The creative linguistic achievements of Alkhalil bin Ahmed Al-Farahidi, and motives behind his creations: A case study

Abstract

This study aimed to examine the creative linguistic works that have always been attributed to Alkhalil bin Ahmed Al-Farahidi, and to investigate the psychological motives that influenced his various scientific achievements. This qualitative study adopted descriptive case-study research. The two study’s questions were answered through extensive research and in-depth analysis of relevant documents. The results showed that Alkhalil was the first to develop a lexicon using an original method, which was by showing the articulation of the words. Most of the rules of Arabic grammar were also provided by Alkhalil. Moreover, he was a pioneer of phonology, since he was the first to study the sounds of words using a systematic scientific approach. Furthermore, Alkhalil developed a novel mathematical method that helped him to create the grammatical permutations system and the radical of roots, along with his early contribution to the development of the Arabic morphological balance and the invention of the diacritical marks. Alkhalil could also be considered the founder of cryptology. These creative achievements provided by Alkhalil are thought to have been the result of several motives. The most important motive was his deep concern about the Arabic language. Alkhalil was also a hard worker who devoted his life to gain knowledge. His polymathic personality and sharp intellect helped him to pioneer various disciplines. Similarly, Alkhalil excelled at empirical methodology, in which he was ahead of his time.

Keywords:

• Alkhalil bin Ahmad
• creativity
• linguistics
• motives

1. Introduction

Most biographies agree that Alkhalil is an Uzdi Yahmadi. The Uzd is an Arab tribe that emigrated from Yemen after the collapse of the Ma’rib Dam, and thus immigrated to Oman and settled. AL-Yahmadi is an Omani Uzadi tribe (Al-Anbari, 1985; Alloghawi, 1955; Alsakaki, ca. 1987; Alsirafi, 1955; A. B. Alzubaidi, 2009; Haywood, 1960; Ibn Alnadim, 2006; Ibn Khallikan, 1960a). Most sources unanimously agree that Alkhalil is an Omani Uzdi (Almarzbani, 1964; Haywood, 1960; Sellheim, 1964).

As stated by Alqifti (ca.1808) and Almarzabani (1964) the name Al-Farahidi is derived from “Farahid”, an Omani village, or “Furhud” which is a cub lion. Alzubaidi (2009) and (Ibn Khallikan, 1960a) mentioned that Alkhalil was born in the town of Widam Al-Sahel in Wilayat AL-Musanaa in the Sultanate of Oman. There is no reference that opposes the fact that Alkhalil is of Omani origin except what was stated by Alsirafi (1955) that he was born in Siraf and then moved to Oman. There are few documents that argue the period of his arrival to Basra. Some claimed that Alkhalil came to Basra when he was a teenager seeking knowledge. Almarzabani (1964) mentioned that Alkhalil once said: I came from Oman following the opinion of Al-Sufriya, so I sat with Abu Ayub Al-Sakhtiani, and I heard him say if you want to acquire your teacher’s knowledge, then sit with someone else. I thought that he meant me, so I adhered to him, and he enormously enriched me (para. 2).

Furthermore, Alkhalil spent a lifetime in Basra due to the intellectual richness and the wealth of knowledge which was prevalent at that time. Despite the few mentions of Alkhalil’s social life, his scientific life was frequently addressed (Hamoudi, 2007). The biographers described the character of Alkhalil as ascetic and very religious, in addition to his extreme intelligence and accurate observation (A. B. Alzubaidi, 2009; Al-Anbari, 1985; Alsakaki, 1987; Alsirafi, 1955; Ibn Algazri, 2006; Ibn Khallikan, 1960a). His story with Suliman bin Habib, the governor of Indus (A’Sind), which was reported by A. B. Alzubaidi (2009), addresses these traits. Suliman sent Alkhalil some precious gifts with the intention that he would teach his sons in return. Alkhalil refused to accept the gifts and money and he wrote a poem conveying the meaning that he was in desperate need, but he did not need his money.

Alloghawi (1955) further stated that Alkhalil was the smartest Arab, the most knowledgeable and the most pious. It had been said that “None of the Arabs after the Companions were smarter than him or more comprehensive” (p. 28). As mentioned by Alqifti (1808), writers from Islamic regions had met once in Makkah to discuss the scholars’ situations and issues. The writers of every country began to appreciate their own country’s scholars, until Alkhalil was mentioned, then all of them ultimately agreed that Alkhalil was the smartest Arab, and he was the key to science. Ibn Almoataz (1956) asserted that Alkhalil was the most proficient among the scholars of his time in grammar, a great influential teacher, and the only one in that era. Al-Anbari (1985) also mentioned that Alkhalil was the master of Arabic literature. Furthermore, Alhamawi (1938) said, “Alkhalil was the most knowledgeable, the smartest, the best and the most pious” (p. 1263).

Sara (2013) stated that Alkhalil was a genius who created many methods for studying the structure of the Arabic language. In addition, Ibn Alhanbali (1553) confirmed that no one got the better of Alkhalil in grammar. The scholars also stated that he memorized half of the Arabic language (Alsirafi, 1955), but others said one-third of the language (Alhamawi, 1993). In light of Alkhalil’s extensive studies and teaching, he was considered the forefather of Arabic philology, according to Sellheim (2022). Alkhalil played a crucial role in developing and defining Arabic language sciences.

A number of cultural centers were founded in Basra, in addition to Al-Mirbad Market, including AL-Masjid AL-Jami, which had some councils such as the council of Hassan Al-Basri, Wasil bin Ataa, and Hammad bin Salamah (Almakhzomi, 1989). Alkhalil was a student of some scholars and grammarians in Basra, such as Abu Ayoub al-Sakhtiani who was his teacher of Islamic sciences, which were of primary importance for the Muslim learner, especially at a young age (Alish, 1946). Abu Amr bin Al-Ala was another teacher, he taught Alkhalil the principles of Quranic readings and grammar. Furthermore, Alkhalil studied the Arabic language from Abu Al-Khattab, and the grammar from Isa bin Amr Al-Thaqafi (Almakhzomi, 1960). He was also a student of Asim Al-Ahwal bin Al-Nadr Al-Basri, a scholar of hadith, Othman bin Hudhier Al-Uzdi, Al-Awam bin Hawshab, and Ghaleb bin Khattaf Al-Qattan (Aldandrawi, n.d..).

Basra was an ideal destination for those with a keen interest in science, linguistics, and religious studies. Therefore, it also attracted non-Arabs for various economic and educational purposes. This led to an influx of different mentalities, perspectives, and various beliefs and attitudes. Having such a scientifically-rich milieu inspired scholars and students to research, listen, and question. Alkhalil listened to various opinions, which helped shape his scientific mindset, based on experimentation and by delving deeply into topics (Almakhzomi, 1960). Additionally, Alkhalil traveled to Arab deserts such as Najd, Hijaz, and Tihama (main towns in the Arabic peninsula) to study the language by speaking with people and studying the structures and meanings of the words they used (Afifi, 1995).

2. Problem statement

The scientific and linguistic works of Alkhalil were documented in many biographies, some of which confirmed the attribution of these works to him, while others disputed Alkhalil’s authorship. In fact, biographers did not deny the fact that he was a genius scientific figure, but rather disagreed on some works attributed to him. Therefore, the importance of this research comes as an attempt to investigate Alkhalil’s works by tracing both old and new related documents. It also attempts to investigate the motives behind Alkhalil’s creative achievements.

