Yunus ibn Habib explained

Yunus ibn Habib
Birth Name:	Abu Abd al-Rahman Yunus ibn Habib al-Dabi
Death Date:	After 183 AH/798 AD[^1^][1]
Nationality:	Persian
Occupation:	Linguist
Known For:	Arabic language, literary criticism, poetry
Notable Works:	Kitāb maʻānī al-Qurʼān (كتاب معاني القرآن) Kitāb al-lughāt (كتاب اللغات) Kitāb al-nawādir al-kabīr (كتاب النوادر الكبير) Kitāb al-nawādir al-ṣaghīr (كتاب النوادر الصغير) Kitāb al-amthāl (كتاب الأمثال)

Yunus ibn Habib (Arabic: أبو عبد الرحمن يونس بن حبيب الضبي; died after 183 AH/798 AD)^[1] was a reputable 8th-century Persian^{[2] [3]} linguist of the Arabic language. An early literary critic and expert on poetry, Ibn Habib's criticisms of poetry were known, along with those of contemporaries such as Al-Asma'i, as a litmus test for measuring later writers' eloquence.^[4]

Ibn Habib's exact tribal last name, date of birth and age at death have been an issue of contention. Medieval historian Ibn Khallikan mentions three possible tribes that he belonged to, two possible dates of birth and two possible ages at the time of his death.^[5] He never married nor did he ever take a mistress, having devoted all of his life to either studying or teaching.^[6]

His notable teachers include: Hammad ibn Salamah from whom he took knowledge in Arabic grammar, Al-Akhfash al-Akbar and Abu 'Amr ibn al-'Ala'.^[5] His students include Sibawayh,^{[7] [8] [9] [10]} Al-Kisa'i, Yaḥyá ibn Ziyād al-Farrāʼ and Abu ʿUbaidah. Abu Ubaida once remarked that he attended the lessons of Ibn Habib every day for forty years, and every day he left with pages of notes copied from what Ibn Habib dictated from memory.^[5]

Sibawayhi, considered the father of Arabic grammar despite being Persian, quoted Ibn Habib 217 times in his famous Kitab,^{[11] [12]} Ibn Habib is one of two figures (the other being Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi) regarded as Sibawayhi's formative teachers.^[8]

Works

List of known works by Yunus ibn Habib:

• Kitāb maʻānī al-Qurʼān (كتاب معاني القرآن)
• Kitāb al-lughāt (كتاب اللغات)
• Kitāb al-nawādir al-kabīr (كتاب النوادر الكبير)
• Kitāb al-nawādir al-ṣaghīr (كتاب النوادر الصغير)
• Kitāb al-amthāl (كتاب الأمثال)

Notes and References

1. Tarif Khalidi, Arabic Historical Thought in the Classical Period, pg. 98. Cambridge Studies in Islamic Civilization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
2. Book: Pellat. prepared by a number of leading orientalists ; edited by ... H.A.R. Gibb, J.H. Kramers, E. Lévi-Provençal, J. Schacht, ... B. Lewis, Ch.. The encyclopaedia of Islam. 1960. E.J. Brill. Leiden. 9004127569. 349. New. He is presented as a mawla of several Arab tribes. A Persian origin was mentioned by a Shu'ubi author (Talmon, Arabic grammar, 7 n. 35)..
3. Berend Wispelwey, Biographical Index of the Middle Ages, pg. 1,169. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2008.
4. G.J. van Gelder, "Brevity in Classical Arabic Literary Theory." Taken from Proceedings of the Ninth Congress of the Union Européenne Des Arabisants Et Islamisants: Amsterdam, 1st to 7th September 1978, pg. 81. Ed. Rudolph Peters. Volume 4 of Publications of the Netherlands Institute of Archaeology and Arabic Studies in Cairo. Leiden: Brill Archive, 1981.
5. [Ibn Khallikan]
6. Ibn Khallikan, Deaths, vol. 4, pg. 587.
7. Khalil I. Semaan, Linguistics in the Middle Ages: Phonetic Studies in Early Islam, pg. 39. Leiden: Brill Publishers, 1968.
8. M.G. Carter, Sibawayh, pg. 21. Part of the Makers of Islamic Civilization series. London: I.B. Tauris, 2004.
9. [Aryeh Levin]
10. [Francis Joseph Steingass]
11. [Kees Versteegh]
12. "Aspects of the Genetive: Taxonomy in al-Jumal fi al-nahw." Taken from Early Medieval Arabic: Studies on Al-Khalīl Ibn Ahmad, pg. 102. Ed. Karin C. Ryding. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 1998.