Yunus ibn Habib

Yunus ibn Habib (Arabic: أبو عبد الرحمن يونس بن حبيب الضبي; died after 183 AH/798 CE)[1] was a reputable 8th-century Arab[2][3] linguist. An early literary critic and expert on poetry, Ibn Habib's criticisms of poetry were known, along with those of contemporaries such as Al-Asma'i, as a litmus test for measuring later writers' eloquence.[4]

Ibn Habib's exact tribal last name, date of birth and age at death have been an issue of contention. Medieval historian Ibn Khallikan mentions three possible tribes that he belonged to, two possible dates of birth and two possible ages at the time of his death.[5] He never married nor did he ever take a mistress, having devoted all of his life to either studying or teaching.[6]

His notable teachers include: Hammad ibn Salamah from whom he took knowledge in Arabic grammar, Al-Akhfash al-Akbar and Abu 'Amr ibn al-'Ala'.[5][7] His students include Sibawayh,[8][9][10][11] Al-Kisa'i, Yaḥyá ibn Ziyād al-Farrāʼ and Abu ʿUbaidah.[7] Abu Ubaida once remarked that he attended the lessons of Ibn Habib every day for forty years, and every day he left with pages of notes copied from what Ibn Habib dictated from memory.[5]

Sibawayhi, considered the father of Arabic grammar despite being Persian, quoted Ibn Habib 217 times in his famous Kitab,[12][13] Ibn Habib is one of two figures (the other being Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi) regarded as Sibawayhi's formative teachers.[9]

Works

List of known works by Yunus ibn Habib:[7]

  • Kitāb maʻānī al-Qurʼān (كتاب معاني القرآن)
  • Kitāb al-lughāt (كتاب اللغات)
  • Kitāb al-nawādir al-kabīr (كتاب النوادر الكبير)
  • Kitāb al-nawādir al-ṣaghīr (كتاب النوادر الصغير)
  • Kitāb al-amthāl (كتاب الأمثال)

References
  1. Tarif Khalidi, Arabic Historical Thought in the Classical Period, pg. 98. Cambridge Studies in Islamic Civilization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994. ISBN 9780521465540
  2. Pellat, prepared by a number of leading orientalists ; edited by ... H.A.R. Gibb, J.H. Kramers, E. Lévi-Provençal, J. Schacht, ... B. Lewis, Ch. (1960). The encyclopaedia of Islam (New ed.). Leiden: E.J. Brill. p. 349. ISBN 9004127569. He is presented as a mawla of several Arab tribes. A Persian origin was mentioned by a Shu'ubi author (Talmon, Arabic grammar, 7 n. 35). {{cite book}}: |first1= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  3. Berend Wispelwey, Biographical Index of the Middle Ages, pg. 1,169. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2008. ISBN 9783110914160
  4. G.J. van Gelder, "Brevity in Classical Arabic Literary Theory." Taken from Proceedings of the Ninth Congress of the Union Européenne Des Arabisants Et Islamisants: Amsterdam, 1st to 7th September 1978, pg. 81. Ed. Rudolph Peters. Volume 4 of Publications of the Netherlands Institute of Archaeology and Arabic Studies in Cairo. Leiden: Brill Archive, 1981. ISBN 9789004063808
  5. Ibn Khallikan, Deaths of Eminent Men and History of the Sons of the Epoch, vol. 4, pg. 586. Trns. William McGuckin de Slane. London: Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland, 1871.
  6. Ibn Khallikan, Deaths, vol. 4, pg. 587.
  7. Sībawayh, ʻAmr ibn ʻUthmān (1988), Hārūn, ʻAbd al-Salām Muḥammad (ed.), Al-Kitāb Kitāb Sībawayh Abī Bishr ʻAmr ibn ʻUthmān ibn Qanbar, vol. Introduction (3rd ed.), Cairo: Maktabat al-Khānjī, pp. 9–11
  8. Khalil I. Semaan, Linguistics in the Middle Ages: Phonetic Studies in Early Islam, pg. 39. Leiden: Brill Publishers, 1968.
  9. M.G. Carter, Sibawayh, pg. 21. Part of the Makers of Islamic Civilization series. London: I.B. Tauris, 2004. ISBN 9781850436713
  10. Aryeh Levin, "Sibawayh." Taken from History of language sciences: an international handbook on the evolution of the study of language from the beginnings to the present, pg. 252. Ed. Sylvain Auroux. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2000. ISBN 9783110111033
  11. Francis Joseph Steingass, The Assemblies of Al Harîri: The first twenty-six assemblies, pg. 498. Volume 3 of Oriental translation fund. Trns. Thomas Chenery. Williams and Norgate, 1867.
  12. Kees Versteegh, Arabic Grammar and Qurʼānic Exegesis in Early Islam, pg. 17. Volume 19 of Studies in Semitic languages and linguistics. Leiden: Brill Publishers, 1993. ISBN 9789004098459
  13. "Aspects of the Genetive: Taxonomy in al-Jumal fi al-nahw." Taken from Early Medieval Arabic: Studies on Al-Khalīl Ibn Ahmad, pg. 102. Ed. Karin C. Ryding. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 1998. ISBN 9780878406630
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