علم الأحاجي والأغلوطات من فروع اللغة والصرف والنحوLexicography Language and Etymology

The science of riddles and verbal puzzles, among the branches of language, morphology, and syntax

Riddles (ahaajee) is the plural of uhjiyya, like udhhiyya; it is a word whose meaning is contrary to its apparent form.

It is a science that investigates expressions which, outwardly, contravene the rules of Arabic, and applies those rules to them, since it is not possible to include them in the rules merely by relying on the familiar principles.

Its subject is the aforementioned expressions, considered from the aforementioned perspective.

Its principles are taken from the Arabic sciences.

Its purpose is to acquire the capacity to apply the rules to expressions that appear, outwardly, to conflict with the rules of the Arabs.

Its end is to preserve the Arabic rules from being exposed to disruption.

The need for this science arises because the expressions of the Arabs may contain things that apparently conflict with the rules of the Arabic sciences, such that they cannot be accommodated by simply knowing those rules; hence the need for this discipline.

Al-Zamakhsharee, who died in the year 538 AH, wrote a concise work in this discipline entitled al-Haajaat.

Shaykh 'Alam al-Deen 'Alee ibn Muhammad al-Sakhaawee al-Dimashqee, who died in 643 AH, wrote a commentary on this precise text, undertaking to follow each riddle in al-Zamakhsharee with two riddles of his own composition.

Aboo al-Ma'aalee Sa'd ibn 'Alee al-Warraaq al-Hutayree, who died in 568 AH, also wrote on it. The thirty-sixth maqaama, known as al-Maltiyya, among al-Hareeree's maqaamaat, concerns this meaning. For example:

O you who rose through intelligence

In merit, and made the fire-striker sparkle;

What matches my saying?

“Hunger—I extend it with provisions.”

O you whose merit surpasses all,

Whom no blemish has stained;

What resembles the riddler's saying?

“A back struck by an evil eye.”

The way to recognize the correspondence here is to look at “hunger—I extend it with provisions” and set it against tawaameer: tawaa is like hunger in meaning, and meer is like “I extend with provisions,” since meer means supplying provisions. Likewise, compare “a back struck by an evil eye” with the expression mataa'een: mataa is the back, and 'ayn is the man who has been struck by the evil eye.

If the expressions are left undivided, another meaning appears: tawaameer means books, whose singular is toomaar, while mataa'een is the plural of mat'aan, meaning one who stabs often. Proceed by analogy.

The science of etymological derivation

It is the science that investigates how words emerge from one another through a correspondence between their points of articulation and their original and derivative forms—not according to their substance, but according to their configuration.

For example, derivation investigates the correspondence between nahaqa and na'aqa with respect to their root material.

Its subject is the simple lexical forms considered from the aforementioned perspective.

Its principles include many things: the rules and points of articulation of the letters.

Its questions are the rules by which one knows by what route and in what respect originality and derivation obtain between simple forms; its proofs are inferred from the rules of the science of articulation and from tracing the expressions and usages of the Arabs.

Its purpose is to acquire the capacity by which affiliation is recognized correctly.

Its end is to avoid error in attribution, which causes error in the expressions of the Arabs.

Know that the meanings of the substances themselves are known specifically through language, while the attribution of one thing to another in a general way is derivation when the matter concerns substance.

When it concerns configuration, it is morphology. Thus the distinction between the three sciences becomes clear: derivation is intermediate between them. For this reason, scholars considered it appropriate to place it before morphology and after language in instruction.

It is often mentioned in books of morphology and is rarely compiled independently, either because its rules are few or because it shares its principles with morphology. This was even among the reasons for treating the two as one, although unity in compilation does not entail unity in reality.

The author of al-Fawaa'id al-Khaaqaaniyya said: Know that derivation is considered sometimes as a science and sometimes as an act.

Its clarification is this: dhaarib, for example, corresponds to dharb in letters, roots, and meaning, on the basis that convention assigned letters to a meaning and derived from them many words corresponding to the derivative meanings required by attention to proportion. Derivation is this branching and taking.

