Abstract
Ibn Jinni’s Life and career (320 AH / 932 AD - 392 AH / 1002 AD): The grammarian Ibn Jinni was born in the city of Mosul in Iraq around the year 932 as the son of a Byzantine slave belonging to Sulaymān al-Azdī. His family name Jinni is derived from the Greek word (gennaios) that possibly means “high born.” He started lecturing on grammatical problems at an early age. It happened that one day during one of his lectures in Mosul the well-known Arab grammarian, Abu Ali alFarisi, was in attendance. During the course of this particular lecture, al-Farisi was critical of Ibn Jinni in which he said: zababta wa anta ḥuṣrum “you have become a currant while still being unripe grapes.” This statement had a profound and life changing impact on Ibn Jinni due to the fact that al-Farisi was the most well-known and highly esteemed and respected Arab grammarian in Baghdad and arguably in the entire Islamic and Arab world at that time.