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Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān

Grammar and the Qurʾān (14,355 words)

Article Table of Contents

Qurʾānic language and text

Outline of the grammarians' study of the Qurʾān

Sketch of modern linguistic interest in qurʾānic grammar

A sketch of qurʾānic grammatical structure

Orthographic characteristics

Phonetics

Morphology

Syntax

Bibliography

Qurʾānic language and text

Modern students of Arabic linguistics have been studying several fundamental questions about qurʾānic language and text ever since the earliest formulations of these investigations some hundred years ago (see language of the qurʾān; literary structures of the qurʾān). The qurʾānic text constitutes one of the three early language corpora that reflect language varieties of Arabic speakers in pre-Islamic Arabia (see arabic language). The other two corpora are poetry (usually inclusive of almost all the pre-ʿAbbāsid Islamic inventory; see poetry and poets) and vestiges of the spoken dialects (q.v.). Since the re-¶ cording of all three corpora has reached us through the medium of early Arab philologists, whose earliest extant writings were composed in the last quarter of the second/eighth century, none of them has escaped the scepticism of modern scholars regarding their value as authentic manifestations of the language situation of pre-Islamic Arabic.

The character of the Qurʾān’s language has been investigated in comparison with the poetic idiom and the living language of the Arabs (q.v.), tribal nomads (q.v.) and town dwellers (see city). Vollers(Volkssprache und Schriftsprache) was the first to formulate a coherent hypothesis, based on the well-known diglossia of modern Arabic, which suggested that the cleavage between the poetic language and the spoken language was related to two opposed modes by which the qurʾānic text was transmitted. The first reflected the genuine living language of the two Ḥijāzī communities of Meccans and Medinese (see geography; mecca; medina), the original language in which Muḥammad addressed his people (see orality). The other was a later modification by Arab philologists, grounded in the grammatical standards formulated by this scholarly body on the basis of the poetic idiom that they had carefully studied. According to Vollers, a prominent element in the cleavage between these two modes of transmission was the lack of case and mood (iʿrāb) endings in the original text and their presence in the philologists' radical modification of it. This distinction is also fundamental in the typological classification of standard Arabic (iʿrābi, synthetic) and the modern (non-iʿrābi, analytical) dialects. It also corresponds with the linguistic situation of Arabic in the medieval Islamic world as far as the documentation of that era goes, with the somewhat debatable exception of Bedouin (q.v.) dialects during the first Islamic centuries.¶

Study of the history of Arabic diglossia resides currently in a distinction between old Arabic (OA) and neo-Arabic (NA) as two types of this language. A largely accepted view propagated by Nöldeke (Beiträge, 1-14; id., Neue Beiträge, 1-5), which rejects Vollers’s thesis, identifies the three corpora of testimony associated with the language of pre-Islamic Arabs as OA. Its direct offspring consists of the medieval literary idiom and modern standard Arabic (MSA). Accordingly, NA developed later than the emergence of the Qurʾān and the evolution of its text. Although adherents of this view admit that some difference could have existed between the language of the Qurʾān and either the pre-Islamic poetry or the language of the townsmen of the Ḥijāz, they nevertheless argue that these differences could not have been large, considering the typological identity shared by these corpora. Some of the central arguments for the genuineness of the extant qurʾānic text as a representative of the original prophetic message and of an OA idiom will be presented in the course of our discussion below of the structure of the qurʾānic language (see also form and structure of the qurʾān).

A recent discussion of the definition of classical Arabic (CA) has attempted to draw a structural distinction between the language of these three corpora of material and that of later medieval literary production up to the fourth/eleventh century. Fischer (Die Perioden; Das Altarabische; Grammatik) counted some thirty items attested in the earliest corpora, which distinguish their language from that of the later stage. Accordingly, he called this distinct language layer «pre-classical Arabic.» Included in his list are such morphological phenomena as verbal forms from outside the fifteen stems (harāqa, irʿawā), nisba endings of a yamānin type rather than -iyy ending, use of the faʿāli pattern, relative ¶ use of a basically demonstrative al-ulā, an inflected cataphoric pronominal -kum in dhālikum, fifth and sixth stems without -a- following the characteristic t- (e.g. izzayyana < *itzayyana = tazayyana), the forms ẓalta/ẓilta = ẓalilta of the geminite verb, the energicus enclitic -an with the imperative (the energicus form is the imperfect or imperative plus -an or -anna), ayyatuhā as the vocative particle, the -ta in rubbata, use of ʿalla for laʿalla, etc., and some syntactic phenomena such as mā al-ḥijāziyya, occurrence of the energicus in conditional clauses, lākin followed by a subject rather than a verb, and imperfect verbal forms following perfect verbs. Although Ullmann (Vorklassisches Arabisch) indicated that all these phenomena are documented in later layers of standard Arabic, this search for a distinct common denominator of the corpora of the early stage of Arabic is instructive as a fresh attempt to revive the typological dimension of the study of Arabic and as an effort to be attentive to the role played by the grammarians and other philologists in the formation of the language norms of the later layer.

Outline of the grammarians' study of the Qurʾān

A group of works from the end of the second/eighth and the beginning of the third/ninth century constitutes the main body of sources about early grammarians' interest in the language of the Qurʾān. These works include Sībawayhi’s (d. prob. 180/796) Kitāb, al-Farrāʾ's (d. 207/822) Maʿānī l-Qurʾān, al-Akhfash’s (d. between 210 and 221/825 and 835) commentary under the same title, and Abū ʿUbayda’s (d. 209/824-5) Majāz al-Qurʾān. Versteegh studied the few grammatical observations and a list of forty-one terms of linguistic relevance in five early tafsīr collections that are attributed to the exegetical effort of the middle second/eighth-century onward (that is, exegetical works attributed to ¶ Mujāhid b. Jabr [d. 104/722], Zayd b. ʿAlī [d. 122/740], Muḥammad b. al-Sāʾib al-Kalbī [d. 146/763], Muqātil b. Sulaymān [d. 150/767], Maʿmar b. Rashīd [d. 153/770], and Sufyān al-Thawrī [d. 161/778]; see Versteegh, Grammar and exegesis, 41-2). His conclusions about the later development of Arabic grammar, however, can hardly be supported by the evidence of the grammatically oriented sources mentioned above, which include frequent mention of yet earlier authorities who had developed grammatical thinking by their combined study of the three corpora of early Arabic. The patterns of their scholarly effort integrated a meticulous analysis of given sources and the sophistication of a grammatical theory with a rich vocabulary of linguistic terms.

We are better acquainted with the achievements of the two centers in Kūfa and Baṣra, although Ḥijāzī scholars are also mentioned in the early sources at random (cf. Talmon, An eighth century school). The growing discipline of scholarly studies in grammar was then taken over by al-Khalīl b. Aḥmad (d. ca. 170/786) and his disciple Sībawayhi, whose criticism of contemporary theory and whose innovative advanced analogical methodology soon became the leading stream of Iraqi linguistics. Sībawayhi’s al-Kitāb has ever since stood as a source of inspiration for all generations of later grammarians. While future study of grammatically oriented qurʾānic exegesis (tafsīr, see exegesis of the qurʾān: classical and medieval) from the third/ninth century on will show the extent to which it continued to follow the patterns of pre-Khalīlian grammar, in what follows we shall concentrate on the interest of the Kūfan and Baṣran grammarians in qurʾānic grammar.

One should bear in mind, however, that the authors of the sources upon which this article will concentrate, namely Sībawayhi, ¶ al-Farrāʾ, and the others, are far better recorded in their study of many of the topics mentioned in what follows and other observations about qurʾānic grammar than the earlier sources. Only a handful of notes exist in the early sources that indicate pre- Sībawayhian interest in phonetical matters, among them the treatment of two consecutive hamzas by Ibn Abī Isḥāq (d. 117/735) in Qurʾān reading (Sībawayhi, Kitāb, ii, 458.19; Akhfash, Maʿānī, 565), such as ʾaʾāmantum in q 7:123 (other cases are mentioned by Nöldeke, gq, iii, 45). Other problems of assimilation are mentioned in the sources concerning the irregular yikhkhiṭṭifu of a reflexive variant of yakhṭafu in q 2:20 (Farrāʾ, Maʿānī, i, 18) and the shift of s > ṣ in bi-muṣayṭirin (q 88:22) and al-muṣayṭirūna (q 52:37; cf. Talmon, Arabic grammar, 265). Sībawayhi’s phonetical studies, particularly his survey of the consonantal inventory in chapter 565 and the following chapters of the Kitāb, are closely related to Qurʾān readings.

To return now to the four foundational sources mentioned above, early morphological analysis of qurʾānic material included etymological study of the singular form of the hapax legomena al-zabāniya (q 96:18; cf. Akhfash, Maʿānī, 582) and abābīl (q 105:3; cf. Talmon, Arabic grammar, 271), inquiry concerning the structure of waykaʾanna and waykaʾannahu (q 28:82, Talmon, op. cit., 269), as well as the root of yatasannah, s-n-n or s-n-h (q 2:259; id., op. cit., 267), and discussion of exceptional forms in the verbal paradigms, namely āmarnā (q 17:16, amarnā), whose identification as a first stem verb is considered (Abū ʿUbayda, Majāz, i, 372). It is not evident, however, that early interest in the irregular form mastu of the originally geminite masastu (in Khalīl, al-ʿAyn; see Talmon, Arabic grammar, 267 f.) is evoked by interest in the analogous morphological shift found in ẓalta, ẓaltum as they occur in q 20:97 and ¶ 56:65, respectively. In general, early Arabic grammarians focused on the study of iʿrāb, and its intricate rules and their observations were applied to qurʾānic morphology. The triptote variant of ṭuwā/ṭuwan at q 79:16 (but not q 20:12) was debated (Akhfash, Maʿānī, 566); the non-nunated mathnā at q 4:3 is identified by Abū ʿAmr b. al-ʿAlāʾ (d. 154/771) as an «adjective» (ṣifa) with reference to its sense ithnayni thnayni (Sībawayhi, Kitāb, ii, 15.4). This formulation corresponds partly with the early grammarians' application of a rule of «deviation» (ṣarf) which relates non-nunated and diptote forms to their equivalents in the triptotic domain and a «deviation» process as the reason for a «loss» of full inflexional features.

