Marife Dini Araştırmalar Dergisi

Öz

The history of Baghdad dates to the Babylonians, and during the Islamic State period, various fairs were held in the region, which was at the crossroads of caravan routes. Until the Omar period, this region continued to exist as a tribute region. The territory gained a different position with Omar turning it into a foundation land. This small town attracted the attention of Abbasid Caliph Abu Cafer al-Mansûr (d. 158/775) with its climatic beauty as well as its geopolitical and commercial importance. He rebuilt this town in 145/762 and made it the capital of the Abbasid State.

The Abbasid Caliphs, who wanted Baghdad to be a center of science, tried bringing scholars from all science branches to Baghdad. Like other branches of science, the caliphs gave importance to the Arabic language, especially when they invited the scholars of Kûfa, whom they saw close and compatible with them, to Baghdad. Kisâî  was also invited to Baghdad, and thus the Kûfa nahiv school began to settle in Baghdad, which was the center of the Abbasids. 

The efforts of Sîbeveyh to bring the Basra school to Baghdad made a dispute inevitable with Kisâî , the imam of the Kûfa school, who had established his own syntax method in Baghdad and trained his students. With the acceptance of this by the parties, the debate, which went down in the history of syntax as al-Mes'eletü'z-Zünbûriyye, on which many discussions took place. The debate ended with the defeat of Sibewayh, with the testimonies of the Arabs of Kûfa, who were consulted to arbitrate on the issue in which Sîbeveyh and Kisâî disagreed, in favor of Kisâî. Sîbeveyh, who could not accept this defeat, called his student Ahfeş out of the city before entering Basra, told him what happened there, and returned to his native Iran and died there.

Ahfeş, who was very upset about the situation of his teacher, set out for Baghdad to take revenge. Although he asked him questions in the morning prayer in order to disgrace Kisâî in front of both people and his students, Kisâî succeeds in extinguishing his attempt of revenge by complimenting Ahfeş. Kisâî provides him with financial means and allows him to stay in Baghdad. At the end of this process, Ahfeş approached the Kûfa method from the Basra syntax method and forgot the revenge of his teacher Sîbeveyh. He personally took part in the process of laying the foundations of the Kûfa syntax school and Kisâî had the opportunity to get to know Sîbeveyh's syntax method closely by reading Sîbeveyh's al-Kitab from him.

Later, another imam of the Basra school, Mubarrad, came to Baghdad. The imam of the Kûfa school of the time, Sâleb, was disturbed by Mubarrad's arrival and sent two of his best students, Zeccâc (d. 311/923) and İbn Hayyât’ı (d. 320/932 him, to ask questions and humiliate him in front of the public. But Mubarrad fascinates Zeccâc with his persuasive personality and the ills he brings to grammar issues. Zeccâc becomes Mubarrad's student now and does not return to Sâleb.

Many discussions took place between Mubarrad and Saleb in Baghdad, and these discussions enabled the students of syntax to hear the syntax methods of both schools from their masters. In the final analysis, they adopted a new understanding of syntax by adopting a way in the middle of the strict and uncompromising attitude of the syntax scholars of Basra and the overly permissive approach of the syntax scholars of Kûfa. Like the other two syntax schools, this new and middle way syntax understanding was named after the city of Baghdad, where it was born. The syntax scholars, who are members of the Baghdad school, made selections from the ideas of the syntax scholars from Basra and of Kûfa, and they signed their own unique approaches to the issues of syntax. The prominent representatives of this new school are Ebû Ali al-Fârisî and İbn Cinnî. This new understanding of syntax paved the way for the emergence of Egypt, Andalusia and other syntax schools by breaking the monopoly of Basra and Kûfa syntax schools in the science of syntax. In addition, in the following period, the way for the great syntax scholars to display a unique stance was paved.