The name of Ibrahim al-Samarrai is inextricably linked with the success of Arabic philology in the XX century. His impressive bibliography, consisting of a huge number of books, scientific articles and studies, demonstrates that his linguistic views were characterized by breadth and diversity, but even Arab scholars note that he never received the deserved recognition in the scientific world. To date, there are only a few books in the Arab world devoted to his life and work, although his scientific research covered almost all areas of humanitarian knowledge - from philology and literature to history and cultural studies. Being a highly erudite man with an encyclopedic knowledge, Ibrahim al-Samarrai constantly expanded the scope of his interests, paying attention to the pressing issues of modern science and trying to find something new and unexplored in them every time.

Keywords: Ibrahim al-Samarrai, Arabic literary language, Arabic grammar, modern Iraqi poetry.

Ibrahim al-Samarrai was one of a number of prominent Arab scholars who advocated the revival of the Arabic language and its liberation from the elements that came to the language with Westernization. It is no secret that the colonial policy of Western countries in the Arab world was aimed at the Arabic language as the most important source from which the Arab-Muslim heritage originates and the unity of the nation and its essence depends. Al-Samarrai and a number of other linguists in their works stopped any attempts to downplay the importance of the Arabic language for Arab-Muslim culture and tried to identify factors that hinder its development at the present time. Through their speeches and scientific articles, they repelled all kinds of attacks on the language of the Koran by "Westerners" in Arab society and successfully resisted calls to replace the Arabic literary language with local dialects, introduce the Latin alphabet instead of the Arabic alphabet, and exclude Arabic from school and university programs, as well as scientific research.

Working in the education system all his life, Ibrahim al-Samarrai contributed to improving the teaching methods of the Arabic language and increasing the role of linguistic societies as an essential condition for the implementation of systematic and successful Arabization. In addition, he was attracted to other topical linguistic problems, such as translating all terminology into Arabic and introducing it into general use, publishing dictionaries and various lexicographic manuals, etc.

During a period of cultural stagnation in the Arab East in the mid-twentieth century, Ibrahim al-Samarrai made every effort to ensure that the Arabic language regained its lost position and regained its rightful place among the languages of the world. As his friend and colleague Subhi al-Bassam recalls, " I will never forget sitting with him in the Cafe Brasil on Rashid Street in Baghdad in the year 45 or 46 and discussing yazs-

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business problems. We were talking about the language of newspapers, which was causing the Arabic literary language to deteriorate. We took phrases from the pages of newspapers and corrected them. We have also spoken well of scholars from ancient times, such as Saalab 1, al-Mubarrad 2, and al-Suyuti 3, appreciating their contribution to Arabic philology" [Al-'Alawinah, 2001, p.6].

It should be mentioned that Ibrahim al-Samarrai considered the era of the Muslim Renaissance to be the ideal period for the development of the Arabic literary language, when it was used in everyday life, was the language of religion, literature, science and spiritual creativity. Nevertheless, this linguist, unlike many of his contemporaries, was not retrograde in his views on the metamorphoses that are taking place with the Arabic language at the present moment, and considered it a living organism that is constantly developing and improving. While many Arab scholars preferred to ignore such changes, he was the first to notice the divergence of the Arabic literary language throughout the Arab world. This truly revolutionary idea never received a response in the Arab world and to this day is rarely mentioned in the writings of other scholars.

It should be noted that the works of Ibrahim al-Samarrai were well known in Russia. At various times, he was referred to by such prominent Russian scientists as V. M. Belkin, A. G. Belova, V. E. Chagall, Yu. P. Gubanov, V. D. Osipov, etc. This is especially true of such books as " Language Studies "(1961) and "Historical Development of Language" (1966). As V. M. Belkin rightly noted, "the desire to develop old traditions and criticize some of the positions of old Arab Orientalists from the point of view of modern linguistic theory is characteristic of the works of the Egyptian linguists Ibrahim Anis and Murad Kamil and the Iraqi Ibrahim al-Samarrai" (Belkin, 1975, p.13).

* * *

Ibrahim Ahmed Rashid al-Samarrai was born in the town of Amara in southeastern Iraq in 1916.5 His surname is derived from the name of another Iraqi city, Samarra, from which his grandfather once moved in search of a better life for his family. Ibrahim's childhood was spent in the harsh conditions of the Iraqi desert, where in summer the air temperature reached 49 degrees Celsius, and in winter the heat was replaced by severe cold. Little Ibrahim was not yet seven when he was left a complete orphan. His father died of complications from a broken leg, and his mother died after a long battle with tuberculosis. After losing both of his parents, Ibrahim al-Samarrai plunged into his studies.