Its definition as a science is this branching arising from convention: one finds between two expressions a correspondence in meaning and composition, and thereby recognizes the return of one to the other and its taking from it.

If we consider it in respect of the need of one expression for an act, we define it in respect of the act by saying: it is to take a derivative from a root that agrees with it in letters and roots and make it signify a meaning that agrees with its meaning. End quote.

The truth is that considering the act is additional and unnecessary. What is required is knowledge of the derivation of established forms, since convention has already occurred and passed, and the derived forms are transmitted from the people of the language. Perhaps that consideration was intended to justify the definition transmitted from some of the verifying scholars.

In both cases, what matters is agreement in the original letters, even if only by estimation: additional letters in istif'aal and ifti'aal do not prevent it. Agreement in meaning is also required, whether by addition or reduction. If two forms agree in their roots and their order, as dharaba from dharb, the derivation is minor. If they agree in letters but not in composition, as jabadh from jadhaba, it is major. If they agree in most letters, with correspondence in the remainder, as na'aqa from nahaqa, it is greater.

Imaam al-Raazee said: Derivation is minor and major. Minor derivation is the derivation of the forms of the past and present tense, the active and passive participles, and other forms from the verbal noun. Major derivation is the turning of a word composed of letters through all its possible permutations.

For example, a word composed of three letters admits six permutations, because any one of the three letters may be made the first letter; for each of those three possibilities, the remaining two letters may occur in two ways.

Thus a word composed of kaaf, laam, and meem admits six permutations: kalima, kamala, malaka, lakama, lamaka, and makala.

A word composed of four letters admits twenty-four permutations, because each of the four may be made the beginning of the word.

For each of these four estimates, the remaining three letters may occur in six ways, as explained above. The product of six and four is twenty-four; the same measure applies to a word composed of five letters.

By “derivation” in their statement, “this expression is derived from that expression,” they generally mean minor derivation. The detailed discussion of derivation is found in the old works on legal theory. Our master, the learned Imaam al-Qaadhee Muhammad ibn 'Alee al-Shawkaanee—may Allah have mercy on him—compiled it independently and called it Nuzhat al-Ahdaaq. I have a book on the subject entitled al-'Ilm al-Khaffaaq min 'Ilm al-Ishtiqaaq. It is a very valuable book, unprecedented in its field.

The science of rare expressions in hadeeth and the Qur'aan

Aboo Sulaymaan Muhammad al-Khattaabee said: The ghareeb, or rare, element of speech is obscure and remote from understanding, just as a ghareeb among people is one who is far from his homeland and cut off from his family. Ghareeb speech is used in two senses:

First, it may mean that its meaning is remote and obscure, accessible to understanding only after distance and intellectual effort.

Second, it may mean speech belonging to tribes of the Arabs whose homes were far away. When a word from their speech reaches us, we find it strange. End quote.

Ibn al-Atheer said in al-Nihaaya: It is known that the Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—was the most eloquent of the Arabs. 'Alee—may Allah be pleased with him—said to him after hearing him address a delegation of Banoo Nimr: “Messenger of Allah, we are sons of one father, yet we see you addressing the delegations of the Arabs with much that we do not understand.” He replied: “My Lord disciplined me and made my discipline excellent.”

He therefore addressed the Arabs, despite their different peoples and tribes, in a way they understood. Allah, Mighty and Majestic, had taught him what He had not taught anyone else. His Companions understood most of what he said, and when they did not understand something, they asked him about it and he clarified it for them. His era continued in this manner until his death—peace and blessings be upon him.

The era of the Companions followed the same pattern. Their Arabic tongue was sound and untouched by corruption, until the provinces were conquered and the Arabs mixed with people of other kinds. The tongues blended and children were born among them; they learned from the generation of the Companions, and the Successors followed their path. By the end of their time, the Arabic tongue had become foreign. When the disease became severe, Allah, Glorified and Exalted, inspired a group of people of learning to devote part of their care to this matter. They began work in it as a safeguard for this noble science.

