Negotiating Samāʿ and Qiyās: Epistemological Foundations of Grammar in  Al-Suyūṭī’s Hamʿ Al-Hawāmiʿ

MOHAMMED SALEH ALI ALSHIZAWI; MUSTAFA ADNAN MOHAMMED AL ITHAWI

doi:10.17576/gema-2026-2603-13

Negotiating Samāʿ and Qiyās: Epistemological Foundations of Grammar in Al-Suyūṭī’s Hamʿ Al-Hawāmiʿ

MOHAMMED SALEH ALI ALSHIZAWI, MUSTAFA ADNAN MOHAMMED AL ITHAWI

Abstract

This study examines how Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī (d. 911 AH) reconciles transmitted usage (samāʿ) with analogical reasoning (qiyās) in his auto-commentary Hamʿ al-Hawāmiʿ fī Sharḥ Jamʿ al-Jawāmiʿ (al-Suyūṭī, 1975). Previous scholarship on the work has catalogued its terminology and recorded where the two principles occur, but has not reconstructed the conditions under which al-Suyūṭī licenses or withholds analogical extension. The study addresses that gap through a single-case textual design with embedded units of analysis. The case is Volume 5 of the Hārūn and Makram edition of Hamʿ al-Hawāmiʿ fī Sharḥ Jamʿ al-Jawāmiʿ, which treats verbal government, particles and nominal morphology, and which therefore concentrates disputes in which the two principles are set against each other within a single passage. Five grammatical loci were selected from this volume and coded along three axes: reliance on samāʿ, permissibility of qiyās, and reconciliation mechanism. The analysis shows that al-Suyūṭī applies a consistent three-tier evidentiary order. Multiply attested usage carries the strongest authority; systematic analogy is licensed where the candidate form preserves both the semantic and the formal properties of an attested base; and analogy is withheld where the precedent is isolated, poetic, or confined to a marked register. His decisions are governed by regularity of attestation (iṭṭirād) rather than by school allegiance. The study argues that al-Suyūṭī is best characterised not as an anticipator of modern linguistic theory but as a systematiser who made explicit the evidentiary thresholds that earlier grammarians applied tacitly.

Keywords: al-Suyūṭī; samāʿ; qiyās; uṣūl al-naḥw; Arabic grammatical tradition

Kajian ini meneliti bagaimana Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī (w. 911 H) mendamaikan penggunaan yang diriwayatkan (samāʿ) dengan penaakulan analogi (qiyās) dalam ulasan-kendirinya Hamʿ al-Hawāmiʿ fī Sharḥ Jamʿ al-Jawāmiʿ (al-Suyūṭī, 1975). Kajian terdahulu terhadap karya ini telah mengkatalogkan istilahnya dan merekodkan tempat kedua-dua prinsip tersebut muncul, tetapi belum membina semula syarat yang membolehkan al-Suyūṭī mengizinkan atau menahan peluasan analogi. Kajian ini menangani jurang tersebut melalui reka bentuk tekstual kes tunggal dengan unit analisis terbenam. Kes yang dipilih ialah Jilid 5 edisi Hārūn dan Makram bagi Hamʿ al-Hawāmiʿ fī Sharḥ Jamʿ al-Jawāmiʿ, yang membincangkan pemerintahan kata kerja, partikel dan morfologi nama, dan justeru menghimpunkan perselisihan yang mempertentangkan kedua-dua prinsip dalam satu petikan. Lima lokus tatabahasa dipilih daripada jilid ini dan dikodkan mengikut tiga paksi: kebergantungan kepada samāʿ, keharusan qiyās, dan mekanisme pendamaian. Analisis menunjukkan bahawa al-Suyūṭī menerapkan susunan bukti tiga peringkat yang konsisten. Penggunaan yang dibuktikan secara berganda mempunyai autoriti paling kuat; analogi sistematik diizinkan apabila bentuk calon mengekalkan sifat semantik dan formal bentuk asas yang dibuktikan; dan analogi ditahan apabila presedennya terpencil, bersifat puitis, atau terhad kepada laras tertentu. Keputusannya ditentukan oleh keteraturan pembuktian (iṭṭirād), bukan oleh kesetiaan mazhab. Kajian ini berhujah bahawa al-Suyūṭī paling tepat digambarkan bukan sebagai pendahulu teori linguistik moden, tetapi sebagai penyistem yang menjelaskan secara nyata ambang bukti yang diterapkan secara tersirat oleh ahli tatabahasa terdahulu.

Kata Kunci: al-Suyūṭī; samāʿ; qiyās; uṣūl al-naḥw; tradisi tatabahasa Arab

Keywords

al-Suyūṭī; samāʿ; qiyās; uṣūl al-naḥw; Arabic grammatical tradition

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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17576/gema-2026-2603-13