Al-Farra'

Al-Farra'
الفراء
TitleAmīr al-Muʾminīn fī al-Nahw
(lit.''The Commander of the Faithful in Grammar'')
Personal life
Born144 AH / 761-762 CE
Died207 AH / 822-823 CE (aged 60-62)
EraAbbasid Era
RegionIraq
Main interest(s)
Known forTraditionally founder and head of the grammatical school of al-Kūfa
RelativesMuhammad al-Shaybani (Maternal cousin)
Religious life
ReligionIslam
TeachersQays ibn al-Rabīʿ, Mandil ibn ʿAlī, Abū Bakr ibn ʿAyyāsh, al-Kisāʾī, and Sufyān ibn ʿUyayna, Yūnus ibn Ḥabīb al-Baṣrī
Muslim leader
Students
  • Salama ibn ʿĀṣim, Abu Ubaid al-Qasim, Muḥammad ibn Jahm al-Simmarī, Ibn al-Sikkīt
Arabic name
Personal
(Ism)
Yaḥyā
يحيى
Patronymic
(Nasab)
ibn Ziyād ibn ʿAbdullāh ibn Manṣūr
ابن زياد ابن عبد الله ابن منصور
Teknonymic
(Kunya)
Abū Zakarīyā’
أبو زكريا
Toponymic
(Nisba)
al-Daylamī al-Farrā’ al-Asadī
الديْلَمي الفَرّاء الأسدي

Al-Farrāʼ (الفراء), he was Abū Zakarīyāʼ Yaḥyā ibn Ziyād ibn ʽAbd Allāh ibn Manṣūr al-Daylamī al-Farrāʼ (أبو زكريا يحيى بن زياد بن عبد الله بن منصور الدَّيْلميّ الفراء), was a Daylamite scholar and the principal pupil of al-Kisā’ī (الكساءى). He is the most brilliant of the Kūfan scholars. Muḥammad ibn Al-Jahm quotes Ibn al-Quṭrub that it was al-Farrā’s melodic eloquence and knowledge of the pure spoken Arabic of the Bedouins and their expressions that won him special favour at the court of Hārūn al-Rashīd. He died on the way to Mecca, aged about sixty, or sixty-seven, in 822 (207 AH).