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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books The Shi'ah and Islamic Disciplines Chapter 11: The Precedence Of The Shi’ah In Semantics, Rhetoric And Eloquence Section One: The Pioneers in Semantics, Rhetoric and Eloquence Below are the pioneers in this field: Imam Abu Abdillah Muhammad ibn Imran al–Marzabani of al–Khurasani al–Baghdadi. He wrote Al–Mufassa fi Ilm al–Bayan wa al–Fasahah. Ibn al–Nadim writes in Al–Fihrist, that it consists of about three hundred sheets.

Al–Hafiz al–Suyuti says that the first to write about rhetoric was Abd al–Qahir al–Jurjani, as you know, but al–Marzabani died in 378 while al–Jurjani passed away in 444 A.H. Al–Yafi’i’s account on the biography of al–Marzabani, as presented in Tarikh , we learn that the latter studied the different branches of literature from Ibn Duraid and Ibn al–Anbari.

Al–Yafi’i adds: “He (al–Marzabani) wrote a large number of books, some of which are very famous, collections of uncommon themes and Riwayat al–Adab. His poetry was little but good. Al–Marzabani was a reliable transmitter of hadith and followed the Shi'ah school.” Al–Yafi’i also quotes some of his verses.

Ibn Khillikan gives a similar account to that of al–Marzabani and also attests to his being Shi’ite and refers to him in Kashf al–Zunun , in the section on Akhbar al–Mutakallimin , and describes him as a great scholar. In the unabridged edition of this book, I have presented a detailed biography of this scholar along with an index of all his works and mentioned that he was born in the month of Jumada al–Akhirah, 297 A.H. and died on Friday the 2nd of Shawwal, 378 A.H. (others say 384 A.H.).

He was buried in the eastern side of Baghdad. Sheikh Abu Bakr al–Khwarizmi performed funeral prayer for him. May Allah be pleased with both. Another Shi'ah scholar who preceded Sheikh Abd al–Qahir in this field is Abu Sa’id Muhammad ibn Ahmad al–‘Amidi, the vizier. He died in 423 A.H. As reported in Kashf al–Zunun , he compiled a book on rhetoric titled Tanqih al–Balaghah . Muntajab al–Din ibn Babawayh has also talked about him in his Fihrist of Shi'ah authors.

Yaqut describes him as a grammarian, lexicologist, master of literature and writer. He resided in Egypt and headed the bureau of letters but was later dismissed. Then, he took charge of the bureau of letters a second time. He wrote Tanqih al–Balaghah , Kitab al–Arud wa al–Qawafi (Book of prosody and metre), among others. He died on Friday the 5th of Jumada al–Akhirah, 433 A.H.