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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books The Shi'ah and Islamic Disciplines Chapter 15: The Precedence Of The Shi’ah In Arabic Grammar Section One: The Pioneer of This Discipline The person who invented Arabic grammar and dictated its priciples and broad outlines was the Commander of the Faithful Ali ibn Abi Talib (‘a). There is a consensus of expert opinion on this issue as reported by Jamal al–Din Ali ibn Yusuf al–Qafti in his Tarikh al–Nuhat and by al–Marzibani in Al–Muqtabas .

In the chapter on the truthfulness of narrators in Al–Khasa’is , Ibn Jinni states: “First, you should know that the Commander of the Faithful (‘a) was the first to introduce grammar and drew the people’s attention to it”. Abdulhamid ibn Abi al–Hadid noted: “This fact is known to everyone”. This issue is treated by the scholars as an indisputable fact.

In the original version of this book, I have cited their explicit statements which indicate that the claim of consensus was accurate, simultaneously reputing as weak, the view that the inventor of grammar was Abdurrahman ibn Hurmuz. In reality, this man learnt grammar from Abu al–Aswad, and some say, from Maimun al–Aqran who himself learnt from Abu al–Aswad.

Another reason why Abdurrahman could not have enjoyed that position is that all narrations about the issue end up with Abu al–Aswad who in turn links them to Ali (‘a). In the unabridged version of this book I have cited Abu al–Aswad’s narration to that effect through numerous links that are continuously transmitted ( mutawatir ). We shall mention some of them in due course.

Section Two: The First to Systematize Grammar Studies Abu al–Aswad al–Du’ali is the one who founded and systematized the study of grammar. His surname al–Du’ali is derived from al–Du’al ibn Bakr ibn Abdumanaf ibn Kinanah. Abu Ali al–Ghiya’i states in Kitab al–Qari’ that the grammarians al–Asma’i, Sibawaih, al–Akhfash, Ibn al–Sikkit, Abu Hatim, al–Adawi and others, say that ‘al–Du’il’ should be pronounced with the vowels ‘u’ and ‘i’ after the letters ‘ dal ’ and ‘ hamzah ’, respectively (i.e.

Du’il). The hamzah carries an ‘a’ vowel only in the form denoting descent or origin (i.e Du’ali meaning descending from Du’il) just as in the case of nimr and al–nimari ; salim and al–salami . Al–Asma’i said that Isa ibn Amr preserves the ‘i’ vowel on ‘ hamzah ’ even in the form denoting decent, thereby violating the rule of conjugation.