Note Sur Al-Astarabadhi

Little is known about Muhammed Radi al-Din Ibn Hasan al-Astarabadhi, the famous Arab grammarian who died about 1289, and even this date depends on whether the colophons of his two major works, the Sharh al-Shafiya and the Shark al-Kafiya, offer reliable information. Indeed, for long one did not even know his name; he has generally been referred to as the 'Star of the Imams' in view of the authority ascribed to his treatises of Arabic. Although al-Astarabad-hi followed in many respects the analyses advanced in the Kitab by Sibawayhi (8th century), his works contain a number of important observations of his own. Thus he was the first to explain the phenomenon of rhotacism in Arabic, and analyzed the function of particular cases and demonstrative pronouns which had hitherto been unsolved in Arabic linguistic scholarship.