Alkhalil has been credited with being the first to introduce some sciences, and by establishing their foundations and principles, including the science of prosody, phonology, morphology, lexicography, and cryptology. Alkhalil founded these sciences based on empirical methods. He was also the first to introduce the diacritics of Arabic letters, which are Fat’ha, Dhamma and Kasra.

There are several reasons why the attribution of some of Alkhalil’s works remain controversial, including the loss of many of his works. However, it was often documented that Alkhalil wrote many books such as “Kitab Al-Ayn” which was the first linguistic lexicon, “Al-Arud and Al-Qafia” [Prosody], “Al-Ngham” [The tune], “Al-Iqa’a fi Al-Musiqa” [Rhythm in Mmusic], “Al-Nuqat wa Al-Shakel” [Dots and Diacritics], “Al-Mua’ma” [Cryptology], and “Al-Jumal fi Al-Nahw” [Sentences in Grammar], in addition to kitab “Manei Al-Huroof fi Al-Arabia [Letters’ Meanings in Arabic Language] (Alhamawi, 1938).

This extraordinary creative mindset of Alkhalil is worth studying extensively. Certainly, there must be various motives that prompted him to originate such impactful achievements. Most studies about Alkahlil investigated his achievements, yet there is no study aimed at Alkhalil’s mindset and motives that might have triggered him to fully immerse himself in his scientific curiosities. In addition, the scientific achievements attributed to Alkhalil were almost completed, which means any further additions by other scholars were very simple. This unique issue must be studied.

3. Questions

This study aimed to examine the role of Alkhalil in the creation of the sciences of lexicography, grammar, morphology, phonology, and cryptology, as well as originating the Arabic diacritics, and the books he wrote on these sciences. Therefore, the first study question is: what are the creative contributions of Alkhalil for these sciences? The study also aimed to address the motives that triggered Alkhalil to create various linguistic achievements; hence, the second question is: What are the psychological motives behind Alkhalil’s linguistic innovations?

4. Method

This research adopted the descriptive case study method that is appropriate to study the research problem. The two questions of the research problem have two clear and identifiable cases with boundaries. Both questions are descriptive cases that are related to Alkhalil’s personality which constitutes a particular scientific phenomenon. From this perspective, a case study is a method that enables us to gain a rich description of the research questions’ cases to illuminate a new insight of the extent of Alkhalil’s contribution on the pre-determined sciences, and what psychological motives trigged him to those linguistic creative achievements.

The research consists of an identification of the personality of Alkhalil as a concrete unity to bounded it within certain parameters. Alkhalil is an exceptional and unique case. Therefore, the case needs to be described in detail. For that reason, this research aims to understand specific issues of this case that are: the creative contributions of Alkhalil in some linguistic sciences, and the psychological motives of his creative achievements. Particularly, this case is called instrumental case (Creswell, 1998).

5. Data analysis

The data used for this study was collected by thoroughly examining related documents including biographies, edited books, history books, narrations, etc. al. In particular, these materials are primary and secondary sources. The research relies mainly on primary sources as they were published short after Alkhalil’s life. The documents were abundant and diverse such as ancient/recent, Arabic/English, narrative and scientific. The cognitive contradiction of these resources provided opportunities to deepen understanding of the content of the two study questions. As there is more than one source provided, this led to criticize and analyze some of those cognitive contradictions. The research uses almost all the primary references that discuss the two research cases, in addition to most of the secondary sources. In-depth analyses and comparisons between these narrative data were of such importance to answer the study questions. A criterion sample was applied, as it provided the largest amount of evidence. The data was analyzed by linking, comparing, disproving, and refuting the contradictory data in an objective scientific manner. Descriptive and evaluative validity were applied to all documents for the purpose of ensuring objectivity and trustfulness.

6. Results

6.1. First question

The first question is: What creative contributions did Alkhalil have in the sciences of. The answers to this question are shown separately for each science as follows.

6.1.1. Arabic lexicography

Kitab Al-Ayn was one of the earliest known lexicons of any language and the first Arabic linguistic lexicon. However, its attribution to Alkhalil has always been questioned. Some scholars were and some are still in conflict with Alkhalil’s authorship. The scholars’ views are divided into three groups: those who confirm, those who oppose, and those who claim that Alkhalil started the lexicon, but did not complete it. Most ancient writers confirmed the attribution of Kitab Al-Ayn to Alkhalil including Alhamawi (1938); Alqifti (1808); Aldali (1979); Alsirafi (1955); Ibn Almoataz (1956); Ibn Duraid (1926); and Ibn Nabata (1955. Many contemporary writers agree with these authors such as Bartold (2013); Hamoudi (2007); Haywood (1960); Jamiu (2014); Khan (1973); Almakhzomi (1989); Sara (2013); and Zidan (1912).

On the other hand, some writers including A. B. Alzubaidi (2009); Alqali and AlSijistani, as cited in Alsayouti (ca. 1938), doubted Alkhalil’s authorship. Others claimed that the lexicon was started by Alkhalil and then completed by Al-Layth bin al-Muzaffar such as Al-Azhari (1964) and Ibn Algazri, 2006), although AL-Azhari later acknowledged that Alkhalil was the first to develop the comprehensive linguistic lexicon of Arabic language.

The majority of modern references confirm that the Al-Ayn lexicon was written by Alkhalil, especially with the emergence of the edited copies of ancient documents and scientific research (Darwish, 1955).

Al-Azhari (1964) was among those who doubted Alkhalil’s authorship, although he later acknowledged that AL-Ayn was written by Alkhalil, but that it had been completed by Al-Layth bin Al-Muzaffar. Al-Azhari himself copied the entire introduction of the Al-Ayn lexicon and made it the introduction to his own dictionary “Tahtheeb Al-lughah” which was almost an exact copy of the Al-Ayn lexicon with a few modifications. He simply added some narrations neglected by Alkhalil. This may be why he criticized previous dictionaries, as an attempt to conceal the fact that he was copying from them. The denial of Al-Ayn being written by Al-Azhari, just because he developed a new dictionary, is pointless since it is hard to deny the great work devoted to developing the first Arabic linguistic lexicon.

Moreover, A. B. Alzubaidi (2009) wrote a book on detecting the errors that Alkhalil made in his lexicon. This made Al-Azhari doubt the authenticity of the Al-Ayn lexicon. But these errors were only typographical, which might have been made by the copyists (Almakhzomi, 1989). Thereafter, Al-Zubaidi himself wrote a brief copy of the Al-Ayn lexicon, confirming that he implicitly acknowledged Alkhalil’s authorship (Owrail, 2020). Considering Alqali was a teacher Al-Bari fi allogha of Al-Zubaidi, it is conceivable that he influenced Al-Zubaidi. Alqali wrote a lexicon called “Al-Bari fi allogha” and G (1974) which was edited later by Hisham Altaan, who stated that it was an identical copy of the Al-Ayn lexicon, thus it is no wonder that Alqali denied the attribution of Al-Ayn to Alkhalil.

AlSijistani, on the other hand, negated the authorship based on the argument that if Alkhalil had written Al-Ayn, then his students would have known it, including Al-Layth bin Al-Muzaffar, Mu’arij Al-Sadosi, and Al-Akhfash. Here, it can be said that, not knowing the book, does not deny its existence, just as Al-Akhfash was not Alkhalil’s student (Alsayouti, 1983).

The German Orientalist Braunlich (1926) presented the opinions of all three groups. He found an apparent contradiction in the arguments of those opposed to attributing the Al-Ayn lexicon to Alkhalil, especially those who denied the book for the sake of money or fame. In regard to some errors found in the Al-Ayn lexicon, they could be due to the errors made by the copyists, or they could be related to Alkhalil’s different sources, most prominent of which was speaking to Bedouins with different dialects from different places.