Early sophistication in the grammatical examination of qurʾānic morphology is demonstrated (Talmon, Arabic grammar, 273) in the study of the pair ḥūr ʿīn, "women of white complexion and wide open eyes, " (q 44:54; 52:20; and 56:22; see houris) in which the opposite order is presented as an existing reading with the form wa-ḥīrun ʿīnun. The shift of ḥūr (ḥ-w-r) to ḥīr is a case of attraction caused by the following ʿīn (ʿ-y-n), and Abū Zayd al-Anṣarī (d. 214 or 215/830-1) quotes the view of «grammar experts» (ḥudhdhāq ahl al-ʿarabiyya) to this effect (Abū Zayd, Nawādir, 574). Next, the author resorts to Khalīl’s authority for an explanation of the principle of attraction (with the sample phrase juḥru ḍabbin kharibin, "a ruined lair/burrow of a lizard, " instead of […] kharibun), and concludes with an analysis of the features of this pair of adjectives which justify identification of this occurrence as attraction.

In the early sources, syntactic study is the most extensively reported and most developed field of interest in qurʾānic grammar. It seems proper to conclude that this is the result of the general tendency among the Arab grammarians to emphasize the im-¶ portance of iʿrāb in linguistic studies, a tendency which has endured. As a rule, qurʾānic and poetic language are understood to be one fully integrated system (pace Wansbrough’s review of Müller’s Untersuchungen, in bsoas 33 [1970], 389); consequently poetic structures are taken as evidence in the analysis of issues of qurʾānic syntax. We shall give as an exemple balā qādirīna (q 75:4), mentioned by Kinberg (Lexicon of al-Farrāʾ, 12). Al-Farrāʾ records a theorem, disseminated by anonymous grammarians, that the accusative case (naṣb) of the active participle results from a shift (ṣarf) from a finite verb form (naqdiru). It is clear that this ṣarf principle, introduced earlier in the domain of morphology, played a major role in the theory of pre- Sībawayhian grammar. A poetic verse quoted by these grammarians as an illustration (ḥujja) was al-Farazdaq’s (d. 110/728 or 112/730) ʿalā qasamin lā ashtimu l-dahra musliman wa-lā khārijan min fiyya zūru kalāmi, "swearing that I shall never curse a Muslim and will never utter a lie, " in which khārijan is presented as an active participle shifted from the finite yakhruju.

Another citation is presented here as an illustration of the difference between the approach of early exegetes and grammarians in their treatment of identical structures. q 72:18 reads wa-anna l- masājida li-llāhi fa-lā tadʿū maʿa llāhi aḥadan («and the mosques are for God, so do not invoke anyone along with God»). Sībawayhi (Kitāb, i, 413.12) attributes to the exegetes an ad sensum interpretation, namely that the sentence wa-anna… is subordinate to an unexpressed verb «it is revealed» (ūḥiya). The grammarians offer a more sophisticated analysis which is based on its identification of the wa-anna clause as a structure that had undergone permutation and elision of li- with the sense of «because» (<*fa-lā tadʿū… li-anna l-masājida li-llāhi). This structure is identified also in q 23:52. ¶ The elision of li- is formalized in the grammarians' jargon as fī mawḍiʿ al-jarr, «[the clause opened with anna is] in a status of a noun which follows a preposition.» This passage is documented in Sībawayhi’s Kitāb (i, 413.17) and the information about the grammarians' view is reported from al-Khalīl, but in al-Farrāʾ's commentary it is mentioned explicitly as al-Kisāʾī's (d. ca. 189/805) view (Farrāʾ, Maʿānī, i, 58.7, 148.8; ii, 173.9, also 238.13). It is not insignificant to note that two of the seven official readers of the ʿUthmānic Qurʾān (see codices of the qurʾān; collection of the qurʾān), Abū ʿAmr b. al-ʿAlāʾ and al-Kisāʾī, are recorded in early treatises of grammatical orientation as the authoritative grammarians of their days, scholars who mastered a sophisticated methodology of grammatical analysis and an advanced technical vocabulary.

It is important to mention that in the pre-Khalīlian stage of Arabic grammar, the formulation of several major syntactic categories seems to have been defined according to strict dictation of qurʾānic exegetical effort. Prominent among these is the ibtidāʾ category, which at that period was not defined in terms of governance grammar (and relations with khabar/mabnī ʿalayhi), but according to its relations with, in fact independence of, the preceding speech unit. It is especially effective in the analysis of written texts, in which boundaries of independent segments are not always clear, and case and mood marks can be crucial for the distinction of a fresh new utterance from a segment related to an antecedent.

Linguistic studies in the qurʾānic text continued intensively throughout the Middle Ages. Generally speaking, the accumulated knowledge provided by the scholars of the early centuries circulated in the later writings, with a growing tendency to improve its categorization. The study of the inimitability (q.v.) of the Qurʾān (iʿjāz¶ al-Qurʾān), a branch of Arabic rhetoric (see rhetoric and the qurʾān), provided a type of language analysis which was only partially dependent upon the principles of Arabic grammar.

In recent years there has been a growing tendency among Muslim scholars to study the language of the Qurʾān not so much in order to ceremonially follow their great medieval predecessors, but by application of some trends of literary criticism and modern fashions of western interest in language, e.g. stylistics and text analysis (see contemporary critical practices and the qurʾān).

Sketch of modern linguistic interest in qurʾānic grammar

Elements of qurʾānic grammar were incorporated in virtually all of the main grammars of classical Arabic of the last two centuries. Fischer’s chronological division mentioned above has already effected several studies in individual topics of classical Arabic. Surprisingly, the long interest in the Qurʾān expressed by western scholarship has not yielded a satisfactory description of its characteristics and peculiarities with respect to many grammatical issues. Nedjar(Grammaire fonctionnelle) is a unique attempt, so far, to create a comprehensive grammar of the Qurʾān, but it is far from complete. Here, we shall briefly highlight the status of qurʾānic grammar in the major systematic treatises of classical Arabic, the important work done by Nöldeke, and the issues covered by modern research in the various domains of qurʾānic grammar. We shall also consider the attitude of some prominent modern scholars regarding the contribution of the medieval Arab grammarians to the study of qurʾānic grammar.

The common tendency to discuss details of qurʾānic grammar within the general context of a presentation of CA features ¶ can be observed in Fleischer(Kleinere Schriften), Wright(Grammar), Reckendorf(Die Syntaktische Verhältnisse; Arabische Syntax), and Brockelmann (Grundriß). Ewald(Grammatica critica) and Nöldeke (Zur Grammatik) are exceptional in their more intensive attention to the peculiarities of qurʾānic grammar. Ewald (Grammatica critica, ii, 171 f.), for instance, reports the frequency of topicalization structures, in which the subject precedes its verbal predicate («600 times») and notes its rarity in Arabic, in contrast to Hebrew. Peculiarities of the Qurʾān’s agreement rules are discussed by Nöldeke (Zur Grammatik, 80, 81) regarding such cases as jāʾakum/jāʾathum rusuluhum (cf. q 3:183 and 10:13, 14:9, respectively). All these grammars state their position vis-à-vis the grammatical studies of the medieval Arab grammarians. Reservations about the adequacy of medieval explanations, however, are shared by all of them with the exception of Fleischer, about whose attitude Nöldeke expresses severe criticism in the introduction to his Zur Grammatik. Further, such reservations are expressed with different degrees of emphasis. In general, the Arab grammarians' theories are judged to be incompatible with the modern linguistic search for an explanation of language facts, whether this is according to the principles of the comparative study of Semitic languages or those of general linguistics. Several examples may illustrate their differences of approach to the analysis of several syntactic structures. Ewald discusses interferences in the coordination of nouns (shift from singular to plural and back to singular) in such cases as q 40:35, alladhīna yujādilūna… kabura maqtan (similarly q 5:69) and confines this phenomenon to "general sentences, " mentions its frequency in Hebrew, and notes its rarity in the language of Arabic texts later than the Qurʾān. Nöldeke (Zur Grammatik, 33) considers the circumstantial (ḥāl) identification by the Arab ¶ grammarians of such accusative abstract nouns as ṭawʿan wa-karhan (q 3:83) but prefers to classify them as gerunds. A series of substantives marked by the accusative in various qurʾānic verses, e.g. farīḍatan mina llāhi (q 4:11, 9:60) were analyzed by the Arab grammarians as mafʿūl muṭlaq governed by a covert verb. Nöldeke (Zur Grammatik, 35) considers them adverbials and notes their limited use (eight of the nine references are qurʾānic).

Nöldeke’s studies present a unique combination of linguistic analysis and consideration of Muḥammad’s biography. In his Zur Grammatik (33) he examines the apparent irregularity of q 104:1-2, where a structure with kull plus an indefinite singular noun is followed by alladhī (which normally follows definite nouns) and concludes that in pronouncing these words which were phrased in general terms, Muḥammad mentally associated them with a concrete rival (see opposition to muḥammad). The scattered remarks made in this book about Muḥammad’s language being inarticulate were followed by a famous essay in Nöldeke (Zur Sprache) on syntactical and stylistic peculiarities of the language of the Qurʾān. This study discusses thirty aspects of such peculiarities. Included, among others, are formulaic repetitions (cf. hal atāka ḥadīthu…, Zur Sprache, 8), problems resulting from the dictates of rhyme (e.g. shift of a verb form, as in farīqan kadhdhabtum wa-farīqan taqtulūna [ q 2:87]; Nöldeke, Zur Sprache, 9; see rhymed prose), correlation of subjective and objective genitives (huwa ahlu l-taqwā wa-ahlu l-maghfirati, «He owns [men’s] fear [q.v.] and owns mercy» [q.v.; q 74:56]; Nöldeke, Zur Sprache, 11), repetition of identical words with distinct reference (alladhīna qāla lahumu l-nāsu inna l-nāsa qad jamaʿū lakum [ q 3:173] with reference to «allies» and « enemies» [q.v.] respectively; id., op. cit., 11), correlation of finite verbs and participles (inna l-muṣṣad-¶ diqīna wa-l-muṣṣaddiqāti wa-aqraḍū llāha qarḍan ḥasanan… [ q 57:18]; Nöldeke, op. cit., 14), elision of the resumptive pronoun in expressions of time (hal atā ʿalā l-insāni ḥīnun mina l-dahri lam yakun shayʾan madhkūran, without [lam yakun] fīhi, [ q 76:1]; Nöldeke, op. cit., 16 f.), and use of the conjunctive an where the negative allā is expected (wa-ḥdharhum an yaftinūka [ q 5:49]; Nöldeke, op. cit., 19 f.). Nöldeke’s thesis was that Muḥammad’s pioneering position as the exponent of a new prose genre in his society was responsible for his idiosyncratic grammar and style. Given the accumulated advances in our present knowledge of pre-Islamic Arabic, it is difficult for contemporary scholars to appreciate or affirm Nöldeke’s position.