It is said that the first person to compile anything in this discipline was Aboo 'Ubayda Ma'mar ibn al-Muthannaa al-Tameemee al-Basree, who died in 210 AH. He compiled a small book. Its brevity was not due to ignorance of what lay beyond it, but to two reasons:

First, everything begun for the first time is initially small and then grows.

Second, people still possessed a remnant of sound knowledge, and ignorance had not yet become widespread. He also wrote a work on the rare expressions of the Qur'aan. 'Abd al-Waahid ibn Ahmad al-Maleeh, who died in 462 AH, wrote a refutation of it; Aboo Sa'eed Ahmad ibn Khaalid al-Dhareer and Muwafaq al-Deen 'Abd al-Lateef ibn Yoosuf al-Baghdaadee, who died in 629 AH, also wrote refutations concerning rare hadeeth.

After him, Aboo al-Hasan al-Nadhr ibn Shumayl al-Maazinee, the grammarian, who died in 204 AH, compiled more than he had. 'Abd al-Malik ibn Qareeb al-Asma'ee then compiled a book in which he did well and excelled. Likewise Muhammad ibn al-Mustaneer, known as Qutrub, and other imaams gathered hadeeth and discussed their language on sheets, but scarcely any one of them was independent of the others in many hadeeth that the others had not mentioned.

Then, after 200 AH, Aboo 'Ubayd al-Qaasim ibn Sallaam compiled his book. It became the model in this field, for he spent his lifetime on it. It is related that he said: “I compiled this book of mine over forty years. I might learn a benefit from someone's mouth and place it in its proper position; it was the distillation of my life.” His book remained in people's hands, to which they referred for rare hadeeth. Muhibb al-Deen Ahmad ibn 'Abd Allaah al-Tabaree, who died in 694 AH, wrote an abridgment of it entitled Qareeb al-Maraam fee Ghareeb al-Qaasim ibn Sallaam, arranged by letters.

Then came the era of Aboo Muhammad 'Abd Allaah ibn Muslim ibn Qutayba al-Deenawaree, who died in 276 AH. He wrote his famous book, following Aboo 'Ubayda's model; it was comparable to his book or larger.

In its introduction he said: “I hope that after these two books there remains no rare hadeeth about which anyone may have anything to say.”

In his time there was also the imaam and traditionist Ibraaheem ibn Ishaaq al-Harbee, who compiled a large work in five volumes. He expanded the discussion, traced the hadeeth through their chains, and lengthened the work by citing their texts, even when they contained only one rare word. The book therefore became long, was abandoned, and fell out of use, despite its many benefits. He died—may Allah have mercy on him—in Baghdad in 285 AH.

After those mentioned, people continued to compile works, among them Shimar ibn Hamdawayh; Aboo al-'Abbaas Ahmad ibn Yahyaa, known as Tha'lab, who died in 291 AH; Aboo Bakr Muhammad ibn al-Qaasim al-Anbaaree, who died in 328 AH; Ahmad ibn Hasan al-Kindee; Aboo 'Umar Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Waahid al-Zaahid, Tha'lab's associate, who died in 345 AH, whose work on rare expressions was based on Imaam Ahmad's Musnad; and others. I also mention Aboo al-Husayn 'Umar ibn Muhammad al-Maalikee, who died in 328 AH and whose work remained incomplete; Aboo Muhammad Salama ibn 'Aasim the grammarian; Aboo Marwaan 'Abd al-Malik ibn Habeeb al-Maalikee, who died in 239 AH; Aboo al-Qaasim Mahmood ibn Abee al-Hasan ibn al-Husayn al-Neesaabooree, called Bayaan al-Haqq; Qaasim ibn Muhammad al-Anbaaree, who died in 304 AH; Aboo Shujaa' Muhammad ibn 'Alee ibn al-Dahhaan al-Baghdaadee, who died in 590 AH, whose work comprised sixteen large volumes; Aboo al-Fath Sulaym ibn Ayyoob al-Raazee, who died in 442 AH; Ibn Kaysaan Muhammad ibn Ahmad the grammarian, who died in 269 AH; Muhammad ibn Habeeb al-Baghdaadee the grammarian, who died in 245 AH; Ibn Durustawayh 'Abd Allaah ibn Ja'far the grammarian, who died in 347 AH; and Ismaa'eel ibn 'Abd al-Ghaafir, the transmitter of Saheeh Muslim, who died in 445 AH. His book is highly useful, a volume arranged by letters.