Like most of his peers, he began his studies at the Quranic primary school-Kuttab6. After that, he spent six years in primary school, after which he went to Basra to take the ministerial examination for a bachelor's degree. Despite the fact that during his stay there, he suddenly fell ill

1 Abu'l-Abbas Saalab (816-904) was a ninth-century Arabic philologist and grammarian from Kufa, a poet and scholar of the Qur'an.

2 Abu'l-Abbas Al-Mubarrad (826-900) famous Arabic philologist and educator of the 9th century, court teacher of the Caliph.

3 Jalaluddin al-Suyuti (1445-1505) is one of the most prolific authors of not only Mamluk, but also, perhaps, the entire Arab - Muslim culture in general. Some authors describing the biography of al-Suyuti cite more than 600 titles of his works.

4 The Muslim Renaissance is a historical period from approximately the eighth to the thirteenth centuries, when Islamic scholars, writers, and artists lived and worked, making a significant contribution to the development of world science and culture.

5 Although the Arabic-language literature in most cases indicates a different date of birth (1923), al-Samarrai himself claimed that he was actually born in 1916, and an error crept into his official birth certificate, which was later replicated in books.

6 In Kuttab, a young student learned the spelling of the Arabic language mainly by memorizing the Qur'an, which lasted an average of two to three years and consisted of rote memorization of the Qur'an. After graduation, the student was required to recite verses of the Qur'an in public without making a single mistake in pronunciation.

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With malaria, which was common in Basra at that time, he was not affected by his success in the exam, and he was the first student to succeed in it.

Three years later, Ibrahim al-Samarrai graduated from a junior high school in Amara and continued his studies at a high school with a scientific focus in Baghdad. However, a year later, he dropped out of this school and entered the second year of a teacher training school in the al-Azamiyah suburb of Baghdad. While studying there, he passed the school's final exam as an external student in 1941 and received a high school diploma, which allowed him to begin preparing for a degree, but the outbreak of World War II prevented him from succeeding in this field. In 1942, he graduated from the school as one of the best in his class.

Later, he entered the Faculty of Arabic at the Baghdad Pedagogical University, as this educational institution was considered at that time the standard of modern education in the country due to its high standards of teaching and a multi-faceted training system and produced a whole galaxy of talented scientists and writers not only from Iraq, but also from Syria and Egypt. He graduated from the university in 1946 and was recognized as the most promising student in his department.

While studying at this educational institution, Ibrahim, due to his natural curiosity, remarkable perseverance and diligence, showed a keen interest not only in the Arabic language and literature, but also in other disciplines, such as history, mathematics and astronomy. He spent hours studying basic texts and books on religion and other sciences, and did this in his spare time, for example during the holidays. He read many literary works of the early 20th century written by famous Arab writers such as Jirji Zeidan 7, Mustafa Manfaluti 8, etc. In addition, even before entering the university, he mastered the English language perfectly, which allowed him to get acquainted with the latest English-language works on pedagogy, teaching methods and psychology.

After receiving his high school diploma, Ibrahim Al-Samarrai was hired as a teacher at King Faisal College. This exemplary high school with a scientific bent was awarded the honorary title of "college", as it was noticeably different from other similar institutions. Almost all classes were taught here in English, with the exception of two subjects - Arabic and Islamic history. Interestingly, at that time, the Ministry of Education of Iraq appointed only the most progressive-minded teachers to vacant positions in this school, who tried to match the trends of the time in everything, and it was Ibrahim al-Samarrai who was preferred among all graduates of the Baghdad Pedagogical University.

In 1948, Ibrahim al-Samarrai went on an internship in France and entered the country's most famous university, the Sorbonne. In the same year, he began studying French at the cultural and educational organization Alliance Francaise. The future scholar chose Semitic languages as his specialty, which at that time was considered a rather difficult topic to study in the Arab world, and only a few dared to study it more closely. He began attending lectures at the Catholic Institute in Paris and the Louvre Graduate School, where languages such as Hebrew, Akkadian, Aramaic, Ethiopian, Assyrian, and Sabaean were taught. He also studied Semitic languages at the Sorbonne Graduate School of Studies. Features of the alphabet and grammar of some languages (Assyro-Babylonian, Sabaean) as-Samarrai often comprehended thanks to ancient tablets and inscriptions that were kept in the Louvre High School, and also often

7 Jirji Zeidan (1861-1914) was an Arab writer, essayist, and scholar. His books, written in a language close to colloquial, have gained popularity in the Arab East and other Muslim countries.

8 Mustafa Lutfi Manfaluti (1876-1924) was an Egyptian writer of short stories, essays,and adaptations of French literature.

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I borrowed books on these languages from her library. He even had to learn German in order to research some works on Assyro-Babylonian.

