Lexically speaking, ʾinšāʾ is the maṣdar of the verb ʾanša ʾa ‘to create’. In Arabic linguistic terminology, it is the opposite of xabar. Xabar designates the assertive (xabariy(ya)) utterance (kalām) or sentence (jumla); ʾinšāʾ designates the non-assertive utterance or sentence (ġayr al-xabariy(ya)). According to the encyclopedist al-Kafāwī (d. 1094/1683), it consists of two subdivisions, ṭalabī ‘jussive utter…