al-Zajjāj

Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Sarī al-Zajjāj was a grammarian of Basrah, a scholar of philology and theology and a favourite at the Abbāsid court. He died in 922 at Baghdād, the capital city in his time.

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.

Al-Zajjāj entered the Abbāsid court, first as tutor to al-Qāsim ibn ‘Ubayd Allāh, son of the vizier ‘Ubayd Allāh ibn Sulaymān ibn Wahb’s and later, as tutor to the sons of the caliph al-Mu‘taḍid.

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. Both Tha’lab and Al-Mubarrad declined the project for lack of knowledge 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.

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.

Among al-Zajjāj's pupils were the grammarian Abū Alī al-Fārisī and Abū ‘l-Qāsim Abd ar-Raḥmān, author of the Jumal fi ‘n-Nawhi, Ibn al-Sarrāj and ‘Alī al-Marāghī the rival of Abu al-‘Abbās Tha’lab.

Al-Zajjāj had a dispute with al-Khayyāṭ, a grammarian-theologian of Samarqand, whom he met in Baghdād.

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 ; 'Exposition of the "Compendium of Speech. Ibn Khallikān describes this as "Extracts from his complete Treatise on Logic with his own commentary";

Kitāb ma’ānī al-Qur’ān , 'Meaning of the Quran'; tafsir (exegesis) of ambiguities, metaphors and figurative expressions.

Kitāb al-Ishtiqāq ; Etymology

Kitāb al-Qawāfī ;

Kitāb al-‘Arūḍ ; Prosody

Kitāb al-farqu ; Differentiation

Kitāb kulq al-Insān ; The nature of Man

Kitāb kulq al-faris ; The nature of the Horse

Kitāb mukhtaṣir nuḥw ; Abridgment of Grammar

Kitāb Fa‘altu wa-Af‘altu ; on the first and fourth Arabic verb forms

Kitāb mā yunṣarif wa-mā lā yunṣarif ; 'What Is Inflected and What Is Not Inflected'

Kitāb ṣahr abyāt Sībawayh ; Commentary on the verses in the grammar of Sībawayh;

Kitāb an-nawādir ; Book of Rare Forms.

Book of Dictates;

Book of Anecdotes;

Treatise on the influence of the constellation upon the weather

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 ; the Aghfāl ('Negligences', or 'Beneficial (Corrected) Questions'), in which he refutes al-Zajjāj in his book Maāni (Rhetoric).