Al-Akhfash al-Akbar

{{Short description|Arab grammarian and Scholar of Caliphate era}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Al-Akhfash al-Akbar

| image =

| caption =

| birth_name = Abu al-Khaṭṭāb ʻAbd al-Ḥamīd ibn ʻAbd al-Majīd

| birth_date =

| birth_place = Basra

| death_date = 177 AH/793 CE

| death_place =

| nationality = Arab

| other_names =

| occupation = Grammarian

| known_for = Arabic grammar, lexicography, commentary and analysis of Arabic poetry

| notable_works = Revised Sibawayh's famous Kitab

}}

Abu al-Khaṭṭāb ʻAbd al-Ḥamīd ibn ʻAbd al-Majīd ({{langx|ar|أبو الخطاب عبد الحميد بن عبد المجيد; died 177 AH/793 CE}}),Stefan Sperl, Mannerism in Arabic Poetry: A Structural Analysis of Selected Texts (3rd Century AH/9th Century AD - 5th Century AH/11th Century AD), pg. 109. Part of the Cambridge Studies in Islamic Civilization series. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004. {{ISBN|9780521522922}} commonly known as Al-Akhfash al-Akbar ({{langx|ar|الأخفش الأكبر}}) was an Arab{{Cite journal|last=Weipert|first=Reinhard|date=2009-06-01|title=al-Akhfash|url=https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-islam-3/al-akhfash-COM_22808|journal=Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE|language=en}} grammarian who lived in Basra and associated with the method of Arabic grammar of its linguists, and was a client of the Qais tribe.Monique Bernards, "Pioneers of Arabic Language Studies." Taken from In the Shadow of Arabic: The Centrality of Language to Arabic Culture, pg. 214. Ed. Bilal Orfali. Volume 63 of Studies in Semitic Languages and Linguistics. Leiden: Brill Publishers, 2011. {{ISBN|9789004215375}}

His most notable students were: Sibawayh,Francis Joseph Steingass, The Assemblies of Al Harîri: The first twenty-six assemblies, pg. 498. Volume 3 of Oriental translation fund. Trns. Thomas Chenery. Williams and Norgate, 1867.{{Citation | last =Sībawayh | first =ʻAmr ibn ʻUthmān | publication-date =1988 | editor-last =Hārūn | editor-first =ʻAbd al-Salām Muḥammad | title =Al-Kitāb Kitāb Sībawayh Abī Bishr ʻAmr ibn ʻUthmān ibn Qanbar | edition =3rd | publication-place =Cairo | publisher =Maktabat al-Khānjī | volume =Introduction | page =9}}M.G. Carter, Sibawayh, pg. 21. Part of the Makers of Islamic Civilization series. London: I.B. Tauris, 2004. {{ISBN|9781850436713}} Yunus ibn Habib,Ibn Khallikan, Deaths of Eminent Men and History of the Sons of the Epoch, vol. 4, pg. 586. Trns. William McGuckin de Slane. London: Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland, 1871. Abu ʿUbaidah, Abu Zayd al-Ansari and Al-Asma'i. Al-Akhfash revised his student Sibawayh's famous Kitab, the first book ever written on Arabic grammar, and was responsible for circulating the first manuscripts after his student's untimely death.Khalil I. Semaan, Linguistics in the Middle Ages: Phonetic Studies in Early Islam, pg. 39. Leiden: Brill Publishers, 1968. Al-Akhfash was also one of the first linguists to contribute significantly to commentary and analysis of Arabic poetry. Additionally, he contributed to Arabic philology as well as lexicography, recording vocabulary and expressions of the Bedouin tribes which had not previously been recorded.Ibn Khallikan's Biographical Dictionary, vol. 2, pg. 244. Trns. William McGuckin de Slane. Paris: Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland. Sold by Institut de France and Royal Library of Belgium.