Abu Mansur Mawhub ibn Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn al-Khadr al-Jawaliqi (d.1144 AD), Kitab takmilat islah ma taghlat fihi al-'amma, on Arabic grammar, Near East, circa 1300 AD

Al-Jawaliqi’s Kitab takmilat islah ma taghlat fihi al-'amma is a highly important treatise on Arabic grammar. Our author was born in Baghdad in 1073 AD, where he became known as one of the most talented students of grammarian al-Tibrizi. Al-Jawaliqi succeeded his tutor as professor of philology at the prestigious Nizamiyya School in Baghdad, where he nurtured the talents of distinguished scholars such as Jamal al-Din Abu 'I-Faraj 'Abd al-Rahman ibn 'Ali ibn al-Jawzi. Al-Jawaliqi was in high standing in both academic and religious spheres and was patronised by the caliph al-Muqtafi (1136-60 AD) who appointed al-Jawaliqi as his personal imam (Arberry 1955, no.3009).

Medieval sources celebrate our author’s scholarly achievements and prudence in the field of philology. Ibn Khallikan praised him as “a learned scholar, and master of all branches of literature…A number of instructive works were composed by him and got into wide circulation…” (Haywood 1968). Despite al-Jawaliqi’s prolific output, manuscripts exist of only two of the texts he composed: al-Mu’arrab min al-kalam al-’a‘jami, a glossary of Arabicised loan words that is said to have elevated the cultural level if the Arabic language from the “depths” to which it had fallen in the Seljuk rule (Fleisch 1991, p.490), and the present text, Kitab takmilat islah ma taghlat fihi al-'amma, which aims to correct incorrect expressions. The text is organised alphabetically, identifying common errors related to pronunciation, grammar and usage. Al-Jawaliqi's corrections are based upon classical sources and sought to cultivate a heightened linguistic awareness that was coupled with an ethical understanding of language. Both this work and al-Jawaliqi’s al-Mu’arrab min al-kalam al-'a‘jami reflect the author’s anxiety concerning the preservation of the integrity of the Arabic language at a time of increasing linguistic diversity.

Further copies of our text figure as part of compiled manuscripts in Al-Zahirriyya Library, Damascus, dated 587 AH/1191 AD (inv. no.1594), the Raghib Pasha Library, Istanbul, dated 631 AH/1234 AD, and the Dar al-Kutub al-Misriyya Library, dated 992 AH/1584 AD (see Hatim Salih al-Damin (ed.) 2007, pp.28-41). A further copy dated 529 AH/1134 AD was sold in Christie’s, London, 2 May 2019, lot 27.