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Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE

al-Askar, Ab Amad
A b A m a d al-asan b. Abdallh b. Sad a l - A s k a r (293382/90693) was a prolific
author and the leading scholar of his day in adth, lugha, and adab. A native of Askar
Mukram, in Khzistn, he studied in Basra, Baghdad, and Isfahan with traditionists such as
Abdallh b. Muammad al-Baghaw (d. 317/929) and Ibn Ab Dwd (d. 316/928, son of
the Sunan author), the philologists Ibn Durayd (d. 321/933) and Nifawayh (d. 323/935), and
the adb Ab Bakr al-l (d. 335/946). Upon his return home, Ab Amad became the
leading scholar of Khzistn. People from as far away as Isfahan took down his dictations in
the region's cities of Askar Mukram and Tustar, which had grown into cultural centers under
the Byids (Yqt, 236). His students were mostly traditionists, such as Ab Nuaym
al-Ifahn (d. 430/1038); five of them would in turn instruct the celebrated philologist
al-Khab al-Tibrz (d. 502/1109). His most famous disciple was Ab Hill al-Askar (d. c.
400/1010), who transmitted much of his teacher's knowledge in lugha and adab. Accounts
place Ab Amad in the company of the two great Byid wazrs Ibn al-Amd (d. 360/970) and
al-ib b. Abbd (d. 385/995). The latter had to travel in person to meet the reticent
scholar, while serving either Muayyid al-Dawla (r. 36673/97783) or, in 379/989, his brother
Fakhr al-Dawla (r. 37387/98397), according to two variant accounts (Yqt, 8:24855; Ibn
Khallikn, 2:834). Ab Amad was uneasy about accepting such attention.
Ab Amad's lexicographical work documents his concern about inaccurate textual
transmission, which he felt threatened scholarly standards of the time. Errors arose from
misreadings of undifferentiated Arabic allographs (tasf) and closely related graphemes
(tarf) in written sources, or sheets (uuf), and they particularly plagued learners (aaf)
who lacked the personal contact with teachers that might have acted as a corrective
(Taft, 3 and 8; Shar m yaqau, 5 and 13). Ab Amad first gathered together rare
terms and proper names from across disciplines that were prone to being misread, but then
individuals in Rayy and Isfahan asked him to instead organise the material generically.
Geared to traditionists and akhbrs, the resulting Tafat (34) thus lists a few misreadings
of the Qurnic text and then focuses on misreadings in adth, both in the text (matn,
35103) and in the names of transmitters (rijl, 105316). Excerpting from the larger work
specifically for the benefit of literati, Ab Amad then produced the Shar m yaqau fhi
l-taf wa-l-tarf (56; the author apologises for repeating himself, 12), in which he
catalogues mispronunciations by Basran and Kufan philologists, misreadings of canonised
archaic poetry (citing examples from Imru al-Qays, al-Nbigha, Zuhayr, and al-Ash, as well
as the amsa by the poet and anthologist Ab Tammm, d. 231/845 or 232/846), and of
names of poets, pre-Islamic heroes and battles, tribes, place names, and various
morphological patterns.
Ab Amad's K. al-Man f l-adab places prose and poetry on a par for the first time (his
student Ab Hill also takes this approach in his Kitb al-inatayn) and focuses on Abbsid
poets and prose writers, with chapters dedicated to Yay b. Khlid al-Barmak (d. 190/805)
and Ibn al-Mutazz (d. 296/908). It contains some innovative ideas with regard to poetic

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criticism, such as defining anat al-kalm as an independent discipline not necessarily