This continued until the time of the imaam Aboo Sulaymaan Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Khattaabee al-Bustee, who died in 388 AH. He wrote his famous book, following the method of Aboo 'Ubayda and Ibn Qutayba. These three became the foundational books of the field. Yet no compiled book was arranged for easy consultation except al-Harbee's work, and its length meant that it could be found only after effort and hardship. In the time of Aboo 'Ubayd Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Harawee, who died in 401 AH and was a companion of al-Azharee, the latter—who had lived in al-Khattaabee's time—compiled his famous book on combining the two rare corpora of the Qur'aan and hadeeth. He arranged it according to the alphabet in a novel manner and gathered what was found in the works of his predecessors. It became a comprehensive and excellent work, although the hadeeth was dispersed under the letters of its words. It spread and became the standard reference, and people thereafter continued to follow its path.

In the time of Aboo al-Qaasim Mahmood ibn 'Umar al-Zamakhsharee, he compiled al-Faa'iq and arranged it in an alphabetic, rhymed order of his choosing. Finding a hadeeth in it, however, was laborious, because in its rhyming arrangement he included the entire hadeeth, or most of it, and then explained its rare expressions. Thus the explanation of every rare word in the hadeeth appeared under a single letter, while the word itself was placed under a different letter. When someone sought it, he had to labor until he found it. al-Harawee's book was therefore easier to consult and more readily accessible.

The traditionist Aboo Moosaa Muhammad ibn Abee Bakr al-Isfahaanee wrote a book containing what had escaped al-Harawee of rare Qur'aanic and hadeeth expressions, adding useful material and arranging it as al-Harawee had. He then said: Know that after my book there will remain things that I did not encounter and did not learn, because the speech of the Arabs cannot be encompassed. He died in 581 AH. He called it Kitaab al-Ghath, by which he completed the two rare corpora. His contemporary, Aboo al-Faraj 'Abd al-Rahmaan ibn 'Alee, Imaam Ibn al-Jawzee, compiled a work on rare hadeeth, following al-Harawee's method while excluding rare Qur'aanic expressions. He was learned, although preaching predominated in him. He said: “They have missed some things, so I resolved to exert my utmost effort in gathering rare expressions, hoping that no important matter would escape me.” Ibn al-Atheer said: “I examined his book and found it abridged from al-Harawee's book, taking material bit by bit from its chapters. He added nothing except an isolated word. As for Aboo Moosaa, he did not mention in his book a single word that al-Harawee had mentioned without being compelled to mention it, for his book also resembles al-Harawee's: its purpose was to supply what al-Harawee had missed. When I examined those two books, both of them extremely good, I found that anyone seeking a rare word needed both, and that both were large works consisting of several volumes. I therefore resolved to combine their material on rare hadeeth, excluding rare Qur'aanic expressions, and to join each word to its counterpart. As the days passed, I examined the task of combining their expressions. Despite the great quantity they had deposited in their books, I found that they had missed much. At the outset, rare words from the hadeeth of al-Bukhaaree and Muslim came to my attention that were absent from both books. Whenever I recognized one, I noted it, and then I turned to the other hadeeth books, besides these two, to consider them. I traced them and investigated them fully, early and late, and found much rare material in them, which I added.”

I say: How much of the rare vocabulary contained in the hadeeth of the Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—and of his Companions and Successors may have escaped me, remaining a reserve for someone else. End quote from Ibn al-Atheer's work, entitled al-Nihaaya, summarized.

