al-Farrā’ and al-Kisā’ī: References to Grammarians and Qur’ān Readers in the Maʽānī l-Qur’ān of al-Farrā’

The paper presents a statistical analysis of all the grammarians and Qur’ān readers mentioned in al-Farrā’’s Maʿānī l-Qur’ān, with a special emphasis on the direct and indirect references to his master, al-Kisā’ī, either as a qāri’ or as a grammarian. The analysis demonstrates that, for al-Farrā’, the preeminent grammarian is al-Kisā’ī. He is the grammatical authority with whom al-Farrā’ may agree or disagree, but against whose views he seeks to define his own grammatical theses. The article also illustrates al-Kisā’ī’s methods in syntactic analysis by presenting three cases: the regimen of ‘inna, gender agreement, and the structure mā + li– + NP (+ ‘an) + NEG. It concludes with an examination of the different ways al-Farrā’ evaluated al-Kisā’ī’s views, ranging from total agreement to total disagreement.