Yunus ibn Habib

{{Short description|8th-century AD Iranian poet and linguist}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2024}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Yunus ibn Habib

| image =

| caption =

| birth_name = Abu Abd al-Rahman Yunus ibn Habib al-Dabi

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| death_date = After 183 AH/798 AD[^1^][1]

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| nationality = Persian

| other_names =

| occupation = Linguist

| known_for = Arabic language, literary criticism, poetry

| notable_works =

• Kitāb maʻānī al-Qurʼān (كتاب معاني القرآن)
• Kitāb al-lughāt (كتاب اللغات)
• Kitāb al-nawādir al-kabīr (كتاب النوادر الكبير)
• Kitāb al-nawādir al-ṣaghīr (كتاب النوادر الصغير)
• Kitāb al-amthāl (كتاب الأمثال)

}}

Yunus ibn Habib ({{langx|ar|أبو عبد الرحمن يونس بن حبيب الضبي}}; died after 183 AH/798 AD)Tarif Khalidi, Arabic Historical Thought in the Classical Period, pg. 98. Cambridge Studies in Islamic Civilization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994. {{ISBN|9780521465540}} was a reputable 8th-century Persian{{cite book |title=The encyclopaedia of Islam |title-link=Encyclopaedia of Islam#2nd edition, EI2 |date=1960 |publisher=E.J. Brill |isbn= |editor-last=Bearman |editor-first=Peri |editor-link=Peri Bearman |edition=EI2 |location=Leiden |page=349 |oclc=827726038 |quote=He is presented as a mawla of several Arab tribes. A Persian origin was mentioned by a Shu'ubi author (Talmon, Arabic grammar, 7 n. 35). |editor-last2=Bianquis |editor-first2=Thierry |editor-link2=Thierry Bianquis |editor-last3=Bosworth |editor-first3=Clifford Edmund |editor-link3=Clifford Edmund Bosworth |editor-last4=van Donzel |editor-first4=Emeri |editor-link4=Emeri van Donzel |editor-last5=Heinrichs |editor-first5=Wolfhart |editor-link5=Wolfhart Heinrichs}}Berend Wispelwey, Biographical Index of the Middle Ages, pg. 1,169. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2008. {{ISBN|9783110914160}} linguist of the Arabic language. An early literary critic and expert on poetry, Ibn Habib's criticisms of poetry were known, along with those of contemporaries such as Al-Asma'i, as a litmus test for measuring later writers' eloquence.G.J. van Gelder, "Brevity in Classical Arabic Literary Theory." Taken from Proceedings of the Ninth Congress of the Union Européenne Des Arabisants Et Islamisants: Amsterdam, 1st to 7th September 1978, pg. 81. Ed. Rudolph Peters. Volume 4 of Publications of the Netherlands Institute of Archaeology and Arabic Studies in Cairo. Leiden: Brill Archive, 1981. {{ISBN|9789004063808}}

Ibn Habib's exact tribal last name, date of birth and age at death have been an issue of contention. Medieval historian Ibn Khallikan mentions three possible tribes that he belonged to, two possible dates of birth and two possible ages at the time of his death.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. He never married nor did he ever take a mistress, having devoted all of his life to either studying or teaching.Ibn Khallikan, Deaths, vol. 4, pg. 587.

His notable teachers include: Hammad ibn Salamah from whom he took knowledge in Arabic grammar, Al-Akhfash al-Akbar and Abu 'Amr ibn al-'Ala'.{{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 | pages =9–11}} His students include Sibawayh,Khalil I. Semaan, Linguistics in the Middle Ages: Phonetic Studies in Early Islam, pg. 39. Leiden: Brill Publishers, 1968.M.G. Carter, Sibawayh, pg. 21. Part of the Makers of Islamic Civilization series. London: I.B. Tauris, 2004. {{ISBN|9781850436713}}Aryeh Levin, "Sibawayh." Taken from History of language sciences: an international handbook on the evolution of the study of language from the beginnings to the present, pg. 252. Ed. Sylvain Auroux. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2000. {{ISBN|9783110111033}}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. Al-Kisa'i, Yaḥyá ibn Ziyād al-Farrāʼ and Abu ʿUbaidah. Abu Ubaida once remarked that he attended the lessons of Ibn Habib every day for forty years, and every day he left with pages of notes copied from what Ibn Habib dictated from memory.

Sibawayhi, considered the father of Arabic grammar despite being Persian, quoted Ibn Habib 217 times in his famous Kitab,Kees Versteegh, Arabic Grammar and Qurʼānic Exegesis in Early Islam, pg. 17. Volume 19 of Studies in Semitic languages and linguistics. Leiden: Brill Publishers, 1993. {{ISBN|9789004098459}}"Aspects of the Genetive: Taxonomy in al-Jumal fi al-nahw." Taken from Early Medieval Arabic: Studies on Al-Khalīl Ibn Ahmad, pg. 102. Ed. Karin C. Ryding. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 1998. {{ISBN|9780878406630}} Ibn Habib is one of two figures (the other being Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi) regarded as Sibawayhi's formative teachers.