I say: After him, al-Armoowee wrote a book completing his work. Muhadhdhab al-Deen ibn al-Haajib wrote ten volumes. Qaasim ibn Thaabit ibn Hazm al-Saraqustee, who died in 330 AH at Saragossa, also compiled a work. He lived in the East in al-Harbee's time, while this other scholar lived in the West; neither knew what the other had done, as al-Biqaa'ee—may Allah have mercy on him—mentioned.

The science of the rare vocabulary of hadeeth

This is a noble science, with a subtle subject and great benefit and purpose. The learned al-Zamakhsharee wrote al-Faa'iq on it, and Imaam Ibn al-Atheer al-Jazaree wrote al-Nihaaya. The author of Madeenat al-'Uloom says: We have mentioned these two books under the science of language, because this science may also be counted among the branches of language. End quote. This is the science mentioned above.[1]

1. It includes Majma' al-Bihaar by Shaykh Muhammad Taahir al-Fatnee. It is the most comprehensive compilation in this science and the relied-upon work for explaining the rare expressions in the six foundational books and others. It was printed in India and its benefit became widespread. Mawlaanaa 'Abd al-Qayyoom ibn al-Mawlawee Muhammad 'Abd al-Hayy—may Allah, the Exalted, preserve him and prolong his life.

The science of language

It is the science that investigates the meanings of the substances of individual words and the particular forms established with those substances for those meanings by individual convention, and what results from combining each substance and its forms, considered with respect to convention and signification of particular meanings.

Its end is to avoid error in understanding conventional meanings and to know what is understood from the words of the Arabs.

Its benefit is mastery of this knowledge, fluency and strength of expression, competence in varying one's speech, and clarification of meanings through eloquent statements and rhetorically effective words.

If it is said: The science of language consists of verbal definitions, and definition belongs to the conceptual objects of inquiry. The reality of every science is its questions, which are universal propositions—or affirmations of them—and in either case they belong to the affirmative objects of inquiry; therefore language cannot be a science.

The answer is that a verbal definition is not intended to produce an image that was absent, as in the other definitions, whether real or nominal limits and descriptions. Rather, its purpose is to designate one image among images already present, so that attention may be directed to it and it may be known that the expression is assigned to it. What it ultimately yields is the affirmation that this expression is assigned to that meaning, and thus it belongs to the affirmative objects of inquiry. It remains, however, that the science of language would then consist of particular propositions judging that specified expressions were assigned to particular meanings, whereas a question must be a universal proposition.

Know that the aim of the science of language is based on two methods.

Some proceed from the expression to the meaning: they hear an expression and seek its meaning.

Others proceed from the meaning to the expression. For each of the two routes they compiled books by which a person might reach what he seeks, since what is compiled for one branch is of no use in the other.

For books compiled according to the first consideration, the method is to arrange the letters of the alphabet.

This is either by treating the final letters as chapters and the initial letters as sections, to facilitate finding the desired entry, as al-Jawharee did in al-Sihaah and Majd al-Deen in al-Qaamoos;

or conversely, by treating the initial letters as chapters and the final letters as sections, as Ibn Faaris did in al-Mujmal and al-Mutarrizee in al-Mughrib.

For books compiled according to the second consideration, the method is to collect categories according to meanings and make each category a chapter, as al-Zamakhsharee did in the section on nouns in the introduction to al-Adab.

Then differences in scholarly inclination gave rise to various methods.

One person's judgment led him to isolate the vocabulary of the Qur'aan.

Another isolated rare hadeeth vocabulary.

Another isolated the vocabulary of jurisprudence, as al-Mutarrizee did in al-Mughrib.

Another isolated the vocabulary occurring in the poems and qaseedas of the Arabs and similar works, as in Nidhaam al-Ghareeb. The purpose is to provide guidance when different kinds of need arise.

The books composed in language are numerous. The author of Kashf al-Dhunoon listed them in alphabetic order. I wrote a book on the foundations of language entitled al-Bulgha, in which I mentioned every book written in this science up to my time. The author of Madeenat al-'Uloom also mentioned a book on this science and supplied a biography of each author; consult it.

Ibn Khaldoon said: The science of language is the exposition of linguistic conventions.