Thus, the young scholar spent most of his time in Paris in libraries and universities, studying rare books and gradually accumulating his knowledge of Semitic languages. He often listened to the speeches of the greatest Orientalists of the time, and he was attracted not only to the topic of Semitic languages, but also to other issues, such as the formation of Arab-Muslim culture.

In 1953, al-Samarrai traveled to London in search of materials on a topic of interest to him. Within one month, he visited the British Museum, the School of Oriental Languages at the University of London, a number of libraries specializing in the purchase of oriental literature and research on Arab-Muslim heritage, and also met with English Orientalists.

At the beginning of 1956, Ibrahim al-Samarrai completed his studies at the Sorbonne and successfully defended his doctoral dissertation on "Comparative study of plural forms in the Koran and Semitic languages". Then he returned to his homeland and in March 1956 was hired at the University of Baghdad at the Faculty of Literature as a teacher of Arabic grammar and philology, as well as Semitic languages (Hebrew and Assyrian). Here, at last, he was able to devote himself entirely to scientific work and writing books, which he had long desired and aspired to. This relatively quiet phase in his life lasted a little over five years.

However, in 1959, Ibrahim al-Samarrai was forced to temporarily interrupt his research activities, as he was unexpectedly appointed head of the Department of Education in the Ministry of Education. This happened shortly after the July 1958 revolution in Iraq. From the first days of his service, he clearly did not like administrative work, because science has always been his main and only vocation. Therefore, a month later, he asked to be relieved of his post and returned to his previous job in the Arabic language department.

In 1962, the scientist resumed his foreign trips due to the interest of leading universities in the Arab world in his services. He received an invitation from the University of Tunis and taught seminars for students in Tunis for one academic year. In 1972, he taught for one year at the University of Kuwait and, in addition, as a visiting professor, lectured at the universities of Beirut, Khartoum, Tripoli and Algeria, spoke four times at the Arab Studies Institute of the League of Arab States (LAS) between 1965 and 1975, and also worked at the Institute the Arab world in Paris for a month.

In 1980, as-Samarrai was forced to leave his faculty, having worked there for almost 25 years. In his own words, he was forced to do this by the arrival of a new administration headed by the dean, who had nothing to do with science and from the very first day showed a disdainful attitude towards teachers working at the faculty.

After his retirement in 1981, Ibrahim al-Samarrai moved to Jordan and taught at the University of Jordan from 1982 to 1987. However, the university's austerity policies, mainly applied to older teachers, soon forced it to leave Amman.

After that, between 1987 and 1996, he taught a course of lectures at the University of Sana'a in Yemen, and then returned to Jordan.

It should be noted that every time al-Samarrai left one Arab university for another, he left a piece of the country in which he worked in his heart. He always found time to meet with local scholars and get acquainted with the works stored in the libraries, carefully studied the cultural and linguistic features of each country in which he happened to teach, and very often thanks to

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Thanks to his amazing outlook and attention to detail, he drew conclusions ahead of his time and included them in his books.

Unfortunately, due to health problems, Ibrahim al-Samarrai was forced to stop his educational activities in 1997, although he still occasionally gave lessons to graduate students at the University of Jordan. He died in Amman in 2001.

During his lifetime, he participated in many academic conferences and symposia related to the Arabic language. In addition, he was the supervisor of several dozen graduate students who successfully defended their PhD and doctoral theses in Arabic philology, grammar and literature under his supervision. He was a member of several linguistic societies, such as the Cairo Arabic Language Society (corresponding member since 1980, permanent member since 1990), the Damascus Arabic Language Society, the Jordanian Arabic Language Society, the Tunisian Society of Arabic Lexicography, the Indian Scientific Society, and the French Linguistic Society9.

Ibrahim al-Samarrai left behind 84 books 10, 372 scientific articles in leading Arab journals and many materials in Arab newspapers. The main place in these scientific researches was undoubtedly occupied by the study of various linguistic problems (morphology and syntax of the Arabic language, the art of rhetoric, lexicography), as well as comparative philological studies.

It should be noted that the scientist considered philology to be his main specialization, although his extensive bibliography indicates the versatility of his interests and the depth of scientific thought, which absorbed a lot of knowledge from various fields. He has distinguished himself as an outstanding scholar, writer, critic, and translator in the fields of philology, literature, history, and cultural studies.

Ibrahim al-Samarrai gained fame in Arab academic circles mainly due to his work in the field of linguistics. As mentioned above, Ibrahim al-Samarrai has always viewed the language as something that is constantly evolving and improving. He believed that the language periodically passes from one state to another and at each stage of its development requires detailed study.

In his writings, he pointed out the richness of the Arabic language, its vitality and ability to adapt to recent changes. He wrote in one of his books: "In our time, Arab scholars are wrongly excluded from studying non-literary forms of language. Don't they see that what was called non-literary forms at the beginning of this century (newspaper language and common mistakes) has long been transformed into a new modern Arabic language?" [Al - 'Alawinah, 2001, p.33].