It could be said that, although some were skeptical about the lexicon, they did not deny its attribution to Alkhalil. The skeptics failed to mention an author other than Alkhalil. Furthermore, the book was founded during Alkhalil’s lifetime or very shortly afterward. It is worth noting that a book of this magnitude and creativity could only be written by a man of the genius of Alkhalil. Additionally, there was no other Arab linguist as influential and creative as Alkhalil. These arguments were also suggested by Haywood (1960), yet he did not deny the contribution of Al-Layth bin Al-Muzaffar.

The Al-Ayn lexicon was an original and innovative work created by the unique genius of Alkhalil, as it was the first lexicon in the world comprising all Arabic words, and the first lexicon in which the arrangement depended on the exits of letters. Linguists who composed lexicons after him did not add anything new except some illustrative examples. This is apart from those who followed Alkhalil’s approach Tahtheeb A;-Lughah in compiling their lexicons such as Alqali, who wrote “Al-Bari”, “Al-Azhari” in his book of “Tahtheeb A;-Lughah”, and Ibn siydh in “Al-Muhkam” (Owrail, 2020).

The other claim that Alkhalil benefited from Greek science was not supported by any evidence, as stated by Almakhzomi (1989). On the other hand, Bartold (2013) claimed that the Greek influence on Arab sciences could be seen clearly in the Al-Ayn lexicon, but the type of influence is not specified, whether it is in the lexicon itself, or its content. Moreover, Bartold’s claim was based on the assumption that Alkhalil wrote his lexicon in Khorasan. Thus, it is logically possible that the Persians could have had greater influence than the Greeks, but he did not provide any evidence for his claim.

Sara (2013) confirmed that Al-Ayn was the first lexicon to include all Arabic words with all their complexities. Alkhalil realized that the traditional alphabetical arrangement did not suit the Arabic language. The traditional arrangement of the Arabic letters was alphabetical according to the shape of the letters, which begins with the letter Alif [أ], though “أ” is a weak letter, subjected to many variations. Hence, Alkhalil did not want to begin arbitrarily with the second letter. In response, he came up with a novel way to arrange the letters based on their points of exit from the throat to the lips. Alkhalil believed that the language was made up of words and meanings, and those words were collections of sounds. His musical intelligence helped him categorize the sounds according to their strength, weakness, intensity, looseness, whisper, and loudness, which made it possible to link each word (sound) with its meaning. The phonetic pronunciation is important for constructing a word and determining its semantic properties (Alnasrawi, 2014). Alkhalil initially divided the letters into vowel sounds (weak letters) and consonant sounds (strong letters) and, based on that, he divided the letters’ exits into strong and weak. He classified the letters according to their places of articulation, and called the letter’s exit a “locale”. Hence, Alkhalil found eight locales starting at the throat and ending at the lips and subdivided each locale into a group of exits where the letters are pronounced. The letters were arranged beginning with the letter “ع”, which is the strongest among all the letters because it comes out from the deepest part of the throat, and ending with the letter “م” which is the front-most sound coming out from the lips. Alkhalil isolated four vowel letters (weak letters) which are: “ء”, “أ”, “و” and “ي”, the weakest of which is the “ء”. He listed them under an exit called the cavity “Gawf”. This novel work added a lot to the current phonetic science (Sara, 2013).

The Al-Ayn lexicon is also considered the first experimental work in phonology. Presently, work in phonology relies on x-ray cineradiography, which provides accurate images of the vocal tract surface, tongue, lips, uvula, and pharyngeal movements, along with acoustic data to define the vowels and consonants across languages. The cineradiography data supports Alkhalil’s findings, as it showed that the letter “ع”compared to the letter “هـ”, which is the second letter based on the arrangement of the Al-Ayn lexicon, comes out from the deepest part of the throat cavity because there is no stop or fricative sound, and herein lies the genius of this original work (Owens, 2013).

Another important creation that Alkhalil introduced in this lexicon was the use of the permutations system, in which every word is rooted back to its bi-radical, tri-radical, quadri-radical, or quinque-radical. The order of each word in the lexicon is in accordance to its roots: bi-radical, tri-radical, quadri-radical, and quinque-radical, respectively (Owrail, 2020).

Undoubtedly, Alnasrawi (2014) confirmed that Alkhalil is the author of the Al-Ayn lexicon, since the lexicon arrangement system could only have been invented by Alkhalil, and it shows no clues to imitations of other works. In fact, the criticism directed at the lexicon by some writers was due to the development of dictionaries and modern lexical studies, or the misunderstanding of Alkhalil’s approach of presenting the lexicon’s content. Haywood (1960, p. 40) stated, “The Kitab Al-Ayn was designed not for popular use, but for scholars and it may well be that no scholar of the time would have seen any great virtue in the lexicon arrangement as we know it.”

Aliane et al. (2010) and Haywood (1960) consider Alkhalil to be the first founder of Arab ontology. Scholars who came after Alkhalil relied on the Al-Ayn lexicon in formulating ontological foundations for the Arabic sources and its applications. Moukrim et al. (2021) have designed software for correcting grammatical errors in Arabic using Alkhalil’s approach from the Al-Ayn lexicon.

6.1.2. Phonology

The Indian linguist Panini was the first to study the effects of sounds in language 2000 years ago. He introduced some rules for phonology (Belvins, 2004). Panini focused his efforts on analyzing the grammar of Sanskrit. His work inspired western grammatical theorists, but some of the rules he presented were inconsistent and had some gaps, whereas other rules remained ambiguous and complex in their application (Kiparsky, 2005). For Panini, the sounds (pronunciation of letters) were an aid to the grammar rules he introduced for Sanskrit (Kiparsky, 2008). As he explained, the phonemic rules can be determined by their morphological rules as some phonemic rules are based on the last position of the word, some are suffixes, while others fall in between (a combination of them). It is also noteworthy that Panini had no idea about phonemic categories when he was developing his grammar rules, he just assumed they existed (Kiparsky, 2005).

Unfortunately, the ancient achievements in phonology provided by Arabs are only mentioned marginally. For example, Watson (2002) stated that phonology was not an area of study before the twentieth century. Historians of this science did not mention the scientific methodology that Alkhalil introduced to phonetics, nor the efforts of the Arabs after him, despite their great contributions. On the other hand, there were some Orientalists who acknowledged the Arab contributions in this field, including Firth (1948) who declared, “Sound studies originated and grew in the arms of two sacred languages: Arabic and Sanskrit” (p. 39). Bergstrasser, as cited in Anderson (2021, p. 328) said, “No one preceded the Europeans in this science except two nations: the Arabs and Indians”.

Abul-Enein (2013) made a great effort to prove that the lexical phonology theory presented by Pesetsky (1979), which was then developed by Kiparsky (1982), actually did rely on the works of Alkhalil and Arab phonologists like Sibiwayh and Ibn Jinni. The claim that Alkhalil was influenced by Panini in this field, is completely unfounded and baseless, since Alkhalil did not know Sanskrit and was never seen sitting with any Indian (Alish, 1946; Almakhzomi, 1989; Alnasrawi, 2014).