When the Arabic linguistic faculty in the vowel endings called inflection by grammarians became corrupt, rules were inferred to preserve it, as we have said. That corruption continued through contact and mixture with non-Arabs, until it extended to the conventional meanings of words. Many expressions of the Arabs were used by them in senses other than their established ones, following the defective usages of Arabized foreigners in their terminology, which conflicted with the plain Arabic tongue. It became necessary to preserve linguistic conventions through writing and compilation, lest they disappear and produce ignorance of the Qur'aan and hadeeth. Many leading authorities of the language therefore devoted themselves to this and dictated their lexicons. The foremost in this field was al-Khaleel ibn Ahmad al-Faraaheedee, who wrote Kitaab al-'Ayn. In it he encompassed all combinations of the alphabet's letters—binary, triliteral, quadriliteral, and quinqueliteral—the furthest extent of combination in the Arabic tongue. He was able to enumerate them by exhaustive numerical methods.

The total number of binary words is obtained successively from all the numbers from one to twenty-seven, one less than the number of alphabetic letters, because the first letter is taken with each of the twenty-seven others, yielding twenty-seven binary words. Then the second is taken with the remaining twenty-six, and so on, until the twenty-seventh is taken with the twenty-eighth, yielding one. Thus the totals follow the sequence from one to twenty-seven; they are summed according to the familiar arithmetic method and then doubled, because reversal of the binary order counts in composition. The result is the total of the binaries. The triliterals are obtained by multiplying the number of binaries by the sum from one to twenty-six, since adding a letter to each binary produces a triliteral. The binary thereby functions like a single letter with each of the remaining twenty-six letters; their successive sum is multiplied by the total number of binaries, and the result is multiplied by six, the number of reversals of a triliteral. This yields the total combinations of the alphabet. The same applies to quadriliterals and quinqueliterals.

Al-Khaleel thus exhausted the combinations by this method and arranged his chapters according to the customary alphabetic order, while relying on the order of points of articulation. He began with the throat letters, followed by those of the palate, then the molars, then the lips, placing the weak letters last; these are the airy letters.

Among the throat letters he began with 'ayn, because it is the deepest of them. For this reason he called his book al-'Ayn. Earlier authors used such a principle in naming their lexicons: they named them after the first of the words and expressions occurring in them. He then distinguished unused forms from those in use. Unused forms were more numerous among quadriliterals and quinqueliterals because the Arabs used them little on account of their heaviness; biliterals followed them because they circulated rarely, while triliterals were used most often and therefore had the greatest number of established forms.

Al-Khaleel comprehensively incorporated this material in Kitaab al-'Ayn. Aboo Bakr al-Zubaydee later wrote an abridgment for Hishaam al-Mu'ayyad in al-Andalus in the fourth century. He preserved its comprehensiveness, removed all unused forms and many of the citations of forms in use, and condensed it excellently for memorization.

Al-Jawharee, an eastern scholar, wrote al-Sihaah in the customary order of the alphabet. He began with hamza and made entries according to the final letter of the word, because people most often need to locate words by their endings. He followed al-Khaleel in making the language exhaustive.

Among the Andalusians, Ibn Seeda of Denia, during the reign of 'Alee ibn Mujaahid, wrote al-Muhkam following the same comprehensive approach and the order of Kitaab al-'Ayn. He added discussion of derivations and inflectional forms, producing one of the finest lexicons.

Muhammad ibn Abee al-Hasan, secretary to al-Mustansir, one of the Hafsid rulers in Tunis, abridged it. He reversed its arrangement into that of al-Sihaah, organizing entries by the final letters of words and building the entries upon them. The two works were thus twins of one womb and descendants of one father.

These are the foundations of the books of language, as far as we know.

There are also other abridgments devoted to one class of words, encompassing some chapters or all of them, although their method of exhaustive coverage is obscure; in the foundational works, the method of exhaustiveness is clear from the combinations, as you have seen.

Among the other works composed in language is al-Zamakhsharee's book on figurative usage. In it he explains every expression used figuratively by the Arabs and every meaning to which they applied figurative usage. It is a work of noble benefit.