The Iraqi professor complained that such common mistakes in the Arabic literary language, which are often referred to by Arabic linguists, are to some extent far-fetched and represent the result of the development of the modern Arabic language. He believed that before considering certain Arabic words as deviations from the general literary norm, it is necessary to carefully analyze and study them. According to al-Samarrai, such "errors", which are incorrectly considered in numerous works (mainly by modern scholars of the Arab world), arise due to the expansion of the semantics of the Arabic word, which is characteristic of many languages of the world. As a proof of his theory, he cited examples of such words as mugamalah "compliment" (expanding the meaning - "politeness, courtesy"), tahaffuz "conservatism" (expanding the meaning - "caution, caution; restraint"), 'imtiyaz" privilege, advantage; concession "(expanding the meaning - " difference, difference"), mumtaz " privileged "(extension of the value - "excellent, outstanding"), etc.

9 Interestingly, despite Ibrahim al-Samarrai's contributions to the Arab scientific community and his honorary membership in many linguistic societies, the Iraqi Scientific Society never accepted him.

10 The scientist intended to write 24 more books, but these plans did not come true.

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Al-Samarrai argued that the concept of the literary norm of the Arabic language, which was formulated in Arabic books on language and eloquence in the VIII—XII centuries, needs to be revised. A new literary norm that corresponds to the realities of the twentieth century would incorporate the basis of the old norm, preserving its unshakable structure and organization, while at the same time going beyond outdated forms and meeting the goals and objectives of the new century.

The Arabic philologist believed that it is impossible to doubt the value of a word only on the basis of the fact that it is not recorded in dictionaries and was not previously used in Arabic speech usage. This only impoverishes the vocabulary of the Arabic language and hinders its development. He welcomed the cases when an outdated token is replaced by a new one that has recently entered circulation, if the latter is easier to use, easier to remember and sounds better.

The results of these scientific researches can be found in many of his books, for example, " Language Studies "(1961), "Historical Development of Language" (1966), "Geographical Distribution of Languages in Iraq" (1968), " Language Principles "(1970), " Comparative Historical Linguistics "(1987), etc. the main ones.

The book " The Historical Development of the language "(1966) was one of the greatest achievements of the Iraqi professor in Arabic philology. Here, for the first time, al-Samarrai raises a question about the territorial differentiation of the Arabic literary language, which occupied an important place in his linguistic views. He made the most significant contribution to the development of this problem due to his remarkable observation and ability to make independent judgments that contradict the established tradition in Arabic linguistics.

Unlike most of his contemporaries, the Iraqi professor was the first to notice the unique peculiarity of the conditions of functioning of the Arabic literary language in each individual country (region), which leaves its own local imprint on the language itself and gives it regional features. Upon closer examination, it becomes obvious that the Arabic literary language currently functions in the form of many territorial variants (Tunisian, Saudi, Egyptian, etc.), serving residents of Arab countries and demonstrating a multi-national character. Each of them represents a certain "local variety that does not violate the norm of the Arabic literary language, but which nevertheless contains a number of specific features that are not characteristic of residents of other territories" (Chagall, 1987, p.90).

It is no secret that the issue of regional variation of the Arabic literary language is practically not studied both in our country and abroad. Even in the Arab world, a minimal number of linguists pay attention to this problem. Many Arab researchers do not notice or do not want to notice the emerging trend in regional variation of the Arabic literary language, perceiving it as an undesirable "spoilage" of the classical literary Arabic language. Others attribute such changes to dialects, which, in their opinion, cannot and should not affect the official book and writing sphere.

Muslim linguists look at the Arabic literary language, codified by philologists, as the language in which the Holy Quran and classical works of Arabic literature are written, a language that is not subject to change and influence of spoken languages. Such views coincide with the widespread idea of the Arab unity of the nation, so this traditionalist approach to studying the language situation in the Arab world, unfortunately, does not allow Arabic linguists to give an objective assessment of the obvious linguistic differences between individual Arab countries, which can only perceive them as a threat to the disintegration of a single language.

Ibrahim al-Samarrai became the founder of a new view of this problem in Arabic linguistics, devoting the 14th chapter of the "Historical Development of the language"entirely to the study of the Tunisian literary language. The author spent about a year in Tunis and, being of Iraqi origin, could not help but notice the difference in the use of certain drugs.

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in the words of the Arabic literary language: "I felt something connected with the literature of the Tunisian people, the difference in knowledge, the form of writing, I was not limited to considering only these things, I was struck by the language of daily newspapers - how political news and relations between people are described there" [As-Samarra'i, 1966(1), p. 203].

