PDF hosted at the Radboud Repository of the Radboud University Nijmegen The following full text is a publisher's version. For additional information about this publication click this link. http://hdl.handle.net/2066/148538 Please be advised that this information was generated on 2021-09-29 and may be subject to change. 2\ ΙЧ GREEK ELEMENTS IN ARABIC LINGUISTIC THINKING PROEFSCHRIFT TER VERKRIJGING VAN DE GRAAD VAN DOCTOR IN DE LETTEREN AAN DE KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT TE NIJMEGEN, OP GEZAG VAN DE RECTOR MAGNIFICUS PROF DR. A.J.H. VENDRIK VOLGENS BESLUIT VAN HET COLLEGE VAN DEKANEN IN HET OPENBAAR TE VERDEDIGEN OP 13 JANUARI 1977 TE 16.00 UUR DOOR CORNELIS HENRICUS MARIA VERSTEEGH geboren op 17 oktober 1947 te Arnhem LEIDEN E.J. BRILL 1977 GREEK ELEMENTS IN ARABIC LINGUISTIC THINKING GREEK ELEMENTS IN ARABIC LINGUISTIC THINKING PROEFSCHRIFT TER VERKRIJGING VAN DE GRAAD VAN DOCTOR IN DE LETTEREN AAN DE KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT TE NIJMEGEN, OP GEZAG VAN DE RECTOR MAGNIFICUS PROF DR A J H VENDR1K VOLGENS BESLUIT VAN HET COLLEGE VAN DEKANEN IN HET OPENBAAR TE VERDEDIGEN OP 13 JANUARI 1977 TE 16 00 UUR DOOR CORNELIS HENRICUS MARIA VERSTEEGH geboren op 17 oktober 1947 te Arnhem LEIDEN E.J. BRILL 1977 The publication of this book was made possible through a grant from the Netherlands organization for the Advancement of Pure Research (Z.W.O.) Promotor : Prof. Dr. S. WILD Co-promotor : Prof. Dr. M. VAN STRAATEN OSA TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface . I. The first contact with Greek grammar . II. Articulated sound and its meaning III. The theory of grammatical categories A. The parts of speech and Sibawaihi's division B. The noun С The verb . IV. The usui an-nahw and Greek empiricist medicine V. The period of the two schools VI. The influence of Greek logic . VII. The use of logic in grammar VIII. The Mu'tazila IX. The origin of speech X. The Stoic component in the theory of meaning Diagram of the most important Arabic grammarians List of abbreviated titles . Arabic, Greek, Hebrew, Latin authors quoted Originals of the Arabic and Greek texts quoted in translation Indexes Personal names . Arabic terms Greek terms . Latin terms .... Hebrew and Syriac terms . PREFACE thai most irksome and difficult part of literature, with so much labour of the memory, and with so little assis­ tance of the understanding ' ' There are two ways of studying the historiography of linguistics: either you stress the continuity of the history of linguistics and bring out the essential similarities between geographically and chronologi­ cally diverse approaches to the study of speech, or you treat every approach as an individual and unique phenomenon without bothering with parallels. The former method was used by Chomsky in his 'Cartesian linguistics', and it brought him a lot of criticism from both historians and linguists.2 The latter, more or less philological, form of the historiography of linguistics seemed to have gone out of use, but there appears to be a revival in recent times: congresses, collec­ tions of studies, a special journal.3 Within this new wave of interest in the history of linguistics Arabic linguistics does not seem to have received its full share, neither from general linguists, nor from Ara- bists;4 it is rather frustrating to read that 'curiously enough, the Arabs seem to have contributed nothing to the study of language comparable to the additions and improvements they made in mathe- 1 Robert Lowth, Introduction to English grammar, London, 1762; ed. Alston, 1967, no 18, preface. 2 Chomsky, 1966. From the many reviews and discussions pro or contra we cite : Aarsleff, 1970, especially pp. 571-2; id., 1974, Koerner, 1976; Miel, 1969; reviews in. Linguistics, 49, 1969, 74-91 (Brekle; the same review in: Linguistische Berichte, 1, 1969, 52-66); Archiv Orientálni, 36, 1968, 484-5 (Zgusta); International Journal of American Linguistics, 34, 1968, 290-303 (Zimmer); Philosophical Review, 77, 1968, 229-35 (Har- man); Language, 45, 1969, 343-64 (Lakoff). 3 Congresses about the history of linguistics were held in 1964 at Burg Wartenstein bei Gloggnitz in Austria, and in 1968 in Chicago; the thirteenth volume of the series 'Current trends in linguistics', edited by H. Aarsleff, R Austerlitz, D. Hymes, L. Romeo, E. Stankiewicz will be dedicated to the historiography of linguistics; a collection of studies about the history of linguistics with special attention to the relevance of Kuhn's theories for the historiography of linguistics was edited by Hymes, 1974; in his introduc­ tion to this collection Hymes announces the appearance of a new journal, Historio­ graphie Linguistica, under the editorship of E. F. К Koerner (cf. ib pp. 20-1), which is now in its third year; an important collection of original articles has been edited by Parret, 1976. 