Yaqub Ibn as-Sikkit

Abū Yūsuf Ya‘qūb Ibn as-Sikkīt () was a Persian philologist tutor to the son of the Abbasid caliph Al-Mutawakkil and a great grammarian and scholar of poetry of the al-Kūfah school. He was punished on the orders of the caliph and died between 857 and 861.

Life

He was the son of al-Sikkīt, a philologist of the Kūfī school of grammar, a man of science, and an associate of the scholars al-Kisā’ī and al-Farrā’. Where the father excelled in poetry and linguistics, the son excelled in grammar. His father originated from the village of Dawraq, Ahwaz Khuzestan (Iran),

Ya‘qūb was a scholar of Baghdād, which followed the Kūfī school tradition in grammar, Qur’anic science and poetry. He studied and recorded the pure Arabic language from the Desert Arabs. He tutored the sons of al-Mutawakkil, who were Al-Muntasir and Al-Mu'tazz.

Ya‘qūb’s surname was Abū Yūsuf and his son, Yūsuf, was a court companion and personally close to the caliph al-Mu‘taḍid.

He was a disciple of Abū ‘Amr al-Shaybānī, Muḥammad ibn Muhanna, and Muḥammad ibn Subh ibn as-Sammāq. He taught the philology of al-Asmaʿi, Abū Ubaidah, and al-Farrā’.

Isḥāq al-Nadīm records that he was a pupil of Naṣrān al-Khurāsāni. Naṣrān had transmitted the poetry of al-Kumayt with ‘Umar ibn Bukayr and Ibn al-Sikkīt, who had memorised Naṣrān's books had a bitter disagreement about Naṣrān‘s teachings with the Kūfī scholar, al-Ṭūsī.

The account of al-Sikkīt, related by al-Nadim through the classical isnād source-system, cites the narrator-chain of Abū Sa‘īd, Abū Bakr ibn Durayd and al-Riyāshī, in an account illustrative of the active intellectual exchange between the two rival schools of Baṣrah and Kūfah in the 9th century. A group of wārraqūn of al-Kūfah gathered for a reading aloud by a warrāq of al-Baṣrah, of Ibn al-Sikkīt’s Book of Logic. Al-Riyāshī was at the event and attested that Ibn al-Sikkīt had told him, that he had learned the vernacular dialects of Southern ‘Irāq from Ḥarashat al-Ḍibāb and Aklat al-Yarābī, and they had derived theirs from the people of al-Sawād. He mentions examples of words such as “akalah al-kuwāmīkh” and “al-shawārīz."

The tests of rivalry between schools is illustrated in another account given by al-Nadim, told as a kind of cautionary tale. When al-Athram, a young scholar from al-Baṣrah, challenges Ya‘qūb ibn al-Sikkīt, a senior scholar of al-Kūfah school, on a verse by the poet al-Rā’ī, he clearly breaks the etiquette code that always ranks seniority above juniority.

Works

• Al-Alfāz (‘Pronunciations’, or ‘Dialects’); ()
• Iá¹£lāh al-Mantiq (‘Correction of Logic’); (); abridged by Ibn al-MaghribÄ«, and revised by the Yaḥyā ibn Ê¿AlÄ« al-TibrÄ«zÄ« Ibn as-SÄ«rāfi, produced an educative anthology from excerpted verses.
• Az-Zibrij (‘Ornamentation’); ()
• Al-Bath (‘Investigation’ ()
• Al-Amthāl (‘Book of Proverbs’); ()
• Al-Maqṣūr wa al-MamdÅ«d (‘The Shortened and the Lengthened’); ()
• Al-Muḍakkar wa al-Mu’annath (‘Masculine and Feminine’); ()
• Al-Ajnās KabÄ«r (‘The Great Book, Categories’); ()
• Al-Farq (‘Differentiation’); ()
• As-Sarj wa al-Lijām (‘Saddle and Bridle’); ()
• Fa‘ala wa-Af‘ala; ()
• Al-ḤaÅ¡arāt (‘Book of Insects’); ()
• (‘Voices’);
• Al-Aḍdād (‘Contraries’); ()
• An-Nabāt wa aÅ¡-Å ajar (‘Trees and Plants’); ()
• Al-Wuḥūš (‘Wild Beasts’); ()
• Al-Ibil (‘The Camel’); ()
• An-Nawādir (‘Rare Forms’); ()
• Ma‘ānÄ« aÅ¡-Å i‘r al-KabÄ«r (‘Large Book, The Meaning of Poetry’); ()
• Ma‘ānÄ« aÅ¡-Å i‘r as-á¹¢igar (‘Small book, The Meaning of Poetry’) ; ()
• Saraqāt aÅ¡-Å u‘arā’ wa mā IttafaqÅ« ‘alaihi (‘Plagiarisms and Agreements of Poets’); ()
• Al-Qalb wa’l-Abdāl (‘Permutation and Substitution [in grammar]’; ()
• Al-Maá¹­nān wa’l-Mabnan wa’l-Mukannan (‘The Dual, the Indeclinable, and the Surnamed’); ()
• Al-Ayyām wa’l-LayālÄ« (‘Days and Nights’); ()
• ’What Occurs in Poetry and What Is Deleted’;

