IFAO

Abû Ḥâmid al-Tirmidhî is the author of a small treatise which might actually be the oldest critical Arabic source dealing with the earliest grammarians in Iraq. Unknown until recently, Abû Ḥâmid al-Tirmidhî must have lived during the 3rd/9th century. Among his masters were Abû ʿUbayda, al-Aṣma‘î and Ibn al-A‘râbî. He belonged to a group of scholars associated with the governor ‘Abd Allâh b. Ṭâhir in Khurasân.

This article includes a French translation from the Arabic, of Abû Ḥâmid’s treatise, based on Hâshim al-Ṭa‘‘ân’s edition (in al-Mawrid, Bagdad, 1974) from the Arabic manuscript. In addition, two indices or glossaries explain technical Arabic terminology and the proper names mentioned in the treatise.

As for our reading of Abû Ḥâmid’s treatise, it goes through a comparative analysis of several akhbâr depicting the foundation of the grammatical Arabic tradition, which are also to be found in most of the Arabic sources.

The author contends that this analysis proves that Abû Ḥâmid’s approach to the Kufan and Basrian scholars is singular as far as it gives us new or non-similar data from what is usually exposed in primary Arabic sources.