Prohibited Constructions in Ibn Malik Al-Andalusi's Sharḥ al-Kafiya al-Shafiya: A Grammatical Study with Focus on the Genitive Case

Abstract

Arabic scholars have looked into its styles and structures, and criticized it for what the Arabic language is free of errors. Among these was the Imam of Arabic, Ibn Malik Al-Andalusi (d. 672 AH), the owner of the innate talent who composed Arabic grammar in both prose and poetry. In his book Sharh al-Kafiya al-Shafiyya, he provided a comprehensive explanation of the rules of Arabic and criticized its structures, prohibiting, correcting, anomaly, and rarity. He presented many of the opinions of the great grammarians who preceded him, introducing one of the most important works in the Arabic library that is referred to by specialists and others in an easy, simplified style. Among the structures that Ibn Malik ruled as prohibited or impermissible are those in the chapter of majrurāt (the majrur with a preposition and the majrur with an addition). He ruled as impermissible once, and another time as prohibited, or anomalous, or other terms that convey the meaning of prohibition. In this research, I presented a picture of the structures that Ibn Malik prohibited in the genitives with prepositions, and in addition, presenting the structure prohibited by Ibn Malik according to his words in Al-Kafiya Al-Shafiyya, with an explanation of the reason for his prohibition of this structure, indicating the correct structure according to his grammatical rule, then I presented the opinions of grammarians on this issue through their writings or others, discussing and weighing between these opinions, reconciling between them, confirming what the research saw as correct based on the extent of the semantic benefit that came through those grammatical texts, and what is heard from the speech of eloquent Arabs. I have reached an important conclusion, which is that every word in the Arabic language, whether poetry or prose, must have a benefit and meaning. If there is no benefit, then the structure is not valid. Grammarians also built the rules of Arabic on what is heard from the speech of eloquent Arabs, and that what is deviant from that cannot be used as a standard by scholars of the Arabic language. This was the opinion of most grammarians, even those who disagreed with some structures and permitted them. Ibn Malik also had various methods for preventing structure, which means that it is permissible to have various different meanings for one thing. Send feedback Side panels History Saved.