Abu al-ʽAbbās Thaʽlab

Thaʽlab (ثعلب), whose kunya was Abū al-ʽAbbās Aḥmad ibn Yaḥyā (ابو العباس احمد بن يحيى) (815 – 904) was a renowned authority on grammar, a muhaddith (traditionist), a reciter of poetry, and first scholar of the school of al-Kūfah, and later at Baghdād. He was a keen rival of Al-Mubarrad, the head of the school of al-Baṣrah. Thaʽlab supplied much biographic detail about his contemporary philologists found in the biographical dictionaries produced by later biographers.

Abū al-Abbās Thaʽlab was born in Baghdād and Ibn al-Karāb in his Taʽrīkh ('History') gives his date of birth as October 815 [third month, 200 AH], others give 816 or 819 [201 AH or 204 AH]. Thaʽlab recalled seeing, as a child of four years, the caliph al-Maʽmūn arriving back to the city from Khurāsān in 819/20 (204 AH). The Caliph processed from the Iron gate towards the Palace of al-Ruṣāfah, and the crowds were lined up as far as al-Muṣalla.^{[n 3][3]} Thaʽlab remembered clearly the occasion when the caliph raised him up from his father's arms and said, 'This is al-Maʽmūn.'^[4]

Thaʽlab was adopted by the military-leader-come-poet Maʽn ibn Zāʽidah,^{[n 4][7][8]} of the Banū Shaybān, and became a grammarian, philologist, and traditionist of the Kūfah school.

Thaʽlab recalled his interest in Arabic studies, poetry, and language had begun in 831 (216 AH) at age sixteen and that he had memorised to the letter all of al-Farrāʽs works, including Al-Hudūd, by the age of twenty-five. ^[8] His primary focus was on grammar, poetry, rhetoric, and Al-Nawadir (Strange Forms). He associated with, and counselled, Ibn al-Aʽrābī for about ten years.

Thaʽlab describes an occasion being at the home of Aḥmad ibn Saʽīd with a group of scholars, amongst whom were al-Sukkarī^{[n 5]} and Abū al-ʽĀliyah^{[n 6]}. Critiquing the meaning of a poem by al-Shammākh, Ibn al-A'rābī and Aḥmad ibn Saʽīd showed surprise at Thaʽlab's confidence.

In another anecdote, related by Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn Mūsā ibn Mujāhid al-Mukri, Thaʽlab once expressed concern for his soul as a disciple of Abū Zayd Saʽid ibn Aws al-Anṣārī (d.830) and Abū Amr ibn al-ʽAlā (d.770), over the exegetes, traditionists and fuqaha (jurists). Ibn Mujahid then told him of his dream in which Muhammad had sent a message to Thaʽlab that his was the superior science. Abū Abd Allāh al-Rūdbāri interpreted this to mean that the study of oral language is above all the other sciences – tafsir (exegesis), Ḥadīth (tradition), fiqh (Law) – as it perfects and connects these to discourse.

Thaʽlab, was invited but declined to take a commission by the vizier al-Qāsim to write a commentary on the book Compendium of Speech by Maḥbarah al-Nadīm,^{[n 7]} which the caliph Al-Muʽtaḍid had ordered. He offered instead to work on the Kitāb al-ʽAyn of al-Khalīl, and the commission went to Al-Zajjaj.^[11]

On 30 March or 6 April 904 (17 or 10 Jumada al-Awwal 291 AH), being quite deaf, he was knocked down by a horse while walking in the street and died the next day. He was buried in the vicinity of his house near the Damascus Gate in Baghdād.

• Abū Naṣr Aḥmad ibn Ḥātim al-Bāhilī (d. 846)^[12]: 50
• Ibn al-Aʽrābī (d. 846)^[8]
• Al-Zubayr ibn Bakkār (d. 870)^[13][14]
• Aḥmad ibn Ibrāhīm^{[n 8]}, Abū al-Ḥasan, a calligrapher grammarian, not an author.^[15]

Among his books there were:

