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What they said about Arabic Narrated with its chain

Abu Jaʿfar al-Nahhas relates that the scholars of Arabic never ceased to prefer the Book of Sibawayh, until al-Mubarrad said:

“No book in any science has ever been composed like the Book of Sibawayh: books written in the sciences need other books, but whoever understands the Book of Sibawayh needs nothing else.”

al-Mubarrad
d. 286 AH / 899 CE
Abu l-ʿAbbas Muhammad ibn Yazid, leading Basran grammarian of his time, author of al-Muqtadab and al-Kamil.

The Arabic original

لَمْ يُعْمَلْ كِتَابٌ فِي عِلْمٍ مِنَ العُلُومِ مِثْلُ كِتَابِ سِيبَوَيْهِ، وَذَلِكَ أَنَّ الكُتُبَ المُصَنَّفَةَ فِي العُلُومِ مُضْطَرَّةٌ إِلَى غَيْرِهَا، وَكِتَابُ سِيبَوَيْهِ لا يَحْتَاجُ مَنْ فَهِمَهُ إِلَى غَيْرِهِ.

Source

Sibawayh, al-Kitab, ed. ʿAbd al-Salam Harun, Cairo: al-Khanji, 3rd ed., 1988, vol. 1, p. 5 (preface to the Andalusian transmission from Abu Jaʿfar al-Nahhas); also al-Baghdadi, Khizanat al-adab 1/371
The English translation is Voice of Arabic's, made from the original.

The Book (al-Kitab) of Sibawayh is the earliest surviving treatise on Arabic grammar.

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