He analyzed a significant part of the lexical fund of the territorial version of the Arabic literary language in Tunisia, comparing it with the words of Mashriq type 11 and supporting his conclusions with excerpts from classical Arabic dictionaries. In his opinion, "Tunisian word usage is literary, although it is often far from the well-known literary norm" [As-Samarra'i, 1966(1), p. 203]. It is interesting that the linguist made such judgments only after a trip to Tunisia, which shows that some Arab researchers are not even aware of the scale of this problem in the Arab world, preferring to perceive the Arabic literary language as an unchangeable given.

An extension and deepening of this theory can be found in the "Collection of Linguistic Articles" compiled by Ibrahim al-Samarrai in 1971. In the fourth chapter, "The principle of language development", he describes in detail all the contradictions of the language situation in the Arab world, identifying the main factors of differentiation of language formations in this territory: 1) the influence of local substrates (Coptic language, Berber dialects); 2) political factor (for example, the influence of France); 3) social factor (for example, Fellah speech 12); 4) geographical factor 13 (climate influence). "This process of transformation is slow, but it does not stop. It affects the external form of language in terms of style and semantic meaning" [As-Samarra'i, 1970(2), p. 81].

The book "The Historical Development of Language" also addressed other pressing problems of Arabic linguistics, for example, the question of the peculiarity of the functioning of Arabic dialects and diglossia in the Arab world.

In particular, the Iraqi linguist emphasizes that currently the Arabic literary language is not used in everyday communication, and its functions are performed by numerous Arabic dialects. Each Arab country has its own dialect, and it, like the Arabic literary language, develops and evolves over time. Moreover, there are different dialects within each Arab country, and the inhabitants of Northern Iraq, for example, have great difficulty understanding the inhabitants of Southern Iraq.

Al-Samarrai devoted a separate chapter of this book to the study of the historical roots of the Baghdad dialect in the collection of fairy tales "One Thousand and One Nights". According to him, "The Thousand and One Nights" is a monument of Baghdad literature, since it shows to the smallest detail the features of the social stratification of Baghdad society in ancient times, and therefore this work reflects the historical features of the Baghdad dialect and, as a result, the Iraqi dialect as a whole. The dictionary of Baghdad words and expressions, compiled by the author as a result of research, is organized not according to the alphabetical principle, but follows the text of the "Thousand and One Nights" page by page.

The section dealing with the problem of words with two opposite meanings, which are often found in the vocabulary of the Arabic language, is interesting. Here, al-Samarrai explores the reasons for the divergence of meanings of such words and shows their importance for comparative historical studies of the Arabic language.

In his book" The Geographical Distribution of Languages in Iraq", Al-Samarrai continued to address the most important linguistic problems in the Arab world, drawing attention to the current language situation in his native country — Iraq. In it, he described

11 Mashriq - the countries of the Arab East that cover the territory of Western Asia up to Iran, including the entire Arabian Peninsula.

12 Fellahs - in Arab countries, the settled population engaged in agriculture, peasants.

13 Here al-Samarrai clearly follows the theory of "geographical determinism" III.-L. Montesquieu.

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The languages spoken by Iraqis throughout the country showed their historical origin and development with the help of special maps and touched upon the regional dialects of Bedouins, rural and urban residents. The book contained a detailed description of the phonetics and grammar of the dialects of Northern and Southern Iraq, as well as the Baghdad dialect.

The work "Comparative Historical Linguistics" was based on the study of Arabic in comparison with other Semitic languages. In this vein, Ibrahim al-Samarrai was particularly interested in the problem of diglossia in the Arab world, because it existed almost always. As he noted, at present, classical Arabic differs from the language used in negotiations, and dialects-from the everyday-spoken language of the educated ("the language of the intelligentsia"). Al-Samarrai has studied the history of the emergence of this linguistic phenomenon in the Arab world, focusing primarily on the phonetic and grammatical changes that began to occur in the Arabic literary language as early as the eighth century. As examples, he actively used passages from the Koran and verses of pre-Islamic Jahili poetry. In addition, he studied the morphology of the Arabic language in comparison with Hebrew and Aramaic, touching, in particular, on the issues of word formation and inflection.

The Iraqi philologist continued his research in the field of dialectology in the book "On Ancient Arabic Dialects" (1994), in which he described the languages of the Arab tribes of Saudi Arabia and Yemen. He argued that modern dialects are remnants of ancient tribal languages, which the Arab linguists of the past called "languages", for example, "the language of the Khuzail tribe" or "the language of the Hawazin tribe". In this book, he showed the similarities and differences between the languages of various Arab tribes (for example, between the language of the Hijaz14 and the Bani Tamim) and emphasized the importance of the Bedouin heritage for the entire Arab-Muslim culture.

