Abū Ḥayyān Athīr ad-Dīn al-Gharnāṭī (Arabic: أَبُو حَيَّان أَثِير ٱلدِّين ٱلْغَرْنَاطِيّ, November 1256 – July 1344 CE / 654 - 745 AH), whose full name is Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf bin ‘Alī ibn Yūsuf ibn Hayyān (Arabic: مُحَمَّد ٱبْن يُوسُف ٱبْن عَلِيّ ٱبْن يُوسُف ٱبْن حَيَّان), also called Abū Ḥayyān al-Andalusī,[4] was a celebrated commentator on the Quran and foremost Arabic grammarian of his era.[5][6] His magnum opus Tafsir al-Bahr al-Muhit (Explanation of the Ocean) is the most important reference on Qur'anic expressions and the issues of grammar, vocabulary, etymology and the transcriber-copyists of the Qur'an. Quite exceptionally for a linguist of Arabic of his day was his strong interest in non-Arabic languages. He wrote several works of comparative linguistics for Arabic speakers, and gives extensive comparative grammatical analysis and explanation.[7]
He was born in Spain in November 1256[5][8] to a family of Berber origins,[9][10] from the Berber tribe of Nifza.[11] Historians variously cite Gharnati's place of birth as both Jaén and Granada; his appellation "Gharnati" derives from this latter.[12] At the time Jaén was a dependency of Granada, and the appellation conflict may only be apparent.
At a young age, Abu Hayyan left Spain and traveled extensively for the sake of his studies.[5][12] Within Spain, he traveled to Málaga, Almería before moving on through Ceuta, Tunis, Alexandria, Cairo, Damietta, Minya, Kush and ‘AydhabinAfrica.[4][12] Eventually, he reached Mecca for the Hajj pilgrimage and visited Medina before returning to Alexandria. It is said he memorized the corpus of Sibawayh's al-Kitab ('The Book') - several volumes of the foundational Arabic grammar that, for some, held revered authority on the Arabic language approaching that of the Hadith in Islamic law.[13]
Abu Hayyan was said to be generally handsome, tall and long haired, which, along with his beard, turned grey in old age.[12]
Aby Hayyan studied under distinguished grammarians of his age in his homeland.[14] As he travelled, he studied under the most prominent scholars of his time.[15]
Abu Hayyan won favor at the court of an-Nasir Muhammad; the scholar Fatḥ al-Din Ibn Sayyid al-Nās and he, often judged the poetry contests held during al-Nasir's reign.[17] When Abu Hayyan's daughter, Nudhar, died, he received permission to inter her body at his family's property instead of at a cemetery.[12] Such permissions were not typical, and it seems the request was granted due to his high standing with the royal court. Abu Hayyan was deeply affected by his daughter's death and he composed an elegy in praise of her standing among intellectual circles.[18]
Abu Hayyan died on a Saturday in July in the year 1344 at his home in Cairo,[5][8] just after the last evening prayer.[19] He was buried the next day in the cemeteryofBab al-NasrinIslamic Cairo. When news of his death reached Damascus, the population mourned his death.[19]
Abu Hayyan adhered to the ZahirimadhhabofSunni Islam.[20] When asked toward the end of his life about a claim he had switched to the Shafi'imadhhab, or some other school, he responded that, anyone who had known the Ẓāhirī school could never leave it.[21][22]
On the Arabic language, Abu Hayyan shared the views of his fellow Ẓāhirī Andalusian, Ibn Maḍāʾ. Absolute belief in the divine mover led them to reject the concept of linguistic causality. For them the 'cause' of all things, including language, is attributable solely to God.[24] Thus on theological grounds, he was suspicious of the so-called "eastern grammarian" supporters of 'linguistic causality'.
When Abu Hayyan arrived in Egypt the Mamluk Sultan was ruler. Although Abu Hayyan held the Turkic languages of Mamluk Egypt superior to the Kipchak and Turkmen languages with which he was familiar,[25] he also wrote grammars of Amharic, Middle Mongol, the Berber languages and the Turkic. Other Arabic-language linguists of his day had little regard for foreign languages.[7][26] Abu Hayyan often illuminated Arabic grammatical concepts with quotes from various language.[13]
Abu Hayyan, the so-called 'king of grammar', was celebrated as the unrivalled linguistic scholar and religious expert of hadith, historiography and Sharia.[12] He is referred to alternately as Abu Hayyan "al-Gharnati" ('the Granadian') and Abu Hayyan "al-Nahwi" ('the grammarian').
