What they said about Arabic From the author's own Arabic
In Sirr al-fasaha, admitting that he knew no language but Arabic:
“…for I know no language besides Arabic; I arrived at this by supposition and intuition. This language has been put to uses I do not think any other language has been put to, and in everything it was used for, in verse and in prose, it has been found nothing but pliant and sweet; and to this day it stops at no limit in that, nor reaches an end.”
Ibn Sinan al-Khafaji
d. 466 AH / 1073 CE
ʿAbd Allah ibn Muhammad, lord of the fortress of ʿAzaz near Aleppo and pupil of Abu l-ʿAlaʾ al-Maʿarri, author of Sirr al-fasaha.
The Arabic original
…لِأَنِّي لا أَعْرِفُ لُغَةً سِوَى العَرَبِيَّةِ، وَإِنَّما ذَهَبْتُ إِلَيْهِ ظَنّاً وَحَدْساً. وَقَدْ تُصُرِّفَ فِي هَذِهِ اللُّغَةِ بِما لَمْ أَظُنَّهُ تُصُرِّفَ فِي غَيْرِها مِنَ اللُّغاتِ، فَلَمْ تُوجَدْ إِلَّا طَيِّعَةً عَذْبَةً فِي كُلِّ ما اسْتُعْمِلَ فِيهِ نَظْماً وَنَثْراً، وَهِيَ إِلَى الآنَ لا تَقِفُ عَلَى غايَةٍ فِي ذَلِكَ، وَلا تَصِلُ إِلَى نِهايَةٍ.
Source
Ibn Sinan al-Khafaji, Sirr al-fasaha, ed. ʿAbd al-Mutaʿal al-Saʿidi, Cairo: Maktabat wa-Matbaʿat Muhammad ʿAli Subayh, 1952, p. 49
The English translation is Voice of Arabic's, made from the original.
Checked by the owner against al-Saʿidi’s edition, p. 49; the link opens the Beirut printing (1982), p. 51, with the same wording.
Tap a card to see it full size; each has a download button below it for sharing.
Spotted a mistake, or have something to add?
Your note comes to us only; it is not published here. We read it, and if it holds we correct the card.
