THE TERMS IṬLĀQ, TAQYĪD, AND THEIR DERIVATIVES IN SHARḤ AL-KĀFIYA BY RAḌĪ AL-DĪN AL-ASTARĀBĀDHĪ

Raḍī al-Dīn al-Astarābādhī (d. ca. 688/1289) was a highly perceptive and original grammarian, who combined in his writing terms and methodology developed in other Islamic disciplines, such as logic, philosophy, theology and jurisprudence. The distinction between the general and the specific as a methodological tendency is a telling example of these influences. I study this tendency by focusing on a set of terms in which it is manifested, with the current article addressing the terms iṭlāq “absoluteness,” taqyīd “limitation,” and their derivatives. These terms are not unique to al-Astarābādhī, but the frequency of their use in his book enables us to distinguish between them and other, seemingly close, terms (such as ʿumūm “generality” and khuṣūṣ “specificity”). I map out the contexts in which iṭlāq, taqyīd, and their derivatives appear, and demonstrate how a close look into terminology may deepen the understanding of a complicated grammatical text.