Ibn Khalawayh

Ibn Khalawayh, or al-Husayn ibn Ahmad ibn Khalawayh, was born in Hamadan, Iran, at the beginning of the tenth century. Around the year 926, he moved to Baghdad, where he studied language. After Baghdad was seized by the Buyid dynasty in 955, he went on to Aleppo, where he served as a court tutor. A poet, philologist, and lexicographer, Ibn Khalawayh is best known for a serial text called Kitab Laysa fī kalam al-‘arab, which translates to The Book of “Not in the Speech of the Arabs.” An excerpt of this book, Names of the Lion (Wave Books, 2009, 2017), was translated by David Larsen. Ibn Khalawayh died in Aleppo around the year 980.