Abstract

The city of Kūfa has come to the forefront since the early periods of Islam by dealing with religious sciences and developing these sciences. While these sciences were initially limited to religious sciences, they gradually began to diversify as a result of the expansion of the Islamic geography. Because the Arabs' encounter with the Byzantine and Sassanid empires did not only lead to struggle but also allowed them to get to know their cultures. As a result of this contact, the scientific basin in the Islamic world began to be filled with sciences from different cultures. This geographical expansion had both positive and negative aspects. One of these negative sides was the deterioration of the languages of the Arabs who mixed with foreign peoples in the conquered lands and the spread of this deterioration to the reading of the Quran. In response to this negative situation, studies on grammar sciences emerged in the city of Basra and were transferred to the city of Kūfa a century later. Kūfa grammar school was formed as a result of the intensive work of grammarians from Kūfa regarding grammar science, which also attracted attention in the city of Kūfa. The greatest share in the transformation of Kūfa grammar into a school belongs to al-Kisā’ī and his student al-Farrā. Although there were grammar studies and lessons in Kūfa before al-Kisā’ī and al-Farrā, they were not at a level that would ensure the transformation into a school or compete with Basra grammar school. Muādh al-Herrā is one of the pioneers of Kūfa grammar school. Muādh al-Herrā, about whose life there is not much information, was interested in scientific fields such as syntax grammar, language, tafsir, hadith, recitation and poetry. Muādh al-Herrā is one of the important figures in the history of Kūfa grammar, as he dealt with grammar in the early periods of Kūfa grammar, gave lessons and taught scholars such as al-Kisā’ī and al-Farrā, who helped developing the school of Kūfa grammar. In this study, the life of Muādh al-Herrā, about whom we have not come across any independent study, is presented, in the context of his scientific views as reflected in the sources, information about his scientific personality is presented and the issue of whether he is the founder of the sarf is examined.