When She Burnt Sībawayh’s Books

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Abū ʿAlī al-Fārisī (d. 377/987) said:

“Sībawayh (d. c. 180/796) married a girl in al-Baṣrah who became infatuated with him, while he had already structured the framework of al-Kitāb and classified the opening sections of its chapters, and these were in rough drafts. He would not turn his attention to his wife, nor occupy himself with her, while she was deeply in love with him. Nothing preoccupied him except study, staying up late at night, and his books. So she watched for him to leave to the marketplace on some errand of his, and she took a burning ember and threw it into the books until they burned. He returned to his books to find them reduced to ashes, and he fainted due to with grief. Then he recovered, divorced her, and compiled al-Kitāb afresh after that, a second time.”

Abū ʿAlī added:

And much knowledge that he had taken from al-Khalīl [ibn Aḥmad al-Farāhīdī (d. c. 170/786)] was lost in what was burned, and indeed, to Allāh ﷻ belongs the decree over that.

Reference

 al-Zubaydī, Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan (d. 379/989), Ṭabaqāt al-Naḥwiyyīn wal-Lughawiyyīn, p. 75