Al-ʿAkbarī’s method of deduction using poetic grammatical evidence in his book "al-Tabyīn ʿan Madhāhib al-Naḥwīyīn"

Abstract

This research aims to demonstrate the role of poetic grammatical evidence (Shāhid Naḥwī Shiʿrī) in the construction of Arabic grammar, shed light on al-ʿAkbarī’s methodology in employing poetic grammatical evidence in his book "al-Tabyīn" , define poetic grammatical evidence, its importance, the criteria and controls for its narration, the types of poetic evidence according to al-ʿAkbarī, and clarify al-ʿAkbarī’s method of deduction using poetic evidence and how he utilized it in preferring between grammatical schools (Madhāhib Naḥwīyah) and in constructing his own grammatical doctrine. The research adopts a descriptive analytical methodology. It involved collecting, classifying, and analyzing poetic grammatical evidence, and studying al-ʿAkbarī’s method of deduction using it. Among the most important findings of the research are: identifying the types of poetic grammatical evidence according to al-ʿAkbarī, showing that the predominant characteristic of his evidence is that it is not attributed to its authors, shedding light on al-ʿAkbarī’s method of explaining poetic evidence, clarifying the main strengths and weaknesses in the ways of using evidence, and demonstrating al-ʿAkbarī’s method of refuting poetic evidence. The research recommends encouraging researchers to filter and sort grammatical evidence, and to alert them to more precise and systematic research on the issue of poetic evidence as an important tool in building the grammatical system, by subjecting these poetic pieces of evidence to academic methodology.