Arabic Linguistic Tradition II

What is it about?

This article deals essentially with two topics. The first is rhetoric (balāgha), as one of the two sectors of the basic core of the Arabic linguistic tradition. Since the tradition was not definitively constructed until the postclassical period, Qazwīnī’s Talkhīṣ (d. 739/1338) is used—the most famous “epitome” of the rhetorical part of Sakkākī’s Miftāḥ al-‘ulum, which itself is based on the two works of ‘Abd al-Qāhir al-Jurjānī (d. 471/1078), Asrār al-‘arabiyya and Dalā’il al-I‘jāz. The second is the intersections of rhetoric with the other sectors of this tradition: linguistics proper, namely, grammar (naḥw : Astarābādhī’s (d. 688/1289) Sharḥ al-Kāfiya is given as a sample of balāgha integrated into naḥw); and not linguistics proper, namely, the theologico-juridical sciences (fiqh, ’uṣūl al-fiqh, tafsīr, kalām).

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