Linguistic studies specific to the Qurʾān following in the pattern of the composition of the comprehensive grammars are few. Spitaler (Die Schreibung des Typus ṣlwt) studied the qurʾānic orthography exhibited in ṣ-l-w-h and its like. Diem’s work on early Arabic orthography (Untersuchungen) is another key contribution to this field (see arabic script; orthography of the qurʾān). No specific study treats qurʾānic phonology per se. Birkeland’s studies on pause and stress in old Arabic (Altarabische Pausalformen; Stress patterns) are of special importance. In the field of qurʾānic morphology we have two studies of the verb by Chouémi(Le verbe dans le Coran) and Leemhuis (D and H stems). Works on qurʾānic syntax include several studies of its tense and aspect characteristics by Reuschel (Wa-kāna llāhu ʿalīman; Aspekt und Tempus), Nebes (ʾIn al-muḫaffafa), and Kinberg (Semi-imperfectives). Negation is another topic of intensive interest, already dealt with by Bergsträsser in 1914 (Verneinungs- und Fragepartikeln) and more recently by several others. On various aspects of mafʿūl muṭlaq there is Talmon (Syntactic category). Studies concerned with types of clauses ¶ are Tietz(Bedingungsatz) on conditional sentences, Correll («Ein Esel») on relative clauses, and Goldenberg (Allā٤̲ī al-maṣdariyya in Arab grammatical tradition) on the treatment of alladhī structures without resumptive pronouns (e.g. in q 9:69). Syntactic features of the energetic form of the verb are described by Ambros (Syntaktische und stilistische Funktionen; also Zewi, Syntactical study). Several small publications concentrate on the function of specific particles: Worrell (The interrogative particle hal) studied hal and a-, Miquel (La particule innamā; La particule ḥattā) studied innamā and ḥattā, and Ambros (Lākin und lākinna) lākin and lākinna. Richter(Der Sprachstil) and Müller (Untersuchungen zur Reimprosa) are, respectively, monographs on the effect of qurʾānic style and rhyme on the Qurʾān’s grammatical structure. General questions of the treatment of the Arab grammatical tradition in the Qurʾān include Sībawayhi’s use of Qurʾān citations, in Beck’s dissertation (Die Koranzitate), and iʿrāb errors in Burton (Linguistic errors).

A sketch of qurʾānic grammatical structure

In the absence of a comprehensive grammar of the Qurʾān the following sketch comprises a selection of orthographical and grammatical phenomena recorded mainly in the ʿUthmānic text, which are either peculiar to the Qurʾān in comparison with the other corpora of old Arabic, or considered by the present writer to be of special relevance for students of qurʾānic language. It is inescapably technical but will be of interest to those who are well-versed in the structure and semantics of classical Arabic.

Orthographic characteristics

This domain is of special importance for the study of the Qurʾān’s language because ¶ it provides, according to a largely accepted scholarly view, the most reliable record of this language in the earliest days of the formation of this corpus. Brockelmann (Grundriß, i, 53; also 460), illustrates nicely how important the occurrence of w, y, ā in the noun’s final position is for scholars who want to draw conclusions about the use of case endings in the «Meccan dialect.» The following is mainly a synopsis of the detailed description of characteristics given by Nöldeke, gq, iii:

1. Exceptions to the pausal orthography

a. Use of t instead of h for tāʾ marbūṭa in non-pausal state: at least forty-one times, most frequently in niʿma (eleven times), raḥma, and imraʾa (seven times each). Others may be interpreted as plural feminine. Four other words in which ā precedes: marḍāt, al- lāt, hayhāt, dhāt. This orthographic custom is attested mainly in the construct state (muḍāf).

b. Omission of w (five times) and y (fifteen times) in word ending, e.g. yuʾti for yuʾtī (q 4:146), sa-nadʿu for sa-nadʿū (q 96:18). A similar omission of alif occurs three times in ayyuhā > ayyuha before the article.

c. Use of n for tanwīn: kaʾayyin/kāʾin > kaʾayyin (e.g. q 3:146; 12:105; 22:45).

2. Merger of two particles

This occurs in mimman, mimmā (three times for min mā), fīmā (less frequent fī mā), allan < an lan, ammā (also for "or what, " q 6:143) and others. Biʾsa mā are separated on all but one occasion. Other peculiarities in this respect: yā bna umma is written y-b-n-w-m (q 20:94), mā li-(hāʾulāʾi/lladhīna kafarū, etc.) occurs four times with separated li-, wa-lāta ḥīna (q 38:3) is separated as wa-lā taḥīn. Also wa-lākinnā < wa-lākin anā (q 18:38; cf. Brockelmann, Grundriß, i, 258 and Nöldeke, gq, iii, 114, n. 1; see now Ambros, Lākin und lākinna, 22 n. 9).¶

3. Letters of prolongation (matres lectionis)

a. Alif in inner positions of the word is more often written than not, and almost without any regularity. The shift aʾ > ā resulted in such forms as t-w-y-l for taʾwīl or ʾ-s-t-j-r-t for istaʾjarta (q 28:26).

b. Y is omitted when it represents ī following another y as in al-nabiyyīna (written ʾ-l-n-b-y-n; ʿilliyyīna in q 83:18 is exceptional) and yuḥyīkum. Different from this orthographic convention is the massive omission of y in word-endings. It indicates either total elision of ī (cf. q 13:9, l-mutaʿāl < l-mutaʿālī in rhyme) or its shortening in the local dialect.

c. W is omitted only when it represents ū following another w, e.g. yalwūna is written y-l-w-n in q 3:78. Also ruʾyā > rūyā is written r-y-ʾ, because of the shift uy > ī.

d. H of the pronoun hu/hi is shortened to -h in pause (for this issue, see Fischer, Die Quantität, esp. 399).

4. Alif maqṣūra and ā preceding tāʾ marbūṭa

Final ā is written y if y is a third radical or expressed as y in the inflexion. It is also written so before suffixes. It seems to reflect a pronunciation with some proximity to e (imāla). The few exceptions are largely regulated and include, for example, cases in which alif waṣl follows, as in ladā l-bāb (q 12:25) and the verb raʾā, written r-ʾ.

Use of y for ā preceding tāʾ marbūṭa occurs only in foreign words (see foreign vocabulary), e.g. tawrāh (see torah). The w in a similar situation occurs in eight words (ṣalāh, zakāh, ḥayāh, najāh, manāh, mishkāh, ghadāh, and the exceptional ribā). Whereas the first two follow the Aramaic orthography, the others follow them by analogy, and the last may represent a word with w (possible pronunciation rabw, see Spitaler, Die Schreibung des Typus ṣlwt).¶

5. W of word end

This w is regularly followed by alif (alif al- faṣl, «alif of separation»). Few exceptions exist.

6. Hamza

As a result of its weakening and even disappearance in word middle and end positions, the orthography of such words in the Qurʾān is modified by the following changes:

a. Omission after a vowelless consonant results sometimes in the writing of yasʾalu, etc. as y-s-l, ʾ-l-m-w-d-h for al-mawūda (< al-mawʾūda, q 81:8), or the variations l-y-k-h/ʾ-l-ʾ-y-k-h for [aṣḥāb] al-aykah (with «h» here indicating tāʾ marbūṭa; cf. q 26:176; 38:13 for the first and q 15:78; 50:14 for the other).

b. Loss of vowelless hamza: riʾyan is written r-y-ʾ (q 19:74) and t-w-y/t-w-y-h stand for tuʾwī/tuʾwīhi (q 33:51 and 70:13 respectively).

c. Loss of hamza intermediating two -a vowels, resulting in such orthographic forms as l-m-l-n for la-amlaʾanna (q 7:18 and passim), or ʾ-r-y-t-m for a-raʾaytum and ʾ-l-m-n-sh-t for al-munshaʾātu (q 55:24). The same occurs in -iʾī position, as in m-t-k-y-n for muttakiʾīna (e.g. q 18:31; 37:51).

d. Loss of hamza intermediating two different vowels. The following is a selection of forms that exemplify the intricate sub-categorization of the orthographic convention in this situation: ʾ-w-n-b-y-k-m for a-unabbiʾukum (q 3:15), ʾ-n/ʾ-ʾ-n variably for a-in with the interrogative, both exhibiting the situation following a pre-posed particle; t-b-w-ʾ for tabūʾa (q 5:29), but also l-t-n-w-ʾ for la-tanūʾu between two vowels of the same quality (q 28:76); change in word end orthography following case and mood vowels is typical with -āʾ endings, such as j-z-ʾ-w for jazāʾu (q 5:33 and passim), t-l-q-ʾ-y for [min] tilqāʾi [nafsī] (q 10:15), though ʾ-w-l-y-ʾ with personal pronoun suffixation stands for the nominative and genitive as ¶ well; finally, sequence of alif plus ʾ/w/y may indicate pronunciation of hamza, in a word-opening position preceded by a pre-posing particle (l-ʾ-ʾ-dh-b-ḥ-n-h for la-adhbaḥannahu, q 27:21), or it may be a mere graphic peculiarity in such cases as m-l-ʾ-y-h for malaʾihī, b-ʾ-y-y-d for bi-aydin (q 51:47) and l-sh-ʾ-y for li-shayʾin (q 18:23).

7. Omission of n

Its occurrence in q 12:110 where nunajjī is written n-j-y, and, in several qurʾānic variants, two other verbs (n-z-r and n-ṣ-r), may reflect dissimilation. The form taʾmurūnī for taʾmurūnanī (also read taʾmurūnnī, q 39:64) has many equivalents in poetry but not in the Qurʾān, see Nöldeke (Zur Grammatik, 11, n. 1).

8. Omission of l of the article and alif al- waṣl

In addition to omission of this l- in the relative pronouns (cf. ʾ-l-y for allāʾi), it is missing in al-layl and lal-dār. Omission of alif al-waṣl is attested in bi-sm of the basmala (q.v.) and several other words (including la-ttakhadhta in q 18:77 and wa-sʾal), but it is preserved in ibn of ʿĪsā bnu Maryam in all of its sixteen occurrences (see jesus; mary).

9. S > ṣ, ẓ > ḍ

Ṣ written instead of s is attested in four words, wa-yabṣuṭu and baṣṭatan (q 2:245, 247) and bi-muṣayṭirin and al-muṣayṭirūna (q 88:22 and 52:37). This spelling reflects assimilation of the emphatic ṭ as is also the case with ṣirāṭ. In similar fashion ḍanīn (q 81:24) is said to present a shift from ẓanīn.

