Themes of Al-Farabi's Document in Linguistic Evidence Citation Compared to the Methodology of Grammarians: Sibawayh's Book as a Case Study

The study aimed to explore how closely grammarians adhered to the standards set by Abu Nasr al-Farabi in his book "Al-Huruf," known as Al-Farabi's Document. These standards outlined the methodology grammarians used in citing Arabic speech to validate their linguistic opinions or grammatical rules. It was expected that Al-Farabi derived these criteria based on the grammarians' methodology in their writings, but this did not entirely match what was observed in grammatical texts. Al-Farabi noted that grammarians did not cite everything from the Arabs; they excluded tribes influenced by other languages, known as the geographical criterion for linguistic evidence. However, the reality shows that grammarians did not strictly follow this criterion. This was evident in the examples cited by Sibawayh in his book, as many poets fell outside Al-Farabi's mentioned scope. This does not indicate a lack of methodology, but rather Sibawayh and subsequent grammarians focused on eloquence and linguistic correctness. Wherever these were present, evidence was cited regardless of the geographical criterion of the speaker. Al-Farabi's description of the grammarians' method seems to be a general overview rather than an accurate extrapolation. Al-Farabi's Document in "Al-Huruf" is more precise to what grammarians did, but less accurate in its content attributed to him by Abu Hayyan and Al-Suyuti, possibly due to their added details to the document's text.