النَّقْدُ اللُّغَوِيُّ عِنْدَ الرُّمَّانِيِّ (ت٣٨٤هـ) فِي شَرْحِهِ كِتَابَ سِيبَوَيْهِ

Linguistic Criticism of Al-Rumani (d. 384 AH) in his Explanation of the Book of Sibawayh

I found it full of linguistic criticism that represented a critical phenomenon that deserves to be stopped at and its features clarified, because it contains linguistic material that includes phonetics, morphology and syntax. I stopped at the details of this criticism, mentioning and highlighting its tools and shedding light on an important aspect of the efforts of our unique scholars, especially the great scholar Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Isa al-Rummani. His criticisms were clear, not biased towards the opinion of Sibawayh or Yunus or others from the owners of the Basra school, as they are all equal in his view and the owner of the correct analogy is the most correct. We see Ibn al-Sarraj at one time as the most correct in his opinion, which he disagrees with Abu Amr ibn Al-Ala’, and al-Mazini’s opinion may be preferred over Sibawayh’s. These criticisms presented by al-Rummani indicate a purely intellectual personality, which enabled him to attain a position among prominent scholars.
Al-Rummani used some critical terms, which I have termed direct critical terms, and some that he used to be understood as indirect criticism.
According to the researcher’s opinion:
What is meant by direct critical terms is terms that demonstrate clarity and frankness in presenting criticism without allusion or allusion.
Implicit critical terminology: These are the methods presented by the critic, relying on allusion and suggestion rather than explicitness. He uses symbolic methods or hidden comparisons to arrive at his critique.
This study consists of three chapters, preceded by an introduction and accompanied by a conclusion and results.
The introduction includes the title (Criticism and the Critic), and it is divided into three axes: The first: criticism in its linguistic and technical sense, and the linguistic categories within it, and then the definition of linguistic criticism. The second axis (The Critic): in which I presented Al-Rummani’s life, name, lineage, birth, and death, as well as his teachers, students, and most famous contemporaries, and the opinions of scholars regarding him. The third axis discussed his critical approach and the terminology he used in explaining the book. The chapters are divided according to the levels of linguistic study, beginning with the phonological level, followed by morphology and syntax. I did not devote a separate chapter to the semantic level, as semantics is prevalent throughout all the chapters and topics of the research. I divided each chapter into two topics, based on the types of criticism I mentioned. The first chapter, entitled “Phonetic Criticism,” addressed the most important phonetic issues, such as assimilation, hamza, imala, and others, to examine various forms of this criticism, which was sometimes approved by the commentator, sometimes rejected, and sometimes remained silent without commenting on some Basran or Kufic opinions. This was not only in phonetic issues, but also in morphological and syntactic issues. The second chapter, “Morphological Criticism,” was divided based on the structure of the word. It included the most important morphological phenomena mentioned in the commentary, including broken plurals, derivatives, and infinitives, among others. The third chapter, “Grammatical Criticism,” included the most famous and frequently discussed grammatical issues among scholars, and an explanation of al-Rummani’s opinion on these issues. The conclusion includes the most important findings of the research. The research sources and references were diverse, as I drew on books on phonetics, morphology, and syntax. This diversity provided the researcher with useful insights and enriched the research with richness and breadth. I would like to point out that I have included an appendix at the end of the research, which includes a complete list of the critical issues presented by al-Rummani in his commentary on the book, arranged in the order in which they appear in the commentary. I would like to extend my deepest thanks and gratitude to my supervisor, Dr.