10. Regularity of pausal orthography This regularity is largely maintained and ā is written in rhyming words like al-rasūlā (q 33:66) and al-sabīlā (q 33:67), or -a in sulṭāniya (q 69:29), although exceptions exist.¶

Phonetics

1. Short vowels

a. Elision of final short vowel following liquid, such as yanṣurukum > yanṣurkum (q 67:20) and yushʿirukum > yushʿirkum (q 6:109; redaction of Abū ʿAmr). Nöldeke (Zur Grammatik, 9 f.) presents the forms taʾmannā (written t-ʾ-m-n-ʾ; q 12:11), makannī (q 18:95) and the reading wa-arnā for wa-arinā (q 2:128) among others from poetry, and considers them early testimony for the gradual disappearance of iʿrāb (see also the discussion in Rabin, Ancient west Arabian, 93 n. 16).

b. Elision of unstressed short vowel as it happens in ṣudqātihinna < ṣaduqātihinna (q 4:4) and jumʿati < (yawmu) l-jumuʿati (q 62:9). The east Arabian, so-called Tamīmī form of Arabic, has for the first ṣaduqa > ṣuduqa > ṣudqa, through vowel harmony. In sound plural feminine -āt the eastern form omits the vowel of the preceding syllable (fVʿlāt), whereas the western Ḥijāzī form has it (fVʿVlāt), e.g. muthlāt-mathulāt (q 13:6). This Ḥijāzī practice was conceived by the early philologists as tafkhīm (cf. Rabin, Ancient west Arabian, 97 f.).

2. Long vowels

a. ā > ō: Rabin argues for this shift (op. cit., 105), following all earlier scholars, for ṣalāh and the other words with w ending but Spitaler disagrees (Die Schreibung des Typus ṣlwt; see the section on orthography above).

b. ī > i in word end: According to the reading of several official readers, this shift is attested in a phrase like yawma yaʾti (q 11:105). Al-Zamakhsharī (d. 538/1144) identifies it as a peculiarity of the dialect of Hudhayl (see Rabin, op. cit., 89).

c. -ī > ø in pause: Such are the forms akramanī > akraman, and ahānan (q 89:15, 16), in the reading of the Kūfans and ¶ Abū ʿAmr (see Rabin, op. cit., 119).

d. āʾu > ō? According to Rabin (op. cit., 110), this is the correct interpretation of the spelling w-ʾ. A more conservative view suggests āʾu > āwu (Nöldeke, gq, iii, 47).

e. -ā (alif maqṣūra a/y): In the Qurʾān the two kinds of alif maqṣūra rhyme (e.g. dunyā and abqā in q 20:71-3). Note also the imāla of fa-nadēhu (q 3:39) in the reading of Ḥamza and al-Kisāʾī, (see Rabin, op. cit., 116 f.).

f. ā > ī (imāla): In addition to the above, the two readers read rāna > rīna (ryn) in q 83:14 (see Rabin, op. cit., 112).

3. Glottal consonants

a. Hamza — general: A detailed study of the orthographical evidence is provided in Rabin (Ancient west Arabian, 133 f.) who concludes that it is missing in most cases of qurʾānic spelling, as in yasamu (q 41:49), mashamati (q 56:9), yanawna (q 6:26), tajarū (q 23:65) and the frequent afidatun, yasalu, malakun. Noteworthy is aṣḥābu laykati (q 38:13) with the article. Alif is written in nashata (q 29:20; 56:62) as a single case of post-consonantal hamza followed by feminine ending. Rabin concludes that hamzat bayna bayna is the closest Ḥijāzī approximation to hamza and that some spellings (not specified) reflect hyper-corrections.

b. Hamza — iʾu shifts: This state occurs in verbs where the third radical is hamza. Mustahziʾūna (q 2:14) may be rendered in the Ḥijāzī performance as either mustahziwūna or mustahzūna. Al-Akhfash, as cited in Zamakhsharī, reports yastahziyūna. For the third singular form in q 2:15 Rabin suggests yastahzī (like *yarmiyu > yarmī; see Rabin, Ancient west Arabian, 139).

c. Hamza — āʾi > ay: sāʾilun > saylun (q 70:1) is Ibn ʿAbbās’s reading according to al-Zamakhsharī. Ḥamza reads ṭayr for ṭāʾir (q 3:49; see Rabin, op. cit., 140 and 149 n. 24).¶

d. Hamza — pausal aʾ > ā: The following pausal forms al-malaʾu (q 7:60), malaʾun (q 11:38), al-malaʾi (q 2:246), and al-malaʾa (q 28:20) are all spelt m-l-ʾ and confirm information about this Ḥijāzī pausal form (see Rabin, op. cit., 141).

e. Hamza — assimilation of hamza: Non-pausal al-marʾi is shifted to al-marri (q 8:24) according to some readings. Similarly juzʾun > juzzun (q 15:44) in the reading of the Ḥijāzī al-Zuhrī (d. 124/742). Riʾyu > riyyu (q 19:74) is a Medinese reading (see Rabin, op. cit., 134 f.).

f. wu > ʾu is attested in ujuhuhum (q 39:60; see Rabin, op. cit., 81).

g. ʿ > ḥ: According to the late grammarian Ibn Hishām al-Anṣārī (d. 761/1360), Ibn Masʿūd (d. 32/652; Mughnī, 451) read naʿam > naḥam four times in the Qurʾān (see Rabin, op. cit., 85).

4. Velars (post-palatal uvular)

For q in Qurʾān reading, see Brockelmann (Grundriß, i, 121).

5. Interdentals

a. th > t: This shift is suggested in the reading of mukhbithīna > mukhbitīna (q 22:34; see Rabin, Ancient west Arabian, 125).

b. ẓ/ḍ are interchangeable (see the section on orthography above for ẓanīn ~ ḍanīn). This is a unique case which supports Nöldeke’s argument that such cases were rare in Muḥammad’s days (see Nöldeke, Das klassische Arabisch, 10 and n. 3).

c. n — omission of n in qurʾānic manuscripts (see manuscripts of the qurʾān) occurs in the case of nunjī, fa-nunjiya (see the section on orthography above). Other occurrences are li-nanẓura (q 10:14) and la-nanṣuru (q 40:51) in which nasal pronunciation (ghunna) is suggested (see Rabin, Ancient west Arabian, 123 n. 28, 146).

It is noteworthy that Sībawayhi (Chapter 565) makes a detailed distinction between ¶ thirty-five favorite versus seven disfavored consonantal variants in the reading of the Qurʾān and poetry.

6. Stress patterns

Central questions have been discussed for decades concerning the evidence on this issue provided by qurʾānic orthography and variant readings. The earliest works on grammar and grammatical analysis of the qurʾānic language already take account of variant readings attributed to early authorities from the days of Muḥammad’s Companions (see companions of the prophet) and of the next generation. Study of such readings and their respective readers developed into an independent branch of Islamic sciences (see readings of the qurʾān). The assumption that the qurʾānic material supports a dichotomy of an expiratory Tamīmī versus non-expiratory Ḥijāzī stress was considered by various scholars and debated by others. Several scholars advocated its central role in the omission of unstressed vowels in open syllables and especially in word-end position and eventually in the emergence of the north Arabian language type. A useful summary of the main arguments is found in Neuwirth (Studien zur Komposition, 325 f.).

7. Pausal patterns

Fischer (Silbenstruktur, 54) objects to the assumption that the pausal forms reflected in the qurʾānic orthography represent with precision the spoken language, and indicates that on the basis of the pausal shift of -an to -a one would have expected the shift of -atan (with tāʾ marbūṭa) to -atā, whereas the qurʾānic orthography records h (-ah). Blau (Pseudo-corrections, 57 n. 14) clarifies how the orthography reflects living pronunciation, in which the accusative state of tāʾ marbūṭa merged with the genitive/nominative -ah pausal form, to prevent the ¶ anomalous contrast of ḥasana-h (nom./gen.) — ḥasana-tā (acc.), when other nouns have only ḥasan — ḥasan-ā.

Morphology

1. Personal pronouns — suffixes

-Iyya > iyyi and -āya > -ayya: mā antum bi-muṣrikhiyyi (q 14:22) is a Kūfan reading reported by al-Farrāʾ. ʿAṣāyi (q 20:18) is the reading of al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī and Abū ʿAmr. The other shift is reported by the early Baṣran grammarian Ibn Abī Isḥāq for ʿaṣayya and for maḥyayya (q 6:162). Al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī is reported to have read yā bushrayya (q 12:19). According to some readers also hud āya > hudayya (q 2:38). Rabin (Ancient west Arabian, 151) concludes that -ayya was the west Arabian form.

2. Demonstrative pronouns

a. East-Arabian hādhī: The reading hādhī l-shijrata (q 2:35) is interpreted by al-Bayḍāwī as Tamīmī (see Rabin, op. cit., 120).

b. dhālika: The Qurʾān has only dhālika, not dhāka. Accordingly al-Ushmūnī suggests Ḥijāzī versus Tamīmī identification of the two (see Rabin, op. cit., 154). Dhālikum, etc. with the inflected suffix in agreement with the addressee’s number and gender is identified as a qurʾānic language characteristic by Brockelmann (Grundriß, i, 318).

c. ūlā vs. ūlay: Ibn ʿAqīl considered the first Ḥijāzī and identified ūlā (with alif maqṣūra bi-ṣūrat al-yāʾ) as Tamīmī. This observation is based on the qurʾānic changes seen in q 2:16. Rabin (op. cit., 153), for his part, attributes to the Tamīmī the form with final -ā, and adopts Ibn Jinnī's attribution to Qays of the qurʾānic ūlāʾi.

