ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a double objective: to point out certain inadequacies in the hypothesis of the Greek origin of Arabic grammar, and to propose an alternative explanation for what is, after all, an extremely important phenomenon in the history of Arabic culture. It suggests that while it is true that certain elements of Greek thought might have infiltrated Arabic grammar, there is such a preponderance of ethical and legal terms in the very first Arabic grammar that we are obliged to seek the origins of Arabic grammar in the vocabulary and methods of Muslim jurisprudence. The Greek hypothesis is based only on the chronological sequence in which Greek, Syriac and Arabic grammar developed. The most obvious weakness of the Greek hypothesis is that it has never been confronted with Arabic grammar itself or rather, that the Hellenists have never defined the kind of grammar which they claim was borrowed from Greek.