4 The only comprehensive history of Arabic grammar is still G Flügel's Die grammatischen Schulen der Araber, the first and only part of which was published in Leipzig, 1862 Vili PREFACE matics, astronomy, physics, medicine, and natural history'.5 The history of classical grammar is treated somewhat better, although not much.6 The special problem of the relationship between Greek and Arabic linguistic thinking is almost completely disregarded: reference is made almost solely to the supposed similarities between Aristotelian logic and Arabic grammar. The theory that Aristotle provided the Arabic grammarians with some basic notions concerning speech and the study of speech has been advanced before, especially in the past century, and it met then as now with the seemingly unrefutable objection that the origin of Arabic linguistics lies before the introduction of Greek writing into the Arabic world. Our thesis is that Greek logic (not just Peripatetic, but Stoic logic as well) did play a considerable role in the history of Arabic linguistic thinking, but only at a later time, during the 9th/3rd and the 10th/4th centuries, when the center of Arabic linguistics had been transferred to Baghdad. The beginnings of Arabic grammar, on the other hand, are characterized by the direct, personal contact with living Greek education and grammar in the recently conquered Hellenistic countries.7 We hold that in this early period many elements of linguistic theory, especially in the field of paradigms and terminology, were borrowed from Greek by those Arabic scholars who started to describe their own language scientifically.8 When we use here the word 'borrowing' (or sometimes caique) we use the technical apparatus of the study of 'christianisms' in Greek and Latin. The study of borrowings has reached such a level in this field that it may have a special methodo­ logical relevance for the study of borrowings from Greek into Arabic.9 The chapters of our dissertation are arranged according to a rough chronology. The first four chapters discuss Greek elements in the first 5 J. С Greene, in Hymes, 1974, 494 6 A brief, but useful state of the art in Scaglione, 1970, 11-43 7 General studies about the history of the relevant period Byzantine history: Oslrogorsky, 1963', аыііе , 1935-68; id., 19702, Arabic history: Spuler, 1952-3; Gabrieli, 1965; Brockelmann, 19742: Hitti, 1968' About the problem of the contacts between the Byzantine empire and the Arabic East: Kraemer, 1959. 8 We use the word 'scientifically' in order to distinguish between the activities of Sibawaihi and his immediate predecessors on the one hand, and the obscure origins of Arabic grammar at a pre-scientific stage on the other; cf. the discussion in chapter 1. * Cf. Mohrmann, 19612, especially the articles 'Quelques traits charactéristiques du latin des Chrétiens' (21-50), 'L'étude de la latinité chrétienne État de la question, méthodes, résultats' (83-102), 'Le problème du vocabulaire chrétien Expériences d'évangélisation paléo-chrétiennes et modernes' (113-22); about calques' ib. 44 sqq., 280 sqq. PREFACE IX stages of Arabic grammar. Chapter I gives a brief sketch of the historical context of the process of Greek influence on Arabic grammar. The next three chapters deal with the various Greek ele­ ments we have found within this first stage: in the field of sound, articulation, and meaning (chapter II); in the theory of the parts of speech, declension, verbal tenses, and so on (chapter III); in the methodology of grammar, i.e., in the system of norms of linguistic method (chapter IV). Chapter V deals with the position of the two schools of Basra and К Ufa in the history of Arabic linguistics. Chapter VI and VII are concerned with a later stage, when Greek writings had begun to play a more indirect role, through their translations into Arabic: their influence was felt not only in grammar, but also in logic and philosophy. In chapter VI we sketch the histori­ cal context; then we examine in detail the logical arguments used in grammatical literature, in so far as they can be traced back to Greek influence (chapter VII). Chapter VIII discusses the role of the Mu'ta- zila, an important sect in the history of Muslim theology. The Mu'tazilites are characterized by their liberal use of Greek dialectic methods in defense of their theological dogmas, the most important of which was a rigorous monotheism. They should not be regarded as a group of free-thinking liberals, on the contrary, when their point of view gained official support under the 'Abbäsid caliphs from 833/218 till 850/236, they took a very intolerant stance on contrary opinions.10 They are interesting for our purpose mainly because of their use of logical methods, and their particular views on speech and thinking. In chapter IX we discuss the theories concerning the origin of speech, a comparatively recent topic in Arabic linguistics.