3. Relative pronouns

For allāʾi < al-ulāʾi, see Brockelmann (Grundriß, i, 257).¶

4. The verb

a. These statistics for qurʾānic verb forms are based on Chouémi (Le verbe): 1,200 roots of verbal forms, of which fifteen are quadriliteral and the others triliteral; 801 triliteral verbs are in stem I (69 %); three verbs are in stem IX and one in stem XI. Sound verbs number 629, geminata: 108, hamzata: 55, prima w/y: 49, media w/y: 152, tertia w/y: 131, doubly weak verbs: 61 (including one occurrence of ʾ-w-y), R1R2R1R2: eight, R1R2R3R4: seven; from a total of 14,000 verbal occurrences of stem I (including participles; maṣdar forms amount to 2000), the average of passive forms is 6,3 %, with similar proportions in stems II, III, and IV, 4 % in stem X, 2 % in stems V and VIII, none in stems VI, VII, IX, XI.

b. Verbal forms

i. Imperfect — Prefixes, -a- vs. -i- vowel: In the discussion of nistaʿīnu (q 1:5) al-Farrāʾ, as cited in al-Suyūṭī (Muzhir, beginning of nawʿ no. 16; cf. Rabin, op. cit., 61), identifies the -a- as characteristic of Quraysh and Asad alone. But note that this reference does not appear in the printed addition of al-Farrāʾ's Maʿānī (Kinberg, Lexicon of al-Farrāʾ, ad lughat-). Other readings with -i- include lā tiqrabā (q 2:35) and lā tirkanū (q 11:113). Interestingly, such forms are found only in shawādhdh, non-canonical readings. The form nuʿbuduhum in q 39:3 is presented by Vollers (Volkssprache und Schriftsprache, 129; see also Rabin, Ancient west Arabian, 61, 158). For an instructive discussion of the span of such phenomena and their minimal effect in consideration of the relations between classical Arabic and the old Arab dialects, see Nöldeke (Zur Sprache, 3).

ii. Imperfect — Prefixes, third plural feminine y > t: This form, which exhibits analogy with third singular feminine, is recorded in a variant reading tatafaṭṭarna (q 42:5), according to Abū ʿAmr, tanfaṭirna (see ¶ Fleischer, Kleinere Schriften 99, citing al-Bayḍāwī).

iii. Imperfect — Loss of final vowel: This is attested in the case of assimilation of n in taʾmanunā > taʾmannā (q 12:11; see Brockelmann, Grundriß, i, 257).

iv. Imperative: alqiyā (q 50:24) as a pausal form of the energicus -an (see Brockelmann, op. cit., 554).

5. Stems

a. Stem V — Haplology (taqattalu < tataqattalu): According to Rabin (Ancient west Arabian, 147) this reading is characteristic of Ḥijāzī readers; also fa-timassakum < fa-tatamassa-kum (q 11:113; see Rabin, op. cit., 148, 158 and Brockelmann, op. cit., 257).

b. Stems V—VI — Assimilation: This phenomenon is attested in muddaththir (q 74:1), though some suggest stem II, mudaththir.

c. Stem VIII: Rabin (op. cit., 146) identifies muddakir (q 54:15 and elsewhere) as a Ḥijāzī form, while the Asadī is idhdhakara. This is based on al-Farrāʾ apud al-Ṭabarī (at q 27:56), though the express formulation of al-Farrāʾ (Maʿānī, i, 215.11) yields the contrary, namely that in the Asadī dialect the interdental fricative assimilates with the t of stem VIII. This is demonstrated by iththaghara > ittaghara, but it stands to reason that similar assimilation of dh > d is also characteristic of this tribe’s dialect in such conditions.

d. Yakhaṭṭifu (q 2:20) with assimilation of the stem’s t with the emphatic second radical is presented in Brockelmann (op. cit., 258) following a list of later grammarians and al-Bayḍāwī. Al-Farrāʾ (Maʿānī, i, 215.11) gives, on the authority of an anonymous grammarian, the reading yakhiṭṭifu and quotes this grammarian’s view that the first i is anaptyctic (cf. yakhiṣṣimūna at q 36:49).

e. Verba primae wāw: lā tawjal/lā tājal/tūjal (q 15:53). The second form exhibits a shift of -ūʾ-iw (see Rabin, op. cit., 158).

¶ f. Verba mediae wāw/yāʾ: There are two variations recorded for the perfect of stem I m-w-t, mittu/muttu (q 19:23, 66), also in mittum (q 23:35). The first reading is ʿĀṣim’s (see Rabin, op. cit., 114); the passive participle mahīl (q 73:14) is discussed by Rabin (op. cit., 160), where madīn versus madyūn are attributed to the Ḥijāzī versus Tamīmī varieties respectively.

g. Verba mediae hamzatae: The passive sīla (q 2:108) is discussed by Rabin (op. cit., 138) who argues that it should not be reckoned as uy > ī but as a regular passive.

h. Verba tertiae wāw/yāʾ: On ukhfī < ukhfiya (q 32:17) and rāḍātun < rāḍiyatun (q 88:9-12) see Rabin (op. cit., 161) who relates the last to the shift in stem I perfect pattern baqiya > baqā which existed in Yemen (q.v.) and probably in parts of the Ḥijāz. The opposite is reflected in Nāfiʿ's reading ʿasaytum > ʿasītum (q 47:22; see Rabin, op. cit., 185). Marḍiyyan (q 19:55) has a variant marḍuwwan, which al-Farrāʾ in his Maʿānī attributes to the Ḥijāzī dialect.

i. Verba geminata: Both the sound and the geminate forms of the apocopate yartadid (q 2:217) and yartadda (q 5:54; also 59:4 and 8:13 for yushāqqi-yushāqiq and 2:282 for yuḍārra-yuḍārar) exist in the Qurʾān. The short forms of the faʿila pattern ẓalta and ẓaltum (in q 20:97 and 56:65 respectively) have always attracted scholars' interest; faʿala is not shortened (cf. shaqaqnā in q 80:26 and madadnā in q 15:19; Brockelmann, Grundriß, i, 247 discusses the matter together with aḥastu/istaḥaytu). The Arab grammarians' views are cited by Barth (Ziltu, 330 f.). Wa-l-yumlil < wa-l-yumli (q 2:282): note that umlī takes, according to commentators, the sense of umhilu in q 7:183; Chouémi (Le verbe, 4) notes their same meaning. Nöldeke (Zur Sprache, 26 n. 1) considers the Syriac mallel as their immediate origin.¶

6. Verbal nouns

a. Stem II: The Yemenite identity of the form kidhdhāb (q 78:28) is given by al-Farrāʾ (Maʿānī, iii, 229) who mentions the various readers who had adopted it (against the variant kidhāban) and exemplifies its use in the Yemenite dialect while describing his personal experience with a Yemenite concerning this pattern (see Brockelmann, Grundriß, i, 346 and Nöldeke, Zur Sprache, 8, n. 4).

b. Stem IV: The rare form iqām (q 21:73) is discussed in Wright (Grammar, i, 121a).

7. The noun

a. Patterns: afʿal (Nöldeke, Zur Grammatik, 17) indicates the wrong reading al-asharr in q 54:26 for al-ashir. Faʿāli is not recorded in the Qurʾān, but see Vollers (Volkssprache und Schriftsprache, 187) on the variant masāsi to (lā) misāsa in q 20:97.

b. Affixation: -CCāt > -CVCāt: ʿawrāt > ʿawArāt (q 24:58); for niʿimāt (q 31:31), see the sub-section on vowel elision above. -Iyy: The nisba suffix serves for attribution of a person to an ethnic group, e.g. sāmiriyy (q 20:85, 87, 95) but also for a description of relations on a more abstract level, and the derivation of an adverbial form of it, e.g. sikhriyyan (q 38:63).

c. Plural derivation — adjectival plurals: The plural adjectives of the elative afʿal are sound, as in al-ardhalūna (q 26:111; see Wright, Grammar, i, 200). On the indefinite unās (four occurrences in the Qurʾān) versus al-nās (240 times), see Nöldeke (Zur Grammatik [1963], 15) and also Ullmann (Untersuchengen, 181).

8. The particles

a. Four occurrences of (naʿam>) naʿim in al-Kisāʾī's reading are reported by al-Suyūṭī (see Rabin, Ancient west Arabian, 73) who mentions a similar shift in the perfect form, namely naʿima > niʿima.¶

b. Al-Farrāʾ equates the sense of lammā to that of illā (q 86:4). Rabin (op. cit., 163) speculates, albeit with hesitation, that its origin is from Hudhayl.

c. Uninflected halumma (q 6:150) is used in addressing several persons.

d. No occurrences of mundhu/mudh in the Qurʾān (see Rabin, op. cit., 187).

e. Ladun and the two variants of ladunī/ladunnī (q 18:76) are discussed by Brockelmann (Grundriß, 66) with reference to al-Ṭabarī's discussion of them.

Syntax

1. Preservation of iʿrāb

A list of cases in which the qurʾānic orthography indicates the use of iʿrāb is included in the comprehensive study by Diem (Untersuchungen [1981], 366; brief mention of this topic is made in the section on orthography above). Diem (op. cit., 381) concludes that the situation is undecided concerning relations of these cases to the Ḥijāzī vernacular. A strong argument made by Nöldeke (Zur Sprache, 2) is the absence of non-iʿrāb traces in its transmission (see Blau, Pseudo-corrections, 57).

2. Iʿrāb interference

a. The following four cases are mentioned in Nöldeke, gq, iii, 2 f.: wa-l-mūfūna… wa-l-ṣābirīna (q 2:177); lākini l-rāsikhūna… wa-l-muqīmīna… wa-l-muʾtūna (q 4:162); inna lladhīna āmanū… wa-l-ṣābiʾūna (q 5:69; mentioned by Reckendorf, Syntaktische Verhältnisse, 489); inna hādhāni la-sāḥirāni (q 20:63), which Brockelmann (Grundriß, i, 456) considers characteristic of Rabīʿa. A summary of Arab philologists' views about these problematic occurrences is given by Burton (Linguistic errors).

b. Another case of interference is yā jibālu awwibī maʿahu wa-l-ṭayra (q 34:10). Several explanations by early grammarians of the irregular naṣb (in wa-l-ṭayra) are recorded ¶ (cf. Farrāʾ, Maʿānī, ii, 355 and Abū ʿUbayda, Majāz, at q 34:10; also Jumaḥī's introduction to his Ṭabaqāt al-shuʿarāʾ). Most of them identify it as an object and reconsruct a covert verb (aʿnī, sakhkhara, udʿu), whereas Abū ʿAmr offers an alternative analysis, that this is the result of an anomaly involving a combination of yā plus noun identified by an article.

c. Inna hādhāni la-sāḥirāni (q 20:63, see listing above): This case is extremely interesting from the cultural point of view, as it presents various attempts made by exegetes and grammarians to solve a crux in the sacred text. Among these attempts is a tradition (see ḥadīth and the qurʾān) narrated on the authority of ʿĀʾisha (see ʿāʾisha bint abī bakr) to justify attempts to correct the script, an attempt to change the error, made by Abū ʿAmr, a variety of grammatical modes of analysis to secure some regularity of the structure, and scholarly testimony of peculiar dialectal forms, attributed to a certain tribe to the same effect (cf. Goldziher, Die Richtungen, 31 f.; see dialects). Another case in which this authority is called on to solve a problem of text transmission is yuʾtūna for yaʾtūna in q 23:60, with ʿĀʾisha’s saying: wa-lākinna l-hijāʾ ḥurrifa (see Nöldeke, gq, iii, 3 n. 2).

