عون العلي المالك شرح كافية ابن مالك

Awn al-Ali al-Malik: Sharh Kafiyat Ibn Malik

ʿAwn al-ʿAlī al-Mālik: Sharḥ Kāfiyat Ibn Mālik (عون العلي المالك شرح كافية ابن مالك), by Shaykh Abū al-Maʿālī Muḥammad ibn Ḥamādā al-Anṣārī, is an extensive contemporary commentary on Ibn Mālik’s celebrated al-Kāfiyah al-Shāfiyah, his major didactic poem encompassing the sciences of Arabic grammar (naḥw) and morphology (ṣarf). The Kāfiyah al-Shāfiyah is particularly important as the larger work from which Ibn Mālik subsequently produced his famous Alfiyyah.

The commentary explains Ibn Mālik’s verses in detail, analysing grammatical constructions and morphological principles, presenting the positions of earlier grammarians and discussing areas of disagreement between the grammatical schools. The author does not restrict himself to transmitting earlier opinions, but critically examines them, weighs competing arguments and offers his own grammatical preferences and conclusions.

Published in three substantial volumes, the work is noteworthy as the first printed commentary on the Kāfiyah al-Shāfiyah by someone other than Ibn Mālik himself. It therefore provides students and researchers with a detailed modern guide to one of Ibn Mālik’s most important but comparatively less-commented grammatical works, and is especially valuable for advanced study of Arabic grammar, morphology and the history of grammatical scholarship.