Ahmad al-Hashimî and his work "al-Qawaid al-asasiyya li'l-Lughat Al-'arabiyya"

This study analyses the life of Ahmad al-Hashimî, who lived in Cairo between 1875-1943, his academic personality, and his work "al-Qawaid al-Asasiyya li'l-Lughat al-'Arabiyya". With the invasion of Egypt by the French in 1789, the effects of modernist trends in 19th century culminated and the Arabic language was also affected from these changes. As a result of these, Arab world tried to renew, simplify and expedite the science of syntax. The Arab elite were divided into two groups. Some of the linguists supported the idea of radically changing or total abolition of syntax, other maintained the idea of teaching it with new methods and styles by simplifying the difficulties of grammar. Al-Hashimi was among who supported the idea simplification. This study comprises of an introduction, two parts and a conclusion. In introduction, some general information was provided about syntax. In the first part, the author's life and scientific personality were mentioned. In the second part, the work was examined in detail. The result were evaluated in the conclusion. Al-Hashimi has written al-Qawaid by following the order of al-Alfiyya, the work of the famous grammarian Ibn Malik, and of its exegeses. The work fits with al-Alfiyya both in content and explanation of the subjects. Nonetheless, the author wanted give a fresh breath to the syntax of Arabic by applying modern educational methods in his work. The work was penned in a very simple and easy method and manner. It also uses modern teaching methods in order to keep interest of the students alive and prevent the dullness of the subject. It was established that the work uses some principles like starting from simple moving to complex, goal-orientedness, activeness and student-orientedness. Keywords: Ahmad al-Hashimi, syntax, Arabic, al-Qawaid al-Asasiyya li'l-Lughat al- 'Arabiyya.