Tarikh (al-Tabari) 2054
The caliphate of ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib
[وَضْعُهُ ؓ لِأُسُسِ النَّحْوِ وَقَالَ أَبُو الْقَاسِمِ الزَّجَّاجِيُّ فِي «أَمَالِيهِ»: عَنْ أَبِي الْأَسْوَدِ الدُّؤَلِيِّ أَوْ قَالَ: عَنْ جَدِّي أَبِي الْأَسْوَدِ - عَنْ أَبِيهِ، قَالَ: (دَخَلْتُ عَلَى أَمِيرِ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ عَلِيِّ بْنِ أَبِي طَالِبٍ ؓ، فَرَأَيْتُهُ مُطْرِقًا مُفَكِّرًا، فَقُلْتُ: فِيمَ تُفَكِّرُ يَا أَمِيرَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ؟! قَالَ: إِنِّي سَمِعْتُ بِبَلَدِكُمْ هَذَا لَحْنًا، فَأَرَدْتُ أَنْ أَصْنَعَ كِتَابًا فِي أُصُولِ الْعَرَبِيَّةِ، فَقُلْتُ: إِنْ فَعَلْتَ هَذَا.. أَحْيَيْتَنَا وَبَقِيَتْ فِينَا هَذِهِ اللُّغَةُ. ثُمَّ أَتَيْتُهُ بَعْدَ ثَلَاثٍ، فَأَلْقَى إِلَيَّ صَحِيفَةً فِيهَا: بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيمِ الْكَلَامُ كُلُّهُ: اسْمٌ وَفِعْلٌ وَحَرْفٌ، فَالِاسْمُ: مَا أَنْبَأَ عَنِ الْمُسَمَّى، وَالْفِعْلُ: مَا أَنْبَأَ عَنْ حَرَكَةِ الْمُسَمَّى، وَالْحَرْفُ: مَا أَنْبَأَ عَنْ مَعْنًى لَيْسَ بِاسْمٍ وَلَا فِعْلٍ. ثُمَّ قَالَ لِي: تَتَبَّعْهُ وَزِدْ فِيهِ مَا وَقَعَ لَكَ، وَاعْلَمْ يَا أَبَا الْأَسْوَدِ: أَنَّ الْأَشْيَاءَ ثَلَاثَةٌ: ظَاهِرٌ، وَمُضْمَرٌ، وَشَيْءٌ لَيْسَ بِظَاهِرٍ وَلَا مُضْمَرٌ، وَإِنَّمَا يَتَفَاضَلُ الْعُلَمَاءُ فِي مَعْرِفَةِ مَا لَيْسَ بِظَاهِرٍ، وَلَا مُضْمَرٍ. قَالَ أَبُو الْأَسْوَدِ: فَجَمَعْتُ مِنْهُ أَشْيَاءَ وَعَرَضْتُهَا عَلَيْهِ، فَكَانَ مِنْ ذَلِكَ حُرُوفُ النَّصْبِ، فَذَكَرْتُ مِنْهَا: إِنَّ وَأَنَّ وَلَيْتَ وَلَعَلَّ وَكَأَنَّ، وَلَمْ أَذْكُرْ لَكِنَّ، فَقَالَ لِي: لِمَ تَرَكْتَهَا؟ فَقُلْتُ: لَمْ أَحْسَبْهَا مِنْهَا، فَقَالَ: بَلْ هِيَ مِنْهَا، فَزِدْهَا فِيهَا).
Translation
✧ [His laying the foundations of grammar Abū al-Qāsim al-Zajjājī said in his “Amālī”: On the authority of Abū al-Aswad al-Duʾalī—or he said: On the authority of my grandfather Abū al-Aswad—from his father, who said: (I entered upon the Commander of the Faithful ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib ؓ and found him with his head lowered, deep in thought. I said, “What are you thinking about, O Commander of the Faithful?” He said, “I have heard in this city of yours a solecism, so I want to compose a book on the principles of Arabic.” I said, “If you do this, you will revive us, and this language will remain among us.” Then I came to him after three days, and he threw to me a page containing: In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful. All speech is: noun, verb, and particle. The noun is that which indicates the named thing; the verb is that which indicates the movement of the named thing; and the particle is that which indicates a meaning that is neither noun nor verb. Then he said to me, “Follow it up and add to it what occurs to you. And know, O Abū al-Aswad, that things are three: explicit, implicit, and something neither explicit nor implicit. The scholars only excel one another in knowing that which is neither explicit nor implicit.” Abū al-Aswad said: So I gathered things from it and presented them to him. Among that were the particles of naṣb. I mentioned among them: inna, anna, layta, laʿalla, and kaʾanna, but I did not mention lākinna. He said to me, “Why did you omit it?” I said, “I did not reckon it among them.” He said, “Rather, it is among them, so add it to them.”)
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