Abū al-Ḥusayn Aḥmad ibn Fāris ibn Zakariyyā ibn Muḥammad ibn Ḥabīb al-Rāzī (Arabic: أبو الحسين أحمد بن فارس بن زكريا بن محمد بن حبيب الرازي, died Ray, Iran 395/1004) was a Persian[1] linguist, scribe, scholar, philologist and lexicographer,[2] As well as bearing the epithet al-Rāzī ('meaning 'from Ray'), ibn Fāris was also known variously by the epithets al-Shāfiʿī, al-Mālikī, al-lughawī ('the linguist'), al-naḥwī ('the grammarian'), al-Qazwīnī ('from Qazvin') and (possibly inaccurately) al-Zahrāwī ('from al-Zahrāʾ').[3] He is noted for compiling two of the early dictionaries to organise words alphabetically rather than according to the word's rhyming pattern. He was primarily associated with Ray.[4] Initially, he was an adherent of the Shafi'i madhhab, but later switched to the Maliki.
Although some sources ascribe precise dates and places of birth to ibn Faris, including 329 AH/941 CE in Kursuf, in the district of al-Zahrāʾ, modern scholars conclude that this cannot be known. His father was Fāris ibn Zakariyyāʾ, who was perhaps a faqīh and who certainly gave ibn Fāris some of his education, passing on to him ibn al-Sikkīt's Kitāb al-Manṭiq.[3]
Ibn Fāris studied in Qazvin, where his teachers included ʿAlī ibn Ibrāhīm al-Qaṭṭān (d. 345/956). He also studied in Zanjān (making the acquaintance of Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn al-Khaṭīb), Baghdad, and, while undertaking hajj, in Mecca.[3]
Little is known about his family's origins or social status. According to his own account, his father was an educated man.[5]
He was probably raised in Hamadan.[6] where he achieved great fame as a scholar and writer. In Hamadan, he took on many students, one of whom was Al-Hamadhani, who became the celebrated poet and originator of the Maqamat.[7] He was educated at Qazvin, Hamadan and Baghdad[8]
Based in Hamadan and attached to ibn al-ʿAmīd, ibn Fāris became well known for his scholarship, teaching al-Ṣāḥib ibn ʿAbbād (to whom he gave the Kitāb al-Ḥajar) and Badīʿ al-Zamān al-Hamadhānī, though he came to have a bad relationship with each. Nevertheless, he was chosen to be to be tutor to Majd al-Dawla, son of Fakhr al-Dawla in Ray, and dedicated to his employer his book al-Ṣāḥibī.[3]
He relocated to Rayy (now part of Tehran), possibly to take up a position as a tutor to, Majd al-Dawla, the son of the Buyid, Fakhr al-Dawla.[9] At that time, Rayy was a centre of literature, enabling ibn Faris to mix with scholars and men of letters. There ibn Faris, gained favour of the Vizier, Ibn al-Amid, who was a patron of the learning and learned men.[10]
Said to have been kind and humble and an emotive poet, Ibn Fāris is generally accepted to have died in 395/1004, in Ray.[3]
Ibn Fāris specialised in lexicography, but also studied poetry, grammar, Koranic exegesis (tafsīr) and jurisprudence (fiḳh). In the assessment of H. Fleisch, 'Ibn Fāris had an unbiased mind. It is remarkable that in the 4th/10th century, an age dominated grammatically by Sībawayhi and the Baṣrans, he should have returned to the freedom of thought of the Kūfans and should once again have introduced grammatical discussion in his K[itāb] Kifāyat al-mutaʿallimīn fi’k̲h̲tilāf al-naḥwiyyīn'.[3]
Ibn Fāris died in Rayy in 395/1004 (the generally accepted date).[11]
During his lifetime, Ibn Fāris produced many original works on a wide range of subjects: lexicography, grammar, poetry, literature, hadith (the words of the Prophet), the history of the Arabic language, ethics and jurispridence.[12] He is best known for his dictionaries, Mujmal fi al-Lugha [Summary of the Language] and Maqāyīs al-Lugha [Analogical Templates of Language].[13][14] He was the first scholar to use the method of isytiqq in which he considers the derivation of words and word roots and shows great ingenuity in tracing the origin of Arabic words.[15] He is generally credited with being the first scholar to organise words in alphabetical order, rather than according to rhyming patterns, as was customary practice at the time.[16]
He has been described as "one of the most original philologists of his time",[17] and "the brightest representative of the philological school".[18]
He wrote some forty works.[12] He also wrote many poems, most of which are now lost or forgotten.[19] Some scholars credit al-Fāris as the originator of the maqamat genre, even before al-Hamadani.[20]
He is best known for his works on lexicography, which was his favourite subject. His most important works include:
Other works that have been attributed to ibn Fāris are:[3][30]