A rhetorical evaluation of Samīn al-Halabī's Umdat al-huffāz fī tafsīr ashraf al-alfāz

Samīn al-Halabī's (d. 756/1355) Umdat al-huffāz fī tafsīr ashraf al-alfāz is one of the dictionaries written in the style of garīb al-Qur'an. In this work, Halabī tries to explain the words in the Qur'an by classifying them in alphabetical order. It is noteworthy that in this work, which is a dictionary of Qur'anic words, Halabī frequently mentions the rhetorical meanings of the verses he explains in the article contents. In this study, Halabī's dictionary Umdat al-huffāz fī tafsīr ashraf al-alfāz is analysed in terms of the sciences of balāghah (rhetoric): maānī, bayān and badī'. The main purpose of the study is to reveal the quantity and quality of the rhetorical accumulation of Halabī, who lived in a period after the emergence of systematic balāghah, in this work and to analyse it in terms of systematic balāghah. This research, which is based on the document analysis method, consists of an introduction, four chapters and a conclusion. In the first chapter, Halabī's life, his works and the purpose, method and sources of writing Umdat al-huffāz fī tafsīr ashraf al-alfāz, which he wrote in the style of a dictionary, and the historical development of Arabic rhetoric are given. In the second part, Halabī's work is analysed in terms of the science of maānī, in the third part in terms of the science of bayān and in the fourth part in terms of the science of badī'. As a result of our research, it has been determined that Halabī's Umdat al-huffāz contains explanations about the subjects of the science of maānī such as khabar-inshā, ī'jāz-itnāb and hasr, and that he generally adopted the basic concepts and classifications of this science and used them in his work. Again, it was observed that Halabī mostly touched upon the issues related to the science of bayān during his explanations of words, and that he had explanations on the main topics of this science such as simile, metaphor and allegory and all of their subheadings. In this work, it was noticed that although Halabī generally complied with the concepts and classifications of the science of bayān, he acted more freely in this regard and sometimes used his own qualifications and classifications. In this context, it has been determined that some of his characterisations related to metaphor and allegory do not carry a conceptual meaning. In Umdat al-huffāz, it was observed that the subjects of the science of badī' were given less space than the subjects of the other two sciences. It was found that the arts of the science of badī', especially tibāq, muqābala and mushākala, were frequently touched upon in the work. Keywords: Samīn al-Halabī, Umdat al-huffāz fī tafsīr ashraf al-alfāz, balāghah, maānī, bayān, badī'.