Three Western Recensions of Sibawayh’s Kitab

The 5??/11??-century folios of Sibawayh's Kitab that we are editing here are particularly notable for containing three distinct Western (Andalusian or North African) recensions of the famous grammatical text. The first recension, by a certain ?Abu al-?asan ?A?mad bin Na?r, was subsequently emended by a second scribe to align it with the recension of ?Abu ?a?far al-Na??as (d. 338/949), and later by a third scribe who aligned it with the recension of ?Abu ?Abd Allah al-Raba?i (d. 358/969).

To this day, the first recension has remained unknown to the grammatical tradition. The second recension, though known to scholars, is being published here for the first time, while the third recension is found in numerous manuscripts across the world.