Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn Abi Sara Ali Al-Ru'asi () (d. 187AH/802CE) was an early convert from

Judaism Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in t ...

to Islam and a scholar of the

Arabic language Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walte ...

. He is considered to be the founder of the Kufan school of

Arabic grammar Arabic grammar or Arabic language sciences ( ar, النحو العربي ' or ar, عُلُوم اللغَة العَرَبِيَّة ') is the grammar of the Arabic language. Arabic is a Semitic language and its grammar has many similarities with ...

,Arik Sadan, ''The Subjunctive Mood in Arabic Grammatical Thought'', pg. 339. Volume 66 of Studies in Semitic Languages and Linguistics. Leiden: Brill Publishers, 2012. as well as the first person to write about Arabic

morphology Morphology, from the Greek and meaning "study of shape", may refer to: Disciplines * Morphology (archaeology), study of the shapes or forms of artifacts * Morphology (astronomy), study of the shape of astronomical objects such as nebulae, galaxies ...

and

phonology Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...

. He was a student of

Abu 'Amr ibn al-'Ala' Abu ʻAmr ibn al-ʻAlāʼ al-Basri ( ar, أبو عمرو بن العلاء; died 770 CE/154 AH) was the Qur'an reciter of Basra, Iraq and an Arab linguist. He was born in Mecca in . Ibn Khallikan's Biographical Dictionary, translated by William ...

and an associate of

Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi Abu ‘Abd ar-Raḥmān al-Khalīl ibn Aḥmad ibn ‘Amr ibn Tammām al-Farāhīdī al-Azdī al-Yaḥmadī ( ar, أبو عبدالرحمن الخليل بن أحمد الفراهيدي; 718 – 786 CE), known as Al-Farāhīdī, or Al-Khalīl, ...

.M.G. Carter, Sibawayh, pg. 24. Part of the Makers of Islamic Civilization series. London: I.B. Tauris, 2004. It has been suggested that

Sibawayhi Sibawayh ( ar, سِيبَوَيْهِ ' or ; fa, سِیبُویه‎ ' ; c. 760–796), whose full name is Abu Bishr Amr ibn Uthman ibn Qanbar al-Basri (, '), was a Persian leading grammarian of Basra and author of the earliest book on Arabic ...

, the ethnically Persian father of Arabic grammar, borrowed heavily from the works of al-Ru'asi for the latter's infamous ''Kitab'' though there is no textual evidence to support this. We do know of a linguistic

exegesis Exegesis ( ; from the Greek , from , "to lead out") is a critical explanation or interpretation of a text. The term is traditionally applied to the interpretation of Biblical works. In modern usage, exegesis can involve critical interpretation ...

of the Qur'an complete with a glossary which was penned by al-Ru'asi, but it is no longer extant. Although he is regarded as the founder of the Kufan school, very few details are known about al-Ru'asi's life or his views on specific matters of dispute in Arabic grammar and he is rarely quoted by later grammarians.Encyclopaedia of Islam, vol. 8, pg. 573, fascicules 139-140. Eds.

Hamilton Alexander Rosskeen Gibb Sir Hamilton Alexander Rosskeen Gibb (2 January 1895 – 22 October 1971), known as H. A. R. Gibb, was a Scottish historian and Oriental studies, Orientalist. Early life and education Gibb was born on Wednesday, 2 January 1895, in A ...

, Johannes Hendrik Kramers, Bernard Lewis, Charles Pellat and Joseph Schacht. 1994.

Citations

{{Reflist Medieval grammarians of Arabic Converts to Islam from Judaism

See also

Citations