History, Comparativism, and Morphology: Al- Suyūṭī and Modern Historical Linguistics

This paper investigates several aspects of al-Suyūṭī’s linguistic thought and their relationship with modern historical linguistics with a particular regard to morphology. Section 1 illustrates the methodological underpinnings of modern historical linguistics. Section 2 explores a potential parallelism between these and the methods of which al-Suyūṭī avails himself in his description of Arabic. Particular attention is paid to al-Suyūṭī’s treatise al-Muzhir fī ʿulūm al- lugha wa-anwāʿihā and to the three conceptual elements of history, comparativism and morphology. Finally, Section 3 provides the main conclusions, clarifying the extent to which al-Suyūṭī’s linguistic thought and modern historical linguistics converge.