Mashrabaمشربة

The Alfiyya

أَلْفِيَّةُ ابْنِ مَالِك

Ibn Mālik of Jaén (d. 672/1274) put the whole of grammar and morphology into about a thousand lines of rajaz, each line two rhyming halves, so that it could be learned by heart. It is still the text most students memorise. Ibn ʿAqīl (d. 769/1367) wrote the commentary most often read with it; here his commentary sits under the verses it explains.

OpenITI · Alfiyya, Shamela 0008522OpenITI · Ibn ʿAqīl, JK 001328OpenITI RELEASE v2025.1.9, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · vowelling and English · Metre: 895 of 1002 verses scan as rajaz
About this edition

Verses are numbered in the order Ibn ʿAqīl comments on them (the usual order); 22 verses sit elsewhere in the OpenITI file (its chapter on number is displaced) and keep their file line in 'line' and file position in 'fileOrder'. Chapter titles follow Ibn ʿAqīl's edition.

Aligned automatically: each Alfiyya verse is matched to Ibn ʿAqīl's quotation of it (consonantal similarity ≥ 0.6); the commentary that follows a quoted verse runs to the next matched verse. The modern editor's supplement (تكملة في تصريف الأفعال) at the end of this edition is excluded. 994 of 1002 verses were matched; the other 8 carry no commentary link.

No vowelled edition of the Alfiyya is available to us in a reusable digital form, so the AI vowelling is checked in two automatic ways instead: the letters must equal the OpenITI text, and each verse must scan as rajaz (the metre line under each verse, scanned by rule and grounded in Ibn Jinnī's Kitāb al-ʿArūḍ). Lines that fail either check are marked.

