Kitāb mā fassarahu min jāmi‘ an-nuṭq (كتاب ما فسّرة من جامع النطق); ‘Exposition of the "Compendium of Speech"’
Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Sarī al-Zajjāj (
Arabic: أبو إسحاق إبراهيم بن محمد بن السري الزجاج) was a
grammarian of Basrah, a scholar of philology and theology and a favourite at the
Abbāsid court. He died in 922[n 1][1] at
Baghdād, the capital city in his time.[2][3][4]
Life
Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad al-Sarī (Surrī) al-Zajjāj had been a glass-grinder – al-Zajjāj means ‘the glassman’ - before abandoning this trade to study philology under the two leading grammarians,
al-Mubarrad of the
Baṣran school and
Tha'lab of the
Kufan school. As top student and class representative he advised
al-Mubarrad. He studied “Al-Kitāb” of
Sībawayh with the Baṣrah grammarian Abū Fahd.[n 2][5]
On his succession to the vizierate, Caliph al-Mu’taḍid ordered vizier al-Qāsim to commission an exposition of the Compendium of Speech by Maḥbarah al-Nadīm.[n 5] Both
Tha’lab and
Al-Mubarrad declined the project for lack of knowledge[8] and old age respectively. Al-Mubarrad proposed his friend and relative novice al-Zajjāj, who was commissioned to work on just two sections as a trial of his abilities. In doing his research he consulted books on language by Tha‘lab,
al-Sukkarī, et al. He was assisted by
al-Tirmidhī the Younger, as his
amanuensis. The bound two-section commentary greatly impressed Caliph al-Mu’taḍid and al-Zajjāj was given the work to complete the commentary for the payment of three hundred gold
dīnār. The finished manuscript was kept in al-Mu’taḍid's royal library, and the issuing of any copies to other libraries was prohibited.[n 6]
Winning the caliph's favour, he received a royal pension of three hundred gold dīnār from three official roles as court companion, jurist and scholar.[9]
Al-Zajjāj died at Baghdād on 13 October 922 [Friday, 18th, or 19th,
Jumada al-Akhirah 310 AH] - other sources give 924 and 928 [311 and 316 AH.], aged over eighty.
Selected works
Kitāb mā fassarahu min jāmi‘ an-nuṭq (كتاب ما فسّرة من جامع النطق); ‘Exposition of the "Compendium of Speech".
Ibn Khallikān describes this as "Extracts from his complete Treatise on Logic with his own commentary";[n 9][2]
Kitāb ma’ānī al-Qur’ān (كتاب معانى القرآن), ‘Meaning of the Qur’ān’;
tafsir (exegesis) of ambiguities, metaphors and figurative expressions.[16]
Treatise on the influence of the constellation upon the weather[19][n 15]
Abū Alī al-Fārisī wrote a treatise in refutation of al-Zajjāj, titled Kitāb al-masā’il al-maslahat yurwiha ‘an az-Zajjāj wa-tu’raf bi-al-Aghfāl (كتاب المسائل المصلحة يرويها عن الزجاج وتعرف بالاغفال); the Aghfāl (‘Negligences’, or ‘Beneficial (Corrected) Questions’), in which he refutes al-Zajjāj in his book Maāni (Rhetoric).[20][21][22]
^Abū Fahd wrote a book about grammar titled "The Exposition".
^Al-Qāsim became vizier to both al-Mu’taḍid and his successor al-Muktafi, in whose reign he died. He was a skilled a politician.[6]
^Vizier to al-Mu’taḍid, and an able statesman, d. 901 (288 h.)
^Maḥbarah was the
laqab (nickname) of Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā ibn Abī ‘Abbād, Abū Ja’far al-Nadim, the court companion of al-Mu’taḍid.[7]
^This library was destroyed probably in 945/46 when
Aḥmad ibn Buwayh captured Baghdād and blinded caliph al-Mu’taḍid, who later died, perhaps from poisoning. However, the fact that
Muḥammad ibn Isḥaq al-Nadīm writes that he, and his circle of scholars, had seen the manuscript on fine paper, suggests it may have escaped destruction.
^ Abū ‘l-Qāsim Abd ar-Raḥmān was called al-Zajjājī after him.[10]
^ Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn ‘Alī al-Marāghī was a scholar of philology and religion from the city of
al-Marāghah at the time the capital of Maragheh County, East Azerbaijan Province,
Iran. Although al-Marāghī stayed at
al-Mawṣil, he was al-Zajjāj’ pupil. He wrote; "Abridgment of Grammar"; "Exposition and Interpretation of the Arguments of Sībawayh", [12]
Çelebi, Kâtip (1835).
Flügel, Gustav Leberecht (ed.). Kashf al-zunun (Lexicon Bibliographicum et Encyclopaedicum) (in Arabic and Latin). Vol. 1. London: Oriental Translation Fund.