| Religion: | Islam |
| Occupation: | Scholar, lexicographer, linguist, philologist, logician |
| Era: | Islamic golden age |
| Ibn Sidah Arabic: ابن سيده | |
| Birth Date: | 1007 |
| Birth Place: | Murcia, Caliphate of Córdoba, Andalusia, now Spain |
| Death Date: | 26 March 1066 (25 RabīʿII 458), aged 59 |
| Death Place: | Dénia, Taifa of Dénia |
| Region: | Iberian Peninsula |
| Denomination: | Sunni |
| Jurisprudence: | Maliki |
| Creed: | Ash'ari[1] |
| Works: | Al-Muḥkam wa-al-muḥīt al-aʻẓam |
| Influences: | Malik ibn Anas Abu Hasan al-Ash'ari Al-Farahidi |
| Influenced: | Ibn Manzur |
Abū’l-Ḥasan ʻAlī ibn Ismāʻīl (Arabic: أبو الحسن على بن اسماعيل), known as Ibn Sīdah (Arabic: ابن سيده), or Ibn Sīdah'l-Mursī (Arabic: ابن سيده المرسي), (c.1007-1066), was a linguist, philologist and lexicographer of Classical Arabic from Andalusia. He compiled the encyclopedia (Arabic: المخصص) (Book of Customs) and the Arabic language dictionary Al-Muḥkam wa-al-muḥīt al-aʻẓam [2] (Arabic: المحكم والمحيط الأعظم) (The Great and Comprehensive Arbiter". His contributions to the sciences of language, literature and logic were considerable.
Ibn Sīdah was born in Murcia in eastern Andalusia. The historian Khalaf ibn ʻAbd al-Malik Ibn Bashkuwāl (Arabic: ابن بشكوال) (1183-1101) in his book (Arabic: كتاب الصلة) (Book of Relations)[3] gives Ismāʻīl as the name of his father, in agreement with name given in the Mukhassas. However Al-Fath ibn Khaqan in mathmah al-anfus (Arabic: مطمح الأنفس) has the name Aḥmad. Yaqut al-Hamawi in The Lexicon of Literature, says Ibn Sīdah ('son of a woman') was his nickname. Remarkably both he and his father were blind. His father was a sculptor although it seems the disciplines he devoted his life to, philology and lexicography, had been in his family.[4] [5]
Mohammed ibn Ahmed ibn Uthman Al-Dhahabi's biographic encyclopedia (Arabic: سير أعلام النبلاء) (Lives of The Noble Scholars)[6] is the main biographic source. He lived in the taifa principality of "Dénia and the Eastern Islands" (Arabic: طائفة دانية والجزائر الشرقية) under the rule of Emir Mujahid al-Amiri al-Muwaffaq (Arabic: الأمير مجاهد العامري) (1044-1014) and he travelled to Mecca and Medina. He studied in Cordova under the renowned grammarian Abu al-Sa'ad ibn al-Hasan al-Rubai al-Baghdadi (أبو العلاء صاعد بن الحسن الربعي البغدادي) (d.417AH/1026AD) exiled in Andalusia, and with Abu Omar al-Talmanki (أبي عمر الطلمنكي) (429-340AH). He died in Dénia.
. Ibn Sidah. ʻAlī ibn Ismāʻīl Hindāwī ʻAbd al-Ḥamīd. Ibn Sidah. Al-Muḥkam Wa-Al-Muḥīṭ Al-Aʻẓam. Al-Ṭabʻah 1 ed. Arabic. Beirut. Manshūrāt Muḥammad ʻAlī Bayḍūn . }