Arabic Grammar and Qurʾānic Scholarship in 2nd/8th Century’s Basra: A Comparative Analysis of the Qurʾānic Material Found in the Kitāb Sībawayhi and in al-ʾAḫfaš al-ʾAwsaṭ’s Maʿānī al-Qurʾān

The paper deals with the issues of the historical existence of the grammatical schools of Basra and Kufa, of the relationship between Sībawayhi and his alleged most outstanding pupil, ʾAḫfaš al-ʾAwsaṭ, and of the reputation of Sībawayhi as a grammatical authority in 2nd/8th and early 3rd/9th centuries. In the first part (section 2) evidence from biographical, historiographical, and literary sources demonstrates that the reputation of Sībawayhi was considerable, if not properly during his life, at least starting from the very first years after his early death, and that ʾAḫfaš was perceived as the heir and successor of Sībawayhi’s teaching at the very least already at the beginnings of 3rd/9th century. In the second part (sections 3 and 4) a comparative study of the Qurʾānic quotations found in Sībawayhi’s Kitāb and in ʾAḫfaš’ Maʿānī al-Qurʾān shows, on a textual basis, that both authors express a common scholarship that can only be explained by admitting the existence, in 2nd/8th century’s Basra, of a scholarly circle of people concerned with the way of speech (naḥwiyyūn), if not properly a grammatical school, of which both Sībawayhi and ʾAḫfaš were obviously part.