al-Khalīl ibn Aḥmad al-Farāhīdī al-Azdī — al-Usṭūrah: Shiʻruhu wa-Juhūduhu fī Khidmat al-ʻArabīyah - Dandarāwī, Aḥmad ʻAbd al-Majīd Muḥammad Khalīfah; al-Muʼtamar al-Duwalī: al-Dawr al-ʻUmānī fī Khidmat al-Lughah al-ʻArabīyah (2015) (Kuwālā Lumbūr) (Kuwālā Lumbūr : Markaz Dhākirat ʻUmān, 2015)
al-Khalīl ibn Aḥmad al-Farāhīdī al-Azdī is reckoned the legend of Arabic and a marvel of his age in intelligence, discernment, breadth of learning and precision of observation. He spent his life in inquiry and attained knowledge granted to no one else, rendering outstanding service to Arabic and engraving his name in the history of Arab-Islamic culture, which owes to him the sciences his singular genius opened up: wherever one searches in the Arabic sciences, one finds al-Khalīl there before one. He was the first to devise lexicographical composition, the first to chart the metres of poetry, the first to lay the foundations of Arabic grammar — which he taught his pupil Sībawayh — and the originator of the science of music in which he gathered the kinds of composition. He also devised the vocalisation of the Arabic letters, which had no clear pointing before him, and so eased the recitation of the Qurʾan; and he left purposeful poetry scattered through the major works of literature, biography and history. This paper surveys his life and his writings, and then his outstanding contributions to the service of Arabic.
Permanent citation identifier: MHF-ARABICLANG-001.
Text in Arabic; title also romanized (ALA-LC); abstract and keywords in English.
Keywords: al-Khalīl ibn Aḥmad al-Farāhīdī; Arabic linguistics; Lexicography; Arabic prosody; Arabic grammar; Omani scholars