Because the Arabs first establish a thing in general terms and then use other, specific expressions for particular cases, this distinguished for us between establishment and usage and required a difficult-to-acquire understanding of language. Thus the word “white” is conventionally established for everything containing whiteness, but what is white among horses is specifically called ashhab, among humans azhar, and among sheep amlah, until using “white” for any of these becomes a grammatical error and departure from the Arabic tongue.

Al-Tha'aalibee specialized in this approach and devoted a book to it entitled Fiqh al-Lugha. One of the most important disciplines a linguist must undertake is not to divert the usage of the Arabs from its proper places. Knowing the original convention is not enough in composition until the usage of the Arabs bears witness to it. An author most needs this in the arts of poetry and prose, lest his errors in linguistic conventions—in individual words and combinations—become frequent. Such error is worse and more objectionable than error in inflection.

Some later scholars likewise wrote on homonymous expressions and undertook to enumerate them. Although they did not reach the end of the matter, they covered most of it.

As for the abridgments in this particular discipline, devoted to the current and frequently used vocabulary in order to make memorization easy for the student, they are numerous, such as al-Alfaadh by Ibn al-Sikkeet and al-Faseeh by Tha'lab, among others. Some contain less vocabulary than others because their authors differed in what they considered most important for the student to memorize. Allah, the Creator, the All-Knowing—there is no lord besides Him. End quote.

Madeenat al-'Uloom mentions among the abridgments Kitaab al-'Ayn by al-Khaleel ibn Ahmad, al-Muntakhab and al-Mujarrad by 'Alee ibn Hasan, known as Kuraa' al-Naml, and al-Munadhdhad fee al-Lugha al-Mujarrad.

Among the intermediate works are al-Mujmal by Ibn Hasan al-Faarisee and Deewaan al-Adab by al-Faaraabee.

Among the extensive works are al-Mu'allim by Ahmad ibn Abaan the linguist; al-Tahdheeb and al-Jaami' by al-Azharee; al-'Ubaab al-Zaakhir by al-Saghaanee; al-Muhkam by Ibn Seeda; al-Sihaah by al-Jawharee; al-Laami' al-Mu'allim al-'Ajaab, combining al-Muhkam and al-'Ubaab; and al-Qaamoos al-Muheet.[2]

He said:

Among the comprehensive works is Lisaan al-'Arab, which combines al-Tahdheeb, al-Muhkam, al-Sihaah and its marginalia, al-Jamhara, and al-Nihaaya. It is by Shaykh Muhammad ibn Mukarram ibn 'Alee; it is also said: Ridhwaan ibn Ahmad ibn Abee al-Qaasim.

Among the abridgments are al-Saamee fee al-Asaamee by al-Maydaanee, al-Dustoor, Mirqaat al-Adab, and al-Mughrib fee Lughat al-Fiqhiyyaat

2. By al-Feeroozaabaadee, who heard from Taqee al-Deen al-Subkee, his son Taaj al-Deen, Ibn Nubaata, Ibn Jamaa'a, and others.

especially al-Mutarrizee's work; Mukhtasar al-Islaah by Ibn al-Sikkeet; and Talabat al-Talaba by Najm al-Deen Aboo Hafs 'Umar ibn Muhammad, which is devoted to jurisprudential vocabulary.

Among works devoted to rare hadeeth are al-Jazaree's Nihaaya and al-Ghareebayn, which combines rare hadeeth and Qur'aanic expressions.

Some authors isolated the vocabulary occurring in the poems and qaseedas of the Arabs, and other works of this kind. End quote.

He also mentioned biographies of the linguists under the works listed above. Among the most extensive and useful books of language is Taaj al-'Aroos, a commentary on al-Qaamoos, by al-Sayyid Murtadhaa al-Zabeedee al-Misree al-Bilgraamee. Bilgraam is a town in the region of Qannauj, the homeland of this humble servant. There are also al-Misbaah and Mukhtaar al-Sihaah.

Our book al-Bulgha is sufficient for anyone wishing to learn about the books of this science.