8vo. [20 introduction], 245 pp., [1], Arabic text, modern hard boards, front endpaper torn at inner margin, scattered foxing, heavy on title and last leaf, few pencil annotations in margins, wormhole traces on lower inner margin of first few leaves, not affecting text, Matba’at al-Mu’ayyid, Cairo, 1328 A. H. / 1910.

Synopsis

Ahmad Abu al-Husain bin Faris bin Habib was born near Qazwin in 920. He was a lexicographer and linguist. He was regarded as the “Father of Linguistics” and was also a teacher. To his illustrious pupil, al-Sahib Ismail b. ‘Abbad, prime minister of the Buwahid ruler Fakhr al-Dawlah (1334-49), he dedicated the present work which he named after him “Al-Sabib” for his library. It is not a long work, but in it, the author sought to explain the basic principles of all aspects of philological study. It is therefore an encyclopedia of Arabic lexicography, and as such a forerunner, and obviously a major source for al-Suyuti’s more celebrated “Muzhir”.
Ibn Fari’s use of the word “Fiqh” in connection with language is interesting and was taken up in the following century by al-Tha’alibi in his “Fiqh al-Lugha”.