İbn Cinni'nin al-Haṣā'iṣ'inde dilin kaynağı meselesi

The issue of the origin of language was meticulously studied by both theologians and scholars of language in the 4th/10th centuries of Islamic civilization. Inasmuch that the issue was widely disputed in the theological discussions at the time. As a scholar of language, Ibn Jinnī tackles this issue in his book al-Ḫaṣā'iṣ, which has an important role in the disciplinization of the science of grammar in the Islamic scientific tradition. In modern literature, the issue of the origin of language has been studied in detail with regards to its importance for the field of theology; however, the wider implications of this issue in the field of philology have been largely glossed over. Similarly, there is a lack of an overall study of the philological implications of Ibn Jinnī's views of the origin of language in contemporary scholarship. The goal of this thesis is to fill this gap in the literature by presenting a comprehensive study of the topic. In other words, it aims at examining how his view of the origin of language serves as a theoretical basis for his general study of Arabic language and philology. To fulfil this aim, we looked for the answers to following questions: What is Ibn Jinni's view of the origin of language? How much is Ibn Jinnī's account of the issue representative the wider discourse of his time? Where is Ibn Jinnī positioned among the existing sides of the theological discussions. To address these questions, we conduct a close reading of the relevant a chapter in al-Ḫaṣā'iṣ, preceded by an account of the historical development of the Arabic grammatical tradition and of the wider discourse of the issue of the origin of language. Based on our textual analysis, we found that Ibn Jinnī's text does not aim at joining the wider discussions of the origin of language in the field of theology; rather, he is interested in establishing a theoretical framework for his study of the language. We may observe this in his discussions of the priority of nominals over verbs, of language change, and of sound symbolism in Arabic. By focusing on the complex issue of the origin of language which has a theoretical place in the discipline of grammar in the Arabic literary tradition, we hope our study of Ibn Jinnī's text may, as a case study, benefit investigations of Arabic linguistics and philology from the perspective of the scientific approach of Islamic civilization. On a different note, our analysis shows that Ibn Jinnī is interested in language and grammar in a universal sense not restrited to Arabic.