Ibrahim al-Samarrai completed his series of works on the language situation in the Arab world with the book " A Historical Study of the Arabic Spoken Language "(2000), in which he once again characterized the dual nature of the Arabic language caused by the phenomenon of diglossia.

Professor Al-Samarrai excelled in lexicographic work, comparing old and new dictionaries, clarifying and making necessary corrections to dictionary entries. His success in lexicography is largely due to the compilation of dictionaries of rare words. These are, for example, his works " Dictionary of Rare Words "(1984)," Borrowings in Arabic, Persian and Turkish "(1997)," Short Dictionary of Information Terms "(1999)," Dictionary of Modern Arabic " (2000). He compiled dictionaries of the language of the largest writers, speakers and poets of the Arab world, such as Ali ibn Abu Talib 15, Jahiz 16, Ibn al-Mukaffa 17, Mutanabbi 18 and others. At the same time, the scientist tried to identify i-groups of words and expressions that acquire new meanings due to the specific use of the author. This was often due to the expansion of their semantics or their misuse in the text.

As al-Samarrai pointed out, in the works of medieval Muslim writers, previously unknown words of non-Arabic origin were often found, in particular:-

14 Hijaz is a territory in the west of the Arabian Peninsula, part of Saudi Arabia and the historical site of the origin of Islam.

15 Ali ibn Abi Talib (c. 600-661) - First cousin, son-in-law and companion of the Prophet Muhammad, the fourth righteous Caliph and the first Imam of the Shia faith. He left behind a considerable number of works, poems and prose, which were distinguished by a deep philosophical meaning.

16 Abu Uthman Amr ibn Bahr Jahiz (c. 767-868) was an Arabic writer, author of more than 100 treatises and anthologies.

17 Abu Muhammad Abdallah, better known as Ibn al-Muqaffa (720-759) was an Arabic-Persian writer and translator.

18 Abu-t-Tayyib Ahmad ibn al-Hussein al-Mutanabbi (915-965) - a great Arab poet, author of over 100 odes and up to 200 minor poems and fragments.

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There are several ways of borrowing from other Semitic languages. In addition, early Muslim writers and poets often resorted to word-making, resulting in new units that were not yet recorded in dictionaries. It is noteworthy that some lexemes may have been actively used in the Arabic literary language during the Muslim Renaissance, but over time they passed into dialects.

Linguists of the old generation were of the opinion that the formation of the Arabic literary language ended at the beginning of the Umayyad era, 19 but al-Samarra'i refuted this statement, believing that the Arabic language retained its purity and correctness of forms in the use of poets, writers, orators and masters of eloquence even after the overthrow of the Umayyad dynasty. He wrote about this, in particular, in his book "Supplement to dictionaries of the Arabic language: words and expressions of the Abbasid era" (1986). In it, he called for modernizing the Arabic vocabulary and enriching it with new words and expressions that reflect the constantly changing features of modern culture, literature, science and technology and do not contradict the rules and norms of the Arabic literary language.

When describing the scientific works of Ibrahim al-Samarrai, it is impossible not to mention the comparative studies of the Iraqi professor, which consist in comparing Arabic with other Semitic languages, such as Assyrian and Hebrew. At the same time, he was interested in questions of comparative historical linguistics.

Ibrahim al-Samarrai is considered one of the greatest grammarians of his time. His views on the problems of Arabic grammar did not differ much from the main linguistic postulates that guided his scientific work. From his point of view, the temples of language are being improved and progressed simultaneously with other processes taking place in the language, since the language is a living substance that is constantly moving forward.

The scholar devoted a lot of time to the works of Arabic grammarians of the past, paying attention primarily to the study of the rules and norms of the Arabic language formulated by them, and each time finding new promising areas for research.

For example, in his book Grammar Schools: Truth and Fiction (1987), he describes two rival grammar schools in Basra and Kufa that emerged in the first half of the eighth century. In his opinion, the concept of "school" should not be applied to these two famous grammatical trends in the Arab world, since it appeared only in modern works, and in ancient times these trends were called Basri and Kufi theories. In addition, the differences between the two schools concerned mainly minor issues that were often irrelevant to grammar, such as the origin of the language, the etymology of the word, the use of the word in different styles, etc. Therefore, at the end of the paper, al-Samarrai demanded that the term "grammar schools" be removed from circulation as it does not correspond to the historical realities of the Arabic language.

In addition, he was engaged in describing the grammar of various Semitic languages, which he actively used as an object of comparison with Arabic.

