The Problem of (Awdah Al-Masalik) between Ibn Hisham and his Commentators
Abstract
I found that Ibn Hisham's book (Awdah Al-Masalik) is one of the best teaching books in our syntax heritage, that people in the past as well as in these days regard highly. I have studied it and surveyed the opinions of commentators on it, and considered its problems, in an attempt to specify them, and explain what scholars said in regard to these problems. The aim is to introduce a full account of the book to the reader. I used the most famous copy of the book that people have, which is Sheikh Muhyi Eddin Abdul Hamid version. The problems were classified in nine issues:
- Problems in text setting
- Speech differences from one place to another
- Problematic examples
- Problematic quotations
- Ambiguity in meaning
- The rule he provides leads to problematic applications
- To minimize some aspects in some issues
- To add some aspects in some issues
- Scientific problems in identifying the issues
Hence, I encourage students as well as instructors to consider these problems, and to find a plausible interpretation for it, and then be ready enough to have full comprehension of the book and benefit from it efficiently.