• Kitāb al-Muṣūn fī al-Nahw wa-Jaʽalah Hudūdān (كتاب المصون في النحو وجعله حدودا) What is "Precious" (Preserved) in Grammar, which he wrote in the form of definitions (ḥudūd);
• Kitāb Ikhtilāf al-al-Naḥwīyīn (كتاب اختلاف النحوّيين) Points on which grammarians disagree;
• Kitāb Maʻānī al-Qurʼān (كتاب معانى القران) The Meaning of the Qurʽān;^[16]
• Kitāb al-Muwaffaqa Mukhtaṣir fī al-Nahw (كتاب الموفّقى مختصر في النحو) The Favoured, an abridgment of grammar;
• Kitāb mā yulaḥan fīhī al-ʽĀmma (كتاب ما يلحن فيه العامّة) Faulty Expressions in popular use;
• Kitāb al-Qirāʽāt (كتاب القراءات) Differences between the Seven Readings of the Qurʽān;
• Kitāb Maʻānī al-Šiʽr (كتاب معانى الشعر) Rare ideas in ancient Arabic poetry;
• Kitāb al-Taṣgīr (كتاب التصغير) Diminutive Nouns;
• Kitāb mā Yanṣarif wa mā lā Yanṣaruf (كتاب ما ينصرف وما لا ينصرف) What Is Declined and What Is Not Declined; Parts of Speech which form or do not form other functions;
• Kitāb mā Yujzā wa mā lā Yujzā (كتاب ما يجْزَى وما لا يجزى) What Is Grammatical and What Is Not Grammatical; Nouns of first declension;
• Kitāb al-Šawādd (كتاب الشواذّ) Exceptions;
• Kitāb al-Amthāl (كتاب الامثال) Similes; Collection of Proverbs;
• Kitāb al-Aiman wa al-Dawahā (كتاب الايمان والدواهى) Oaths and Calamities;
• Kitāb al-Waqf wa al-Ibtidāʽ (كتاب الوقف والابتداء) Start and End of Phrases;
• Kitāb al-Istikhraj al-Alfāz min al-Akhbār (كتاب استخراج الالفاظ من الاخبار) The Derivation of Expressions from Legends (Historical Traditions);
• Kitāb al-Hijāʽ (كتاب الهجاء) Spelling;
• Kitāb al-Awsat Ra'aītah (كتاب الاوسط رأيته) Grammar of medium extent;
• Kitāb Ghuraīb al-Qurʽān Laṭīf (كتاب غريب القرآن لطيف) The Excellent Book of the Strange in the Qurʽān;
• Kitāb al-Masāʽil (كتاب المسائل) Questions discussed;
• Kitāb ḥadd al-Nahw (كتاب حدّ النحو) Definitions of Grammar;
• Kitāb Tafsīr Kalām Ibnat al-Khusa (كتاب تفسير كلام ابنه الخسىّ) Exposition of the Statement of Ibnat al-Khus [Hind];^{[n 9]}
• Kitāb al-Faṣīḥ (كتاب الفصيح) Eloquent Style (ʽthe Pureʽ), on philology;^{[n 10] [18]}
• Kitāb al-Tafsīr al-Qurʽān (كتاب التفسير القرآن) Parsing the Qurʽān; ^[19]
• Kitāb al-Qirāʽāt li-Thaʽlab (كتاب القراءات لثعلب) Al-Qirāʽah of Thaʽlab (Qurʽānic Readings);^{[n 11][20]}

Thaʽlab is cited as a source for biographies of the following

Grammarians of Baṣrah - Yūnus ibn Ḥabīb,^[21] Sībawayh^[22] Abū ʽUbaydah,^[23] al-Aṣmaʽī,^[24] Al-Athram,^{[n 12] [25]}

Grammarians of Kufa - al-Ruʽāsī,^[26] Al-Zajjāj ^[27] who wrote the commentary of the Compendium of Speech.

Abū al-ʽAbbās Thaʽlab dictated his discourses on grammar, language, historical traditions, the tafsir (Qurʽānic exegesis), and poetry to his pupils who transmitted his works. Among these were:

• Ibn Miqsam (ابن مقسم)^{[28][n 13]}; a grammarian and Qurʽānic reader who wrote The Sessions of Thaʽlab. ^[32]
• Al-Akhfash al-Asghar (d.927)^[33][34]
• Ibn Durustūyah (ابن درستويه) (ca.871 -958) wrote The Middle Ground between Thaʽlab and al-Akhfash al-Mujāshiʽī, about the meaning of the Qurʽān, and Refutation of Thaʽlab, concerning Thaʽlab's book “Disagreement of Grammarians”.^{[n 14] [35] [36]}
• Abū Bakr ibn al-Anbārī (ابو بكر ابن الانبارى) (885 - 940) learned grammar from Abū al-'Abbās Thaʽlab ^[37][38][8]
• Hārūn Ibn al-Ḥāʽik, a Jew from al-Ḥīrah was an outstanding student of grammatical studies at al-Kūfah and was a pupil of Thaʽlab. ^{[18][citation needed][39]}
• Abū Muḥammad ʽAbd Allāh al-Shamī (the Syrian) a member of the school of al- Kūfah who wrote Collected Questions. ^[18]
• Abū ʽUmar al-Zāhid al-Mutarriz (ابو عمر الزاهد), or al-Zāhid ʽThe Asceticʽ, who was nicknamed "Ghulām Thaʽlab"^{[n 15]} (870 - 957), wrote a commentary on Thaʽlab's Kitāb al-Faṣīḥ.^{[n 16] [40][8][41][42]}
• Al-Ḥāmiḍ ^{[n 17]} was a scholar of al-Baṣrah, a scribe, and close friend of Thaʽlab. ^[43]
• Nafṭuwayh^{[n 18]} (ca.858 - 935) learned from Thaʽlab and al-Mubarrad, Muḥammad ibn al-Jahm (d. 895), ʽUbayd Allāh ibn Isḥāq ibn Salām, and the associates of al-Madāʽinī (753 - 846). ^[44][45][46]
• Abū ʽAbd Allāh al-Yazīdī^{[n 19]} (ابو عبد الله اليزيدى) (d. 922) preceptor to Caliph Al-Muqtadir

• al-Aʽshā (الاعشى)^{[n 20] [49][50]}
• Al-Nābighatān (النابغتان)^{[n 21][51]}
• Ṭufayl (طفيل)^{[n 22][52][18]}
• Al-Ṭirimmāḥ (الطِرِمّاح),^{[n 23][53][54][55]} etc.

• Bell, Richard (1904). "Observations on Thaʽlab's Faṣīḥ (transl. from MS in the British Museum)". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. London: Royal Asiatic Society of Britain and Ireland: 95–118.
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• Ḥamzah Baṣrī, ʻAlī ibn; Bell, Richard (1904). "Critical observations on the Mistakes of philologers. Part V : observations on the mistakes in the book called Ikhtiyar fasih al-kalam, composed by Abu'l-'Abbas Ahmad ibn Yahya Thaʽlab". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. London: Royal Asiatic Society: 95–118. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
• Le Strange, Guy (1922). Baghdād during the ʽAbbasid Caliphate. Oxford: Clarendon Press. p. 204.
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