Asas al-Balagha
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 | |
| Editor | Muhammad Basil Uyun al-Sud |
|---|---|
| Author | Al-Zamakhshari |
| Original title | أساس البلاغة |
| Language | Arabic |
| Subject | Balagha |
| Genre | Dictionary |
| Publisher | Dar al-Kotob al-'Ilmiyya |
Publication date | 2010 |
| Pages | 1392 |
| ISBN | 978-2-7451-2197-4 |
Asās al-Balāghah ("The Foundation of Eloquence")[1] is a thesaurus and dictionary of figurative speech (Ilm al-Bayan), a branch in Arabic rhetoric authored by Al-Zamakhshari.[2][3] Zamakhshari authored the work, in part, to reconcile what he viewed as the miraculous nature of the Qur'an with his theological views.[4]
Notable as the earliest fully alphabetical Arabic lexicography,[5] and in addition for the metaphorical content Zamakhshari includes with his literal definitions.[6] Zamakhshari's system lists words in alphabetical order according to the first component of their tri-radical consonant letters to the last. He excludes complicated derived and rare forms, such quadrilaterals and quintilaterals.[7] Zamakhshari's goal was to catalog both the literal and figurative meanings of Arabic words, and he used examples from the Qur'an and hadith for both.[7] He viewed words almost as living organisms that were given life by the way they were used in rhetoric.[8]
