Pioneers of Arabic Linguistic Studies

Chapter Summary

This chapter discusses the issue of the origin and originality of Arabic linguistics from the perspective of its practitioners rather than the contents of their works. Reports from the literary genre of awāʾil - describing inventors and inventions - that have been traditionally ascribed to the Arabic linguists from the first four centuries of Islam, provides insight into how the linguistic tradition itself marked the highlights of its development. The chapter presents five tables. The table 1 displays awāʾil that deal directly with linguistic inventions as such, table 2 includes linguistic awāʾil which the author label "indirect" because they narrate introducing something (geographic, personal) rather than tell about original inventions related to content, table 3 shows the non-linguistic awāʾil,table 4 presents the linguistic awāʾil in chronological order and Table 5 provides an overview of the people behind the awāʾil, the names of "the pioneers of Arabic linguistics" - our foremost topic.

Keywords:Arabic linguistics; Islam