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Ibn Ādjurrūm (Arabic:إبن أَجُرُوم;Berber:Ageṛṛom orAgerrum) and his full name:Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Dāwūd al-Ṣanhādjī (Arabic:أبو عبد الله محمد بن محمد بن داوود الصنهاجي). (1273–1323) was aMoroccangrammarian andIslamic Scholar and master of Quranic Recitation fromFez famous for an Arabic synoptic grammar.[1]
Ibn Adjurrum was born at Fez in 1273-4. He was ofBerber origin from thesanhaja Berber tribe. His relatives were from the neighborhood ofṢafrū. "Ādjurrūm" is aBerber word meaning “religious man” and “poorṣūfī" (ascetic, Shilḥa: agurram). His grandfather, Dāwūd, is said to have been the first to bear the name.[2][3]
He died on Tuesday, March 1, 1323. He was buried the next day within the town inAdwat Al-Andalus, the Andalusi quarter near Bāb al-Hamra, also known as Bāb al-Jīzyin.[4]
A text entitledMuqaddima (مقدّمة) “Prolegomena” bears the author's name. In full,Al-Muqadimma al-Adjurrumiya fi Mabadi Ilm al-Arabiya, or Matn Al-Ajrumiyyah (متن المقدمة الآجرومية), commonly abbreviated toAl-Ājurrūmīyya. This short treatise, of a few pages, sets out the system of theʾiʿrab (اعراب) (grammatical desinential inflection). The Muḳaddima summarizes the complex rules of Arabic syntax into a concise, clear and intelligible format, that is easy to memorize. For its brevity and utility it has maintained a wide popularity among Arabic language teachers and students acrossArabophone countries, and over 60 commentaries by later grammarians have been produced.
Known in Europe from the 16th century, theMuqaddima was one of the first treatises available to EuropeanArabists for the study of the Arabic grammatical system. Translations have been regularly and widely published in most European languages. It was published in twelve different European versions and editions.[5] A Latin translation of Ibn Adjurrum's Arabic grammar was made by the Italian Franciscan friar,Thomas Obicini of Novara, who had lived for a time as an abbot inAleppo, and published in Italy in 1621 with the titleGrammatica Arabica.[6]
Al-Suyuti (Bughya, 102) places ibn Ājurrūm stylistically in the Kūfah School of grammar, based on his use of thegenitive term "khafḍ," (خفض), the desinentially inflective imperative "muʿrab" (معرب), and the "kayfamā" (كيفما) particle (حرف) "ḥarf", to govern the apocopate form "jazm" (جزم).[7]