List of Edited Poets

• Nābighah al-DhubyānÄ«:(edited and abridged by Ibn as-SikkÄ«t), also edited by al-SukkarÄ«, al-Aá¹£ma’ī' and al-ṬūsÄ«.
• Ḥuá¹­ay’ah: also edited by al-Aá¹£ma’ī, AbÅ« ‘Amr al-ShaybānÄ«, al-SukkarÄ«, and al-ṬūsÄ«.
• Al-Nābighah al-Ja‘dÄ«: also edited by al-Aá¹£ma’ī, al-SukkarÄ«, and al-ṬūsÄ«.
• LabÄ«d ibn Rabī‘ah al-‘ĀmirÄ«: also edited by AbÅ« ‘Amr al-ShaybānÄ«, al-Aá¹£ma’ī, al-SukkarÄ«, and al-ṬūsÄ«.
• TamÄ«m ibn Ubayy ibn Muqbil: also edited by AbÅ« ‘Amr [al-ShaybānÄ«], al-Aá¹£ma’ī, al-SukkarÄ«, and al-ṬūsÄ«.
• Muhalhil ibn Rabī‘ah: also edited by al-SukkarÄ« and al-Aá¹£ma’ī.
• Al-A‘shā al-KabÄ«r, MaymÅ«n ibn Qays, AbÅ« Baṣīr:
• Al-A’shā al-KabÄ«r: also edited by al-SukkarÄ«, AbÅ« ‘Amr al-ShaybānÄ«, al-Aá¹£ma’ī, al-ṬūsÄ«, and Tha‘lab.
• A‘shā Bāhilah ‘Amir ibn al-Ḥārith: also edited by al-Aá¹£ma’ī and al-SukkarÄ«.
• Bishr ibn AbÄ« Khāzim: also edited by al-Aá¹£ma’ī and al-SukkarÄ«.
• Ḥumayd ibn Thawr al-Rājiz: also edited by al-SukkarÄ«, al-Aá¹£ma’ī, AbÅ« ‘Amr [al-ShaybānÄ«] and al-ṬūsÄ«.
• Ḥumayd al-Arqaá¹­: also edited by al-SukkarÄ«, al-Aá¹£ma’ī, AbÅ« ‘Amr [al-ShaybānÄ«] and al-ṬūsÄ«.
• Suhaym ibn WathÄ«l al-Riyāḥī: also edited by al-SukkarÄ« and al-Aá¹£ma’ī.
• Urwah ibn al-Ward: also edited by al-SukkarÄ« and al-Aá¹£ma’ī.
• Al-‘Abbās ibn Mirdās al-SulamÄ«: also edited by al-SukkarÄ« and al-ṬūsÄ«.
• Al-Khansa: also edited by Ibn al-A‘rābÄ«, al-SukkarÄ«, and others.
• Al-Kumayt ibn Ma‘rÅ«f: edited by al-SukkarÄ« and Al-Aá¹£ma’ī, Ibn al-SikkÄ«t enlarged on it, and scholars quoted him from a chain of scholars through Ibn Kunāsah al-AsadÄ«, AbÅ« JāzÄ«, AbÅ« al-Mawṣūl and AbÅ« á¹¢adaqah, the BanÅ« Asad Tribe. Ibn al-SikkÄ«t received the poetry of al-Kumayt from Naá¹£rān his teacher who received it from AbÅ« Ḥafá¹£ ‘Umar ibn Bukayr.

See also

• List of Arab scientists and scholars
• Encyclopædia Britannica Online

Notes

References

Bibliography