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(a.), a term of Arabic grammar broadly denoting juncture, i.e. a syntactic or phonological “connecting”; it is thus the antonym of both interruption ( ḳaṭʿ [ q.v.]) and pause ( waḳf [ q.v.]). ¶ Its origin is probably in Ḳurʾān recitation, where the choice of proceeding to the next word without a break depends mainly on syntactic or semantic considerations, the text being marked accordingly with signs for optional, preferable or compulsory waṣl . The term occurs most commonly in the phrase alif al-waṣl , alternatively, but less transparently, hamzat al-waṣl, referring to the prosthetic ali…

(a.), literally “the adducing of a likeness, example; representation”. 1. In grammar. Here, it is used in various senses. As a denominative from mat̲h̲al “example”, it denotes the citing of examples and the technique of definition by exemplification (cf. Versteegh, 59, n. 8), while from mat̲h̲al in the extended meaning of “proverb”, it denotes the creation or use of such expressions; thus the phrase ʿalayhi māl un is called a tamt̲h̲īl by al-Mubarrad [ q.v.] ( al-Muḳtaḍab , i, 51) “because [the debt] has got on top of him”, a usage which clearly overlaps with tamt̲h̲īl in rhetoric. As a deno…

(a.), pl. asbāb , literally "rope" ( ḥabl ), the basic sense as given by the lexicographers (cf. LʿA ), coming to designate anything which binds or connects. It is "anything by means of which one gains an end ( maḳṣūd ; al-Ḏj̲urd̲j̲ānī) or an object sought" ( maṭlūb ; in the Baḥr al-d̲j̲awāhir ). One can mention asbāb with the sense of "bonds" in Ḳurʾān, II, 166: "When the bonds [which unite them] are broken...". Ibn ʿAbbās interpreted this as friendship ( mawadda ); Mud̲j̲āhid, "alliance" ( tawāṣul ) in this context. The sense is also found of "a means of achi…

(a.), lit. “origins, roots”, a term of Arabic grammar. Here, the applications of this term can broadly be divided into two categories, (i) most frequently in the singular aṣl , denoting a basic form, concept or structure, and (ii) exclusively in the plural, denoting the fundamental principles of grammar as a science. The singular aṣl has a wide range of meanings extending over phonology, morphology and syntax (Baalbaki; Bohas, etc. 1990, index) conveniendy summarised in Kinberg’s Lexicon of al-Farrāʾ (s.v. aṣl) as “the original vocalization, form, construction, meaning, wri…

(a.), lit. “making known”, hence “definition”. 1. As a term in logic. Ibn Sīnā appears to have been the first philosopher to use the word taʿrīf as a general term for definition that encompasses both “Aristotelian definition” ( ḥadd [ q.v.]) and descriptive definition, rasm , Gr. ύπογραφή Ibn Sīnā defines taʿrīf more generally as “an intentional act, by means of speech or sign, that causes the person perceiving it to conceive of the thing defined” huwa an yaḳṣida fiʿl al-s̲h̲ayʾ id̲h̲ā s̲h̲aʿara bihi s̲h̲āʿir taṣawwara s̲h̲ayʾan-mā huwa ’l-muʿarraf wa-d̲h̲ālika ’l-fiʿl …

(a., pl. ẓurūf ), lit. “vessel, container”, in grammar denotes a subset of nouns of place or time in the dependent ( naṣb , vulgo “accusative”) form indicating when or where the event occurs, e.g. d̲j̲alastu yawm-a-n warāʾ-a-hu “I sat one day behind him”. Because of their dependent form, the Arab grammarians classify them as objects of the verb, specifically as the “object of location”, mafʿūl fīhi , lit. “thing in which something is done”. Neither of the western terms “adverb” or “preposition” can properly be applied to these elements, wh…

(a.), lit: “to spit out” (see WbKAS , letter L, ii/2, 989). 1. In grammar. Here it denotes primarily the actual expression of a sound or series of sounds, hence “articulation” and, more broadly, the resulting “linguistic form”. It has ¶ always been distinct from ṣawt “[individual] sound” (cf. Troupeau, ṣ-w-t , and see Bakalla, 39 ff. and 49 ff., for its use in Ibn D̲j̲innī (d. 392/1002 [ q.v.]), which provides the base for the modern Arabic terms for phonetics, ʿilm al-aṣwāt , and phonology, ʿilm waẓāʾif al-aṣwāt (and note also the neologism ṣawtiyya [ q.v.] for ¶ the collective description …

(a.), literally, “sound, healthy”. 1. As a technical term in the science of ḥadīt̲h̲ [ q.v.], i.e. Muslim tradition. It did not come into use immediately with the onset of isnād criticism, for al-Rāmahurmuzī (d. 360/970 [ q.v.]), who wrote the first systematic work on ḥadīt̲h̲, does not seem to have applied it yet. It is used by mediaeval as well as modern Muslim tradition experts (sometimes followed in this by some western scholars) to describe or qualify one particular prophetic tradition or a whole collection of such traditions. Ṣaḥīḥ traditions constitute o…

, Abu ’l-Ḥasan, al-Naḥwī al-Miṣrī, the most important Egyptian grammarian of his time, usually referred to as Ibn Bābas̲h̲ād̲h̲ , d. 469/1077. Of Daylamī origins, his father or grandfather set up in Cairo, where, after an interlude in ʿIrāḳ trading in precious stones, Ibn Bābas̲h̲ād̲h̲ found well-paid employment as a kātib in the Dīwān al-ins̲h̲āʾ , as well as presiding over Ḳurʾān recitation at the mosque of ʿAmr. He died in a fall from the minaret of this mosque, in which he had secluded himself for some time in a pious aband…

(a.), literally “superiority, the act of raising something to a higher level or degree”. In grammar, it is the raising of a quality to a degree combining both the “comparative” and “superlative” functions of European adjectives, hence usually translated as “elative”. Formally, the elative has the patterns afʿal u (masc.) and fuʿlā (fem.) with sound plurals (also afāʿil u and fuʿal u respectively), in an obvious but still unexplained parallelism with the colour and defect adjective patterns afʿal u and faʿlāʾu . The origins of the patterns remain obscure: Wehr, 598 ff. (summa…

(pls. s̲h̲urūṭ , s̲h̲arāʾiṭ ), literally, “condition”. 1. In Islamic law. Here, it has the sense of “condition, term, stipulation”. The term has two major connotations. Generally, it denotes that which does not partake in the quiddity of a thing but upon which the existence of that thing hinges. Ritual cleansing ( ṭahāra ), for instance, is not a constitutive part of prayer ( ṣalāt ) but it is a condition for its validity. In legal theory ( uṣūl al-fiḳh ), s̲h̲arṭ signifies a condition in verifying the ratio legis, the ʿilla . S̲h̲arṭ requires the ruling ( ḥukm ) to be n…

, pioneer Arabic grammarian, the author of a single, untitled work, known only as Kitāb Sībawayhi and acknowledged as the founding text of Arabic grammatical science. All else, his name, origins, dates and originality, is uncertain, Sībawayhi having died too young and too far away from the cultural centres of ʿIrāḳ to establish himself in the scholarly biographical tradition. 1. Life and teachers. (a) Life . Sībawayhi’s name is usually given as Abū Bis̲h̲r ʿAmr b. ʿUt̲h̲mān b. Ḳanbar, mawlā of Banū Ḥārit̲h̲ b. Kaʿb Sībawayhi. Humbert (1995, 3-8) discu…