Abu ʾl-Ḥasan al-Naḍr ibn Shumayl ibn Kharasha al-Māzinī al-Tamīmī (; 740–819/820) was an

Arab Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...

scholar and poet from

central Asia Central Asia is a region of Asia consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The countries as a group are also colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as all have names ending with the Persian language, Pers ...

active in

Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...

. Al-Naḍr belonged to the Banū Māzin branch of the Banū Tamīm. He was born in Marw al-Rūdh, but raised in

Baṣra Basra () is a port city in southern Iraq. It is the capital of the eponymous Basra Governorate, as well as the third largest city in Iraq overall, behind Baghdad and Mosul. Located near the Iran–Iraq border at the north-easternmost extent ...

, where he spent most of his life. He lived for some years—forty, according to tradition—among the

Bedouin The Bedouin, Beduin, or Bedu ( ; , singular ) are pastorally nomadic Arab tribes who have historically inhabited the desert regions in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, the Levant, and Mesopotamia (Iraq). The Bedouin originated in the Sy ...

, from whom he gained a mastery of

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

. In Baṣra, al-Naḍr studied ''

ḥadīth Hadith is the Arabic word for a 'report' or an 'account f an event and refers to the Islamic oral tradition of anecdotes containing the purported words, actions, and the silent approvals of the Islamic prophet Muhammad or his immediate circle ...

'', ''

fiqh ''Fiqh'' (; ) is the term for Islamic jurisprudence.Fiqh
Encyclopædia Britannica ''Fiqh'' is of ...

'', grammar, lexicography and the

history of the Arabs The recorded history of the Arabs begins in the mid-9th century BCE, which is the earliest known attestation of the Old Arabic language. Tradition holds that Arabs descend from Ishmael, the son of Abraham. * * The Syrian Desert is the home of t ...

. He studied under

al-Khalīl ibn Aḥmad Abu ‘Abd ar-Raḥmān al-Khalīl ibn Aḥmad ibn ‘Amr ibn Tammām al-Farāhīdī al-Azdī al-Yaḥmadī (; 718 – 786 CE), known as al-Farāhīdī, or al-Khalīl, was an Arab philologists, philologist, lexicographer and leading Grammarian ...

and wrote an introduction to Khalīl's '' Kitāb al-ʿAyn''. Unable to make a living off his extensive education in Baṣra, he moved to Marw al-Shāhijān. Tradition records that a large number of scholars—700 or even 3,000—went to see him off at the Mirbad in order to persuade him to stay, but when they would not personally guarantee him even an extremely modest living he left. His contemporary, Abū ʿUbayda, included this incident in his book on the ''mathālib'' (vices) of the Arabs. In Marw, al-Naḍr became a ''

qāḍī A qadi (; ) is the magistrate or judge of a Sharia court, who also exercises extrajudicial functions such as mediation, guardianship over orphans and minors, and supervision and auditing of public works. History The term '' was in use from ...

'' (judge) and helped establish the '' sunna'' (Islamic custom) throughout

Khorasan KhorasanDabeersiaghi, Commentary on Safarnâma-e Nâsir Khusraw, 6th Ed. Tehran, Zavvâr: 1375 (Solar Hijri Calendar) 235–236 (; , ) is a historical eastern region in the Iranian Plateau in West and Central Asia that encompasses western and no ...

. He attended the ''

majlis (, pl. ') is an Arabic term meaning 'sitting room', used to describe various types of special gatherings among common interest groups of administrative, social or religious nature in countries with linguistic or cultural connections to the Mus ...

'' of

al-Maʾmūn Abū al-ʿAbbās Abd Allāh ibn Hārūn al-Maʾmūn (; 14 September 786 – 9 August 833), better known by his regnal name al-Ma'mun (), was the seventh Abbasid caliph, who reigned from 813 until his death in 833. His leadership was marked by t ...

, who rewarded him financially for his grammar and poetry. There are discrepancies over the date of al-Naḍr's death. According to his biographers, he died in the month of '' Dhu ʾl-Hijja'' in the year 204 AH (May–June 820), although some sources give the year as 203. According to

al-Ṭabarī Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn Jarīr ibn Yazīd al-Ṭabarī (; 839–923 CE / 224–310 AH), commonly known as al-Ṭabarī (), was a Sunni Muslim scholar, polymath, historian, exegete, jurist, and theologian from Amol, Tabaristan, present-day ...

, he was among the 26 scholars interrogated by Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm during al-Maʾmūn's persecution of 833 and one of the 21 sent to Tarsus for refusing to assent to the ''

Muʿtazila Mu'tazilism (, singular ) is an Islamic theological school that appeared in early Islamic history and flourished in Basra and Baghdad. Its adherents, the Mu'tazilites, were known for their neutrality in the dispute between Ali and his opponents ...

'' doctrine. This may be a case of mistaken identity, given what other sources report of his birth and death. The lists of al-Naḍr's works recorded by his biographers are long, but none of them is known to have survived. His most important work was the five-volume ''Kitāb al-ṣifāt fi ʾl-lugha'', which is summarised in detail in the ''Fihrist'' of

Ibn al-Nadīm Abū al-Faraj Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq an-Nadīm (), also Ibn Abī Yaʿqūb Isḥāq ibn Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq al-Warrāq, and commonly known by the ''nasab'' (patronymic) Ibn an-Nadīm (; died 17 September 995 or 998), was an important Muslim ...

. It was the first reference work of its kind, a type of encyclopedia or dictionary, in Arabic. It was used by

Abū ʿUbayd al-Qāsim ibn Sallām Abu Ubaid al-Qasim ibn Sallam al-Khurasani al-Harawi (; c. 770–838) was an Arab philologist and the author of many standard books on lexicography, Qur’anic sciences, hadith, and fiqh. He was born in Herat, the son of a Byzantine slave. He le ...

. His other works include ''Gahrīb al-ḥadīth'', ''Kitāb al-anwāʿ'' and ''al-Shams wa ʾl-qamar''.

Notes

Bibliography

* * * * {{refend 740 births 9th-century deaths Banu Tamim 8th-century Arab people 9th-century Arab people 8th-century Muslim scholars of Islam 9th-century Muslim scholars of Islam 8th-century people from the Abbasid Caliphate 9th-century people from the Abbasid Caliphate 8th-century Arabic-language poets 8th-century Arabic-language writers