The Originality of Ibn Maḍāʾ’s Linguistic Ideas: Prescriptive Rules Versus Methodology inside al-Radd ʿalā al-Nuḥāt

Ibn Madāʾ represents the first scholar who overtly condemned the tradition of grammatical studies formulated in the eastern Mediterranean lands. However, his invective does not undermine the Arabic grammatical theory in its entirety but leaves themajority of its normative contents intact. Indeed, Ibn Madā ʾ attacks a series of elements representative of the method adopted by Arab grammarians in dealing with such contents : the concept of government (ʿamal), the analogical reasoning (qiyās), the concealment of linguistic elements (ʾ iḍmār), the secondary and tertiary causes (ʿ ilal ṯawānin wa-ṯawāliṯ). The present paper analyses the effective originality of his invective, comparing it to some ideas expressed by Eastern grammarians, especially those belonging to the Kufan tradition, showing the main points of analogy.