Alkhalil is the pioneer of phonology of the Arabic language and the first to study phonology scientifically as a discipline. The scholars such as Sibiwayh, Ibn Duraid, Ibn Jinni, and Al-Razi made only minor improvements to his work (Alhamed, 2004; Bishr, 2000; Emhammed, 2017; Zakiya, 2012). In fact, phonology was founded by Alkhalil through the methodology he applied in writing his lexicon, which was arranged based on the places of articulations (Mustafawi, 2019). This unprecedented methodology provided a phonemic foundation, and thus the sequence of elements in the lexicon which was built based on linguistic logic (Sara, 2013).

The innovative way of analyzing the sounds of a word and how it was produced is highly remarkable and commendable, as if he comprehended the parts and structure of the acoustic system (Alkhalil, 1980). According to Alkhalil, the letters are divided into nine groups, whose names are derived from the names of the locales of exits from which the letters come out, which are guttural, uvular, molar, palatal, gingival, alveolar, alveolar-dental, inter-dental, and labial.

In spite of the fact that “أ” is the first and most important Arabic letter, Alkhalil neglected it and did not count it as a sound. He confirmed that the presence of the “أ” in a word is only due to its significance in the phonemic scale, and because the tongue cannot pronounce the quiescent letters, therefore, it must be accompanied by a linking “أ”. He insisted that not all letters are meaningful, and do not take its substance and description unless it is connected to the sound of the “أ” letter. For proper pronunciation of the letter from its exact exit, “أ” must be added (Alkhalil, 1980). Moreover, his phonological analysis enabled him to distinguish between Arabic words and non-Arabic words. The non-Arabic words refer to the words not belonging to the Arabic language, but which were introduced into the language by Arabs.

This was accomplished by distinguishing the labial letters from the alveolar letters (currently called liquid-consonants) which come from the tongue apex and lips, comprising six letters: “ر”, “ل”, “ن”, “ف”, “ب”, “م . Alkhalil further pointed out that a word that is a quadri-radical or quinque-radical, but without at least one of these six letters is regarded as non-Arabic (Bishr, 2000; Mansouri & Bushiba, 2021).

He also illustrated that the letters “ع” and “ق”, when included in speech, get better because they are the most rhythmically pronounced letters. Due to his deep understanding of the importance of developing the Arabic language structure, he added the duplication “Al-Mudda’f”, or doubling the sound in which the bi-radical verb is converted into a tri-radical verb. This is the same as in other languages, where this sound can be at the beginning of a word such as a “prefix”, middle of a word “infix”, or at the end of a word “suffix” (Alkhalil, 1980).

Alkhalil stated that the Arabic alphabet consisted of 29 letters, of which 25 are “Sahih” letters (consonants), and four are “Gawf” letters (vocalic), which are “و”, “ي”, “أ”, and “ء”. These letters originate in the empty space of the mouth instead of the throat, tongue, or uvula. He further confirmed that the letter “ع” comes from the deepest part of the throat and found the similarity between the exits of the “ع” and “هـ”, as both consonants produce a hoarseness (roughness) when pronounced. In contrast, the letters “ح” and “هـ” are sibilants which have a hissing sound (Bishr, 2000).

Additionally, he introduced many phonetic terms and developed many synonyms for them, such as “Al-Idgham” (assimilation), “Al-Makharij” (exits)“, “Mawadhe” (articulation points), “Al-Hayiz” (locales), “Al-Tafkhim” (elevation), and “Al-Ghunna” (nasalization). Alkhalil also defined the term “whispering” in phonetics, which is similar to the definition used nowadays (Emhammed, 2017).

6.1.3. Grammar

Generally, there is considerable ambiguity regarding the early genesis of grammar, though, it is agreed that philosophy and logic played a significant role in its development. In terms of Arabic grammar, there is a consensus that it originated in Basra (Lobon, 2012). However, until this day, the question of whether Aristotle’s logic had any influence on Arabic grammar continues to be debated. Writings regarding Arabic grammar began with Al-Sarakhsi, Al-Farabi, and Ibn Uday during the 3^rd century A.H/9th century A.D (Ritonga, 2019) and was followed by Amin (1933); Albustani (1900); and Dhaif (2012). Subsequently, this controversy was also raised by western Orientalists such as Merx (1964) and De Boer (1948). Nevertheless, De Boer later reported that Arabic grammar was a special product of the Arab mind, and that Arabs were entitled to be proud. He also defended the Arabs’ preservation of their language against philosophical influence.

The reasoning underlying their argument on the influences of Aristotle’s logic of Arabic grammar was that Ibn Al-Muqaffa’ was a friend of Alkhalil. Therefore, some of Aristotle’s linguistic and logical works were revealed to him by Ibn Al-Muqaffa’. In fact, most sources did not mention a relationship between them except for one meeting between the two friends. After this one-night long meeting, Ibn Al-Muqaffa’ was asked how he found Alkhalil, he replied, “A man whose intellect outweighs his knowledge”. On the other hand, Alkhalil reported about Ibn Al-Muqaffa, “A man whose knowledge outweighs his intellect” (Alzubaidi, 2010). Moreover, Troupeau (2017) reported that Ibn al-Muqaffa’ had translated only three of Aristotle’s books into Arabic, namely: Kataghorius, Arminai, and Anolutique, but these translations were not confirmed. Kraus (1935) also mentioned that these translations were not for Abdullah bin Al-Muqaffa’, but rather for Muhammad bin al-Muqaffa. In regard to the claim of Amin (1933) and Ruska (1980), based on what was reported by Ibn Abi Usaiba’a (d. 618 A.H) and Alqifti (d. 646 A.H), the timeline of Hunian bin Ishaq, who translated some Greek books and stayed with Alkhalil to learn the Arabic language, that Hunain bin Ishaq from him, is not historically accurate since Alkhalil died in 175 A.H, whereas Hunian was born in 194 A.H (Almakhzomi, 1960).

The writers’ views did not specifically confirm the extent to which these philosophies influenced Arabic grammar. for instance, Merx (1964) argued that the Greeks divided speech into seven parts, the most important of which were the noun, verb, and tool/instrument, whereas Arabs divided speech into three parts: the noun, verb, and letter, which signify the influence of Greek philosophy on Arabic grammar. However, this triple classification had been adopted worldwide, not only by the Arabs. Furthermore, the “tool” part of Greek speech was meant to involve both the noun and verb, which is entirely opposite of the “letter” part of Arabic speech (Bin Zina, 2014). Many Greek grammatical terms do not exist in the Arabic language, and if they do, they are not related to Arabic grammar (Ritonga, 2019).

Versteegh (1977) investigated Merx’s claims and concluded that Arab linguistic thinking was influenced by Greek logic. Yet Versteegh did his investigation in the 9^th century which is considered too late since the origins of both Arabic and Greek grammar already existed, and therefore is impossible to determine the extent to which each affected the other. Carter (1998) couldn’t provide any evidence that Arabic grammar was influenced by Greek logic, because Arabs made no reference to their grammar, and the jurisprudential system of Sibawayh’s book was based on jurisprudence and legal sciences, not logic. Similarly, Gerhard Endress confirmed that the scientific methods of Arabic grammar have no precedent and are identical to those of Islamic law sciences (Rayhani, 2005). The system and rules of Arabic grammar are similar to the rules and standards found in Islamic jurisprudence, linguistics, hadith, and exegetics. Most Arab linguists consider Arabic grammar to be a pure scientific work, and this was confirmed by many Orientalists, including Flugel, Gustav Weil, Brockelmann, and Eno Littmann (Ali, 2010; Carter, 1968).

