Ma'mar ibn al-Muthanna

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Ma'mar ibn al-Muthanna (728–825) also known as Abu Ubayda (

Muslim scholar of Arabic philology.[1] He was a controversial figure; later scholar Ibn Qutayba remarked that Abu Ubayda "hated Arabs," though his contemporaries still considered him perhaps the most well-rounded scholar of his age.[2] Whether or not Abu Ubayda was truly a supporter of the Shu'ubiyya
is a matter of debate.

Life

Ma'mar was originally of

Caliph Harun al-Rashid. In one incident recounted by numerous historians, the Caliph al-Rashid brought forth a horse and asked both Al-Asmaʿi and Abu 'Ubaida (who had also written extensively about zoology) to identify the correct terms for each part of the horse's anatomy. Ma'mar excused himself from the challenge, saying that he was a linguist and anthologist rather than a veterinarian; Al-Asmaʿi then leaped onto the horse, identified every part of its body and gave examples from Bedouin Arab poetry establishing the terms as proper Arabic vocabulary.[7] Among his students was the noted musician Ishaq al-Mawsili.[8]

He was one of the most learned and authoritative scholars of his time in all matters pertaining to the

Fihrist of Ibn al-Nadim, and his Book of Days is the basis of parts of the history of Ibn al-Athir and of the Kitab al-Aghani of Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani, but nothing of his (except a song) seems to exist now in an independent form.[9]

He died in Basra in 825.

Legacy

The exact nature of Ma'mar's religious and ethnocentric views is a matter of debate.

al-Asma’i.[9] Ma'mar's views differed sharply in regard to Arabic and the Qur'an; he denied that the Qur'an contained any non-Arabic vocabulary, a position to which later commentators such as Al-Suyuti were opposed.[12]

Regardless of any controversy, Ma'mar's influence is well known. Almost half of all information about Arabia before Islam reported by later authors was by way of Ma'mar, and he wrote the earliest extant Tafsir or commentary on the Qur'an, which was the basis for explaining any verses in the prophetic biography written by Ibn Hisham.[11]

Citations

  1. ISBN 9788120819528
  2. ISBN 9781135030346
  3. ^ Goltein, Shelomo. Jews and Arabs | A Concise History of Their Social and Cultural Relations.
  4. ^ Hoyland, Robert. In God's Path | The Arab Conquests and the Creation of an Islamic Empire.
  5. Oriental Translation Fund
    of Great Britain and Ireland, 1871.
  6. ISBN 9781850436713
  7. ISBN 9789004234055
  8. ^ Rowson, Everett K. (2012) [1998]. "Esḥāq Mawṣelī". Encyclopædia Iranica. Leiden: Brill Publishers.
  9. ^ a b c  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Abu Ubaida". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 1 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 81.
  10. ISBN 9780816657254
  11. ^ a b Hamilton Alexander Rosskeen Gibb, Studies, pg. 68.
  12. ISBN 0748614362
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ma%27mar_ibn_al-Muthanna&oldid=1198319062"