d. Tanwīn is omitted before the article in qul huwa llāhu aḥadu llāhu l-ṣamadu (q 112:1-2) and sābiqu l-nahāra (q 36:40; variant: l-nahāri; see Spitaler’s additions to Nöldeke, Zur Grammatik, 134 [to 27/4]).

e. The verses an takūna tijāratan (q 4:29) and in kānat illā ṣayḥatan wāḥidatan (q 36:29) are considered by Rabin (Ancient west Arabian, 174) as irregular structures with kāna functioning as a full predicate whose agent is marked by the accusative, instead of the regular nominative.¶

3. Rhyming and prosodic dictation

Nöldeke (Zur Sprache, 9) notes some grammatical and stylistic interferences which result from yielding to prosodic dictation in the Qurʾān, e.g. the inaccurate expression wa-anā maʿakum mina l-shahidīna (q 3:81), «and I am with you among the witnesses» while he is the only witness (see witnessing and testifying), and the change of verb forms (see above); see for the recurring kāna llāhu ʿalīman…, Reuschel (Wa-kāna llāhu, 152; also Aspekt und Tempus, 100 f.), who considers the possibility of licentia but favors tawkīd. Extraction of the pronominal constituent of the verb is not always incorporated for the sake of focalization or topicalization (see below): yā ʿibādi lā khawfun ʿalaykumu l-yawma wa-lā antum taḥzanūna (q 43:68); similarly syntactic nominalization can occur without formal head (mawṣūf): in hum illā yakhruṣūna (q 43:20).

4. Verbal aspects and tenses

Reuschel’s Aspekt und Tempus in der Sprache des Qorans is a comprehensive taxonomy of the verbal tense and aspect use in the Qurʾān, but it is not an attempt to sort out qurʾānic peculiarities. Structures discussed in Reuschel: wa-mā kāna li-nafsin an tamūta illā bi-idhni llāhi, «cannot, impossible that» (q 3:145); wa-mā kāna llāhu li-yuʿjizahū min shayʾin, «it is not the kind of thing that he does to…» (q 35:44; Reuschel, Aspekt und Tempus, 115 f.); performative samiʿnā wa-aṭaʿnā (e.g. q 2:285; Reuschel, op. cit., 130). On the expression in kuntum fāʿilīna (q 12:10), see Bravmann (The phrase, 347 f.), who considers its sense an expression of «inner compulsion», without, however, studying the three other occurrences in the Qurʾān.

Kinberg (Semi-imperfectives) treats qurʾānic active participial structures and observes that some indicate "semi-imperfective present, " namely, it may be bounded by a dynamic event, either at its beginning ¶ (similar to the English present perfect) or at the end (the English equivalent here is «puturate progressive»). On arānī/arā (lit. «I see myself») in q 12:36 and 43 exhibiting the use of an imperfect in a narrative of one’s own dream (see dreams and sleep), see Nöldeke (Zur Grammatik, 67). The extensive qurʾānic use of the energicus forms (imperfect or imperative plus -an or -anna) is studied by Ambros (Syntaktische und stilistische Funktionen), where its use as a stylistic device is particularly emphasized. Zewi (A syntactical study) presents a meticulous classification of sentence-types with energicus, and indicates its association with indicatives, in a larger context of Semitic linguistics.

5. Nominal SP sentence

Collision of formal and notional reme (comment): The recurring wa-mā kāna jawāba qawmihi illā an qālū… (as in q 7:82) exhibits what seems to be disagreement between the formal predicate marking (naṣb) and the notional status of jawāb as a subject (see Fleischer, Kleinere Schriften, 558 f., following al-Bayḍāwī's distinction in nominal sentences with two definite members).

6. Presentatives

The demonstrative pronouns (of both «close» and «remote» sets) are used as presentatives with the sense of «look!», «voilà» (see Bloch, Studies in Arabic syntax, 54 f.). The nuclear presentative plus predicate occurs in such expressions as: yā bushrā hādhā ghulāmun (q 12:19); hāʾulāʾi banātī in kuntum fāʿilīna (q 15:71).

The following verses present an enlarged structure, with an additional finite verb or a nominal marked by accusative, which Bloch, ibid., terms the amplified structure: hādhihi biḍāʿatunā ruddat ilaynā (q 12:65); hādhā baʿlī shaykhan (q 11:72); fa-tilka buyūtuhum khāwiyatan bi-mā ẓalamū (q 27:52; see also Nöldeke, Zur Grammatik [1963], 48-50). ¶ The early Arab grammarians took great interest in this structure. A development in their conception is observable in the Kitāb with al-Khalīl’s and Sībawayhi’s identification of the accusatival nominal as circumstantial (ḥāl) instead of khabar (al-maʿrifa), which was still conceived as such by al-Farrāʾ, for example. On the Arabic grammatical literature concerning hāʾulāʾi banātī hunna aṭharu/aṭhara lakum (q 11:78) see Talmon (Problematic passage). Hā antum hāʾulāʾi tudʿawna (as in q 47:38 and similar verses) are discussed by Nöldeke (op. cit., 50). Bloch (Studies in Arabic syntax, 74 f. and especially 80 f.) identifies them as «proclitic» with the presentative as a separate unit («look!») and the pronoun and the verb as S plus P.

The verse inna hādhā akhī lahu tisʿun wa-tisʿūna naʿjatan wa-lī naʿjatun wāḥidatun (q 38:23) includes both an affirmative inna (see what follows) and a presentative followed by a topicalized sentence akhī lahu… < li-akhī….

7. Function of inna

Bloch’s (Studies in Arabic syntax, 102) description of classical Arabic inna as "[…] emphasiz[ing] the speaker’s certainty… that what is said in a sentence is a fact, is true, will indeed take place, " fits Goldenberg’s (Studies in Semitic linguistics, 148 f.) model of nexal relations as corroboration of the nexal constituent. Note Bloch’s observation that qurʾānic citations (q 2:20 = 8:10, 63:1, 26:41 = 23:82, 6:19, 13:5) still exhibit this function «despite a large degree of conventionalization of its use.»

The following verses have an independent pronoun in a position occupied regularly by a subject: huwa llāhu aḥadu (q 112:1) and fa-idhā hiya shākhiṣatun abṣāru lladhīna kafarū (q 21:97). Al-Kisāʾī, and less firmly al-Farrāʾ, consider this pronoun ʿimād (cf. Kinberg, Lexicon of al-Farrāʾ, s.v.). Occasionally instead of inna we find the use of ¶ in with the same function: in kullun lammā jamīʿun ladaynā muḥḍarūna (q 36:32) and in kullu nafsin lammā ʿalayhā ḥāfiẓun (q 86:4). This structure occurs also with inna in wa-inna kullan lammā la-yuwaffiyannahum rabbuka aʿmālahum (q 11:111); similarly, in kidta for innaka… in ta-llāhi in kidta la-turdīni (q 37:56).

8. Verb agreement in a verb + subject (VS) sentence

Agreement of the verb with the number of its following agent, dubbed akalūnī l- barāghīth in the Arab linguistic literature, is recorded in q 5:71, 21:3 and in the reading qad aflaḥū l- muʾminūna in q 23:1. Nöldeke adds fa- aṣbaḥū fī dārihim jāthimīna lladhīna kadhdhabū Shuʿayban (q 7:91-2; see shuʿayb) and cites al-Ḥarīrī's misgivings mā sumiʿa illā fī lugha ḍaʿīfa lam yanṭuq bihi l-Qurʾān, but Spitaler is more equivocal about the correct attribution of the last to the list (cf. Nöldeke, Zur Grammatik [1963], 152). Nöldeke (op. cit., 78) adds a note about the possible development of this phenomenon which accordingly is only in its first stages in qurʾānic language. See Levin (What is meant) on the grammarians' interpretation of this structure, not in terms of number agreement. (On the possible Hudhalī origin of this variant, see dialects .)

Absence of gender agreement in kāna ʿāqibatu… (e.g. q 27:14) is discussed as a phenomenon discernible «in the earliest texts» in Fischer (Classical Arabic, 212). Verbs of stem II can mark agreement with a plural subject (originally an object), as in mufattaḥatan lahumu l-abwābu (q 38:50).

9. Use of an impersonal verb construction

The construction exhibited by wa-ḥushira li-Sulaymāna (q 27:17) in the sense of "Solomon (q.v.) collected, " is better known in Aramaic (but see Ullmann, Adminiculum, 78 f. ex. 700-10). Reckendorf (Arabische Syntax, 359) explicates the structure li-yujzā¶ qawman (q 45:14). A discussion of non-inflected passives followed by an accusatival complement is found in Blau (On invariable passive forms). Nöldeke (Zur Grammatik, 76) mentions la-qad taqaṭṭaʿa baynahum (q 6:94; baynakum is another attested reading).

Problems concerning the negative of ghayri l-maghḍūbi ʿalayhim… (q 1:7; see fātiḥa) are discussed by the early Arab grammarians; see Farrāʾ, Maʿānī, e.g. at q 18:99, nufikha fī l-ṣūri and five other occurrences, including fīhi, vs. fa-idhā nufikha fī l-ṣūri nafkhatun wāḥidatun in q 69:13 (on which see Fleischer, Kleinere Schriften, 93).

Brockelmann’s (Grundriß, ii, 119 f.) suggestion that wa-idhā aẓlama ʿalayhim (q 2:20) is a case in point is repeated by Blau (On invariable passive forms, 87 n. 8) but rejected by Nöldeke (cf. the margin of his private copy, located in the library of Tübingen University), who refers to the preceding barq «lightning» as the subject in kullamā aḍāʾa lahum mashaw fīhi.

