Approvals of Abu al-Baqa’ al-Kabari (d. 616 AH) for the Kufan and Basran Schools

Abstract

The Kufan school established its foundations based on three principles: expanding in narration, opening the doors to its sources (narratives of poetry, readings, and classical Arabic), and broadening analogy through establishing new rules and extending them with innovative opinions. The Kufans were closer to sound linguistic understanding and more accurate in attaining the truth. Abu al-Baqa’ al-Kabari leaned toward the Kufan inclination, as is clearly evident from his approvals. Just as Ibn al-Anbari supported the Basran school, al-Kabari strengthened the Kufan school، As for the Baghdadi school of grammar, it represents a modern grammatical trend based on reviewing the opinions of prominent grammarians of the past and combining their views. They did not adopt a single opinion exclusively, and among those grammarians were those who studied under both the Basran and Kufan schools, such as al-Mubarrad and Thaʿlab. Then the scholars in Baghdad began to emerge, such as al-Zajjāj, Abū al-Barakāt al-Anbārī, Abū al-Baqāʾ al-ʿUkbarī, al-Rāḍī al-Astarābādī, and some later scholars like Abū al-Baqāʾ included within the Baghdadi school, who came from the town of ʿUkbarā near Baghdad, and among them were Abū ʿAlī al-Fārisī and Ibn Jinnī

Abu al-Baqa’ al-Akbari was like his contemporary grammarians, whether they were from the Basra school, the Kufa school, or the Baghdad school, and also from those who were his contemporaries. Some writers described him by saying, “Abu al-Baqa’ is the student of his student,” meaning that he gives his students his knowledge and takes from them.