It can be noted that Ibrahim al-Samarrai mainly considered those grammatical problems that presented certain difficulties for the first grammarians of the Arab world. In his opinion, they spent too much effort on evaluating, analyzing, and interpreting literary texts. Arabic philologists of the early Muslim period added their comments to texts whenever they saw some deviations from the generally accepted literary norm. In most cases, such explanations and clarifications were required from them by the problem of the controlling and controlled word, which was quite common in the Arabic grammatical tradition of the VIII-XII centuries. Ibrahim al-Samarrai insisted on excluding the practice of this kind of interpretation from the field of scientific research, so as not to complicate linguistic analysis and artificially "inflate" the text.

19 Omsyads - a dynasty of caliphs founded by Mu'awis in 661. In 750, it was overthrown by the Abbasids.

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He defended his point of view on the question of the origin of the grammar of the Arabic language, which was at odds with the opinion of most Arabic linguists. While the latter came to the conclusion that Arabic grammar originated with the language, al-Samarra'i considered it to be the result of the study of the Qur'an, and just as Qur'anic studies at one time stood out as a separate Arab-Muslim science, so grammar took its special place among them. He gave these arguments, in particular, in his book "Tense forms of the verb and its structure" (1966).

In it, he conducted a thorough grammatical analysis of nominal and verbal sentences in Arabic, covering in detail such topics as insufficient verbs, the passive voice of the verb, the structure of four-letter verbs, agreement in the verb sentence, etc.

He believed that the term "deficient verbs" (al-'af'alu-n-naqisah), which is accepted in the Arabic grammatical tradition, 20 is not entirely correct, since they do not differ in their structure from other verbs in the Arabic language. Such verbs, which in Russian textbooks of the Arabic language are usually called "verbs of being and becoming" such as kapa "to be", ' asbaha "to become", etc., act as a copula verb in a nominal sentence, and the nominal part of the compound predicate is placed in the accusative case of an indefinite state. Arabic linguists associated this use with the peculiarities of verbs that had signs of time, not action, hence their other name — "verbs of incomplete predication". In this, for example, they differed from masdar - a verbal name that, on the contrary, called an action without its connection with time and subject.

Al-Samarra'i believed that although the nominal part of a compound predicate made up for a certain "lack" in the semantics of such verbs, forming a complete semantic judgment, they were used in speech like other verbs, and therefore there was no special need for such a name.

When describing verbs in the passive voice (al - ' af'alu-l-mabniyyah li-l-maghul) Ibrahim al-Samarrai equated the members of the Arabic sentence pa ' ibu-l-fd'il "subject in the predicate of the passive voice" and al-fa'il "subject of the verb sentence" to each other, arguing that in both cases they are subjects in the nominative case, which are described by the verb, and the subject of action is not it must be real. In this regard, he proposed to abandon such linguistic terms as al - 'af'alu-l-mabniyyah li-l-maghul and pa' ibu-l-fa'il, and study verbs in the passive voice separately from other verbs of the Arabic language.

Speaking about the use of such verbs in the spoken language, al-Samarrai wrote:: "It should be pointed out that in our Arabic dialects there is no trace of verbs in the passive voice, they were abandoned in favor of the so-called verbs of the reflexive voice. For example, they say ' inhazama 'to be defeated, not huzima,' inkasara 'to break, not kusira, etc.' [As-Samarra'I, 1966(2), p. 97].

The Iraqi linguist devoted the largest chapter of his book " Tense forms of the verb and its Structure "(1966) to the study of four-letter verbs in the Iraqi dialect, presenting the collected lexical material in the form of a dictionary that showed the ways of their formation within the Iraqi dialect.

* * *

All of Ibrahim al-Samarrai's scientific works are written in excellent Arabic, the beauty and expressiveness of which is not inferior to the best examples of Arabic literature, and the style of presentation resembles the works of the largest Arab writers.

20 The term "deficient verbs" (al-'af'alu-n-naqisah) is also used in Arabic to refer to verbs with a weak third root consonant, which is not pronounced in most forms, although it is displayed in writing.

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Therefore, it is not surprising that he repeatedly tried himself in fiction. From the pen of the writer came such books as "Conversations with Abu-n-Nada" (1986), " Dialogues with Abu-t-Tayyib al-Mutanabbi "(1993), " Whole and parts "(1998), " Young Years "(1998), etc.

The hero of most of them was Abu-n-Nada, whose image was created by the author in order to communicate and converse with him on the pages of his works, as well as express their thoughts through his words. For example, in Dialogues with Abu t-Tayyib al-Mutanabbi, Al-Samarrai imagines 15 meetings between Abu n-Nad and al-Mutanabbi, during which his fictional character tries to find out from the famous Muslim poet what hidden meaning he put in some of his famous poems. Abu-n-Nada tells al-Mutanabbi how he sees his verses, and he is free to either agree with him or have a different point of view.

