Abu Jaʿfar an-Nahhas

Abu Jaʿfar An-Nahhas (أبو جعفر النحاس; died 949 / AH 338) was an Egyptian scholar of grammar and Qur'anic exegete during the Abbasid period. His full name was Abū Jaʿfar Ahmad Ibn Muhammad Ibn Ismail Ibn Yūnus al-Murādi, surnamed an-Nahhās "copper-worker" (a term for artisans who make brass vessels).

Born in Fustat, he studied in Baghdad under the foremost grammarians of the period. He is the author of an influential work on abrogation, Al-Nasikh wa l-Mansukh. He wrote a treatise on the grammatical analysis of the Qur'an and a grammatical primer known as "The Apple" (التفاحة at-Tufaha), besides works on poetry, including a commentary on the Mu'allaqat.

According to Ibn Khallikan, An-Nahhas was of extremely niggardly and avaricious character. He was killed as he was reciting poetry sitting on the banks of the Nile in Cairo, as a passing peasant thought he was uttering a charm to prevent the rise of the Nile, "so as to raise the price of provisions" and threw him into the river.

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