# Al-Asmaʿi

Al-Asmaʿi (أبو سعيد عبد الملك ابن قريب الأصمعي, ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Qurayb al-Aṣmaʿī ; c. 740–828/833), or Asmai was an Arab philologist and one of three leading Arabic grammarians of the Basra school. At the court of the Abbasid caliph, Hārūn al-Rashīd, as polymath and prolific author on philology, poetry, genealogy, and natural science, he pioneered zoology studies in animal-human anatomical science. He compiled an important poetry anthology, the Asma'iyyat, and was credited with composing an epic on the life of Antarah ibn Shaddad. A protégé of Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi and Abu 'Amr ibn al-'Ala', he was a contemporary and rival of Abū ʿUbaidah and Sibawayhi also of the Basran school.
Ibn Isḥaq al-Nadīm's c.10th biography of al-Aṣma’ī follows the “isnad” narrative or ‘chain-of-transmission’ tradition. Al-Nadīm reports Abū ‘Abd Allāh ibn Muqlah's written report of Tha’lab's report, giving Al-Aṣma’ī‘s full name as ’’‘Abd al-Malik ibn Qurayb ibn ‘Abd al-Malik ibn ‘Ali ibn Aṣma’ī ibn Muẓahhir ibn ‘Amr ibn ‘Abd Allah al-Bāhilī.’’’
The c.13th biographer Ibn Khallikān calls al-Aṣmaʿī “a complete master of the Arabic language,” and “the most eminent of all transmitters of the oral history and rare expressions of the language.”. His account includes collected anecdotes of numerous adventures.

## Biography

His father was Qurayb Abū Bakr from ‘Āṣim and his son was Sa’īd. He belonged to the family of the poet Abū ‘Uyaynah al-Muhallabī. Al-Aṣma’ī was descended from Adnān and the tribe of Bahila. Growing up studying in Basra, he spent all of his wealth on seeking knowledge. A greengrocer at the end of his alley would chide him to just get a job and give up his books, so he set out very early and returned late to avoid him. Later, the governor of Basra brought him to the notice of the caliph, Harun al-Rashid, who made him tutor to his sons, Al-Amin and Al-Ma'mun. It was said Al-Rashid was an insomniac, and that he once held an all-night discussion with al-Asmaʿi on pre-Islamic and early Arabic poetry. Al-Aṣma’ī was popular with the influential Barmakid viziers and acquired wealth as a property owner in Basra. Some of his protégés attained high rank as literary men. Among his students was the noted musician Ishaq al-Mawsili. After finishing the education of al-Rashid's children, he asked the caliph to order the people of Basra to all greet him on his return and honor him after that. For three days the city greeted him until he met the greengrocer again and hired him as a wakeel.
His ambitious aim to catalogue the complete Arabic language in its purest form, led to a period he spent roaming with desert Bedouin tribes, observing and recording their speech patterns.

