Abà « 'Alë al-FÃÂrisë (Arabic: ãèàùÃÂàçÃÂÃÂçñóÃÂ); surnamed Abà « Alë al Ḥasan Aḥmad Abd al-GhaffÃÂr Ibn Muḥammad ibn SulaimÃÂn ibn AbÃÂn al-FÃÂrisë (c. 901 â 987) ; was a leading grammarian of the school of al-Baá¹£rah of mixed Arab and Iranian heritage. He lived in BaghdÃÂd and later served at the courts of Sayf al-Dawla at Aleppo and 'Aá¸Âud al-Dawlah at Shiraz. His nephew was Abi al-Hussein Muhammad Bin al-Hassan Bin Abd al-Wareth al-Faressi al-Nawawi, who instructed the celebrated theorist al-JurjÃÂnë on al-FÃÂrisë's grammatical treatise, the Idah.
Abà « 'Ali al-Ḥasan ibn Ahmad ibn al-GhaffÃÂr al-FÃÂrisë, was known as Abà « Alë, or sometimes al-Fasawë. He was born in the town of Fasa in Fars province in 901. He was born to a Persian father and an Arab mother. In 919, he went to BaghdÃÂd to study. He travelled widely and spent a period with Sayf ad-Dawlah ibn HamdÃÂn, the Hamdanid ruler at Aleppo in 952/953, where he held conferences with the famous court poet al-Mutanabbi (915âÂÂ965). He continued on to Fars, and gained favour at the Buyid court of 'Aá¸Âud al-Dawlah ibn Buwaih in ShirÃÂz.
Ibn Khallikan recounts a grammatical contest at the hippodrome, ('MaidÃÂn') between Abà « Alë and the prince 'Aá¸Âud al-Dawlah, on a finer point of grammar over the use of the accusative case. In the expression:
The prince argued that 'Zaid' should be in the nominative and not in the accusative case. When Abà « Alë maintained that the verb is understood in the ellipse and therefore 'Zaid' is governed by the accusative, the prince challenged: "Why not use the nominative to fill the ellipse as: Abà « Alë conceded he was stumped by this remark saying;
However 'Aá¸Âud is reported to have said:
Abà « Alë dedicated his grammatical works, the IdÃÂh (illustration) and Takmila (supplement), to 'Aá¸Âud and composed a treatise on the subject of his debate with the prince which contained 'Aá¸Âud ad-Dawlah's approbation. In his IdÃÂh, he mentions that the exception is governed in the accusative by the verb which precedes (i.e. by the verb 'came'), in consequence of its corroboration by the word except. Ibn KhallikÃÂn relates another anecdote about a conversation between the poet Abà « 'l-QÃÂsim ibn Aḥmad al-Andalusë and Abà « Alë. The grammarian had expressed envy of Abà « 'l-QÃÂsim's genius in poetry and admitted to his own lack, despite, as a grammarian, having expertise in the scientific basis of poetry. He claimed then he had only ever composed three verses which run:
'Aá¸Âud ad-Dawlat was fond of repeating a quote by Abà « TammÃÂm, given in Abà « Alë's treatise IdÃÂh to explain the rule about the verb (),'to be':
Ibn KhallikÃÂn relates a dream he had while in Cairo that he met three pilgrims in an ancient funeral chapel in the village of Kalyà «b. One pilgrim mentioned that the sheikh Abà « Alë 'l-FÃÂrisë had lived there for many years; and that he had been a talented poet among other things. Ibn KhallikÃÂn had never came across any of his poetry. So in a sweet voice the man recited three verses. When he awoke the charming voice was still in his ears, but he could only recall this, the last verse: He was suspected of being a Mutazilite. He died at BaghdÃÂd on Sunday the 17th of Rabi' al-thani (some say Rabi' al-awwal) 377 h. (Aug 987) He was interred in the cemetery of "Shà «nëzi".