Auditory Evidence in al-Jurjānī the Book Al-Mabāḥith al-‘Arabiyya fī Sharḥ al-Kāfiyya al-Ḥājibiyya

Abstract

Auditory evidence (al-samā‘) constitutes one of the foundational pillars upon which the structure of Arabic syntactic heritage was established. It represents the primary basis that grammarians relied upon in deducing syntactic rules and formulating linguistic judgments. This principle continues to serve as a fertile entry point for syntactic inquiry, particularly when examining the efforts of scholars who established its foundations and employed it in the codification of the Arabic language. From this perspective, the present study explores the use of auditory evidence by the eminent scholar Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-Jurjānī in his work Al-Mabāḥith al-‘Arabiyya fī Sharḥ al-Kāfiyya al-Ḥājibiyya. The research traces his methodology in employing auditory evidence, identifies the contexts in which he relied upon it, and assesses its presence and role in his commentary on this seminal grammatical text. The study begins by defining the concept of al-samā‘ and delineating its scope in the first section. The second section offers an analytical examination of al-Jurjānī’s approach to integrating auditory evidence, tracking his use of the Qur’an, Qur’anic readings (qirāʾāt), Prophetic traditions (ḥadīth), and the speech of Arabs in both poetry and prose—sources considered authoritative and admissible by grammarians in establishing linguistic precedent.