The similarity in the philosophy of Arabic grammar and Greek logic does not imply a causal relationship, because the two fields are quite different in content and purpose. The historical evidence that had been raised on this topic were fabricated and hard to confirm. If Arabic grammar was influenced by philosophy, then the Islamic sciences would be the closest, due to the use of jurisprudence that adopts a precise system, principles, and closed-ended answers, which is quite similar to Arabic grammar. Conversely, logic relies on debates and open-ended answers. In fact, the existence of certain common terms in the two sciences does not necessarily mean that they are used in the same manner or in the same context, and there is no proof that either borrowed the term from the other.

According to Brockelmann (1956), Alkhalil is the real founder of Arabic grammar. It was previously a collection of unrelated topics, but Alkhalil put it into practice as his scientific experiments allowed him to establish grammar as an independent science that contained a set of general rules and principles. Alkhalil defined most of the grammatical rules, and he was the first to define the fundamentals of grammar, namely: hearing, measurement, and reasoning, and the first to recognize the irregularity in grammar. Although the measurement existed before Alkhalil, it was expanded and developed by him (Alnajar, 2009). He also introduced the four pillars of measurement, which are: origin, branch, reason, and rule; these pillars are still in use. In addition, he was the first to expand on grammatical reasoning by adding intangible factors, and he was first to introduce syntactically correct sentences, and syntactically incorrect sentences, by presenting all possible explanations for each example (Ababinah, 1984). Furthermore, it is believed that Alkhalil was the first to define most of the grammatical terms and their syntactic rules, such as predicate, subject, deputy agent, exception, addition, exclamation, adjective, conjunction, interrogative, negation, dual, plural, singular, noun, and many other terms (Basindi, 2006).

The primary source for Arabic grammar is Sibiwayh’s book “Al-Kitab”. It is worthwhile to note that Sibiwayh was a student of Alkhalil. Sibiwayh himself admitted that the content of the book came from Ibn Ishaq as he was quoted 217 times, whereas Alkhalil was quoted 608 times, indicating the great influence Alkhalil had on Sibiwayh’s book. This is not surprising since Alkhalil founded the Basra grammar school, and he authored a lot of grammatical rules (Ryding, 1998). Many Arabic biographies, such as Al-Anbari (1985) reported that Alkhalil dictated the rules of Arabic grammar to Sibawayh. This can be seen clearly in Sibiwayh’s book, in which he repeatedly referred to Alkhalil by saying, “I asked him” and “he answered” (Ryding, 1998).

After the end of the Basra school, Western linguists applied these grammatical rules to other languages, including English. For instance, Chomsky, in his theory, tried to apply some Arabic grammar rules to the English language. Nevertheless, these rules became complex and opaque. It is noteworthy that Chomsky’s linguistic achievements can be traced back to the grammatical innovations of Alkhalil (Abdul-Raheem, 2018).

Alkhalil presented some of the grammatical rules in his book “Sentences in Grammar” (Baalbaki, 2013), although Alhilw (1992) pretended that the real author of this book was most likely Ibn Shuqair. Ryding (1998) analyzed two edited copies of this book: One copy was edited by Fakhr Al-Din Qabawah, published under the title “Al-Jumal fi Al-Nahu” (Alkhalil, 1985), and was based on a comparison of three manuscripts. The first manuscript was from the Hagia Sophia Library in Istanbul, which dates back to 601 A.H./1204 A.D. The second manuscript was from Al-Qoula Library in Dar Al-Kutub in Cairo, dating back to 722 A.H./1324 A.D. The third manuscript was from the Bashir Agha Library in Istanbul, which dates back to 865 A.H./1466 A.D. Qabawah selected the Hagia Sophia manuscript as the basic manuscript that he relied on in his edited book because it was more accurate, complete, and old. Qabawah presented various evidence and proof to verify that the book was authored by Alkhalil, including the following.

1. Altanokhi (ca. 1992) wrote in the biography of his book, “The History of Grammatical Scholars from Basra and Kufa,” that the grammarian Abu Bakr bin Shuqair said, “He has a book, whose title is ‘Al-Jumal’ some attributed this book to Alkhalil, and we agree” (p. 48). Qubawah pointed out that the transfer of the attribution of this book from Alkhalil to Ibn Shuqair was done by Ibn Mu’asar alone, followed by Yaqut al-Hamawi, and all who followed, up to the present.

2. The historian and biographer Ibn Al-Nadim (ca. 2006), in his encyclopedia “Al-Fihrist” said, “Al-Sheikh Abu Saeed said that he combined the two schools of Basra and Kufa referring to Ibn Shuqair, among his works were: Abridgement of Grammar, The Shortened and the Lengthened, and Masculine and Feminine” (p. 123). Thus, there is no mention of a book entitled “Sentences in Grammar”. There were approximately 60 years between Al-Fihrist and Ibn Ma’asar’s work, and it is certainly closer to the time of Ibn Shuqair’s life.

3. Qabawah reported that the copy he used as the basic manuscript for editing his book “The Hagia Sophia Manuscript in Istanbul” is attributed to Alkhalil. This copy dates back to (601 A.H.), and was reproduced from an earlier copy. After analyzing the manuscript at great length, Qabawah pointed out that more than one hand was involved in writing and constructing this manuscript. Although the manuscript had been reproduced by others, its core remained valid and authentic.

4. Key evidence confirming the origin and attribution of this book to Alkhalil is the scarcity of references or citations to other grammarians except for some poetic citations of some linguists who were contemporaneous with Alkhalil or who died shortly afterward, such as Abu Al-Aswad Al-Du’ali (d. 69 A.H.), Abu Amr (d. 203 A.H.), Yunus bin Habib (d. 182 A.H.), Sibiwayh (d. 288 A.H.), and Al-Farra (d. 207 A.H.). Sellheim (2022) clarified that the content of the book was similar to Sibiwayh’s citations of his teacher Alkhalil in his book “Al-Kitab”. According to Alqifti (ca. 1808) and Alsayouti (ca. 1983), the book was composed by Alkhalil. In addition, Darwish (2021) affirmed Alkhalil’s authorship as did Ryding (1998).

6.1.4. Morphology

Morphology refers to the transformation and conversion from one form to another. It is the science concerned with the word’s structure undergoing the processes of addition and I’lal (shifting of vowel letters). Hence, it is more general than morphological derivation, which is the process of forming a new word from another, while maintaining its original meaning and root (Watson, 2002). The huge work presented by Alkhalil in the “Al-Ayn” lexicon included a detailed explanation on the structure of each word in terms of its morphological balance, strength and weakness, and in terms of its infinitive and inflectional form, which is considered to be the early beginnings of the science of morphology (Bishr, 2000).

The Indian linguist Panini made the first contribution by devising a derivational procedure for speech interpretation based on different meanings of the word. His derivational system focused on the construction of complete sentences from morphological words, rather than using separate words to form sentences. He relied on suffixes to fix or replace some grammar rules (Cardona, 2008). Therefore, Panini did not separate the morphological derivation from grammar, but rather his morphological work aimed to simplify the grammatical rules (Kiparsky, 2005).

Alsayouti (1983) and future writers claimed that Muadh Al-Harra was the scientist who laid the foundation for morphology, a characterization based on one poetic dialogue with just one man. In fact, Muadh Al-Harra had no significant contribution to this field in any way, not even with a book or scientific effort (Alshabani & Khalaf, 2009). Additionally, Ibn Khallikan (1960b) mentioned that he was a grammarian from Kufa, and the rest of the biographies did not mention him.

