| Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Sarī (Surrī) al-Zajjāj | |
| Other Names: | ‘The Glassman’ |
| Death Place: | Baghdad |
| Occupation: | Grammarian |
| Period: | caliph al-Mu’taḍid |
| School Tradition: | School of Baṣrah |
| Era: | Abbāsid |
| Main Interests: | philology, theology, philosophy, linguistics, natural science |
| Notable Works: | Kitāb mā fassarahu min jāmi‘ an-nuṭq (Arabic: كتاب ما فسّرة من جامع النطق); ‘Exposition of the "Compendium of Speech"’ |
| Birth Date: | c. 842 |
Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Sarī al-Zajjāj was a grammarian of Basrah, a scholar of philology and theology and a favourite at the Abbāsid court. He died in 922 at Baghdād, the capital city in his time.
Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad al-Sarī (Surrī) al-Zajjāj had been a glass-grinder – al-Zajjāj means ‘the glassman’ - before abandoning this trade to study philology under the two leading grammarians, al-Mubarrad of the Baṣran school and Tha'lab of the Kufan school. As top student and class representative he advised al-Mubarrad. He studied “Al-Kitāb” of Sībawayh with the Baṣrah grammarian Abū Fahd.
Al-Zajjāj entered the Abbāsid court, first as tutor to al-Qāsim ibn ‘Ubayd Allāh, son of the vizier ‘Ubayd Allāh ibn Sulaymān ibn Wahb’s and later, as tutor to the sons of the caliph al-Mu‘taḍid.
On his succession to the vizierate, Caliph al-Mu’taḍid ordered vizier al-Qāsim to commission an exposition of the Compendium of Speech by Maḥbarah al-Nadīm. Both Tha’lab and Al-Mubarrad declined the project for lack of knowledge and old age respectively. Al-Mubarrad proposed his friend and relative novice al-Zajjāj, who was commissioned to work on just two sections as a trial of his abilities. In doing his research he consulted books on language by Tha‘lab, al-Sukkarī, et al. He was assisted by al-Tirmidhī the Younger, as his amanuensis. The bound two-section commentary greatly impressed Caliph al-Mu’taḍid and al-Zajjāj was given the work to complete the commentary for the payment of three hundred gold dīnār. The finished manuscript was kept in al-Mu’taḍid's royal library, and the issuing of any copies to other libraries was prohibited.
Winning the caliph's favour, he received a royal pension of three hundred gold dīnār from three official roles as court companion, jurist and scholar.
Among al-Zajjāj's pupils were the grammarian Abū Alī al-Fārisī and Abū ‘l-Qāsim Abd ar-Raḥmān, author of the Jumal fi ‘n-Nawhi, Ibn al-Sarrāj and ‘Alī al-Marāghī the rival of Abu al-‘Abbās Tha’lab.-->
Al-Zajjāj had a dispute with al-Khayyāṭ, a grammarian-theologian of Samarqand, whom he met in Baghdād.
Al-Zajjāj died at Baghdād on 13 October 922 [Friday, 18th, or 19th, [[Jumada al-Thani|Jumada al-Akhirah]] 310 AH] - other sources give 924 and 928 [311 and 316 AH.], aged over eighty.
Abū Alī al-Fārisī wrote a treatise in refutation of al-Zajjāj, titled Kitāb al-masā’il al-maslahat yurwiha ‘an az-Zajjāj wa-tu’raf bi-al-Aghfāl (Arabic: كتاب المسائل المصلحة يرويها عن الزجاج وتعرف بالاغفال); the Aghfāl (‘Negligences’, or ‘Beneficial (Corrected) Questions’), in which he refutes al-Zajjāj in his book Maāni (Rhetoric).
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. Ibn al-Nadim. The Fihrist of al-Nadim
. Edward Pococke. Specimen historiae Arabum . London. Clarendon Press. 1806. Arabic, Latin .
. Antoine Isaac Silvestre de Sacy . Anthologie grammaticale arabe (Morceaux choisis de divers grammairiens et scholiastes arabes, with introduction and notes in French). Paris . Imprimé par autorisation du Roi, al'Imprimerie Royale . 1829. Arabic, French .
. Al-Suyuti . Bughyat al-Wu'āt fī Ṭabaqāt al-Lughawīyīn wa-al-Nuḥāh . Cairo . Sa‘ādah Press . 1909.