Quṭrub the Grammarian

Abū Alī Muḥammad ibn al-Mustanīr , known as Quṭrub the Grammarian of al-Baṣrah, was a poet, a scientist, a scholar of Qur'anic exegesis (tafsir) and the leading philologist and linguist of his time. He wrote on a wide field of subjects and authored the first Kitāb al-Muthallath ('Ternary'), of which several later and extended versions were produced. He died in 821/22 (206 AH).

Life Quṭrub the Grammarian, Abū ‘Alī Muḥammad ibn al-Mustanīr, known also as Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad, or al-Ḥasan ibn Muḥammad; he studied under Sibawayh and the Baṣran philologists, rivals of the Kūfah school. Quṭrub, and later his son al-Ḥasan, taught the sons of Abū Dulaf al-Qāsim ibn Īsā.

Quṭrub was a native of Baṣrah and a mawlā (apprentice) of Salīm ibn Ziād. The polymath Muḥammad ibn Ḥabīb (d.859/860) quoted Quṭrub along with Ibn al-A‘rābī, Abū ‘Ubaydah, Abū al-Yaqẓān, et al, who were among the scholars of genealogy, historical tradition, language, poetry and the tribes. The ḥāfiẓ of Baghdād Hārūn Ibn ‘Alī al-Munajjim, of the famous Munajjim family, included verses by Quṭrub in his Kitāb al-Bārī.

Works Among his written books were: Ma’ānī al-Qur’ān ‘Meaning of the Qur’ān’; (rhetorical figures of the Qur’ān) Kitāb al-Ishtiqāq 'Derivations' (Etymology); Kitāb al-Qawāfī (treatise on Rhymes); Kitāb al-Nawādir 'Rare Forms' (book of anecdotes); Kitāb al-Azmina 'Periods' (Seasons); Kitāb al-Muthalath The Ternary ‘Triple’; Kitāb al-Farq 'Distinguishing' (anthropological and zoological anatomical terms); Kitāb al-Aswāt 'Voices' (Interjections); Kitāb al-Sifāt 'Epithets' (Adjectives, Attributes); Kitāb al-‘Ilal fī al-Nahwī 'The Weak Letters in Grammar'; Kitāb al-Adhdād 'Antonyms'; Kitāb Khulq al-Faras 'Nature of the Horse'; Kitāb Khulq al-Insān 'Nature of Man'; Kitāb Al-Nihayah Fi Gharīb al-Ḥadīth wa'l-Athaar. 'Rare Expressions in the Ḥadīth'; Kitāb al-Radd ‘alā ‘l-Mulhidīn fī Mutashābu ‘l-Qur’ān 'Refutation of the Heretics, about the metaphorical (anthropomorphic) interpretations in the Qur’ān'; Kitāb al-Hamz 'The Letter Hamza'; Kitāb al-Fa‘ala wa-Af‘ala 'Verbs in First and Fourth Class'; Kitāb I’rāb al-Qur’ān 'Inflection (Declension) of the Qur’ān'. Kitāb fī al-Anwā’ 'Al-Anwā’'