You have no items in your shopping cart.
Close
Search
Filters

The Banisher of Madness

An Interpretation of Language as the Vessel of All Truths Sacred and Profane in the Teachings of Ibn al-Sarrāj of Baghdad


Born in the late 9th century Baghdad, the ʿAbbāsid grammarian ‘Abū Bakr Muḥammad b. Saḥl Ibn al-Sarrāj came to be remembered as the Banisher of Madness and the virtuous scholar whose life has exemplified the culture of Arabs in its fullness. Lauded as the arch-enemy of Hellenistic sciences and, at the same time, as the main source of transmission of Aristotelian logic from the 10th century philosophers to the grammarians of Baghdad; Ibn al-Sarrāj nonetheless remains a shadowy figure in the history of Arabic grammar studies up until today. This book addresses this issue by examining the problematic relationship between language, logic and grammar in Ibn al-Sarrāj’s teachings.
Publisher: Gorgias Press LLC
SKU (ISBN): 978-1-4632-4162-9
  • *
Publication Status: In Print
Publication Date: Feb 26,2021
Interior Color: Black
Trim Size: 6 x 9
Page Count: 265
Languages: English
ISBN: 978-1-4632-4162-9
$153.00
Your price: $91.80
Ship to
*
*
Shipping Method
Name
Estimated Delivery
Price
No shipping options
Born in the late 9th century Baghdad, the ʿAbbāsid grammarian ‘Abū Bakr Muḥammad b. Saḥl Ibn al-Sarrāj (d. 929), came to be remembered as the Banisher of Madness and the virtuous scholar whose life has exemplified the culture of Arabs in its fullness. Lauded as the arch-enemy of Hellenistic sciences and, at the same time, as the main source of transmission of Aristotelian logic from the 10th century philosophers to the grammarians of Baghdad; Ibn al-Sarrāj nonetheless remains a shadowy figure in the history of Arabic grammar studies up until today. This book addresses this issue by examining the problematic relationship between language, logic and grammar in Ibn al-Sarrāj’s teachings. In addition, the present study offers an insight into the conflict between the medieval grammarians and logicians over the traditionally-established authority of ʿAbbāsid grammarians to analyse the intelligible realm and nature of a human soul. In order to come to terms with the controversial notion of grammarians as the guardians of the divine wisdom, the present study pivots on one of its greatest embodiment: Ibn al-Sarrāj’s concept of the Wisdom of Arabs.
Born in the late 9th century Baghdad, the ʿAbbāsid grammarian ‘Abū Bakr Muḥammad b. Saḥl Ibn al-Sarrāj (d. 929), came to be remembered as the Banisher of Madness and the virtuous scholar whose life has exemplified the culture of Arabs in its fullness. Lauded as the arch-enemy of Hellenistic sciences and, at the same time, as the main source of transmission of Aristotelian logic from the 10th century philosophers to the grammarians of Baghdad; Ibn al-Sarrāj nonetheless remains a shadowy figure in the history of Arabic grammar studies up until today. This book addresses this issue by examining the problematic relationship between language, logic and grammar in Ibn al-Sarrāj’s teachings. In addition, the present study offers an insight into the conflict between the medieval grammarians and logicians over the traditionally-established authority of ʿAbbāsid grammarians to analyse the intelligible realm and nature of a human soul. In order to come to terms with the controversial notion of grammarians as the guardians of the divine wisdom, the present study pivots on one of its greatest embodiment: Ibn al-Sarrāj’s concept of the Wisdom of Arabs.
Write your own review
  • Only registered users can write reviews
*
*
Bad
Excellent
*
*
*
*
ContributorBiography

DunjaRašić

Dunja Rašić (University of Belgrade), is a specialist in the intellectual and social history of the early and classical periods of Islam. Her primary areas of interest are Islamic philosophy, Sufism and philosophy of language.

