of lexicons, and is divided into two separate academic disciplines. It is the art of compiling dictionaries.
* Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionaries.
* Theoretica ...
-
encyclopedist
An encyclopedia (American English) or encyclopædia (British English) is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge either general or special to a particular field or discipline. Encyclopedias are divided into articles ...
and collector-transmitter of
Arabic poetry of the
Kufan School of philology.
A native of Ramādat
al-Kūfah, who lived in Baghdad, he was a ''
mawla
Mawlā ( ar, مَوْلَى, plural ''mawālī'' ()), is a polysemous Arabic word, whose meaning varied in different periods and contexts.A.J. Wensinck, Encyclopedia of Islam 2nd ed, Brill. "Mawlā", vol. 6, p. 874.
Before the Islamic prophet ...
'' (client) under the protection of the
Banū Shaybān, hence his
nisba
The Arabic language, Arabic word nisba (; also transcribed as ''nisbah'' or ''nisbat'') may refer to:
* Arabic nouns and adjectives#Nisba, Nisba, a suffix used to form adjectives in Arabic grammar, or the adjective resulting from this formation
**c ...
. Descended from an Iranian landowner (''dihqān'') on his paternal side, his mother was a
'Nabataean' (an
Aramaic
The Aramaic languages, short Aramaic ( syc, ܐܪܡܝܐ, Arāmāyā; oar, 𐤀𐤓𐤌𐤉𐤀; arc, 𐡀𐡓𐡌𐡉𐡀; tmr, אֲרָמִית), are a language family containing many varieties (languages and dialects) that originated in ...
-speaking, rural Iraqi), and he reportedly knew a little of the 'Nabataean' language (an unattested form of Aramaic). The biographers
al-Nadīm and
Ibn Khallikān
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 ...
quote a claim by
Ibn al-Sikkit's that he lived to the age of one hundred and eighteen and wrote in his own hand up to his death, in 213/828. However this is disputed by a claim that he died in 206/821 aged one hundred and ten, and this latter is deemed credible.
Abū 'Amr's teachers were Rukayn b. Rabī' al-Shāmī, a transmitter of
ḥadīth and
al-Mufaddal al-Dabbi
Al-Mufaddal ibn Muhammad ibn Ya'la ibn 'Amir ibn Salim ibn ar-Rammal ad-Dabbi, commonly known as al-Mufaḍḍal al-Ḍabbī ( ar, المُفَضَّل الضَّبِي), died –787, was an Arabic philologist of the Grammarians of Kufa, Kufan sch ...
, who developed his love of poetry. His son ‘Amr relates that he collected and classed poems, ''
diwans'' (collections), from the ''
jahiliyya
The Age of Ignorance ( ar, / , "ignorance") is an Islamic concept referring to the period of time and state of affairs in Arabia before the advent of Islam in 610 CE. It is often translated as the "Age of Ignorance". The term ''jahiliyyah'' ...
'' (pre-Islamic) period from more than eighty Arab tribes. He wrote more than eighty volumes in his own hand and deposited these in the mosque of Kūfah.
The eminent scholars
Ibn Hanbal
Ahmad ibn Hanbal al-Dhuhli ( ar, أَحْمَد بْن حَنْبَل الذهلي, translit=Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal al-Dhuhlī; November 780 – 2 August 855 CE/164–241 AH), was a Muslim jurist, theologian, ascetic, hadith traditionist, and f ...
,
al-Kasim ibn Sallām, and
Ibn al-Sikkit, the author of the ''
Islāh al-Mantik'', learned from him.
Of his lexicographical works, often of a very specialized nature, only the ''Kitāb al-Jīm'' (''Kitab al-Lughat'' or ''Kitab al-Huruf''), survives.
Works by Abū ‘Amr al-Shaybānī
*The Strange in the Ḥadīth
*On Dialects, or Rare forms Known by the Jīm (the J); ''Kitāb al-Jīm'', or ''Kitāb al-Hurūf'', or ''Kitab al-Lughat''
*The Great Collection of Anecdotes, or Rare Forms, in three manuscript editions, large, small, and medium;
*Treatise on Bees
*The Palm
*Treatise on The Camel
*The Disposition of Man
*Letters
*Commentary on the book “Eloquent Style”
*Treatise on the Horse
Poets edited by Abū ‘Amr al-Shaybānī
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Al-Ḥuṭay’ah
*
Labīd ibn Rabī’ah
*
Tamīm ibn Ubayy ibn Muqbil
*
Durayd ibn al-Ṣimmah
*
‘Amrj ibn Ma’dī Karib
*Al-A’shā al-Kabīr (
Maymūn ibn Qays)
*
Mutamminm ibn Nuwayrah
*
Al-Zibraqān ibn Badr
*
Ḥumayd ibn Thawr al-Rājiz
*
Ḥumayd al-Arqaṭ
*
Abū al-Aswad al-Du’alī
*
Abū al-Najm al-‘Ijlī
*
Al-‘Ajjāj al-Rājaz
Notes
References
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Sources
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{{Authority control
730s births
828 deaths
8th-century Arabs
8th-century non-fiction writers
8th-century people from the Abbasid Caliphate
9th-century people from the Abbasid Caliphate
9th-century non-fiction writers
9th-century Arabs
Arab lexicographers
Banu Shayban
Encyclopedists of the medieval Islamic world
People from Kufa