10. Topicalization

Topicalization, or isolation of a natural subject in a sentence’s opening position, seems to be the most frequently used transposition in qurʾānic syntax, e.g. inna lladhīna lā yuʾminūna bil-ākhirati zayyannā lahum aʿmālahum (q 27:4; see the statistics in Dahlgren, Word order). Isolation of this kind may leave its original case mark of the unmarked position as in wa-l- samāʾa banaynāhā bi-aydin (q 51:47) and wa-l-arḍa madadnāhā wa-alqaynā fīhā rawāsiya (q 50:7); al-Farrāʾ restricted this structure to «continuing» sentences, conjoined to a preceding sentence (cf. Kinberg, ‘Clause’ and ‘sentence,’ 240 f.). Ammā is the most common particle marking topicalization, usually in combination with contrast, as in fa-ammā lladhīna āmanū… fa-yudkhiluhum rabbuhum fī raḥmatihī… wa-ammā lladhīna¶ kafarū… (q 45:30-1). Examples of contrastive clauses presented without ammā, especially when SV transposition seems to sufficiently mark the contrastive effect, are wa-llāhu yaqḍī bil-ḥaqqi wa-lladhīna yadʿūna min dūnihi lā yaqḍūna bi-shayʾin (q 40:20) and ammā l-yatīma… fa-ammā bi-niʿmati rabbika fa-ḥaddith (q 93:9-11); for several readings of ammā Thamūdan (q 41:17; see thamūd), see Rabin (Ancient west Arabian, 183), where, however, «extraposition» is used as a general notion covering focalization as well.

The resumptive member of the predicate portion may be related more loosely to the topicalized entity, cf. inna lladhīna āmanū wa-ʿamilū l-ṣāliḥāti innā lā nuḍīʿu ajra man aḥsana ʿamalan (q 18:30); similarly q 7:170 and elsewhere.

11. Focalization

Focalization is another extensively used syntactic transformation which serves the Qurʾān’s rhetorics. The following are various modes of creation of tawkīd:

a. Focalization by extraposition: iyyāka naʿbudu (q 1:5).

b. Focus on the pronoun of a predicate complex by its isolation («pronoun reduplication»): inna shāniʾaka huwa l-abtaru (q 108:3); ūlāʾika humu l- ṣādiqūna (q 49:15; a typical case of ḍamīr al-faṣl according to the grammarians' tradition); wa-hum bil-ākhirati hum yūqinūna (q 27:3); and in verbal sentences: anā ātīka bihi (q 27:40); a-hum yaqsimūna raḥmata rabbika naḥnu qasamnā… (q 43:32); similar is the repetition in zawjayni ithnayni (e.g. q 11:40); the occurrences of (u)skun anta wa-zawjuka l-jannata (q 2:35; 7:19) are not cases of tawkīd, in spite of their description as such in the grammatical tradition, but «cases of balancing» (see Bloch, Studies in Arabic syntax, 1 f.).

c. Focalization of the lexical contents of the verbal complex by use of the exceptive particle illā: mā nadrī mā l-sāʿatu in naẓunnu illā ẓannan (q 45:32, following 45:24wa-mā¶ lahum… min ʿilmin in hum illā yaẓunnūna), on which see the general study of focalization by Goldenberg (Studies in Semitic linguistics, 110), where it is incorporated in a comprehensive concept of the rather independent character of the verb’s constituents.

d. Innamā and annamā focalizing the member following their immediate adjacent, e.g. innamā l- muʾminūna ikhwatun (q 49:10). Miquel (La particule innamā) offers a variety of semantic functions of the qurʾānic innamā based on the Arab grammarians' distinction of its restrictive (ḥaṣr) sense.

12. Entity terms

Kull plus singular is used not only for the partitive «every one of» but also in the sense of «all possible items of the species.» See Nöldeke (Zur Grammatik, 82 f.) on kullun āmana bi-llāhi (q 2:285), kullun kadhdhaba (q 50:14), and kullun qad ʿalima ṣalātahu (q 24:41) followed by a verb indicating their plurality wa-llāhu ʿalīmun bi-mā yafʿalūna (also Fischer, Grammatik, § 136, anm. 2).

13. Adjective, morphological and syntactic

a. Syntactic adjectivization, as in yā ayyuhā lladhīna āmanū, occurs some eighty-five times, but note the absence of qurʾānic occurrences of (yā) ayyuhā l-muʾminūna. The finite verb in nominal position in mina lladhīna hādū yuḥarrifūna l-kalima (q 4:46) is considered by Nöldeke (Zur Sprache, 15) not to be a case of asyndetic adjectivization, but an ellipsis completed by qawm.

b. Agreement — irregularity: al- samāʾu munfaṭirun (q 73:18); la-ʿalla l- sāʿata qarībun (q 42:17); see Nöldeke (Zur Grammatik, 22-3) who provides his discussion with rich documentation of such cases with faʿīl and passive participles and mentions this active participle munfaṭir for the feminine samāʾ. Among early Arab grammarians who discussed these cases, Yūnus b. Ḥabīb al-Thaqafī (d. 182/798) is quoted ¶ (see Akhfash, Maʿānī, 62) saying yu dhakkaru baʿḍ al-muʾannath, and others analogized it with ḍāmir. Abū ʿAmr’s explanation relates it to the sense of saqf «roof.» The inconsistency of feminine singular ẓallat and then plural khāḍiʿīna in fa-ẓallat aʿnāquhum lahā khāḍiʿīna (q 26:4) is included in Nöldeke’s study of cases of personification (op. cit., 81) and is related to another case of inconsistency in yatafayyaʾu ẓilāluhu… wa-hum dākhi-rūna (q 16:48); al-Kisāʾī (see Farrāʾ, Maʿānī, ii, 277) considers the pronoun in khāḍiʿīna resuming human plurality of -hum in aʿnāquhum and compares this «mirror-like» structure with a similar poetic verse.

The Qurʾān is particularly abundant in cases of irregular agreement in number and gender, e.g. wa-man yaʿṣi llāha wa- rasūlahu lahu nāra jahannama khālidīna fīhā abadan (q 72:23). These particular cases are studied in Nöldeke (Zur Grammatik, 81 f. and id., Zur Sprache, 12 f.).

c. "Indirect attribute, " see Polotsky (Point in Arabic) and his criticism of Reckendorf’s concept of «Attraktion» and defence of the Arab grammarians' analysis of naʿt sababī, as in min hādhihi l- qaryati l-ẓālimi ahluhā (q 4:75) and (ṣirāṭi…) ghayri l-maghḍūbi ʿalayhim (q 1:7). Nöldeke (Zur Grammatik, 79) treats the structure and adduces several qurʾānic and other occurrences including mukhtalifan alwānuhu (q 16:13), lil- qāsiyati qulūbuhum (q 39:22), khāshiʿatan abṣāruhum (q 68:43) and mufattaḥatan lahumu l-abwābu (q 38:50), all with singular adjectives but khushshaʿan abṣāruhum (q 54:7) in the plural. A recent comprehensive study of these and similar structures is Diem (Fa-waylun li-l-qāsiyati). Valuable observations are provided in Goldenberg, Two types.

14. Nominal concord

a. Inclusion of one member of a coordinative pair, known in the Arab linguistic tradition as taghlīb, is buʿda l-mashriqayni¶ (q 43:38; see Sister, Metaphora, 117; Goldenberg, Studies in Semitic linguistics, 128). The plural rabbu l-mashāriqi (q 37:5) may have resulted from attraction to the preceding al- samāwāt. For a discussion of il yāsīn (q 37:130) as "Ilyās and his party, " see Goldenberg (Allā٤̲ī al-maṣdariyya, 110, n. 11 with reference to Farrāʾ, Maʿānī); also Goldziher (Richtungen, 18) who mentions idrīsīn as an alternative reading and seems to imply a possible case of taghlīb of either of the two figures (see idrīs; elijah).

b. The plural noun construed with a dual pronoun in qulūbukumā (q 66:4) is studied, with reference to Sībawayhi’s view, in Blau (Two studies, 16 f.). For further reference to grammarians' views on this issue see Talmon (Arabic grammar, 225 f., 271). Other qurʾānic instances are the four occurrences of sawʾāt-uhumā/-ihimā in q 7:20 and elsewhere.

c. Coordination of two prepositional phrases, the first of which includes a bound pronoun, is lladhī tasāʾlūna bihi wa-l-arḥāma (q 4:1). Nöldeke (Zur Grammatik, 93; also Zur Sprache, 12, n. 1) indicates the Arab grammarians' dissatisfaction with this structure (which does not comply with their rule of bihi wa-bi-l…).

15. Numeralia

There is a single case of irregularity of the counted noun following a number of the 11-99 group, ithnatay ʿashra asbāṭan (q 7:160) against thnatā ʿashrata ʿaynan in the same verse; thalātha miʾatin sinīna (q 18:25) does not exhibit irregularity as it stands. The «literal» use of the active part in cardinal numbers in the sense of «increasing the number up to X» is attested in sa-yaqūlūna thalāthatun rābiʿuhum kalbuhum wa-yaqūlūna khamsatun sādisuhum kalbuhum… wa-yaqūlūna sabʿatun wa-thāminuhum kalbuhum (q 18:22; also 58:7), but inna llāha thālithu thalāthatin (q 5:73) and thāniya thnayni (q 9:40).¶

16. Verbal regimen

Transitive verbs with restricted transitivity: The verbs safiha and ṣabara of safiha nafsahu (q 2:130) and wa-ṣbir nafsaka (q 18:28) are recognized in the early Arab grammarians' literature as instances in which the apparent object has a different identity, i.e. instances of mufassir, later termed tamyīz. This recognition involved a description of peculiarities of these complements whose definiteness is consequently regarded as merely formal (cf. Talmon, Arabic grammar, 270). The syntactically problematic reading hal tastaṭīʿu rabbaka (q 5:112) for hal yastaṭīʿu rabbuka and its dogmatic background is discussed in Goldziher (Richtungen, 23).

