Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Maydani

Abu ʾl-Faḍl Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Naysābūrī al-Maydānī (died 27 October 1124) was an Arab scholar in Persia, an expert on Arabic philology and on Islamic adab (etiquette).[1]

Little is known of al-Maydānī's life.[2] He was a native of Nishapur (Arabic Naysābūr) and took his surnames from his place of residence off the maydān Ziyād. He was educated in Nishapur under the Qurʾānic scholars Abu ʾl-Ḥasan al-Wāḥidī (died 1076), Yaʿqūb ibn Aḥmad al-Kurdī and ʿAlī al-Mujāshiʿī al-Farazdaqī. He in turn taught Abu ʾl-Ḥasan al-Bayhaqī.[1] He died on 27 October 1124[2] and was buried in the cemetery of the maydān quarter on 5 November 1124.[1]

Fifteen works by al-Maydānī are known, of which the most famous is the paremiological Majmaʿ al-amthāl, which remains the "most popular collection of classical Arabic proverbs".[1] It was produced around the same time as al-Zamakhsharī's collection in response to a request by the majlis (council) of Muntajab al-Mulk Abū ʿAlī Muḥammad ibn Arslān, the kātib (secretary) of the Sultan Aḥmad Sanjar.[1][2] Many abridged versions of the Majmaʿ have been made, the first appearing in 1137. An edition with Turkish annotations appeared in 1627 and a full translation in 1877. A Latin translation by Georg Freytag, entitled Arabum Proverbia, was published at Bonn in 1838–1843. At least two versifications have also been made, the first in 1668.[1]

Al-Maydānī's other works include an edition of the rasāʾil (letters) of Manṣūr al-Harawī (died 1048); an Arabic–Persian dictionary, completed in 1104; a critique of al-Jawharī's earlier Arabic dictionary; and various grammatical and philological works and commentaries.[1]