## Rivalry between Al-Aṣma’ī and Abū ‘Ubaida

His great critic Abū ʿUbaida was a member of the Shu'ubiyya movement, a chiefly Persian cultural movement. Al-Aṣma’ī, as an Arab nationalist and champion of the Arabic language, rejected foreign linguistic and literary influences.
Al-Nadīm cites a report of Abū ‘Ubaida that al-Aṣma’ī claimed his father travelled on a horse of Salm ibn Qutaybah. Abū ‘Ubaida had exclaimed,
    “Praise be to Allāh and thanks to Allāh, for Allāh is greater [than His creatures]. One boasting of what he does not own is like a person wearing a false robe and, by Allāh the father of al-Aṣma’ī never owned any animal other than the one inside of his robe!"
Ubaida’s reference here to al-Asma’ī’s father seems to relate to the story given by Khallikān about al-Asma’ī’s grandfather, Alī ibn Asmā, who had lost his fingers in punishment for theft.
A corollary to 'Ubaida’s anecdote is related by Khallikān, that once al-Faḍl Ibn Rabī, the vizier to caliph al-Rashid, had brought forth his horse and asked both Al-Aṣma’ī and Abū 'Ubaida (who had written extensively on the horse) to identify each part of its anatomy. Abū 'Ubaida excused himself from the challenge, saying that he was an expert on Bedouin culture not a farrier; When al-Aṣma’ī then grabbed the horse by the mane, named each part of its body while, at the same time, reciting the Bedouin verses that authenticated each term as proper to the Arabic lexicon, Al-Faḍl had rewarded him the horse. Whenever after this, Aṣma’ī visited Ubaida he rode his horse. Al-Aṣma’ī, was a perennial bachelor and when Yahya, a Barmakid vizier of the caliph, presented him with the gift of a slave girl, the girl was so repulsed by Al-Aṣma’ī's appearance, Yahya bought her back.
Shaykh Abū Sa’īd reported that Abū al-‘Abbas al-Mubarrad had said al-Aṣma’ī and Abū ‘Ubaida were equal in poetry and rhetoric, but where Abū ‘Ubaida excelled in genealogy, al-Aṣma’ī excelled in grammar – “al-Aṣma’ī, [like] a nightingale [would] charm them with his melodies”
Al-Aṣma’ī died, aged 88 years in Baṣra, ca. 213/828 - 217/832, in the company of the blind poet and satirist Abū al-‘Aynā'. His funeral prayers were said by his nephew and poet ‘Abd al-Raḥmān: "To Allāh we belong and to Him we return."

### Works

Al-Aṣma’ī's magnum opus Asma'iyyat, is a unique primary source of early Arabic poetry and was collected and republished in the modern era, by the German orientalist Wilhelm Ahlwardt. Al-Sayyid Muʻaẓẓam Ḥusain's English translation of selected poems taken from both the Aṣma’īyyat and Mufaddaliyyat- the larger important source of pre-Islamic Arabic poetry- is available online. Most other existing collections were compiled by al-Aṣma’ī's students based on the principles he taught.
One of Al-Aṣma’ī's most famous works is the 9th century poem Sawt Safir al-Bulbul, made to challenge the Abbasid caliph. However, historians still argue about whether he was the poet or not.
Of al-Aṣma’ī's prose works listed in the Fihrist about half a dozen are extant. These include the Book of Distinction, the Book of the Wild Animals, the Book of the Horse, and the Book of the Sheep, and Fuḥūlat al-Shu‘arā a pioneering work of Arabic literary criticism.
* Disposition of Man or Humanity (كتاب خلق الانسان) - Kitab Khalaq al-Insan
* Categories (كتاب الاجناس)
* Al-Anwā’ (كتاب الانواء) – “Influence of the stars on the weather”
* Marking with the Hamzah) (كتاب الهمز)
* Short and Long (كتاب المقصور والممدود)
* Distinction, or of Rare Animals (كتاب الفرق) - Kitab al-Farq
* Eternal Attributes [of God] (كتاب الصفات)
* Gates (كتاب الابواب) or Merit (كتاب الاثواب)
* Al-Maysir and al-Qidāḥ (كتاب الميسى والقداح)
* Disposition of the Horse (كتاب خلق الفرس)
* Horses (كتاب الخيل) - Kitāb al-Khail
* The Camel (كتاب الابل) - Kitāb al-Ibil
* Sheep (كتاب الشاء) - Kitāb al-Shā
* Tents and Houses (كتاب الاهبية والبيوت)
* Wild Beasts (كتاب الوحوش) - Kitab al-Wuhush
* Times (كتاب الاوقات)
* Fa‘ala wa-Af‘ala [gram.]) (كتاب فعل وافعل)
* Proverbs (كتاب الامثال)
* Antonyms (كتاب الاضداد)
* Pronunciations/Dialects (كتاب الالفاظ)
* Weapons (كتاب السلاح)
* Languages/Vernaculars (كتاب اللغات)
* Etymology (كتاب الاشتقاق)
* Rare Words (كتاب النوادر)
* Origins of Words (كتاب اصول الكلام)
* Change and Substitution [gram.] (كتاب القلب والابدال)
* The Arabian Peninsula (كتاب جزيرة العرب)
* The Utterance/Pail) (كتاب الدلو)
* Migration (كتاب الرحل)
* The Meaning of Poetry (كتاب معانى الشعر)
* Infinitive/Verbal Noun (كتاب مصادر)
* The Six Poems (كتاب القسائد الست)
* Rajaz Poems (كتاب الاراجيز)
* Date Palm/Creed (كتاب النحلة)
* Plants and Trees (كتاب النبات والشجر)
* The Land Tax (كتاب الخراج)
* Synonyms (كتاب ما اتفق لفظه واختلف معناه)
* The Strange in the Ḥadīth (كتاب غريب الحديث نحو ماثتين ورقة رايتة بخط السكرى)
* The Saddle, Bridle, Halter and Horse Shoe (كتاب السرج والنجام * والشوى والنعال)
* The Strange in the Ḥadīth-Uncultured Words (كتاب غريب الحديث والكلام الوحشى)
* Rare Forms of the Arabians/Inflections/Declensions (كتاب نوادر الاعراب)
* Waters of the Arabs (كتاب مياة العرب)
* Genealogy (كتاب النسب)
* Vocal Sounds (كتاب الاصوات)
* Masculine and Feminine (كتاب المذكر والمؤنث)
* The Seasons كتاب المواسم