mastered by poets or transmitters. The bulk of the book is devoted to presenting instances of
remarkable similes and metaphors (60112) and, more generally, selections of eloquent
verse and anecdotes (akhbr) (122201). Ab Amad's picks of best verse on a theme
(ashar bayt, 1516, 203) were reused by his student Ab Hill to open the thematic
chapters on panegyric (mad) and elegy (rith) in his Dwn al-man, as were Ab
Amad's accounts of the reception of the verse of the new (mudath) poets (614).
Ab Amad's Tafl balghatay al-arab wa-l-ajam ( Assessment of the relative merits of
Arabic and Persian eloquence ) distinguishes between talent in eloquence (balgha) and in
criticism; balgha is also shown to be a social leveler that breaks down hierarchies of gender,
age, and social class. The book defines balgha in a universal way, citing Greek, Byzantine,
Ssnian, and Indian examples, even if the Arabs are deemed to be masters of it in the
greatest number (11314; for a Greek-Byzantine comparison see 1213). Except for two
Persian phrases (127), Ab Amad presents his examples of non-Arabic eloquence in Arabic
transliteration (e.g. 120, 1302), but he acknowledges the loss of beauty this process entails
(124). He mentions Persian poetry as part of a (lost) historical tradition (akhbr) and singles
out Ssnian praise poetry (mad) for discussion (128, 131). The mostly short Arabic
excerpts date from pre-Islamic times to the middle Abbsid era; they include proverbs
(amthl) in the wider sense, pithy royal edicts (tawq), and single verses, all of them
selected for exemplifying the ideal of brevity (jz) in eloquence (balgha). Despite that ideal,
however, three different quantitative relationships between wording and meaning are
allowed, depending upon the situation; when addressing a slow recipient, for instance,
redundancy may be required (1346).
Ab Amad's Akhbr al-muaffin ( Anecdotes about misreaders, perhaps another part of
the large Taf tome) and al-Zawjir wa-l-mawi ( Deterrents from immoral behaviour and
edifying sermons ) survive in manuscript, while twelve other works seem to be lost.

Beatrice Gruendler
Bibliography

BIBLIOGRAPHY
WORKS BY AB AMAD

Taft al-muaddithn, ed. Amad Abd al-Shf, Beirut 1408/1988

Shar m yaqau fhi l-taf wa-l-tarf, ed. Abd al-Azz Amad, Cairo 1383/1963

Shar m yaqau fhi l-taf wa-l-tarf, ed. al-Sayyid Muammad Ysuf and Amad Rtib al-Naffkh,
Damascus 1981

al-Man f l-adab, ed. Abd al-Salm Hrn, Kuwait 1960, repr. Cairo 1402/1982

al-Tafl bayna balghatay al-arab wa-l-ajam, in al-Tufa al-sahiyya wa-l-arfa al-shahiyya, ed. Abd
al-Salm Hrn, Istanbul 1302; ed. together with M yutamaththalu bihi min al-abyt by amd b. Nir
al-Dukhayyil, Riyadh 1418/1998 (detailed bibliography and further literature in the preface).

PRIMARY BIO-BIOGRAPHY

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Yqt, Mujam al-udab, ed. D. S. Margoliouth (Leiden and London 192331, repr. Baghdad 1964),
8:23358 [based on an epistle of the traditionist Ab hir al-Silaf (d. 576/1180) with numerous
akhbr]

al-Qift, Inbh al-ruwt, ed. Ab l-Fal Ibrhm (Cairo 136993/195073), 1:31012

Ibn Khallikn, Wafayt al-ayn, ed. Isn Abbs (Beirut 196872, repr. Beirut 1997), 2:835, no. 164

al-Suy, Bughyat al-wut f abaqt al-lughawiyyn wa-l-nut, ed. Muammad Ab l-Fal Ibrhm
(Cairo 1384/1964), 1:506, no. 1045

Ibn al-Imd, Shadhart al-dhahab f akhbr man dhahab (Cairo 13501/19312, repr. Beirut n.d.),
3:1023

Abd al-Qdir b. Umar al-Baghdd, Khiznat al-adab, ed. Aml Bad Yaqb (Beirut 1418/1998),
1:204.

SECONDARY BIO-BIBLIOGRAPHY

GALS 1:193

Musin al-Amn, Ayn al-sha (Damascus 1365/1946), 22:14054

Johann W. Fck, al-Askar, EI2

GAS 8:1812, 9:316.

Citation:

Gruendler, Beatrice. "al-Askar, Ab Amad." Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE. Edited by:

Gudrun Krmer, ; Denis Matringe, ; John Nawas and ; Everett Rowson. Brill, 2010. Brill
Online. Harvard University. 16 August 2010 <http://www.brillonline.nl/subscriber
/entry?entry=ei3_SIM-22689>
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