Known as Sībawayh (Sibuyeh in Persian, سيبويه Sībawayh in Arabic, سیبویه), Abū Bishr'Amr ibn'Uthmān ibn Qanbar Al-Bishrī was an important linguist of Arabic. He was born about 760 in the city of Bayza, currently in Iran, but spent his youth in Iraq. He died in Shiraz around the year 796. Work
Sībawayh's grammar of Arabic, the Kitāb ('the book') was primarily intended for non-Arabs who wanted to read Arabic, especially to study the Quran. Sībawayh did not even own Arabic as a native language. His description was so extensive - he deals with about 10,000 sentences in detail, captivates extensive quotes from the Quran and classical Arabic poetry, and also addresses important dialect differences - however, the Kitāb does not seem as useful as learning material. Well, he is one of the great intellectual achievements of the Arab world; his grammar has strongly influenced later language developments (also in the Western world). Bibliography
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