نسخة من كتاب المفصل نُسخت في القرن الثامن الهجري بمنهج التحقيق

Kitāb al-Mufaṣṣal fī Ṣanʿat al-Iʿrāb by al-Zamakhsharī (d. 538 AH/1144 CE) is a masterpiece among the works of Arabic grammar. When examining the biographical dictionaries and historical works, it is observed that during the 6th century AH, when Kitāb al-Mufaṣṣal was written, it began to be taught as a textbook in place of Sibawayh’s (d. 180/796) al-Kitāb. By the end of the 8th century AH, it gradually started to be replaced by Ibn al-Ḥājib’s (d. 646/1249) al-Shāfīyah and al-Kāfīyah. Scholars of language have produced dozens of works on this book, including commentaries, glosses, versifications, summaries, and so on. One of these works is the al-Mufaṣṣal manuscript prepared by Šams al-Dīn al-Ḥīwaqī (d. after 800/1398). He copied this manuscript from the copy belonging to Jalāl al-Dīn al-Gujduwānī (d. circa 730/1330), one of the commentators on al-Kāfiya, and also faithfully transferred the interlinear and marginal notes from the manuscript of his teacher, Ibrāhīm Shaykh al-Sarāyī (d. 802/1399). The manuscript of Ibrāhīm Shaykh al-Sarāyī, in turn, is based on some of the most esteemed copies of al-Mufaṣṣal from that period, including those of Ṣāġānī (d. 650/1252), Muʿizzī (d. after 678/1280), and ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn al-Ḫānqāhī (d. early 8th/14th century). In this manuscript, textual variations are meticulously indicated, and quotations from numerous commentaries on al-Mufaṣṣal as well as from other grammar books, with reference to the sources, are included in the margins. In this study, after providing general information about the manuscript, the great effort exerted by the copyist al-Khīwāqī in accurately copying and understanding the text will be demonstrated through examples and on this occasion, it will be revealed how a method of critical edition was applied in the meticulous copying of this manuscript -almost like a ḥadīth text- in the 8th/14th century.