ABSTRACT
The books of the grammarians' Akhbar mention Abu Ja'far al-Ru'asi's riwayah that al-Khalil. Ahmad sent out somebody to him asking for his book, so Ruasi sent it to him. Khalil read it, and then wrote his own book. Some of these books also report, on the authority of Ibn Durustawaihi, Tha'lab's claim that Ru'asi was the first Kufan grammarian to have written a book on grammar. Far from suggesting that Khalil, rather than Sabawaihi is the author of the Kitab, the influence of Khalil on Sabawaihi cannot he minimized, and it is this influence which has facilitated the mention hy Ru'asi of Khalil's name instead of Sabawaihi's. One can hring forward liere the report that' 'forty-two scholars worked together to compose Sabawaihi's Kitab, one of whom was Sabawaihi himself, while the usul and the masa'il are from Khalil”.