## Contribution to Early Arabic Literature

Al-Aṣma’ī was among a group of scholars who edited and recited the Pre-lslāmic and Islāmic poets of the Arab tribes up to the era of the Banū al-‘Abbās
He memorised thousands of verses of rajaz poetry and edited a substantial portion of the canon of Arab poets, but produced little poetry of his own. He met criticism for neglecting the ‘rare forms’ (nawādir - نوادر) and lack of care in his abridgments.

### List of Edited Poets

* Al-Nābighah al-Dhubyānī (whom he also abridged)
* Al-Ḥuṭay’ah
* Al-Nābighah al-Ja‘dī
* Labīd ibn Rabī‘ah al-‘Āmirī
* Tamīm ibn Ubayy ibn Muqbil
* Durayd ibn al-Ṣimmah
* Muhalhil ibn Rabī‘ah
* Al-A‘shā al-Kabīr, Maymūn ibn Qays, Abū Baṣīr:
* A‘shā Bāhilah ‘Amir ibn al-Ḥārith
* Mutammim ibn Nuwayrah
* Bishr ibn Abī Khāzim
* Al-Zibraqān ibn Badr al-Tamīmī
* Al-Mutalammis Jarīr ibn ‘Abd al-Masīḥ
* Ḥumayd ibn Thawr al-Rājiz
* Ḥumayd al-Arqaṭ
* Suhaym ibn Wathīl al-Riyāḥī
* Urwah ibn al-Ward
* ‘Amr ibn Sha’s
* Al-Namir ibn Tawlab
* Ubayd Allāh ibn Qays al-Ruqayyāt
* Muḍarras ibn Rib‘ī
* Abū Ḥayyah al-Numayrī
* Al-Kumayt ibn Ma‘rūf
* Al-‘Ajjāj al-Rājaz, Abū Shāthā’ ‘Abd Allāh ibn Ru’bah.. For his son, see Ru’bah.
* Ru’bah ibn al-‘Ajjāj, called Abū Muḥammad Ru’bah ibn ‘Abd Allāh, was a contemporary of al-Aṣma’ī whose poetry al-Aṣma’ī recited.
* sawtu safeere al-bulbuli
* Jarīr ibn ‘Aṭīyah al-Aṣma’ī was among group of editors who included Abū ‘Amr [al-Shaybānī], and Ibn al-Sikkīt.