Mamluks reigned in
Egypt a long time is an era of Kipchak Turks that have influence management,
and Kipchak Turks has been influential in a period in the administration there.
During this period, that Turkish rulers do not know Arabic language well,
Turkish language is spoken in the palace and also idea of being closer to
Turkish manager screated an interest in learning. One of the famous scholars
realizing that interest is Abū Ḥayyān al-Andalusī. Abū Ḥayyān by learning Turkish language especially from Fakhr al-dīn Divrigi and
analysing written previously works, wrote Kitāb al-Idrāk li-lisān al-Atrāk. This book has consisted of introduction,
vocabulary and grammar section. We also aimed in our study to examine Kitāb al-Idrāk in terms of content and than in terms of
lexicography of the linguistic branch.
Mamluks reigned in Egypt a long time and in
its reign Kipchak Turks had influence in management. Because of the Turkish
rulers who have military background did not know Arabic language well, Turkish
language was spoken in the palace and also idea of being closer of scholars and
notable people to Turkish rulers got brought an interest in learning Turkish.
One of the famous scholars realizing that interest is Abū Ḥayyān al-Andalusī (d. 745/ 1344).
The true name of Abū Ḥayyān is Muḥammed b. Yūsuf b. Ali b. Ḥayyān al-Tawḥīdī and he is an
Andalusian linguist and exegete. Abū Ḥayyān who came from a Berber family born in
the Matahsharesh village of Granada in 654/1256 and died in Cairo in 28th time
745 (11 July 1344). There is not much information about his family in the
sources, but it is mentioned that he has a daughter whose name is Nada, a son
named Hayyân in his name, and some grandchildren which are named Muḥammad and Ummu Ḥayyān.
Abū Ḥayyān became a famous as Ethīr al-dīn and at
the same time, he is also known as Naḥvī, Ghirnātī (Granadian), Ceyyānī, and Nafzī. He
took lessons in Granada from great scholars such as Abd al-ḥaķ b. Ali al-Anṣarī, Abū Ḥasan al-Ubbezī,
Abū Cafer Aḥmed b. Ibrahīm b.
Zubair, Ibn Abū al-Ahvas and became a proficient scholar and teacher in matters
such as morphology, syntax, language, commentary, hadith, methodology of Fiqh
and Kalām. He wrote about 18 works in different sciences and if we mention some
of that are al-Baḥr al-muhīt, al-Nahr al-mād, Tuhfat al-arīb bimā
fī al-Qur'ān min al-gharīb and some of his works have reached to our
time and some of those did not.
Abū Ḥayyān left Andalus for various reasons and
visited many centers of science and eventually continued his scientific
activities in Cairo. Abū Hayyān, who is a great interest in learning languages,
has learned Turkish language with the other popular languages such as
Persian, Amharic and Himyarite language and written books about these
languages. His mainly works about Turkish language are the Kitāb al-Idrāk li-lisān al-Atrāk, Zehv al-mulk fi
naḥv al-Turk, al-Af'al
fi lisān al-Turk and al-Durret al-mudiyye fi lughat al-Turkiyye.
These works did not reach to our days except Kitāb
al-Idrak.
Kitāb al-Idrāk consists of three sections,
namely introduction, dictionary which includes 2200 words, and grammar that is
composed of morphology and syntax and this book which is known as al-Idrāk
is written in the Turkish which is spoken in XIV-XVI century tongue and named
as Middle Turkish Period-Mamluk Kipchak Turkish.
The first chapter begins with basmala and
continues with detailed his genealogy, personal record, praise to Allah and salawat
and salaam to Prophet Muhammad. After this introduction, it is explained the intention
of writing this work. The second chapter is a dictionary which the words are
explained in alphabetical order. Although Abū Ḥayyān speaks about 23
letters in the Kipchak alphabet, he does not explain the words related to all,
but examines 19 items. In this dictionary, it does not take part some letters,
that is letters sā, zāl, zā (letters of lips which is written in English th); letters dâd, ayn, fa (letters of
throat) which Arabs use.
In the third chapter, there is a part of the
tasrif (knowledge of morphology) which is generally called knowledge of
morphology today. In this section, it is dealt with about the types of words
namely, name of diminutive, name of belonging name, plural, agent name, passive name, exaggerated factor
name, infinitive, name indicating the location, name of device, arbitrary name,
and idâd (which adds are derivation of noun from name like lık, lik at the end of the word) and then it comes
to the end with shadda.
Section of syntax which is called by the
author as consisted of compound and is prepared according to systematic of
Arabic grammar begins with the sentence structure in Kipchak language. After
that it continues with definite-ambiguous names, verb (orders, past, imperfect
verbs), subject-predicate in nominal sentence, nevāsiḫ (additional actions helped
change the meaning of the noun phrase), Arabic leyte which express by the actual wish mold and the like, such as two
mef'ūl area of the heart of verbs in Arabic told (I think)
were deaf ( Turkmen thinks he), acts like it yet
scientists (verb phrase in), acts offender (verb-subject), the abutment of the
verb nefiy prepositions, prepositions, the nehiy (ban), passive verbs and
naib-i fail (so-called subject); other elements of the sentence, called the act
müteallakat are: cognate accusativ, direct object, time period (time complement), the envelope space (located
complement), state (envelope), causative object, the exception, the
specification, conflict of laws, the annexation, the oat, the dependencies:
adjective, conjunction, confirm, the apposition; conditional structure. After these, he mentions to letters of
meanings (huruf al-maani), and concludes this chapter with information about
the date, place, and name of the author of the book.
Abū Hayyān used induction method in the book.
Since he gave the forms of the words in double, then the triple, quadruple,
quintet and other forms. He tried to teach the pronunciation of words by
explaining the etymology of word sand the changes of the voices. He examined
the words which are synonyms/ contrasted, synonym voice, singular/plural, and
words that are passed by foreign languages into Turkish dialects then they are
turned into Turkish word structure; brought out witnesses from proverbs and
poetries.
As a result, in this
work, which consists of dictionary and grammar sections, it can be said that it
is used predominantly in linguistic information - translation method .
Subjects | Religious Studies |
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Journal Section | Research Articles |
Authors | |
Publication Date | December 15, 2016 |
Submission Date | October 5, 2016 |
Published in Issue | Year 2016 Volume: 20 Issue: 2 |
Cumhuriyet Theology Journal is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY NC).