The book "Whole and Parts" presents conversations between Ibrahim al-Samarrai and Abu-n-Nada on various issues in the field of language, literature and history. In its structure, this book, like most of al-Samarrai's other works of art, is close to the works of the Muslim Renaissance and resembles, for example, the "Book of Delights and Entertainment" by Abu Hayyan at-Tawhidi.21
In the same way, his autobiography "Young Years" is constructed, in which he introduces a new character, calling him "my friend", and through the prism of questions and answers, as it were, brings the reader closer to him. It is noteworthy that in this autobiography, al-Samarrai not only shares memories of different stages of his life and describes the places and countries that he visited, but also shows his vision of the most important problems of science, literature, politics, morality and language, which runs through the entire work in a thin line.

Few people know that, as a well-known scholar, Ibrahim al-Samarrai was also a very talented poet, who was often compared with the best poets of his time. He even received nicknames such as" the poet of scholars "and"the scholar-poet".

It is interesting that in the Arab scientific world there is an opinion that scientists rarely become good poets. This statement is not without meaning in some cases, but the collections of poems of al-Samarrai clearly stood out from the general series due to their singsongness and musicality. In his poetry, he touched on such topics as the vicissitudes of fate, the betrayal of his colleagues, the loss of friends and the difficulties of life in a foreign country, praised the beauty of the Arabic language and described the events that befell the Arab world (the suffering of the Iraqi people during the Gulf War, the Palestinian intifada, peace conferences, etc.).

All these anxieties are reflected in the words and actions of the poet, who constantly feels grief and sadness. Ibrahim al-Samarrai never found peace in Iraq or in the other Arab countries where he lived, and the turmoil in his soul makes itself felt in some of his poems.

He has researched poetic language in several works, such as the book" Poetic Language between Two Generations " (1980). In it, he wrote, in particular, that language is the material and basis for poetry, and poetic language is different from the language of prose. As part of this work, he examined the poems of contemporary Iraqi poets in an effort to learn the peculiarities of their language and describe modern Iraqi poetry.

Ibrahim al-Samarrai was the author of several dozen critical articles. Since he has never had any authority in the Arab scientific community, his cri-

21 Abu Hayyan al-Tawhidi (922/932-c. 1023) was an Arab philosopher, author of profound philosophical works, popularizer of knowledge and a brilliant stylist. He was not recognized during his lifetime and gained fame only in the XX century.

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critical reviews were characterized by straightforward wording and were devoid of ambiguity and transparent hints inherent in some works. He was never afraid to express his point of view, no matter how strikingly different from the generally accepted canons.

Thus, the story of Ibrahim al-Samarrai's questioning of the correctness of the words of one of the most famous Arabic philologists of our time, whose lectures he attended, is widely known. He was talking about a prominent pre-Islamic poet who lived at the court of Amr ibn Hind, 22 whom he introduced to the audience as " al-Musakkab al-Abdi "(doel. "holed"). After finishing the lecture, al-Samarrai gave it a critical review and convincingly proved that in fact his last name should sound like " al-Musakkib al-Abdi "(doel, "holer"). By doing so, he made many enemies and detractors, and some Arab scholars began to dislike him.

Since criticism was not his main specialty and he resorted to it only on occasion, the language of his articles was always characterized by sharp judgments and sharp assessments. However, the Iraqi scientist never softened the tone of his conclusions and sought to be guided only by the principles of reliability and truth of knowledge, although this made the attitude of some scientists to his work no more than restrained.

He included some of his critical articles in such books as "Language and Literary Sources "(1983), " Introduction to Lexicography "(1998), " Journey to the Historical Dictionary "(1999), etc.

* * *

Ibrahim al-Samarrai left behind a rich scientific and literary heritage, which can hardly be covered in one article due to the incredible scope of his creative activity and the scale of development of scientific thought.

In this work, I have tried to reflect the main milestones of his life and show all the main directions of his linguistics work, which he conducted for almost half a century. In addition, he proved himself not only as a linguist, but also as a thoughtful writer, a talented poet and a bright critic, showing himself to be the highest professional in his field on every path.

Although the volume and quality of his work can hardly be overstated, his talent and achievements are still not fully recognized both in his native Iraq and abroad. It is hoped that this article, which sheds light on the most important scientific achievements of Ibrahim al-Samarrai, will make his name and works more famous in the scientific world.

22 Amr ibn al-Munzir, or Amr ibn Hind, was the ruler of the Lakhmid principality in southern Iraq, which was dependent on Iran. The years of his reign were 554-570.

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Appendix 1.

TRANSCRIPTION USED IN THE WORK Consonants

Vowel sounds

Brief notes:

Long hours:

a, 1, and

list of literature

Belkin V. M. Arab lexicology. Moscow: MSU Publishing House, 1975.

Shagal V. E. Language aspect of national processes in Arab countries, Moscow: Nauka Publ., 1987.

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