Abu Hayyan's studies of grammar were governed by overarching principles he laid out such as "one must base rules of Arabic on frequency of occurrence" and "analogous formations that contradict genuine data found in good speech are not permitted."[13] His approach to grammar has been described by Brill's Encyclopaedia of Islam as remarkably modern, and Abu Hayyan's respect for facts and unusual objectivity have also been noted.[13]
Only 15 of the 65 works attributed to Abu Hayyan Athir al-Din Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Gharnati survive.[13]
Tafsīr al-Baḥr al-Muḥīt (اتفسير البحر المحيط); 'The Explanation Ocean' (Bayrūt, Dār al-Fikr, 1992); archive.org (12 vols., in Arabic); commentary on the linguistic meanings of Quran, composed in collaboration with al-Mansur, late in Gharnati's life.[27] Some of the extraordinary rich non-canonical qira'at, or variant Qur'anic readings, appear first in this, his most famous work of commentary.[28]
Kitāb Manhaj al-sālik fī al-kalām 'alá Alfīyyat Ibn Mālik (منهج السالك في الكلام على ألفية ابن مالك) - 'Commentary to the Alfiyya of Ibn Mālik'; several grammarians composed commentaries on ibn Malik's Alfiya,[8][29] a seminal work in the field of Arabic grammar. archive.org (in Arabic; ed., Glazer, Sidney, 1947)
Kitab al-'idrak li-lisan al-'atrak (كتاب الإدراك للسان الأتراك) -'Aspects of the Turkish language' archive (in Arabic)[30]
al-Mubdiʻ fī al-taṣrīf (كتاب المبدع في التصريف) (in Arabic; Ṣafāt, al-Kuwayt, Maktabat Dār al-ʻUrūbah, 1982); on Arabic language word formation.
Une Grammaire turque du huitième siècle de l'Hégire;『La Pénétration dans la langue des Turcs』d'Aboû Ḥayyân al-Gharnaṭî. (ed., Bouvat, Lucien; 1907).
Dīwān Abī Ḥayyān al-Andalusī (ديوان أبي حيان الأندلسي) archive.org
Tuhfat al'Arib bima fi al-Quran min al-Gharib (تحفة الأريب بما في القرآن من الغريب) archive.org (in Arabic)
Irtishaf ad-ḍarab min lisan al-'Arab (ارتشاف الضرب من لسان العرب) 'Sipping from the Arab Tongue'; archive.org (in Arabic); a comprehensive grammatical treatise.
Sharḥ al-Lamḥah al-Badrīyah fī ʻilm al-lughah al-ʻArabīyah (شرح اللمحة البدرية في علم اللغة العربية) 'The Badriyah explanation in Arabic linguistics' (ed., Dr. Hadi Nahr, University Press, Baghdad, 1997) archive.org (in Arabic)
Al-Nukat al-ḥisān fī sharḥ ghāyat al-iḥsān (النكت الحسان في شرح غاية الإحسان) 'Beautiful Anecdotes on Explanation of the Utmost Good' (Beirut, Muʼassasat al-Risālah, 1985) archive.org (in Arabic)
Taqrīb al-muqarrib (تقريب المقرب); a summary of ibn ʿUṣfūr's Muqarrib
Al-Tadrīb fī tamṯīl al-taqrīb (التدريب في تمثيل التقريب); a commentary on his Taqrīb al-muqarrib.
^Fancy, Nahyan A. G. (2006), "Pulmonary Transit and Bodily Resurrection: The Interaction of Medicine, Philosophy and Religion in the Works of Ibn al-Nafīs (died 1288)", Electronic Theses and Dissertations, University of Notre Dame, pg. 147-148
^Devin J. Stewart, "Ibn Hijjah al-Hamawi." Taken from Essays in Arabic Literary Biography: 1350-1850, pg. 143. Eds. Malcolm Lowry and Devin J. Stewart. Volume 2 of Essays in Arabic Literary Biography. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2009. ISBN9783447059336
^Michael Carer, "The Andalusian Grammarians: Are they different?" Taken from In the Shadow of Arabic: The Centrality of Language to Arab Culture, Pg. 34. Ed. Bilal Orfali. Leiden: Brill Publishers, 2011. Print. ISBN9789004215375