In the “Al-Ayn lexicon”, Alkhalil (1980) presented several morphological innovations, including the use of a distinctive mathematical method for calculating the roots and permutations of any word. Several permutations of some roots have meaning in the Arabic language and thus can be used, while others can be neglected since they are meaningless. Alkhalil considered all possible words in the Arabic language. This innovative mathematical method is currently known as “permutations” which can be calculated by dividing the factorial of the 28 Arabic letters by the factorial of the Arabic letters minus the number of the root’s letters, (bi-, tri-, quadri-, and quinque-radical).

In terms of the arrangement of the used permutations within the lexicon, they were arranged by assigning a number to each letter’s exit based on where it exits, starting with the letter “ع” that comes out from the deepest part of the throat, and ending with the letter “م” that comes out from the lips (Alnasrawi, 2014). In this case, the first letter’s exit (the sound) is assigned a number, and the second exit is given another number (Sara, 2013). Haywood (as cited in Alnasrawi, 2014, p. 84) stated that the permutation system is a mathematician’s game, and if we thought that Alkhalil could never be freed from it, we might doubt it. Alkhalil’s deductive reasoning led to linguistic flexibility in the methods of formulation and semantics, which consequently led to linguistic development, as he used morphological derivation to conjugate verbs and change them from their roots (bi-, tri-, quadri-, and quinque-root) (Alnajar, 2009). Many Arab grammarians, like Al-Mubarrad, Sibiwayh, and Ibn Jinni, followed the scientific method Alkhalil used, which is now known as the descriptive-analytical approach (Abul-Enein, 2013).

Alkhalil divided the word’s structure into infinitive and inflectional, and specified ten letters of the inflection combined in the word “sa’ltumineeha”. He also introduced many morphological terms still in use today, including morphological balance, spatial inversion, ilal, substitution, and assimilation (Rawi, 2003).

Alkhalil noticed the errors that appeared when formulating words and deriving from them or when changing them while they were minimized or attributed. He showed that suffixes were also important and the error in them led to a difference in meaning, but he confirmed that the structure of the word was more important than its suffix. Alkhalil was also the first to establish the morphological scale (verb) by which words are weighed (Aldandrawi, n.d.). Moreover, Alkhalil explained the exchange of morphological forms such as فاعِلة فعِلة، فعل أفعل، فِعِل فَعُلَ (Farraj, 2018).

6.1.5. Cryptology

Cryptology refers to the science concerned with transforming any plaintext into an incomprehensible text using a specific method (Abu Safiya, 2006). Despite the fact that Ancient Egyptians invented one of the earliest known writing systems called hieroglyphics, which uses a wide variety of symbols and signs, it is believed that cryptology was developed by Arabs (Broemeling, 2011). According to Khan (1973) Arabs invented this science, set its rules, and developed the main cryptographic method. This is evident from the use of the term “encipher” that is derived from the Latin word “cipher”, which means zero in Arabic. It is because Arabs invented the number zero (cipher in Arabic), and other nations did not understand it, so they called everything that was incomprehensible “cipher”. Yet this science is currently referred to as cryptology. Marayati et al. (1987) pointed out that the first to use this term was Alkhalil in his book “Almua’maa” (Cryptology) as mentioned by A. B. Alzubaidi (2009). However, this book was unfortunately lost.

This was also confirmed by Ibn Nabata (1955) and Ibn Alhanbali (ca. 1553) who asserted that the first to develop this science was Alkhalil. Of note is the fact that A. B. Alzubaidi (2009) reported that Alkhalil received a letter from the king of the Greeks and was able to decipher it after only a month’s scrutiny. The key was that the letter had to begin with some conventional expression, which in this case was a reference to the name of God, as any good cryptographer would know.

The loss of “Almua’ma” does not mean denying its attribution to Alkhalil. Rather, many writers confirmed Alkhalil’s authorship for several reasons, including that no historian, ancient or modern, has denied attributing the book to Alkhalil. In addition, the science of cryptology, and its difficulty, demands a person with a high level of exceptional intelligence, accurate observation, and a strong intuition. Another simple reason is that the provider of this science must be well-versed in the sciences accompanying it, including the sciences of language, grammar, prosody, poetry, mathematics, and derivation, and Alkhalil was proficient in all these fields.

The oldest epistle in cryptology was “Risalat Estikhraj Almua’ma” by Ya`qub Al-Kindi. Most narrations reveal that Al-Kindi died between the years (A.H. 185–256/A.D. 805–873), indicating that he was born immediately after Alkhalil’s death (Marayati et al., 1987). This epistle relied on the ideas and rules laid down by Alkhalil in language, mathematics, and music. The analysis of Al-Kindi’s epistle revealed his dependence on Alkhalil. Consequently, it allows us to confirm that Alkhalil is the real author of the book “Almua’ma” and was the first to pay attention to this science, as the following proof shows.

1. The title of Al-Kindi’s epistle, “Estikhraj Almua’ma” is similar to that of Alkhalil’s book “Almua’ma”.

2. The difficulty and depth of this science allowed scholars to benefit from each other. For example, Ibn Denaynir, in his book “Maqasid alfusul almutarjima an hal altarjama” relied on Al-Kindi’s epistle, and Ibn Durayhem, in his epistle “Miftah Al-Kunuz fi Idah almarmuz” benefited from Al-Kindi and Ibn Denaynir (Marayati et al., 1987), while Al-Qalqashandi benefited and quoted from Ibn Durayhem (Khan, 1973). Therefore, there is a great possibility that Al-Kindi benefitted from Alkhalil’s book, especially since the sciences involved in cryptography rely on the sciences invented by Alkhalil at that time such as phonology, mathematics, language, prosody, rhymes, and music.

3. The main techniques of cryptography mentioned by Al-Kindi depend on quantitative, qualitative, and potential tricks (keys) for the letters, such as changing the shape of a letter, flipping a letter, encrypting a single letter in two paired shapes, reversing the letter’s direction, omitting a letter, linking each letter to a specific subject, or doubling a letter. In fact, all these techniques depend mainly on the morphological permutations that Alkhalil mentioned in the Al-Ayn lexicon.

4. In poetry encryption, Al-Kindi relied on decryption principles to extract the underlying message the poetry conveyed. These principles were based on rhymes and prosody (Alkhalil’s two innovative sciences), as well as the Arabic poetic meters. So, it seems improbable that Al-Kindi could have come up with this idea without benefiting from Alkhalil.

5. His method of decryption relied on the phonetic rules and principles, as he summed up the Arabic letters into 28, of which 16 were consonants, and 12 were vowels. This resembled the alphabet categorization of Alkhalil. He also mentioned the roots from which words were derived (the permutations). In addition to subdividing the vowel letters, he also used the diacritical marks, which are Fatha, Damma, and Kasra. In fact, all these innovations were originally developed by Alkhalil.

The above-mentioned evidence clearly demonstrates Al-Kindi’s dependence on the knowledge and ideas of Alkhalil. They also confirm that Alkhalil did have a book on this science. Inventing such a science by Alkhalil was not so strange due to his bright and inventive mind. In light of this scientific evidence and references, we can conclude that Alkhalil was the innovator of cryptology.

6.1.6. Diacritical marks

Alkhalil had a book called Dots and Diacritics”, which was lost just like many other books (Aldani, ca. 1960; Alhamawi, 1993; Alqifti, 1808; Alsafadi, 2000; Ibn Khallikan, 1960b). Without a doubt, Alkhalil invented the diacritical marks in the Arabic language, which are Damma, Fatha and Kasra, and no one explicitly denies Alkhalil’s creation of the diacritics (Abu-Alsood, 2018).

