d by him on that subject, it has never had its equal. The great
philologist and grammarian, Al-Jahiz, said of the book of Sibawaih,
that none like it had ever been written on grammar, and that all
writers on this subject who had succeeded him had borrowed from it.
When Al-Kisai was tutor to the prince Al-Amin, son of Harun-ar-Rashid,
Sibawaih came to Baghdad, and the two great grammarians (Sibawaih, the
chief of the school of Busra, and Al-Kisai, chief of the school of
Kufa) had a long dispute about a certain expression of Arabic speech,
and an Arab of the desert was called in to arbitrate between them. The
man first decided in favour of Sibawaih, but when the question was put
in another form, the Bedouin asserted that Kisai was right. As
Sibawaih considered that he had been unjustly treated in the matter,
he left Baghdad for good. The year of his death has been given
differently by various authors, the earliest date being A.D. 787, and
the latest A.D. 809.

The most celebrated grammarians of the third century of the Hijrah
(A.D. 816-913) were Al-Mubarrad, who died A.D. 898, and Thalab, who
died A.D. 903. They were also great antagonists to each other.
Al-Mubarrad, the author of thirty works, was the chief of the school of
Busra, and Thalab of that of Kufa, both founded during the preceding
century by Sibawaih and Kisai. Thalab was the first collector of books
in Islam, and those left by him were very valuable.

Mention must also be made of Al-Farra, the grammarian, and
distinguished by his knowledge of grammar, philology, and various
branches of literature. He died A.D. 822, at the age of sixty-three,
and preceded both Mubarrad and Thalab, the latter of whom used to say:
'Were it not for Al-Farra, pure Arabic would no longer exist; it was
he who disengaged it from the ordinary language and fixed it by
writing.' At the request of the Khalif Al-Mamun he drew up in two
years a most elaborate work, which contained the principles of
grammar, and all the pure Arabic expressions which he had heard. It
was entitled 'Al-Hudud' (the Limits or Chapters), and directly it was
finished he commenced another in connection with the Koran, which is
spoken of as a most wonderful production. He wrote besides several
other works on grammar, and acted as tutor to the two sons of the
Khalif Mamun.

Though many other grammarians could be named, such as Al-Akhfash al
Ausat, Abu Amr as Shaibani, Abu Bakr al Anbari, etc., none can be
conside