17. Particles, adverbials

a. Bi- of bi-l-amsi (four occurrences) is not omitted, hence there is no occurrence of amsi (cf. Beeston, Arabic language, 89).

b. The conjunctive wa-, following the first nominal in fī-himā fākihatun wa-nakhlun wa-rummānun (q 55:68), puzzled Arab philologists and accordingly an anonymous view recorded in al-Khalīl’s Kitāb al-ʿAyn suggested its interpretation as reference to inclusion, i.e. «namely…,» though this view was rejected by others (see Talmon, Arabic grammar, 269).

c. Lawlā in the sense of the cohortative hallā often caused misunderstanding (see Nöldeke, Zur Grammatik, 112 f. and Bergsträsser, Verneinungs- und Fragepartikeln).

d. Expressions of agreement include balā, naʿam, ajal; disagreement and rejection are expressed by kallā (see Bergsträsser, op. cit., 82).

e. A comparative study of the adversative lākin/lākinna in Ambros (Lākin und lākinna) brings out the emphasis of added value to the latter and its frequent formulaic (stereotypical) combination, particularly with akthar (al-nās/-hum).¶

18. Negation

a. Negation of nexal relations: shayʾan as a verb complement in such cases as wa-laysa bi-ḍārrihim shayʾan (q 58:10) and some other thirty occurrences, in which this complement cannot be considered an external object, is studied in Talmon (Syntactic category) and identified there as a corroboration of nexus negation, namely the negation of relations between the person and the attribute constituents of the verb. It is considered there as a qurʾānic syntax peculiarity. Its possible relation with the negating suffix shay/-sh is then considered. Bergsträsser’s (Verneinungs- und Fragepartikeln, 105 f.) classification of shayʾan’s occurrences misses this peculiarity.

b. Redundant lā following negation is frequent in the Qurʾān as in wa-mā arsalnā min qablika min rasūlin wa-lā nabiyyin (q 22:52; see also q 2:105; 9:121; 42:52; 46:9; Nöldeke, Zur Grammatik, 90; also id., Zur Sprache, 19 f. for a detailed discussion of its occurrence after manaʿa etc.).

c. (fa-) lā khawfun ʿalayhim (q 46:13) and elsewhere exhibits use of -un (rafʿ) instead of -a for the general negation with lā al- nāfiya lil-jins.

d. The negating particle in is probably characteristic of the Ḥijāz (see Nöldeke, Zur Sprache, 21 and for a summary see dialects; also Bergsträsser, Verneinungs- und Fragepartikeln, 105 f.). On the use of in in structures of the type in… illā… see Rabin (Ancient west Arabian, 178).

e. Wehr (Funktion) first studied the difference between classical Arabic mā/lam and indicated the added affective value of the first.

f. Lā of the laysa/mā type is reported by al-Zamakhsharī (d. 538/1144) for the Ḥijāz, but the Qurʾān has it only coordinated (q 31:28); and in q 36:40 the predicate is in the nominative (cf. Rabin, op. cit., 179).¶

19. Affective expressions

a. Faʿula in an affective sense occurs in kaburat kalimatan (q 18:5) and kabura maqtan (q 40:35).

b. Niʿma (with eighteen occurrences and two others as niʿimmā) and biʾsa (with thirty-seven occurrences and three others as biʾsamā) present in the Qurʾān a unique structure, namely without a "remote nominative, " which is hardly followed in their use in other corpora of early Arabic, e.g. niʿma l-thawābu (q 18:31). The structure constitutes the majority of occurrences of niʿma and biʾsa in the Qurʾān (see Beeston, Classical Arabic niʿma).

c. X mā X: fa-aṣḥābu l-maymanati mā aṣḥābu l-maymanati… in q 56:8-9, similarly in q 56:27; al- qāriʿatu mā l-qāriʿatu (q 101:1-2) is interpreted by Arab philologists as «how happy, miserable, awful…» respectively; see also the somewhat similar jundun mā hunālika mahzūmun mina l-aḥzābi (q 38:11); huwa mā huwa is discussed in Fleischer (Kleinere Schriften, 477 f.).

d. Typical interjections: uffin lakumā (e.g. q 46:17); yā ḥasratā (q 39:56).

20. Reported speech

A pattern represented by the verb qāla plus imperative plural seems to represent a lively narrative style, where the order is expected to be a cohortative «let’s» in which the speaker is included: qālat… udkhulū (q 27:18); qālū anṣitū (q 46:29); qālū taqāsamū bi-llāhi (q 27:49); idh qālū la-Yūsufu wa-akhūhu aḥabbu ilā abīnā… qtulū Yūsufa… (q 12:8-9).

The speaker excludes himself from the collectivity of addressees, to whom he belongs, in qāla qāʾilun minhum kam labithtum qālū labithnā yawman (q 18:19), where we would expect «how much have we spent…». In a way this applies to another occurrence of direct speech with qāla qāʾilun minhum (q 12:10). The other occurrence ¶ of qāla qāʾilun minhum (q 37:51) exhibits the same phenomenon as in q 37:54qāla hal antum muṭṭaliʿūna which is followed by his own act in the next verse fa- ṭṭalaʿa….

Use of an at the beginning of citations following verbs other than qāla is frequent in the Qurʾān and and is considered by Fischer (Grammatik, 188, n. 1) as typical of "Vorarabisch, " e.g. nūdiya an būrika… (q 27:8). Verbs other than qāla may open a citation. In the case of wa-waṣṣā bihā Ibrāhīmu… yā baniyya (q 2:132) al-Farrāʾ (Maʿānī, ad loc.) reports that other grammarians analyzed it as a structure in which an is omitted whereas al-Farrāʾ himself argues that waṣṣā only has the sense of qāla.

Some sentences commencing with the verb of command amara and reporting the contents of the command indirectly may present an intermediary mode in which the cohortative li- precedes the subordinate particle an, as in umirtu li-an akūna (q 39:12) or even dispense with it as in wa-mā umirū illā li-yaʿbudū llāha (q 98:5). A case in which this mode is followed by a direct quotation is wa-umirnā li-nuslima li-rabbi l-ʿālamīna wa-an aqīmū l-ṣalāta wa-ttaqūhu (q 6:71-2).

21. Nominalization, subordinate sentences in noun position

Morphological nominalization which maintains the relations of the former attributival element and the agent/recipient is shaped as a construct structure (iḍāfa). Existence of both actants is attested in qatlu awlādihim shurakāʾuhum (q 6:137), in which awlād is the recipient (killed children; see infanticide) and shurakāʾ is the agent, which stands in loose relation to the construct qatl. The reading qatlu awlādahum shurakāʾihim presents a stronger syntactic cohesion with the agent, yet with irregular separation by the recipient of the two constituents of the iḍāfa relations. This reading is reported and discussed by al-Farrāʾ (Maʿānī, ad q 6:137).¶

Use of an instead of anna in other cases than qāla (see above) is considered by Fischer (Grammatik, 188, n. 2) characteristic of the pre-classical period of Arabic. Rabin (Ancient west Arabian, 172) discusses an sa-yakūnu (q 73:20), and notes its relation to the preceding ʿalima an lan tuḥṣūhu (op. cit., 190, n. 11). Rabin (op. cit., 169) also discusses in this context ka-an lam for ka-anna… as in fa-jaʿalnāhā ḥaṣīdan ka-an lam taghna bil-amsi (q 10:24) and relates an to in of the structure in… lammā in q 36:32 (see also the discussion of inna above). For an example of an asyndetic structure with main verbs expressing a wish conjoined directly to imperfect indicative verbs without an, see taʾmurūnnī aʿbudu in q 39:64.

22. Relative clauses

a. Asyndetic syntactic adjectivization: al- muṣṣaddiqīna wa-l-muṣṣaddiqāti wa-aqraḍū llāha qarḍan (q 57:18); also [waylun yawmaʾidhin lil-mukadhdhibīna] wa-idhā qīla lahumu rkaʿū lā yarkaʿūna (q 77:48); cf. Brockelmann (Grundriß, ii, 563) with reconstruction of the process as "Muḥammad wagt es zwar ein determiniertes Adjektiv durch einen Satz forzusetzen, aber noch nicht den Artikel auf diesen zu übertragen, " referring to Nöldeke’s evaluation (Zur Sprache, 14).

b. The resumptive pronoun of a locative is missing in yawman lā tajzī for lā tajzī fīhi (q 2:48, 123. Nöldeke (op. cit., 16) considers it a case in which this pronoun behaves as if it were an object pronoun, namely tajzīhi. This phenomenon recurs in fa-l-yaṣumhu (q 2:185) and is studied by Nöldeke (Zur Grammatik, 36). Early Basran and Kūfan grammarians recorded by Farrāʾ disputed the identity of the elliptic pronoun in q 2:48.

c. Indirect relative clauses: yā ayyuhā lladhīna āmanū (see above under adjectives) and yā ʿibādiya lladhīna āmanū (q 29:56) is discussed by Bloch (Studies in Arabic syntax, 28) ¶ who suggests the notion of «encompassing generality» of believers as an explanation for its abundance. The direct relative clause should be lladhīna āmantum.

d. The use of alladhī al- maṣdariyya in q 9:69, wa-khuḍtum ka-lladhī khāḍū, and the history of its linguistic treatment is studied by Goldenberg (Allā٤̲ī al-maṣdariyya) who mentions two other verses which probably exhibit this phenomenon, namely q 6:154 and 62:23 (cf. ibid. § 9). Reference is made to another omission of the resumptive pronoun in niʿmataka llatī anʿamta ʿalayya (q 27:19).

23. Other compound sentences

a. Embedded copular structures: Nöldeke (Zur Grammatik [1963], 48) treats this structure, noting duplication of pronouns after verba sintiendi and jaʿala and exemplified with in taranī anā aqalla… (q 18:39) and tajidūhu ʿinda llāhi huwa khayran wa-aʿẓama ajran (q 73:20); Nöldeke refers to lā yaḥsibanna lladhīna yabkhalūna bi-mā ātāhumu llāhu min faḍlihi huwa khayran lahum (q 3:180) as «ungeschickt.»

b. ʿAsā structures occur thiry times in the Qurʾān. Rabin (Ancient west Arabian, 185) mentions two cases in which uninflected ʿasā has a dual or plural subject, namely in q 2:216 and 49:11 (Ibn Masʿūd [d. 32/652] and Ubayy b. Kaʿb [d. 35/656] read the latter with inflected ʿasā) and two loci with inflected hal ʿasaytum… (q 2:246; 47:22). Of the eight structural modes of its occurrence in classical Arabic texts (as specified by Ullmann, Vorklassisches Arabisch), only the first, namely ʿasā plus an plus subjunctive, is represented here. See also Nöldeke (Zur Sprache, 4), where the variation of inflected and uninflected ʿasā constitutes part of his argumentation against Vollers' thesis.

c. Exceptive member after negative mā: Rabin (op. cit., 181) cites the Arab grammarians' observation according to which the Ḥijāzī dialect marked the munqaṭiʿ (logi-¶ cally non-identical, of a different species) exceptive member with accusative, contrary to the Tamīmī rule which maintained agreement of this member with the noun of the main sentence. The Qurʾān exhibits what may be interpreted as the Ḥijāzī pattern in mā lahum bihi min ʿilmin illā ttibāʿa l-ẓanni (q 4:157), although ḥāl interpretation or its like is also possible.

24. Elliptic sentences

Frequent occurrence of elliptic sentences in the Qurʾān is well noted by Nöldeke (Zur Sprache, 17) and others, especially with idh and idhā as opening new passages.

As this overview demonstrates, qurʾānic grammar poses a great challenge to modern students of the language of early Islam, especially in its historical setting. Advancement of computerized techniques of language- and text-analysis may give an added value to future research in this field (see computers and the qurʾān).

Rafael Talmon

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