Grammar Teaching: From Rule Formation to Complexity – A Foundational Reading in the Arabic Heritage

Abstract

Grammar originally emerged from studies related to the Qur’an. In its earliest stage, it aimed to protect the Qur’an from linguistic errors, misreading, and distortion, especially after Arabs came into contact with non-Arab peoples. For this reason, efforts began with the system of vowel marking at the ends of words in Qur’anic verses, a method attributed to Abū al-Aswad al-Duʾalī. Subsequently, grammatical studies gradually developed and expanded in scope, and grammar became an end in itself rather than merely a means.

Grammar reached its peak of development under al-Khalīl ibn Aḥmad al-Farāhīdī and his student Sībawayh. Later scholars systematized this discipline and refined its foundations, under the influence of Greek logic and philosophy with their methods of analogy and terminology. This influence led grammar to deviate from its original purpose and lose some of its functional vitality, turning instead into a field of intellectual disputation in which grammarians competed to demonstrate their intellectual abilities through the problems they analyzed.