Al-Jarmi

Arabic grammarian of Abbasid era (died 840) Al-Jarmī , full name Abū ‘Umar Ṣāliḥ ibn Isḥāq al-Bajīli al-Jarmī ( أبو عمر صالح ابن اسحاق الجرمي ) (d.840 AD/ 225 AH), was an influential grammarian of the Basra school during the Islamic Golden Age , who took part in learned discussions at Baghdād . He was a jurisconsult , philologist and native of Basra who studied in Baghdād under al-Akhfash al-Awsat . He studied philology under Abū Ubayda , Abū Zaid al-Ansāri , al-Aṣmā’ī et al., and became a teacher of akhbar (traditions). Abū ‘l-Abbās al-Mubarrad quotes al-Jarmī having told him that he had studied the “ Diwan of the Hudhaylites ” under al-Aṣmā’ī, whose expertise in that work had surpassed his own, and al-Aṣmā’ī saying to him “O Abū Omar [al-Jarmī] if a member of the Banu Hudhayl happen to be neither poet nor archer, nor runner, then he’s nothing!” Referring to a passage from The Qur'ān , he said, “Follow not what you know, say not you have heard when you have not, or seen when you did not see, or know when you do not know; for the hearing, the sight and the heart are subjects on which you will answer to God!”. Al-Mubarrad regarded al-Jarmī the expert on Sībawayh's Kitāb , as he had memorised much of it and taught the great majority of those who studied it. He also wrote original philological works and was a highly esteemed historian of tradition and muhaddith (hadīth scholar). The hafiz Abū Noaim also mentions al-Jarmī. Shaykh Abū Sa‘īd said that al-Jarmī and al-Māzinī were the leading grammarians of their generation, and were followed by the generation of al-Mubarrad . The primary account of his life is found in Al-Nadim ’s “Fihrist”, where the isnad begins with the written account of al- Khazzāz , that al-Mubarrad had said al-Jarmī was a protégé of Bajīlah ibn Anmār ibn Irāsh ibn al-Ghawth , brother to al-Azd ibn al-Ghawth." Abū Sa‘īd said that al-Jarmī was a protégé of Jarm ibn Rabbān. Al-Jarmī was said to have derived his name from the Jarm , an Arab tribe of Yemen , with whom he had lived for a time. He studied grammar and the “Kitāb” ( Book ) of Sībawayh with al-Akhfash and others, and linguistics under Abū Zayd and al-Aṣma‘ī . Al-Jarmī never met Sībawayh but did meet Yūnus ibn Ḥabīb . There are <ref group=n> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a template (see the help page ).