As non-Arab people converted to Islam, they began to make mistakes in pronouncing the Arabic language, specifically when reciting the Holy Qur’an. They were not accustomed to the language because the construction and pronunciation of the Arabic language was written in standard Arabic. Therefore, it became an urgent necessity to resolve this issue, so the governor of Basra asked Abu Al-Aswad Al-Du’ali to come up with a solution. Al-Du’ali responded by introducing dots to some Arabic letters that were not previously dotted (Abu-Alsood, 2018). The addition of dots to the letters was a Syriac invention, as mentioned by Aldani (1960. However, this solution did not address the problem. Al-Du’ali’s method of using so many dots led to the distortion of writings, even when different colors were used. As a response, Alkhalil created the method of dialectics (Aldani, 1960; Alnajar, 2009). He did this by drawing above or below each vowel, the shape of the lengthening letter that corresponded to the sound of the vowel. However, this method was not widely accepted and was only incorporated into the Qur’an and Arabic language after his death (Alish, 1946).

In a show of his genius, he shaped the letter Hamza (ء) like the letter Ayn (ع), because some Arabs pronounced the Ayn just like the Hamza. Additionally, non-Arabs could not pronounce the Ayn because of its difficulty and strength, so they turned it into Hamza, hence Alkhalil drew the Hamza in the form of the letter Ayn (Ababinah, 1984).

Alkhalil also introduced the concepts of many vocal phenomena including the glottal stop, stress, diplophonia, and endophasia (Aldandrawi, n.d..). Diplophonia refers to the light sound produced when the letter’s diacritic is pronounced, which can be heard by those sitting nearby. Endophasia is a voiceless pronunciation of the letter’s diacritic through the movement of the lips in the nominative/indicative state (Aljirisi, 2012, p. 294). These diacritics are still in use without having been developed or modified.

6.2. Second question

Carter (1998) mentioned that Alkhalil’s genius and sharp intellect are beyond doubt. Sellheim (2022) stated that Alkhalil is the founder of the modern scientific approach. He was a pivotal figure who contributed to the scope, standards, and quality of the science of his time. For the second part of this study, documents were analyzed and a number of in-depth conclusions were drawn in order to answer the second question: What were the motives behind Alkhalil’s innovations? Some motives were obvious while others required further investigation and analysis. The character of Alkhalil is one of the topics that has not received extensive study, and although there are many narrations about his personality, we will focus on what fueled his innovations. These motives can be defined as follows:

Hard working. Alkhalil aspired for knowledge and revered scholars. He used to say, “If this sect—meaning the people of knowledge—is not loyal to God Almighty, then God has no ally” (Al-Anbari, 1985, p. 58). He was a great and tireless thinker, teacher, and author known for his erudition, integrity, and self-discipline (Carter, 1998). He dedicated his entire life tirelessly to the pursuit of knowledge (Nasir, 2005). Alkhalil’s innovations were not coincidental, as he isolated himself for prolonged periods for the sake of knowledge (Hamoudi, 2007). He stayed alone for nights and days, not leaving his home because he was preoccupied with a particular issue. He left the entire world and settled in a reed hut and a farm, which was his only livelihood (Alhamawi, 1938; Alloghawi, 1955). Alkhalil was a regular at the Basra science councils both as a listener and teacher. And he used to travel into the deserts to study the language by talking to Bedouins, listening to different dialects, and learning from them. Additionally, Alkhalil was described as a tireless researcher, who conducted many scientific experimentations and adopted novel research methodologies (Alloghawi, 1955).

Intangible motivation. By all accounts, Alkhalil was a talented, introverted, pious, and ascetic individual. He was neglectful of the material and worldly aspects of life (Carter, 1998). He was a shaggy-haired person with ragged clothes (Shalan, n.d.; Rawi, 2003). but pious, and his testimony was accepted directly and never rejected (Alloghawi, 1955; Rawi, 2003). One of the driving motivations that prompted Alkhalil to provide the rules of Arabic grammar and compose the Al-Ayn lexicon was for the memorization of the Holy Qur’an, and for correctly explaining its meanings, since the meanings of the Qur’an are deep. Alkhalil noted that the only way to decipher this depth was to discover the linguistic structures and meanings of the qur’anic verses (Alboqaei, 2006). His student Allayth bin Mozafar, as stated in Alqifti (1808, p. 380), said, “Alkhalil resided in Basra, and he could not afford two Fils, yet his students earned money by his knowledge”. Abu-Alsood (2018) further mentioned the blessings Alkhalil’s students enjoyed, which he never yearned for. Al-Barzmani and Ibn Khalilkan reported that Suliman bin Habib, the governor of Ahwaz, sent him money to incite him to teach his sons, but Alkhalil refused, and brought the envoys a piece of dry bread. He said, “By God, that I do not need the money as long as I have this” – referring to the dry bread. He had a contented soul and high level of dignity, and he was patient with life’s hardships (A. B. Alzubaidi, 2009; Aldandrawi, n.d.; Alqifti, 1808; Alsirafi, 1955; Rawi, 2003). Among Arabs, Alkhalil was the smartest, the most knowledgeable, the most pious, and the best. In addition, he was one of the most chaste and ascetic figures in the world (Alloghawi, 1955). He used to warn people against arrogance and shyness because they exacerbate ignorance (Owrail, 2020). Alkhalil developed the rules of Arabic grammar primarily to preserve the Holy Qur’an from reciting errors (Aldandrawi, n.d.).

Farraj (2018) found that Alkhalil had knowledge of the different readings of the Holy Qur’an as reported by Ibn Algazri (2006) and Ibn Mojahid (1972). He had different opinions of some words, but he did not refute other readings of the Holy Qur’an, nor did he oppose their followers, rather he mentioned what he believed to be the best, due to his keenness and piety (Farraj, 2018). This intangible motivation incited jealousy, as he was in love with Islam and the Arabic language, and he fought to preserve them (Shalan, n.d.).

Practical experimentation. Many scholars acknowledged the scientific mindset of Alkhalil. Haywood (1960) described him as having a great mind that could not be matched, whereas Almakhzomi (1960) stated that Alkhalil had a high scientific temperament. In addition to his scientific methods, he used to attend Arab markets where he listened to writers and poets and learned from them. Alkhalil also used to visit the Bedouins in the deserts to listen to their methods of expression, and the exits of their letters. He said, “If you want to gain the knowledge of your teacher, sit with someone else” (Almarzabani, 1964, p. 56). Furthermore, it was his habit to prolong meditation and reflect on sciences, as he often said, “It is important to increase knowledge in order to learn and reduce it to memorize”. He also said, “Be more careful about studying what is in your heart than memorizing your book” (Almarzabani, 1964, p. 70).

Unlike the organization of the previous lexicon, the arrangement of letters in the Al-Ayn lexicon, according to their exits, was based on scientific principles. He dealt with the language in the opposite way, as he approached the language from the base of the pyramid rather than starting from the top, and this is an indication of his scientific methodology and ability to organize ideas (Almakhzomi, 1989; Alzoui, n.d.).

As a way to control the letters’ exits, he started each word with a consonant, and when he could not start with a consonant, he began with the “َء” Hamza with Fatha, which is the easiest and lightest diacritics (Almakhzomi, 1960). In his classification of the vowels and consonants, he based it on the way they were pronounced at different positions within different words. Alkhalil realized that the letters and their pronunciation were important in order to count the number of true Arabic words, which enabled him to determine the loanwords adopted from other languages. This, in turn, led him to apply it to the Al-Ayn lexicon (Almakhzomi, 1960). Additionally, he noticed that some letters were stronger in pronunciation than others, therefore the stronger letters displaced the weaker ones, such as the replacement of the letter “ص” with the letter “س” if the letter “ق” follows it (Almakhzomi, 1960).

