Arabic Beyond the Arabs
Ibn Muʿti: a Berber's thousand-verse grammar, before Ibn Malik
ابن مُعْطٍ الزَّواويّ: البربريّ الذي سبق ابن مالك إلى الألفيّة
Yahya ibn ʿAbd al-Muʿti came from Zawawa, a large Berber tribe near Bejaia in today's Algeria. He taught Arabic in Damascus, then al-Malik al-Kamil invited him to Egypt, where he taught in the Mosque of ʿAmr. He set grammar in a thousand verses, one of the first works of its kind. When Ibn Malik later wrote his famous Alfiyya, he said at its opening that it surpasses Ibn Muʿti's, but that Ibn Muʿti has the merit of coming first and deserves praise.
- In brief
- Ibn Malik said of him: «by coming first he has won the higher rank»
- Outside Arabic
- Ibn Muʿṭī · al-Alfiyya
«وتقتضي رضًا بغير سخطِ … فائقةً ألفيّةَ ابن معطي وهو بسبقٍ حائزٌ تفضيلا … مستوجبٌ ثنائيَ الجميلا»
Ibn Khallikan (Wafayat al-Aʿyan 6/197): «al-Zawawi … this name refers to Zawawa, a large tribe outside Bejaia in the province of Ifriqiya». He names «the Old Mosque of Egypt», which is the Mosque of ʿAmr ibn al-ʿAs. The editor of al-Suyuti's al-Wafiyya writes: «perhaps the first to open the way to versifying grammar in a thousand lines was Ibn Muʿti».
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