Abd al-Qāhir al-Jurjānī

Abi Bak'r Abd al-Qāhir bin Abdu-'Rhahman bin Muhammad al-Jurjānī (400 - 471 or 474) was a renowned Persian scholar of the Arabic language, literary theorist, grammarian and Shafi'i muslim. al-Jurjānī was an Ahsa'ari descendant, and born in the town of Gurjan, situated between Tabrestan and Kharasan in Iran.

al-Jurjānī is said not to have left his home town of Gurjan all his life, yet his reputation reached many Arabic scholars who came to see him. He excelled in the two sciences of "ilm al balagha" (eloquence and rhetorical art) and "ilm al bayan" (a branch of Arabic rhetoric dealing with metaphorical language), which he explained in his two books "Asrar al Balagha" ("Secrets of Eloquence"), and "Dala'il al-Ijaz" ("Intimations of Inimitability"). Al-Jurjānī was influenced by his predecessors such as the grammarian Sibawayh, the critic Abi Helal al-'Askari al Balaghi, and the linguist and literary theorist Abi Ali al-Faresi, known for his book "al-Idah" ("Elucidation").

Ali al-Faressi's nephew, Abi al-Hussein Muhammad Bin al-Hassan Bin Abd al-Wareth al-Faressi al-Nawawi, was al-Jurjānī's teacher, and used "al-Idah" to teach al-Jurjānī. Later al-Jurjānī was to write a thirty-volume work of commentary "al-Idah" entitled "al Maghna fi Sharh al-Idah" .

In modern critical opinion

In his volume "Asrar al-Balaghah", Muhammad Abdul Mun'em Khafagi writes "the Swiss linguist Saussure's theory of deconstruction is preceded by Abd al-Qāhir al-Jurjānī’s theory of deconstruction". [cite book
last=Khafagi
first=Muhammad Abdul Mun'em
coauthors=Al-Imam Abd Al-Qāhir Al-Jurjānī
title=Asrar al-Balaghah
publisher=Maktabet al Qāhira
location=Cairo
year=1972] Also, in the introduction of Muhammad Abdul Muttaleb's book "Issues of Modernism in the Works of Abd-al-Qāhir al-Jurjānī", Muttaleb writes of al-Jurjānī and Noam Chomsky "there is a similarity between these two men". [cite book
last=Muttaleb
first=Muhammad Abdul
editor=Mahmoud Ali Makki
title=Issues of Modernism in the works of Abd-al-Qāhir al-Jurjānī
publisher=Longman
location=Egypt
year=1995]

Publications

* "Al Maghna fi Shar’h al-Idah’", thirty volumes
* "Al Muq'tasad", a short version of "Al Maghna".
* "'I'jaz al-Qur'an" ("The inimitability of the Qur'an")
* "Kitab 'Aroud" ("Poetic Structure")
* "Al-'Awamel al-Mi'ah" ("The Hundred Elements")
* "Al–Miftah" ("The Key")
* "Shar'rh al-Fateha fi Mujallad" ("Explaining Al-Fatiha in a Volume")
* "Al-'Umhad fi al-Tasreef" ("The Basis of Morphology")
* "Al-Jumal" ("Sentences")
* "Al-Talkhiss bi Sharhihe" ("The Brief of Sentence Elucidation")
* "Asrar al-Balagha" ("The Secrets of Elucidation")
* "Dala'il al-I'jaz" ("Intimations of Inimitability")
* An anthology collection on the works of Abi-tammam, al-Buh'turi, and al-Mutannabi.

References

* Deeb, K. Abu. "al-Jurjānī, Abū Bakr Abd al-Qāhir b. Abd al- Rahmān (d. 471/1078)". Encyclopaedia of Islam. Edited by: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W.P. Heinrichs. Brill, 2007. Brill Online.
* "Encyclopedia of Literary Critics and Criticism". V. 1 A-K. Consultant John Sutherland; edited by Chris Murray. London: Fitzroy Dearborn, 1999.
* Abbs, Ihsn. Tarikh al-Naqd al-Adabi 'inda al-'Arab, Naqd al-Shi'r min al-Qarn al-Thani hattá al-Qarn al-Thamin al-Hijri. "History of Arabic Literary Criticism". Beirut: Dr al-Amnah, 1971. (A comprehensive study of Arabic literary criticism from the second century to the eighth century AD. It covers most of the literary critics from al-Asma'ei to Ibn-Khaldoun.)
* Abd Al-Qāhir Al-Jurjānī. "Asrar al-Balaghah". Edited by: Khafagi, Muhammad Abdul Mun'em, and Abdul Aziz Sharaf. Beirut, Dar Al Jeel, 1991.
* Abd Al-Qāhir Al-Jurjānī. "Asrar al-Balaghah in the Art of Rhetoric". Edited by: Al Imam Al Sheikh Mohammad Abdo, and Mohammad Rashid Ridah. Midan Al Azhar, Mohammad Ali Subeih, 6th ed. 1959.
* Abi Bakr Abd al-Qāhir bin Abd al-Rahman bin Mohammad al-Jurjānī, "al-Jummal". Edited by: Ali Haydar, Damascus, 1972.
* Abi Bakr Abd al-Qāhir bin Abd al-Rahman bin Mohammad al-Jurjānī, "al-Jummal in Grammar". Edited by: Usri Abd al-Ghani Abdallah. Beirut, Dar Al Kutub al Ilmieh, 1st ed 1990.