Al-Khalil created a mathematical method to find out the semantic differences by finding the relationship between the locales of exits of sounds and their intensity or softness. He provided two axes; the X-axis which represents the locales of exits, and the Y-axis represents the intensity or softness of sounds, and this is called the vocal space. Through this method, he was able to know the most accurate semantic differences in the words (Alnasrawi, 2014). Alkhalil’s solid scientific mind is clearly evident in the fact that the theory of lexical phonology presented by Pesetsky (1979), and then developed by Kiparsky (1982) depends on Alkhalil’s efforts in phonology.

Constructive skepticism. Alkhalil used to say, “A person only knows the mistake of his teacher after sitting with someone else” (Ibn Khallikan, 1960a, p. 245). The skeptical mindset of Alkhalil led him to build on previous knowledge and discover and develop its defects. For example, in the Al-Ayn lexicon, he decided not to start with the routine methods like the alphabet which was found in Syriac and other Semitic languages lexicons, or the alphabet system developed by Nasr bin Asim, but with a novel approach based on the pronunciation of letters. Additionally, he wanted more than placing dots in Arabic letters, so he invented other forms, perhaps guided by his musical and phonetic abilities; this was all achieved based on empirical experiments (Alzoui, n.d.). Alkhalil was trying to assimilate other people’s ideas and then build on them with his own innovative ideas. For instance, he did not discuss grammar with his teachers until sitting with them for four years in order to be completely confident that he had fully absorbed their knowledge. Because of his skepticism, he developed a curiosity toward knowledge that led him to make assumptions, as he was always asking his students about issues that were not covered in Arabic to analyze them and apply some rules. He was also investigating a problem to extract all possible explanations for it (Alish, 1946).

Observation and meditation. Historians have reported that Alkhalil was very observant and meditated to the extent that he forgot himself. This is evidenced by the incident concerning his death, as while he was in Masjid trying to find a mathematical formula for a woman so that a seller would not cheat her, he hit the Masjid wall and died (Aldandrawi, n.d.). Alkhalil used to regularly meditate on linguistic issues, and he used to think and talk to himself while walking until he eventually found himself in the desert. He would leave his home in the morning and return only in the evening. It was his habit to sit alone, meditate, and address the issues stuck in his mind (Alish, 1946). He loved solitude and seclusion and when he meditated, he forgot himself (Nasir, 2005). Because of his frequent meditation, he separated grammar from philosophy and logic, and developed grammar based on measurement and reasoning. This huge work required an active imagination stemming from deep meditation (Alnajar, 2009).

Sensitivity to problems. Alkhalil’s sensitivity to problems is clearly evident in his creation of the diacritical marks in order to correct pronunciation. With the advent of Islam, non-Arabs began to make mistakes, particularly when reciting the Holy Quran, thus changing its meaning. This was a serious issue that had to be resolved, as the dots introduced by Al-Du’ali into some Arabic letters did not meet their intended purpose, resulting in a distorted writing style. Therefore, Alkhalil contemplated the problem and came up with an easier way, which was to place a Damma to denote the nunnation, and to place a Fatha, which is a small slant stick above the letter, and a Kasrah, which is a small (slant stick slash mark) under the letter, as a result the problem was resolved forever (Almakhzomi, 1960).

Extended memory. This refers to the ability to remember and to use and expand information, no matter how extensive. This unique memory ability of Alkhalil’s enabled him to build almost completed works, and this is very rare. It has been more than 1300 years since his death, yet his works on prosody, diacritics, lexical arrangement, letter exits, morphological scales, permutations, and grammar have only been slightly modified (Hamoudi, 2007). This is one of the wonders of Alkhalil, and the question is how did he gain this ability? It is likely due to his complete mastery of science and scientific experimentation, as well as his capacity and the extensiveness of his memory. For example, through the system of permutations, he was able to list and derive all Arabic words, and in the development of the grammatical rules, he devised many terms in order to enable him to build all the grammatical rules based on them (Alqozi, 2006). Additionally, in the field of phonology, he was able to accurately determine the exact exits of all Arabic letters. This method is supported by recent research. Bozaout and Ibn Amiour (2020) referred to Alkhalil’s talent for inductive reasoning, as he was able to examine particular instances and then apply their rules to a general instance. All of these were aiding factors for Alkhalil’s memory, which formed vast connections in its derivations (Ibn Khallikan, 1960a).

7. Conclusion

Despite many studies and books that discussed Alkhalil’s creativity in some sciences, there is no in-depth study that discussed in detail the extent of Alkhalil’s creative contribution to linguistic sciences, nor the psychological motives that triggered him to create these sciences. This study attempted to examine all the primary and secondary writings and refute the opinions they presented about Alkhalil’s innovation of these sciences through a completely objective description, to introduce the reader to the level of linguistic intelligence of Alkhalil, and his brilliant creative mind. On the other hand, the personality of Alkhalil was not studied from a psychological perspective to test the personal traits that motivated his innovations, and to answer the question: Where did Alkhalil’s innovations come from?

The results of this study showed the great contributions made by Alkhalil in presenting and creating linguistic sciences. The study also revealed some of the personality traits that served as fuel to provoke the creative mind of Alkhalil. Some of these personality traits are known in the studies of creativity, and the other traits are provided for the first time in this study, such as intangible motivation, intense jealousy for the Arabic language, and asceticism.

It is true that Alkhalil lived in the distant past, but he was a prominent scientific phenomenon. The main characteristic of this phenomenon is creativity. Alkhalil has a creative mind that strengthens his ability to solve the problems confronted the sciences he worked on in ways that preceded his time. This phenomenon needs a lot of studies to add knowledge for answering the most important question that creativity researchers face, which is where does creativity come from? On the other hand, the results of the study show that Alkhalil’s works are characterized by completeness, and this is a unique phenomenon as well. This characteristic needs another investigation on some of the suggested reasons for that, such as extended memory, integration of sciences, scientific methodology, and others.

This study provided basic insight as the first research that attempted to investigate Alkhalil’s creative mentality in the linguistic sciences and the psychological motives for his creativity. Therefore, it provides an important basis for subsequent studies on this personality, and it will undoubtedly inspire researchers in two important areas. The first area is verifying the innovative contributions of Alkhalil on those sciences to review the theoretical literature for establishing those sciences. The second area is conducting in-depth studies on Alkhalil’s creative sources that will undoubtedly add a lot for educational literature of creativity.

The limitation of this study is that the evidence relied only on the documents as primary and secondary references. It did not seek any other evidence due to the nature of the phenomenon being investigated, and the lack of any evidence other than these documents.

Acknowledgments

The research leading to these results has received funding from Ministry of higher education, Research and Innovation (MoHERI) of the sultanate of Oman under the Block funding Program. MoHERI Block Funding Agreement No [MoHERI/BFP/SU/01/2021].

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation [MoHERI/BFP/SU/01/2021].

Notes on contributors

Mohammed Alkiyumi

Dr. Mohammed Alkiyumi is assisstant professor of educational psychology in the faculty of education and arts at sohar university, sultanate of Oman. He served as a coordinator of postgraduate program for six years. Dr. Alkiyumi Major area of scholary interest concersns the creativity, thinking, personality traits, and intelligences.