Abū’l-Ḥasan ʻAlī ibn Ismāʻīl (), known as Ibn Sīdah (), or Ibn Sīdah'l-Mursī (), (c.1007-1066), was a linguist, philologist and lexicographer of

Classical Arabic Classical Arabic or Quranic Arabic () is the standardized literary form of Arabic used from the 7th century and throughout the Middle Ages, most notably in Umayyad Caliphate, Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphate, Abbasid literary texts such as poetry, e ...

from

Andalusia Andalusia ( , ; , ) is the southernmost autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Peninsular Spain, located in the south of the Iberian Peninsula, in southwestern Europe. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomou ...

. He compiled the encyclopedia ' () (Book of Customs) and the Arabic-language dictionary ''Al-Muḥkam wa-al-muḥīt al-aʻẓam'' () ("the great and comprehensive arbiter"). His contributions to

language Language is a structured system of communication that consists of grammar and vocabulary. It is the primary means by which humans convey meaning, both in spoken and signed language, signed forms, and may also be conveyed through writing syste ...

literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...

, and

logic Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the study of deductively valid inferences or logical truths. It examines how conclusions follow from premises based on the structure o ...

were considerable.

Life

Ibn Sīdah was born in

Murcia Murcia ( , , ) is a city in south-eastern Spain, the Capital (political), capital and most populous city of the autonomous community of the Region of Murcia, and the Ranked lists of Spanish municipalities#By population, seventh largest city i ...

in eastern Andalusia. The historian Khalaf ibn ʻAbd al-Malik Ibn Bashkuwāl () (1183-1101) in his book ' () (Book of Relations) 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 Yāqūt Shihāb al-Dīn ibn-ʿAbdullāh al-Rūmī al-Ḥamawī (1179–1229) () was a Muslim scholar of Byzantine ancestry active during the late Abbasid period (12th–13th centuries). He is known for his , an influential work on geography con ...

in ''The Lexicon of Literature'', says Ibn Sīdah ('son of a woman') 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 Shams ad-Dīn adh-Dhahabī (), also known as Shams ad-Dīn Abū ʿAbdillāh Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿUthmān ibn Qāymāẓ ibn ʿAbdillāh at-Turkumānī al-Fāriqī ad-Dimashqī (5 October 1274 – 3 February 1348) was an Atharism, Athari ...

's biographic encyclopedia ' () (Lives of The Noble Scholars) is the main biographic source. He lived in the

taifa The taifas (from ''ṭā'ifa'', plural ''ṭawā'if'', meaning "party, band, faction") were the independent Muslim principalities and kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula (modern Portugal and Spain), referred to by Muslims as al-Andalus, that em ...

principality of "

Dénia Dénia (; ) is a historical coastal city in the province of Alicante, Spain, on the Costa Blanca halfway between Alicante and Valencia (city in Spain), Valencia, and the capital and judicial seat of the Comarques of the Valencian Community, ''c ...

and the Eastern Islands" () under the rule of Emir Mujahid al-Amiri al-Muwaffaq () (1044-1014) and he travelled to

Mecca Mecca, officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, is the capital of Mecca Province in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia; it is the Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow valley above ...

and

Medina Medina, officially al-Madinah al-Munawwarah (, ), also known as Taybah () and known in pre-Islamic times as Yathrib (), is the capital of Medina Province (Saudi Arabia), Medina Province in the Hejaz region of western Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, ...

. He studied in Cordova under the renowned grammarian

Abu al-Sa'ad ibn al-Hasan al-Rubai al-Baghdadi Abu or ABU may refer to: Aviation * Airman Battle Uniform, a utility uniform of the United States Air Force * IATA airport code for A. A. Bere Tallo Airport in Atambua, Province of East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia People * Abu (Arabic term), a kun ...

(أبو العلاء صاعد بن الحسن الربعي البغدادي) (d.417AH/1026AD) exiled in Andalusia, and with Abu Omar al-Talmanki (أبي عمر الطلمنكي) (429-340AH). He died in Dénia.

Works

*'' al-Mukhaṣṣaṣ'' (
'Allowance'
(20 vols) *'' Al-Muḥkam wa-al-muḥīt al-ʾaʿẓam'' () (Beirut, 2000); Arabic dictionary, 11 vols. A principal source for the famous ''

Lisān al-ʿArab ''Lisān al-ʿArab'' () is a dictionary of Arabic completed by Ibn Manzur in 1290. History Ibn Manzur's objective in this project was to reïndex and reproduce the contents of previous works to facilitate readers' use of and access to them. ...

'' dictionary by the great thirteenth-century lexicographer

Ibn Manzur Muhammad ibn Mukarram ibn Alī ibn Ahmad ibn Manzūr al-Ansārī al-Ifrīqī al-Misrī al-Khazrajī () also known as Ibn Manẓūr () (June–July 1233 – December 1311/January 1312) was an Arab lexicographer of the Arabic language and author of ...

. *''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 Abū al-Ṭayyib Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Mutanabbī al-Kindī ( – 965 AD), commonly known as Al-Mutanabbi (), was an Abbasid-era Arab poet at the court of the Hamdanid emir Sayf al-Dawla in Aleppo, and for whom he composed 300 folios of ...

(al-Kindi)'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 (outliers) of the Language' *'' Al-Muḥkam wa l-Muḥīt al-ʾAʿẓam'' () 'The Great and Comprehensive Arbitrator'.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sidah, Ibn Malikis Asharis 1000s births 1066 deaths 11th-century historians from al-Andalus 11th-century biographers 11th-century lexicographers Encyclopedists from al-Andalus Arab biographers Arab grammarians Arab lexicographers Blind writers Medieval grammarians of Arabic Encyclopedists of the medieval Islamic world People from Córdoba, Spain People from Murcia