AHMED TAŞKÖPRİZADE’S UNDERSTANDING OF LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTICS ON THE BASIS OF THE EXAMINATION OF HIS BOOK MIFTAH AL-SA‘ADA WA-MISBAH AL-SIYADA
Ahmed Taşköprizade’s (d. 968/1561) famous book Miftah al- Sa‘ada wa-Misbah al-Siyada can be considered as one of the milestones in the tradition of the classification of sciences in the Islamic world. One of the most distinctive characteristics of Miftah is that it classifies sciences with the consideration of their methods (deduction, induction etc.) and with the consideration of their subject matter (being, knowledge, value etc.). According to Taşköprizade, language comes into being as the reflection of the Existence in the physical world (‘ayni), in mind (zihni) and in drawing (khatti). As human beings by the necessity of their nature live in groups, they need communication (i‘lam-isti‘lam). Thus, language branches out and multiple languages appear. The harmony of languages is also historical; they grow and mature gradually. The aforementioned processes can be followed from the books that were written in the field of linguistics. In Miftah, Ahmed Taşköprizade first outlines the sciences that concern a singular word as sciences of lugha, wad‘, ishtiqaq, sarf. He then moves to expose the sciences that deal with sentences as nahw, ma‘ani, bayan, badi‘ and ‘arud. While presenting each science, he gives information about its books and determine the length of each book such as short (mukhtasar), intermediate (mutawassit), long (mabsut).
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