Ibn Sidah and his dictionary of al-Muhkam wa'l-muhit al-a'zam

Ibn Sidah is one of the most prominent linguists who trained himself in the fields of Arabic Language and Literature and lexicography during Mulûq al-Tawâif, one of the most turbulent periods of Andalus. Although Andalus was very complicated politically during the period of the author's life, it continued to develop in the cultural spheres thanks to the encouragement and protection of the rulers (emirs). In addition to the works about language and literature which we know only their names in the sources, he achieved his fame with his two encyclopedic dictionaries, al-Mukhassas and al-Muhkam. al-Muhkam, which is the subject of this research, is accepted as the latest and most equipped dictionary written in Andalus with the basic principles of al-Ayn school. al-Muhkam, which left behind other dictionaries with its rich language materials as well as regular and scientific method in explaining the meaning of the words, is an important example in terms of showing the great progress made in the dictionary studies in Andalusia in the 5th year of Hijra. There are no graduate studies in our country about Ibn Sidah and his dictionary al-Muhkam, which has been neglected for a long time by early and modern researchers. For this reason, it is aimed to introduce the author and his work to the academic life and to contribute to the studies in this field. Our study sheds light on the scientific aspects of the author's life and explains the high position he achieved. In addition, the dictionary studies of Arabs and the stages it has gone through have been examined in general. In addition, the factors causing Muhkam's negligence, the reasons and steps of its copyright, the sources, the position it reached, the aspects which differentiate it from the other dictionaries, the dictionaries it influenced and the ones it was influenced and the criticisms made about it were analyzed. In addition, various methods and types of linguistic istishhâd used by the author in the interpretation of the terms were analyzed with examples. The author has given great importance to naqlî evidences both in the explanations of the terms and in the consultations he used in lugavi and sarfî evidences. Although controversial in linguistic istishhâd with the verses of the Qur'an, he did not hesitate to use any hadith as a witness. However, he has completely ignored the account succession of the hadiths he has brought as shawahid. Ibn Sîde, who mostly consulted with Qur'anic verses after poetry, gave great importance to all Qur'anic recitations, whether they are mutawâtir or shaz. In addition to this, the istishhâd with Arabic word which has a significant place in linguistic istishhâd play an important role in the dictionary. The most frequently used istishhâd tool in the dictionary is classical Arabic poetry. Ibn Sîde generally took care to ensure that the linguists regarding the use of shawahid were suitable for the time and place determined. He chose most of the poems he used as shawahid in the dictionary from the famous poets of the Jahiliyya and generally mentioned the names of the poets. Except that, he did not mention the poets of the couplets he used. Muhkam contains sharh, commentary and broad explanations on sarf-nahiv and arûz issues which are not included in other dictionaries and it emphasizes the rationale of the naming of the terms.