Speech, inflection and the kinds of nounvv. 1–112
  1. The Versifier's Introductionvv. 1–7مقدمة الناظم
  2. Speech (al-kalām) and What It Is Composed Ofvv. 8–14الكلام وما يتألف منه
  3. The Declinable and the Indeclinablevv. 15–51المعرب والمبني
  4. The Indefinite and the Definitevv. 52–71النكرة والمعرفة
  5. The Proper Nounvv. 72–81العلم
  6. The Demonstrative Nounvv. 82–87اسم الإشارة
  7. The Relative Nounvv. 88–105الموصول
  8. The Noun Made Definite by the Definite Articlevv. 106–112المعرف بأداة التعريف
The nominal sentence and what alters itvv. 113–224
  1. The Nominal Sentence: the Mubtadaʾ (Subject) and the Khabar (Predicate)vv. 113–142الابتداء
  2. Kāna and Its Sistersvv. 143–157كان وأخواتها
  3. Section on mā, lā, lāta and in, which resemble laysavv. 158–163فصل في ما ولا ولات وإن المشبهات بليس
  4. The Verbs of Approximation (kāda and its sisters)vv. 164–173أفعال المقاربة
  5. Inna and Its Sistersvv. 174–196إن وأخواتها
  6. Lā that negates the whole class (lā al-nāfiya li-l-jins)vv. 197–205لا التي لنفي الجنس
  7. Ẓanna and Its Sistersvv. 206–219ظن وأخواتها
  8. Aʿlama and Arā (verbs taking three objects)vv. 220–224أعلم وأرى
The verb and its complementsvv. 225–363
  1. The Agent (al-Fāʿil)vv. 225–241الفاعل
  2. The Deputy of the Agent (the Subject of a Passive Verb)vv. 242–254النائب عن الفاعل
  3. The Governing Word's Being Occupied Away from the Governed Noun (al-ishtighāl)vv. 255–266اشتغال العامل عن المعمول
  4. Transitive and Intransitive Verbsvv. 267–277تعدي الفعل ولزومه
  5. Contention over Government (at-tanāzuʿ fī l-ʿamal)vv. 278–285التنازع في العمل
  6. The Absolute Object (al-mafʿūl al-muṭlaq)vv. 286–297المفعول المطلق
  7. The Object of Cause (al-mafʿūl lahu)vv. 298–302المفعول له
  8. The Object In Which (al-mafʿūl fīhi), also called the Ẓarf (Adverb of Time or Place)vv. 303–310المفعول فيه وهو المسمى ظرفا
  9. The Object of Accompaniment (al-mafʿūl maʿahu)vv. 311–315المفعول معه
  10. Exceptionvv. 316–331الاستثناء
  11. The Circumstantial Qualifier (al-ḥāl)vv. 332–355الحال
  12. The Specifying Accusative (tamyīz)vv. 356–363التمييز
The genitive and words that work like verbsvv. 364–505
  1. The Particles of Jarr (Prepositions)vv. 364–384حروف الجر
  2. Annexation (the genitive construct)vv. 385–419الإضافة
  3. The Noun Annexed to the Yāʾ of the Speakervv. 420–423المضاف إلى ياء المتكلم
  4. The Government of the Verbal Noun (Maṣdar)vv. 424–427إعمال المصدر
  5. The Governing Action of the Active Participlevv. 428–439إعمال اسم الفاعل
  6. The Patterns of Verbal Nouns (Maṣdars)vv. 440–456أبنية المصادر
  7. The Patterns of Active Participles, Passive Participles, and the Adjectives Resembling Themvv. 457–466أبنية أسماء الفاعلين والمفعولين والصفات المشبهة بها
  8. The Adjective Resembling the Active Participlevv. 467–473الصفة المشبهة باسم الفاعل
  9. Exclamation of Wondervv. 474–484التعجب
  10. Niʿma and Biʾsa, and Verbs That Behave Like Themvv. 485–495نعم وبئس وما جرى مجراهما
  11. The Elative (afʿal of Preference)vv. 496–505أفعل التفضيل
Followers, the vocative and set phrasesvv. 506–648
  1. The Attributive Adjective (an-Naʿt)vv. 506–519النعت
  2. Emphasis (Corroboration, tawkīd)vv. 520–533التوكيد
  3. Coordination (ʿaṭf), part one: the explicative apposition (ʿaṭf al-bayān)vv. 534–539العطف
  4. Coordination by Particles (ʿAṭf al-Nasaq)vv. 540–564عطف النسق
  5. The Substitute (Badal)vv. 565–572البدل
  6. The Vocativevv. 573–584النداء
  7. Section: The Appositives (Tawābiʿ) of the Vocativevv. 585–591فصل
  8. The Vocative Noun Annexed to the Yāʾ of the Speakervv. 592–594المنادى المضاف إلى ياء المتكلم
  9. Nouns That Occur Only in the Vocativevv. 595–597أسماء لازمت النداء
  10. The Call for Help (al-Istighātha)vv. 598–600الاستغاثة
  11. Lamentation (al-Nudba)vv. 601–607الندبة
  12. Truncation (tarkhīm) of the Vocative Nounvv. 608–619الترخيم
  13. Specification (al-Ikhtiṣāṣ)vv. 620–621الاختصاص
  14. Warning and Urgingvv. 622–626التحذير والإغراء
  15. Verb-Nouns and Sound-Wordsvv. 627–634أسماء الأفعال والأصوات
  16. The Two Nūns of Emphasisvv. 635–648نونا التوكيد
Diptotes, the verb's moods and conditionalsvv. 649–725
  1. The Diptote: Nouns That Do Not Take Ṣarfvv. 649–675ما لا ينصرف
  2. The Inflection of the Verb [the moods of the imperfect: indicative, subjunctive, jussive]vv. 676–694إعراب الفعل
  3. The Agents of the Jussive (jazm)vv. 695–708عوامل الجزم
  4. Section on law ('if')vv. 709–711فصل لو
  5. Ammā, Lawlā and Lawmāvv. 712–716أما ولولا ولوما
  6. Reporting by means of alladhī and of al (the relative alif-lām)vv. 717–725الإخبار بالذي والألف واللام
Number, gender and the pluralvv. 726–832
  1. Numeralsvv. 726–745العدد
  2. Kam, Kaʾayyin and Kadhāvv. 746–749كم وكأين وكذا
  3. Reproduction (al-Ḥikāya)vv. 750–757الحكاية
  4. The Femininevv. 758–770التأنيث
  5. Nouns Ending in Short Alif and Nouns Ending in Long Alif with Hamzavv. 771–777المقصور والممدود
  6. How to Form the Dual of the Maqṣūr and the Mamdūd, and Their Sound Pluralsvv. 778–790كيفية تثنية المقصور والممدود وجمعهما تصحيحا
  7. The Broken Pluralvv. 791–832جمع التكسير
Morphology: diminutive, nisba, pause, weak lettersvv. 833–1002
  1. The Diminutivevv. 833–854التصغير
  2. The Relational Adjective (Nisba)vv. 855–880النسب
  3. Pause (al-Waqf): the Forms Words Take at a Stopvv. 881–899الوقف
  4. Imāla (Inclining Fatḥa and Alif toward Kasra and Yāʾ)vv. 900–914الإمالة
  5. Morphology (at-Taṣrīf)vv. 915–937التصريف
  6. Section on the Addition of the Connecting Hamza (hamzat al-waṣl)vv. 938–942فصل في زيادة همزة الوصل
  7. Substitution (al-Ibdāl)vv. 943–963الإبدال
  8. Section [on substituting and weakening the weak letters wāw and yāʾ, and related changes]vv. 964–990فصل
  9. Assimilation (al-Idghām) of Identical Consonantsvv. 991–998الإدغام
  10. The Conclusionvv. 999–1002الخاتمة