Acknowledgments .......................................................................... vii
Transcription and Transliteration System ....................................... ix
Symbols and Abbreviations ............................................................. xi
Figures, Graphs and Tables ............................................................ xiii
Figures ................................................................................... xiii
Graphs .................................................................................... xv
Tables .................................................................................... xvi


Chapter 1. The Mirror and the Wisdom: Ibn al-Sarrāj and the Pre-
Modern Arabic Language Ideologies ......................................... 1
1.1. Physiognomy of the Age: Frameworks of Culture and
Identity ............................................................................. 8
1.2. The City of Peace and the Heralds of Destruction ............ 20
1.3. Setting the Stage: Ibn al-Sarrāj and the Peripatetic School
of Baghdad ...................................................................... 27
1.4. Ibn al-Sarrāj and His Times: The Portrait of a Grammarian
and the Portrait of an Empire .......................................... 40
1.5. The Writings of Ibn al-Sarrāj: a Description of Sources .... 62
MS Rabat #326........................................................................ 64
MS Qarawiyyin #1774 ............................................................. 66
MS Tehran #3990 ................................................................... 66
MS London #2808 .................................................................. 68
MS Istanbul #1077 .................................................................. 70
Collection 100/q ...................................................................... 71
MS #21028–2 ........................................................................... 74
MS Ankara 547/3 ..................................................................... 75

Chapter 2. The Interpretation of Silence: Greek Elements in the
Foundations of Arabic Grammar ........................................... 87
2.1. Language Corruption and its Sources ............................ 108
2.2. Mending the corruption: the notion of maʿnā and the
Foundations of Arabic Grammar ................................... 115
2.3. Ibn Sarrāj, the Banisher of Madness ............................... 127


Chapter 3. The Language of God and the Speech of Men: Ibn Al-
Sarrāj and the Wisdom (Re)acquired ..................................... 157


Chapter 4. The Legacy We Leave Behind: The Banisher of Madness
and the Founder of Foundations ............................................. 171
4.1. The Precious Rosary ........................................................ 174
4.2. The Outcome: The Legacy We Leave Behind ................. 195


Appendix 1. The Quoted Excerpts from the Grammar Treatises of
Ibn al-Sarrāj............................................................................ 201
Appendix 2. His Was the Greatest Poetry among the Grammarians:
The Surviving Verses of Ibn al-Sarrāj ..................................... 207
Bibliography ................................................................................. 209
Primary Sources .................................................................... 209
Secondary Literature ............................................................. 220
Index .............................................................................................. 241

Customers who bought this item also bought
Picture of The Shi'i Past in the Great Book of the Songs

The Shi'i Past in the Great Book of the Songs

The Kitāb al-Aghānī (the Book of the Songs) stands as one of the most important extant sources for Arabic literature and Islamic history. Compiled during the first half of the tenth century, the Kitāb al-Aghānī emerges from a pivotal period in the formation of Islamic sectarian identities, a subject of keen and ongoing scholarly debate that is fundamental to our understanding of the later development of Shīʿī Islam. The present study addresses the question of whether or not its compiler, Abū al-Faraj al-Iṣfahānī’s, sectarian leanings can be discerned from the Kitāb al-Aghānī through an analysis based primarily on redaction criticism. By examining the compiler’s editorial interventions, this book argues that al-Iṣfahānī, to some extent at least, presents past people and events central to the Shīʿī worldview in accordance with his sectarian affiliation.
$156.00 $93.60
Picture of The Arabs from Alexander the Great until the Islamic Conquests

The Arabs from Alexander the Great until the Islamic Conquests

This is not a conventional history book. It is rather a study of the sociology of historical writing about a period that, although quite distant in time (330 B.C. to A.D. 670), still influences political discourse about the Arab world, and especially the relationship between the West and the Middle East. This book focuses on the riddle of the disappearance of the Arabs from history before Islam, their sudden appearance behind the banners of the Prophet, and the powerful and traumatic effect this emergence into world history has had on the relationship between the Arabs and the West.
$62.50
Picture of Jacob of Sarug's Homily on Samson

Jacob of Sarug's Homily on Samson

Recognized as a saint by both Chalcedonian and non-Chalcedonian Christians alike, Jacob of Sarug (d. 521) produced many narrative poems that have rarely been translated into English. Of his reported 760 metrical homilies, only about half survive. Part of a series of fascicles containing the bilingual Syriac-English editions of Saint Jacob of Sarug’s homilies, this volume contains his homily on Samson. The Syriac text is fully vocalized, and the translation is annotated with a commentary and biblical references. The volume is one of the fascicles of Gorgias Press’s Complete Homilies of Saint Jacob of Sarug, which, when complete, will contain all of Jacob’s surviving sermons.
$38.00 $22.80
Picture of Intellectual Currents and the Practice of Engagement

Intellectual Currents and the Practice of Engagement

The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries saw a great increase in the use of the printed word and the press by non-European actors to express and disseminate ideas and to participate in the intellectual life of both their home societies and a wider international context. This book examines the French-language writings of Ottoman and Algerian writers between 1890 and 1914.
$106.00