Imam Ibn Malik al-Andalusi جمال الدين محمد بن عبد الله بن مالك الطائي الجياني

Imam Jamal al-Din Muhammad b. Abd Allah Ibn Malik al-Andalusi rahimahullah (600-672 AH / 1203-1274 CE) was the preeminent grammarian of his age. Born in Jaen in Muslim Andalusia, he emigrated eastward, eventually settling in Damascus, where he spent the remainder of his life teaching and composing. He was the master of Arabic linguistics of the medieval Islamic world, producing works that became the standard references in the field for centuries. His greatest legacy is the Alfiyya (al-Khulasa fi al-Nahw), a didactic poem of one thousand and two verses in the rajaz meter that systematizes the entirety of Arabic grammar - covering the word, the marfu'at, the mansubat, the majrurat, the particles of nasb and jazm, and the rules of agreement and government. The poem has been memorized in every land of Islam across seven centuries and has attracted more than fifty commentaries, the most celebrated being those of Ibn Aqil, Ibn Hisham, and al-Ashmuni. Beyond the Alfiyya, his al-Kafiya al-Shafiya covers the same material at greater length, and his works on lugha and morphology remain standard references.