A Treatise on the Inflection of the Present Tense Verb by Rukn al-Din Muhammad ibn Ali al-Jurjani al-Astaraabadi al-Hilli, a Scholar of the 8th Century AH

Abstract

The Basran and Kufan grammarians differed regarding the cause of the inflection (iʿrab) of the present tense verb. The Basrans attributed its inflection to its similarity to the declined noun, viewing it as a derivative. In contrast, the Kufans considered the verb to be inherently inflected, due to the variety of meanings it conveys, thus treating it as original. Some later scholars also saw its inflection as derivative, but attributed the cause to the diversity of meanings it expresses.
Among the scholars who devoted a treatise to this grammatical debate is Rukn al-Din Muhammad ibn Ali al-Jurjani, a prominent figure of the 8th century AH. He authored a dedicated work supporting the Kufan position, in which he presented unique views and conclusions that set him apart from other grammarians. A manuscript copy of this treatise exists in the Martyr Ali Library in Turkey. We undertook the task of editing and studying it using a descriptive-analytical methodology, combined with the standard approach to manuscript verification.